The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of classical Chinese poetry. As one of the excellent literature heritages of China, Tang poetry is also a bright pearl of literature treasure of the world. A great number of poems have been handed down though history has moved on for over one thousand years. There were a lot of poets in the Tang Dynasty, including great masters like Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi. Besides these, there were a lot more - over 2300 poets still have their name heard until today. More than 48,900 pieces of poems have been compiled in the Complete Poetry of Tang.

The range of subjects of Tang poetry is very wide. Some reflect the social situations and conflicts at that time from side and reveal the darkness feudal society; some sing the praises of just wars and express patriotic thought; some depict the beauty of the homeland; in addition, some describe personal aspirations and encounters, affection, friendship as well as joys and sorrows of life. In a word, neither the natural phenomena, nor the political movement, working life, social customs or personal feelings could skip the eyesight of the insightful poets, which became their themes for writing. The creative methods include realism and romanticism. Many of the great works are the models of the combination of these two creative methods and form the outstanding tradition of classical Chinese poetry.

The form of Tang poetry is diversified. The ancient-style verse basically includes five-character and seven-character poems, while the modern-style verse is divided into two categories: four-lined and eight-lined, both of which can be further divided into five-character and seven-character ones. Therefore, the basic forms of Tang poetry are five-character ancient verse, seven-character ancient verse, five-character four-lined poems, seven-character four-lined poems, five-character eight-lined poems and seven-character eight-lined poems. The ancient verse has loose restriction on phonology and form; while the modern-style verse is completely on the contrary. The style of the ancient verse is handed down from pre-Tang dynasties, so it is called ancientry; the modern style poetry has strict and complete rules and forms, hence it is also called metrical verse.

The form and style of Tang poetry are colorful and creative, not only inheriting the tradition of folk songs in Han, Wei and Yuefu, but also developing the pattern of song form greatly; not only inheriting the five-character and seven-character ancient verse of the former dynasties, but also developing them into the long poem for narration and sentimental stories; not only extending the usage of five-character and seven-character forms, but also creating the modern-style verse, which is especially elegant and regular in style. The modern-style verse was a new form at that time, the creation and maturation of which was a great event in the developing history of Tang poetry. It pushes the artistic features of harmonious syllable and refined words of ancient verse up to an unprecedented level and helps the ancient lyric to find a most typical form, which is still favored by people today. The regulated verse of modern style is likely to be restricted by the content of the poem with little space for free creation and exertion for its strict limit of rules and forms, which is nevertheless a great defect brought about by its strongpoint