Cover Letter

China’s five thousand years of civilization and culture have both regional and national characteristics, as well as characteristics of the times. In a historical sense, Chinese culture includes not only traditional culture with a long history , but also pre-modern culture and modern culture that have undergone tremendous changes in Chinese cultural traditions. Chinese poetry is not just one type of poetry. In each different dynasty, there will be their popular poems. Poetry first began in the previous qin, followed by the Han Dynasty, Wei-Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui Dynasty, and later in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, and finally modern poetry. （https://china360online.org/?property=55-east-52nd-street）Each of these dynasties has the most representative poems and poets, and each different dynasty will have its different styles of poetry. For example, in Early Qin poetry (Early 221 years ago), the form of repeated singing was adopted, which means replacing a few words in a sentence, which has the effect of highlighting ideas and reminding readers; while the poetry of the Tang Dynasty is rich and colorful, Also created a beautiful style of modern poetry. The poetry of the Tang Dynasty played an important role in the development of later poetry.

When it comes to Chinese poetry, the first picture that comes to my mind is a not-so-good memory. It was during the Mandarin class. I was punished by the teacher to copy the Chinese Poetry because I did not know the meaning of the Chinese poems in the textbook beforehand.  At that time, I was frustrated and wanted to give up studying Chinese poetry. Fortunately, my teacher patiently taught me how to learn Chinese poetry. This made me dispel the idea of giving up studying Chinese poetry. Looking back at what happened at that time, if the teacher did not comfort me and taught me the way to learn Chinese poetry, will I continue to learn Chinese poetry? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But it turns out that continuing to study Chinese poetry is a very correct decision.

Learning and understanding Chinese poetry is a difficult challenge, but no matter in the past or now, people have to admit the influence that Chinese poetry has brought to this society. As the British philosopher Francis Bacon mentioned in “Of Studies”: “Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores: Studies pass into the character. ”Learn different things and you will gain different abilities. Ancient poetry absorbs the wisdom of national culture, improves cultural taste and aesthetics, enriches the spiritual world, cultivates the emotion of loving the language and literature of the motherland, and develops personality, which can play a decisive role.

The unforgettable learning experience of ancient poetry

Chinese Poetry is the essence of Chinese traditional culture and occupies an important position in China’s splendid ancient culture. Chinese Poetry is not only rich in connotation, all-encompassing, profound artistic conception, high aesthetic value, and strong artistic appeal, but also condensed, short and succinct, beautiful in words and sentences, and harmonious in rhyme, which makes them unique in the Chinese literary world. As an important part of ancient Chinese culture, Chinese Poetry have gone through thousands of years of lineage and spread to every corner of China. The precious cultural heritage left by their predecessors at that time is an important carrier for spreading the spiritual culture of the Chinese nation. As the inheritor of Chinese civilization, every Chinese should not only be able to read and use the vernacular, but also understand some ancient poetry. Therefore, when contemporary people come into close Chinese poetry, it is also an important tool to inspire people to love the traditional culture of the motherland.

When I first became interested in Chinese poetry, I was watching a program called “Chinese Poetry Conference”. There are not only adults, but also five or six-year-old children, and even people from other countries. Indeed, culture knows no borders and eras. What impressed me the most was a six-year-old kid who knew 3,000 words and could recite 580 poems. This can’t help but surprise me. He is just a 6-year-old kid who can know so many characters and read so many ancient poems. This level is not an easy task for me today. Thinking back to me at the age of six, maybe I was still watching cartoons in front of the TV at that time. Seeing this, I am reminded of what the British philosopher Francis Bacon mentioned in “Of Studies”: “Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores: Studies pass into the character. ” Learn different things and you will gain different abilities. Ancient poetry absorbs the wisdom of national culture, improves cultural taste and aesthetics, enriches the spiritual world, cultivates the emotion of loving the language and literature of the motherland, and develops personality, which can play a decisive role. Whenever I watch this program, my respect for ancient poems increases. I also want to be able to recite ancient poems quickly and fluently just like the people on the show, making this one of my specialties. So soon, I came into contact with ancient poetry.

When I was in the second grade of elementary school, I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Chinese poetry in the textbooks. Chinese poetry are divided into four types, such as 4 sentences with 5 characters for each sentence; 4 sentences with 7 characters for each sentence; 8 sentences with 5 characters for each sentence and 8 sentences with 7 characters for each sentence. Although these ancient poems are very short, their meaning is indeed very complicated. If you don’t carefully read the words that you don’t know, then you may not understand the true meaning of the poet. In the process of learning Chinese poetry, what impressed me the most was in a Mandarin class. As usual in class, the teacher-led us to read ancient poems, she read it once, and we read it again. But suddenly, she asked what the first half of the Chinese poetry meant. I know she is spot-checking whether we have carefully previewed the text. I was very scared because I did not carefully preview the text, nor did I carefully read the uncommon words that I did not know, and it could even be said that I did not understand the content of this Chinese poetry at all. I silently prayed in my heart that the teacher would not call me, I kept lowering my head for fear of meeting the teacher’s gaze. Sure enough, the more you are afraid, the more you will come. “Shaonan, can you tell me what the first half of this poem means？” The teacher said, “I…I…” I faltered, “I’m sorry, I won’t. “The teacher didn’t mean to tolerate me, she scolded me severely, “Why don’t you know the meaning of this poem? Since you have no preview, then you copy the meaning of this poem 50 times.” I looked terrified. I looked at the teacher, but I could only lower my head and sit down silently. When it was time for school, I saw that everyone was packing up the schoolbag and happily walking out of campus, but I could only sit in my seat and silently copy the meaning of Chinese poetry.

Looking at the empty classroom, I felt aggrieved inexplicably. While copying, I wiped my tears silently. I don’t know when the teacher stood at the door of the classroom. When I turned my head to see her, she also walked to the seat next to me and sat down. She gently stroked my back and comforted: “Actually, understanding the meaning of ancient poems is not as difficult as you think. When you are reading an ancient poem, you need to first try to understand the meaning of the Chinese poetry; and remember it; the last is to make associations.” Hearing this, I seemed to have a sudden realization. Since then, I have always used the method my teacher gave me to learn Chinese poetry. My love for ancient poetry is still very high.

Studying Chinese poetry can not only improve cultural accomplishment, purify the soul, but also broaden the horizons, and ultimately improve the body and mind. For example, if you see the sea many years after graduation, what you think in your heart is “The white sun sets behind mountains, The Yellow River flows into the sea.” Or “As the bright moon shines over the sea, From far away you share this moment with me.” instead of simply “the sea is beautiful.”