<p><strong>Note</strong>: The previous answer was replaced with this one, see the edit summary for the full explanation of why.</p>

<hr>

<p>A great poet along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libai" rel="nofollow">Li Bo</a> (also known as Li Po or Li Bai), was <a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu" rel="nofollow">杜甫</a> (Dù Fǔ, also known as Tu⁴ Fu³ in Wade-Giles).</p>

<p>You can find works written by him in this page, "<a href="http://www.chinese-poems.com/du.html" rel="nofollow">Chinese-poems.com</a>"（you can find more authors in this site).</p>

<p>One is this one, for example:</p>

<p>对雪 (duì xuě) - <em>Facing Snow</em></p>

<p>战哭多新鬼 zhàn kū duō xīn guǐ<br>
愁吟独老翁 chóu yín dú lǎo wēng<br>
乱云低薄暮 luàn yún dī bó mù<br>
急雪舞回风 jí xuě wǔ huí fēng<br>
瓢弃尊无绿 piáo qì zūn wú lǜ<br>
炉存火似红 lú cún huǒ sì hóng<br>
数州消息断 shù zhōu xiāo xī duàn<br>
愁坐正书空 chóu zuò zhèng shū kōng  </p>

<p>The scheme for this one is A B C B D E F E</p>

<p>Actually hóng and fēng were/are considered perfect rhymes in Chinese, so the pattern is ABCBDBEB. Especially that it is a lüshi poem, so all eight rhymes must match.</p>

<hr>

<p><strong>Not literal translation:</strong></p>

<p><em>"After the battle, many new ghosts cry,<br>
The solitary old man worries and grieves.<br>
Ragged clouds are low amid the dusk,<br>
Snow dances quickly in the whirling wind.<br>
The ladle's cast aside, the cup not green,<br>
The stove still looks as if a fiery red.<br>
To many places, communications are broken,<br>
I sit, but cannot read my books for grief."</em></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-04T09:58:38.123Z
For this poem from Tang Dynasty, "目前没有一种方言完全跟古音相同，但总的来说南方几个地方的方言比较接近，除了大家常说的广东话，还有福建话等。"

战哭多新鬼 
愁吟独老翁 
乱云低薄暮 
急雪舞回风 
瓢弃尊无绿 
炉存火似红 
数州消息断 
愁坐正书空 

翁(jung1)/风(fung1)/红(hung4)/空(hung1) rhymes as "ung"
So it rhymes each TWO sentences
David Ng
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T13:42:04.010Z
Not everything has rhythms is poem in Chinese. The above three examples are never considered as poems by Chinese people. There is a writing style called [韵文](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/zh/w/index.php?title=%E9%9F%BB%E6%96%87&variant=zh-cn), which has rhythms but not necessarily poem.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T13:54:55.093Z
I can't read Chinese, so I can't read that article. You state you are Chinese, so I need to give you some credit, but then let's distinguish between a poem and a classic text like those I linked. These ones have metrics, which is what distinguishes between prose and poetry, and rhymes. You can't find rhymes in a text written in prose, only in poetry, because they are easily individuable thanks to metrics. How do you distinguish these from poems then?
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T16:29:01.057Z
@Alenanno Actually, we have a pattern of prose with rhymes, which is called 骈文(pián wén) and was popular in ancient times. In modern chinese, you won't see it, I think.
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T16:50:51.663Z
I don't know much about poetry. "诗"(classic ones) mostly contains 5 or 7 character per phrase, 4 or 8 phrases in a complete piece. Another rhythm work("词"), is written according to fixed styles(may be melodies) called "词牌". Number of characters in each phrase and some of the tones are fixed for each 词牌. There are also other styles with rhythms that can be written more freely (e.g. "赋"). "现代诗"(modern poetry) sometime come with less rhythms. I always treated poem as "诗". However, I may have made a mistake. The term "poem" may have a wider extent. The examples are not any kind of "诗" in Chinese.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T20:01:47.117Z
For the time being I'd like to leave it and see what others think. But this made me wonder whether poem is not a univocal noun across the world...
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-03T10:13:25.657Z
@fefe I edited my answer, I think this one is more correct, please see this new question "[Different kinds of writing in Chinese](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/670/different-kinds-of-writing-in-chinese)" so we can clear this once and for all ahah :D
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-03T10:35:51.800Z
If I remembered right (I really don't know much about them), the rhythms should be on the even lines. 'u' on the 3rd line and 'ü' on the 5th are quite different. Maybe it should be A B C B D E F E. And thank you for the new question.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-03T10:46:09.457Z
@fefe yeah, you're right! I corrected the scheme. The even lines get the rhymes, so what you said about the rhythm makes sense to me. :)
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-03T10:53:51.710Z
Fantastic answer Alenanno, great example. Thanks for following this up for so long.
Lars Andren
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T12:25:44.643Z
2014-11-01T22:19:24.067Z
2014-11-01T22:19:24.067Z
Alenanno
<p>This question really surprises me. Since you mentioned 李白 and 杜甫, clearly you were talking about classical Chinese poetry. Classical Chinese poetry is so into rhymes and rhythms that it is almost unhealthy. There are volumes of books written on rhymes and rhythms of classical Chinese poetry. Asking 'Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme?' is like asking 'Does Facebook have users?' or 'Does Bill Gates have money?'</p>

