Tang Poems (唐詩) for Chinese Learners

If you want short Chinese poems to read, start with these five from the Tang dynasty (唐, 618 to 907). Each is four lines long, all five are widely known among Chinese speakers, and each uses mostly common characters. Below you get the text in Traditional characters, pinyin, a literal gloss, and a note on anything that is awkward for a learner, including one place where the verse reading differs from the standard one.

A word on how to use this page. The pinyin gives modern Mandarin readings as recorded in the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary (國語辭典). Third-tone sandhi is not marked, and 一 and 不 are written as spoken. Read each poem aloud, and give it a few days before moving to the next.

Why Taiwan teaches these poems

Tang poetry is a regular part of Chinese-language class (國文) in Taiwan. 唐詩三百首 (Three Hundred Tang Poems), an anthology put together in the Qing dynasty, is the book most people think of. Poems such as 靜夜思 and 春曉 are among the best-known in the language, and a line is easy to quote in conversation, in a card or in a speech. For a learner, that means a poem is not only literature. It is shared vocabulary.

The classical grammar in these poems is light. You do not need to study 文言文 first, although the guide to starting classical Chinese will help later. Most lines are readable once you have a few thousand words of modern vocabulary, and a Band A learner can manage the first two poems with a dictionary.

A word on form

All five poems are 絕句 (juéjù), four-line poems. Four of them are 五言 (five characters a line) and 山行 is 七言 (seven characters a line). In a 絕句 the second and fourth lines rhyme, and sometimes the first as well. That matters for reading aloud, because some rhymes only work with the older sound of a character. This matters in 山行 below.

1. 靜夜思 (Jìng yè sī), 李白

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal gloss
床前明月光	chuáng qián míng yuè guāng	Before the bed, bright moon light
疑是地上霜	yí shì dì shàng shuāng	I wonder, is it frost on the ground
舉頭望明月	jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè	Raise head, look at the bright moon
低頭思故鄉	dī tóu sī gù xiāng	Lower head, think of the old home

The title means roughly “Quiet night thoughts”. The poem is by Li Bai (李白), the most famous name in Tang poetry. Rhymes: 光 guāng, 霜 shuāng, 鄉 xiāng.

Notes for learners:

• The text varies between editions. The version above is the one in 唐詩三百首. An older collection of Li Bai’s works has 床前看月光 and 舉頭望山月. Check which version your textbook uses.
• 床 is written 牀 in older editions. The MOE dictionary treats 牀 as a variant of 床.
• 思 is sī in modern reading. The MOE dictionary also records sì as its literary reading (讀音), which some reciters use, especially in the title. sī is standard.
• 舉頭 and 低頭 are paired movements, a good example of how Chinese poems use parallel structure.

2. 春曉 (Chūn xiǎo), 孟浩然

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal gloss
春眠不覺曉	chūn mián bù jué xiǎo	Spring sleep, not aware of dawn
處處聞啼鳥	chù chù wén tí niǎo	Everywhere hear crying birds
夜來風雨聲	yè lái fēng yǔ shēng	Night came: wind and rain sound
花落知多少	huā luò zhī duō shǎo	Flowers fall, who knows how many

The title means “Spring dawn”. It is by Meng Haoran (孟浩然). Rhymes: 曉 xiǎo, 鳥 niǎo, 少 shǎo.

Notes for learners:

• 覺 here is jué (to wake, to become aware), not jiào (sleep, as in 睡覺). The MOE dictionary lists both. 不覺 is bù jué.
• 少 is shǎo (few) here, so 多少 is duō shǎo. The other reading shào means young.
• 聞 means “hear” in classical Chinese. In modern Mandarin it means “smell”.
• 落 is luò, to fall.
• One early anthology has 欲知昨夜風 in place of the third line. The text above is the common form.

3. 登鸛雀樓 (Dēng Guànquè Lóu), 王之渙

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal gloss
白日依山盡	bái rì yī shān jìn	The white sun leans on the mountains and ends
黃河入海流	huáng hé rù hǎi liú	The Yellow River enters the sea and flows
欲窮千里目	yù qióng qiān lǐ mù	Wishing to exhaust a thousand li of sight
更上一層樓	gèng shàng yì céng lóu	Go up one more floor

The title means “Climbing Stork Tower”. The tower stood in Shanxi, as the MOE dictionary records. The poet Wang Zhihuan (王之渙) lived from 688 to 742 according to the same dictionary. Rhymes: 流 liú, 樓 lóu.

