The Transformation of Chinese Poetry from Tradition to Vernacular

This thesis mainly focuses on the transformation of Chinese poetry from the ancient time to modern China. It depends on comparing several different poetry anthologies produced by Chinese poets from different periods of time to reveal the transformation of poetry from tradition to vernacular. In the history, this transformation is referred to as the literary revolution of 1917 (orality), suggesting their lyricism’s desire for the vernacular and its attempt to approximate everyday speech in literary Chinese. My study asks what went into the making of this poetic shift or transformation. It discusses the Chinese precursors who once broke the ancient tradition and leaded to the rise of modern Chinese poetry. It highlights the major differences between traditional Chinese poetry and modern Chinese poetry. My larger comparative claim is to discover the history, the awakening of the poets themselves and other reasons behind this transformation to reveal how it happened around one hundred years ago. I call this literary revolution as the transformation which not only brought the liberation of literature forms to China, but the liberation of thought.