<p>Many ancient poems do not rhyme today because Chinese pronunciation has undergone many changes over time. They did all rhyme at the time written.</p>

<p>Here is an example of a poem in which every sentence rhymes. This kind of poem has a special name called 柏梁体. This poem I'm quoting rhyme at the end of every sentence even today:</p>

<p>曹丕《燕歌行》</p>

<p>秋风萧瑟天气凉，<br>
草木摇落露为霜。<br>
群燕辞归鹄南翔，<br>
念君客游多思肠。<br>
慊慊思归恋故乡，<br>
君何淹留寄他方？　<br>
贱妾茕茕守空房，<br>
忧来思君不敢忘，<br>
不觉泪下沾衣裳。<br>
援琴鸣弦发清商，<br>
短歌微吟不能长。<br>
明月皎皎照我床，<br>
星汉西流夜未央。<br>
牵牛织女遥相望，<br>
尔独何辜限河梁。   </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-04T10:03:18.323Z
If you read it in Cantonese, they are perfectly rhyme.

凉(leung4)霜(sheung1)翔(cheung4)肠(cheung4)乡(heung1) // 方(fong1)房(fong4)忘(mong4)裳(sheung4) 商（sheung1）长(cheung4)床(cong4)央(yeung1)望(mong6)梁(leung4)
David Ng
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-16T14:19:15.440Z
This part of Betty's answer was pretty much what I was looking for: *"Many ancient poems do not rhyme today because Chinese pronunciation has undergone many changes over time. They did all rhyme at the time written."* Thank you Betty.
Lars Andren
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-12T10:52:47.133Z
2012-04-13T03:14:10.923Z
2012-04-13T03:14:10.923Z
Betty
<p>I've mostly read classical poems from guys such as 李白 and 杜甫, very nice in their own way, but it made me wonder if there is some form of poetry with rhymes in Chinese.</p>

<p>It would probably be more difficult to write such poems, due to the lack of available syllables, but possible.</p>

<p>Does anyone know of rhyming Chinese poetry?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T13:47:56.107Z
The rhythms may be better understood if the poems are read with a southern dialect, like Cantonese, which keeps some of the ancient pronunciations.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-02T15:51:08.300Z
@LarsAndren For classic Chinese poems, the pattern of them are defined, and many(not all) sententces inside them rhyme(according to their pattern). I don't understand how you define "rhyme". Do you mean all sentences rhyme? If so, I don't think there is a pattern of poems defined this way. The classic poems are very very rare nowadays, because people who only speak in Mandarin could not tell the pronunciations satisfying  that pattern.
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-03T10:12:23.253Z
@LarsAndren I edited my answer according to the comments, I didn't want to leave incorrect information even if we weren't all sure. Now I'm kind of sure of it, but I'd like to see other's commentary as well... Feel free to un-accept my answer of course. :) Anyway, I posted a new question about poems, "[Different kinds of writing in Chinese](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/670/different-kinds-of-writing-in-chinese)".
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-12T23:50:23.407Z
Most Chinese poems rhyme (in a way similar to Shakespeare's). We also have 平仄, which is (sort of) like the stressed and non-stressed syllables in traditional English poems.
gonnastop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-01T23:45:32.803Z
Do you mean metres of Chinese poetry?
user58955
<poetry>
Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme?
# Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-02)