Notes for learners:

• 鸛 (guàn) is a stork, a hard character you will rarely meet again.
• 更 is gèng (“even more”) here. The other readings, gēng (to change) and jīng, do not apply.
• 一層 is spoken yì céng. The dictionary base tone of 一 is first (yī), and it changes to fourth tone before a second-tone syllable.
• The last line, 更上一層樓, is also a common idiom meaning “reach a higher level”. You will hear it in school and at work.
• Some editions give 一重樓 in place of 一層樓. 一層樓 is the version nearly everyone quotes.
• 窮 here means “to exhaust, to reach the end of”.

4. 憫農 (Mǐn nóng), 李紳

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal gloss
鋤禾日當午	chú hé rì dāng wǔ	Hoeing grain, the sun is at noon
汗滴禾下土	hàn dī hé xià tǔ	Sweat drips on the soil under the grain
誰知盤中飧	shéi zhī pán zhōng sūn	Who knows, the meal on the plate
粒粒皆辛苦	lì lì jiē xīn kǔ	Every grain is hard work

The title means “Pity the farmers”. This is the second of two poems of that name by Li Shen (李紳). Rhymes: 午 wǔ, 土 tǔ, 苦 kǔ.

Notes for learners:

• 誰 is shéi in everyday Taiwan Mandarin. The MOE dictionary also lists shuí.
• 飧 (sūn) is an old word for a cooked meal. Many modern texts print 餐 (cān) instead, which changes the sound as well as the character. The version with 飧 is the older text, and the one used above.
• 粒粒 is a measure-word reduplication: “grain by grain”.
• The message is respect for the labour behind each grain of rice.

5. 山行 (Shān xíng), 杜牧

Chinese	Pinyin	Literal gloss
遠上寒山石徑斜	yuǎn shàng hán shān shí jìng xié (xiá)	Far up the cold mountain, a stone path slants
白雲生處有人家	bái yún shēng chù yǒu rén jiā	Where white clouds arise, there are households
停車坐愛楓林晚	tíng chē zuò ài fēng lín wǎn	I stop the cart, because I love the maple woods at evening
霜葉紅於二月花	shuāng yè hóng yú èr yuè huā	Frost leaves are redder than flowers of the second month

The title means “Walking in the mountains”. It is by Du Mu (杜牧), and it is a seven-character 絕句. Rhymes: 斜, 家, 花.

This is the poem where a reading differs in verse:

• The first line ends with 斜. The MOE dictionary gives xié, with xiá as an alternative reading (又音). Only xiá rhymes with 家 jiā and 花 huā, so it is common when the poem is recited. Teachers differ, so follow your class.
• 車 is chē, a cart or carriage here, not a car.
• 坐 means “because” in this line, not “sit”. The standard gloss is 因為 (yīnwèi).
• 處 in 生處 is chù (place). The other reading, chǔ, means “to dwell”.
• 於 means “than” here: 紅於二月花 is “redder than flowers in the second month”. 於 is yú.
• Some editions have 白雲深處 for the second line. 白雲生處 is the form given in the version above.

How to study them

1. Read the Chinese out loud with the pinyin, then without it. Use the pinyin chart for sounds you are unsure of. If you use Zhuyin, the Zhuyin chart has the same.
2. Look up each unknown character in the dictionary.
3. Learn one poem at a time. Writing it by hand helps, and so does copying the lines on practice paper.
4. Listen to a recitation by a native speaker when you can, because poems are meant to be said aloud.
5. Revisit the poem after a week. Short texts are easy to forget, and equally easy to review.

If you are building the habit of reading in Traditional characters, a four-line poem is a good size. See the classical Chinese page for how this older written style relates to modern Chinese.

Related reading

• How to Start Reading Classical Chinese
• Classical Chinese in Traditional Characters
• Chengyu Guide for Intermediate Mandarin
• Beautiful Chinese Words