jueju

Chinese verse form

Also known as: chüeh-chü, truncated verse

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Article History

Chinese:: “severed sentence”

Wade-Giles romanization:: chüeh-chü

Related Topics:: Chinese literature

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jueju, a Chinese verse form that was popular during the Tang dynasty (618–907). An outgrowth of the lüshi, it is a four-line poem, each line of which consists of five or seven words. It omits either the first four lines, the last four lines, the first two and the last two lines, or the middle four lines of the lüshi. Thus, it retains the tonal quality of the lüshi, but the antithetical structure is optional. Much like the Persian robāʿī and the Japanese haiku, jueju are judged by suggestiveness and economy.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.