I've mostly read classical poems from guys such as 李白 and 杜甫, very nice in their own way, but it made me wonder if there is some form of poetry with rhymes in Chinese.

It would probably be more difficult to write such poems, due to the lack of available syllables, but possible.

Does anyone know of rhyming Chinese poetry?

**Tags:** poetry

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The rhythms may be better understood if the poems are read with a southern dialect, like Cantonese, which keeps some of the ancient pronunciations.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 For classic Chinese poems, the pattern of them are defined, and many(not all) sententces inside them rhyme(according to their pattern). I don't understand how you define "rhyme". Do you mean all sentences rhyme? If so, I don't think there is a pattern of poems defined this way. The classic poems are very very rare nowadays, because people who only speak in Mandarin could not tell the pronunciations satisfying  that pattern.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 I edited my answer according to the comments, I didn't want to leave incorrect information even if we weren't all sure. Now I'm kind of sure of it, but I'd like to see other's commentary as well... Feel free to un-accept my answer of course. :) Anyway, I posted a new question about poems, "[Different kinds of writing in Chinese](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/670/different-kinds-of-writing-in-chinese)".  
> **username_4**: Most Chinese poems rhyme (in a way similar to Shakespeare's). We also have 平仄, which is (sort of) like the stressed and non-stressed syllables in traditional English poems.  
> **username_5**: Do you mean metres of Chinese poetry?  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2012-04-12. Score: 13 | Accepted answer

This question really surprises me. Since you mentioned 李白 and 杜甫, clearly you were talking about classical Chinese poetry. Classical Chinese poetry is so into rhymes and rhythms that it is almost unhealthy. There are volumes of books written on rhymes and rhythms of classical Chinese poetry. Asking 'Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme?' is like asking 'Does Facebook have users?' or 'Does Bill Gates have money?'

Many ancient poems do not rhyme today because Chinese pronunciation has undergone many changes over time. They did all rhyme at the time written.

Here is an example of a poem in which every sentence rhymes. This kind of poem has a special name called 柏梁体. This poem I'm quoting rhyme at the end of every sentence even today:

曹丕《燕歌行》

秋风萧瑟天气凉，  
草木摇落露为霜。  
群燕辞归鹄南翔，  
念君客游多思肠。  
慊慊思归恋故乡，  
君何淹留寄他方？　  
贱妾茕茕守空房，  
忧来思君不敢忘，  
不觉泪下沾衣裳。  
援琴鸣弦发清商，  
短歌微吟不能长。  
明月皎皎照我床，  
星汉西流夜未央。  
牵牛织女遥相望，  
尔独何辜限河梁。

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: This part of username_7's answer was pretty much what I was looking for: *"Many ancient poems do not rhyme today because Chinese pronunciation has undergone many changes over time. They did all rhyme at the time written."* Thank you username_7.  
> **username_6**: If you read it in Cantonese, they are perfectly rhyme.  凉(leung4)霜(sheung1)翔(cheung4)肠(cheung4)乡(heung1) // 方(fong1)房(fong4)忘(mong4)裳(sheung4) 商（sheung1）长(cheung4)床(cong4)央(yeung1)望(mong6)梁(leung4)  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-01-02. Score: 6

**Note**: The previous answer was replaced with this one, see the edit summary for the full explanation of why.

---

A great poet along with [Li Bo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libai) (also known as Li Po or Li Bai), was [杜甫](http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu) (Dù Fǔ, also known as Tu⁴ Fu³ in Wade-Giles).

You can find works written by him in this page, "[Chinese-poems.com](http://www.chinese-poems.com/du.html)"（you can find more authors in this site).

One is this one, for example:

对雪 (duì xuě) - *Facing Snow*

战哭多新鬼 zhàn kū duō xīn guǐ  
愁吟独老翁 chóu yín dú lǎo wēng  
乱云低薄暮 luàn yún dī bó mù  
急雪舞回风 jí xuě wǔ huí fēng  
瓢弃尊无绿 piáo qì zūn wú lǜ  
炉存火似红 lú cún huǒ sì hóng  
数州消息断 shù zhōu xiāo xī duàn  
愁坐正书空 chóu zuò zhèng shū kōng

The scheme for this one is A B C B D E F E

Actually hóng and fēng were/are considered perfect rhymes in Chinese, so the pattern is ABCBDBEB. Especially that it is a lüshi poem, so all eight rhymes must match.

---

**Not literal translation:**

*"After the battle, many new ghosts cry,  
The solitary old man worries and grieves.  
Ragged clouds are low amid the dusk,  
Snow dances quickly in the whirling wind.  
The ladle's cast aside, the cup not green,  
The stove still looks as if a fiery red.  
To many places, communications are broken,  
I sit, but cannot read my books for grief."*

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not everything has rhythms is poem in Chinese. The above three examples are never considered as poems by Chinese people. There is a writing style called [韵文](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/zh/w/index.php?title=%E9%9F%BB%E6%96%87&variant=zh-cn), which has rhythms but not necessarily poem.  
> **username_3**: I can't read Chinese, so I can't read that article. You state you are Chinese, so I need to give you some credit, but then let's distinguish between a poem and a classic text like those I linked. These ones have metrics, which is what distinguishes between prose and poetry, and rhymes. You can't find rhymes in a text written in prose, only in poetry, because they are easily individuable thanks to metrics. How do you distinguish these from poems then?  
> **username_2**: @username_3 Actually, we have a pattern of prose with rhymes, which is called 骈文(pián wén) and was popular in ancient times. In modern chinese, you won't see it, I think.  
> **username_1**: I don't know much about poetry. "诗"(classic ones) mostly contains 5 or 7 character per phrase, 4 or 8 phrases in a complete piece. Another rhythm work("词"), is written according to fixed styles(may be melodies) called "词牌". Number of characters in each phrase and some of the tones are fixed for each 词牌. There are also other styles with rhythms that can be written more freely (e.g. "赋"). "现代诗"(modern poetry) sometime come with less rhythms. I always treated poem as "诗". However, I may have made a mistake. The term "poem" may have a wider extent. The examples are not any kind of "诗" in Chinese.  
> **username_3**: For the time being I'd like to leave it and see what others think. But this made me wonder whether poem is not a univocal noun across the world...  
> **username_3**: @username_1 I edited my answer, I think this one is more correct, please see this new question "[Different kinds of writing in Chinese](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/670/different-kinds-of-writing-in-chinese)" so we can clear this once and for all ahah :D  
> **username_1**: If I remembered right (I really don't know much about them), the rhythms should be on the even lines. 'u' on the 3rd line and 'ü' on the 5th are quite different. Maybe it should be A B C B D E F E. And thank you for the new question.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 yeah, you're right! I corrected the scheme. The even lines get the rhymes, so what you said about the rhythm makes sense to me. :)  
> **username_0**: Fantastic answer username_3, great example. Thanks for following this up for so long.  
> **username_6**: For this poem from Tang Dynasty, "目前没有一种方言完全跟古音相同，但总的来说南方几个地方的方言比较接近，除了大家常说的广东话，还有福建话等。"  战哭多新鬼  愁吟独老翁  乱云低薄暮  急雪舞回风  瓢弃尊无绿  炉存火似红  数州消息断  愁坐正书空   翁(jung1)/风(fung1)/红(hung4)/空(hung1) rhymes as "ung" So it rhymes each TWO sentences  

---

