Couplet - Renku

Japanese: 聯句 - れんく

A form of Chinese poetry in which multiple authors write one, two, or four lines each and string them together to form a poem. The oldest is the Baliangtai Lianqu (108 BC), said to have been written during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in which each author wrote one line of seven characters. After the Six Dynasties period, a form in which each author wrote two or four lines of five characters emerged, and this was performed as a hobby by poets. The recitation by Jia Chong and his wife of the Jin Dynasty was a dialogue of two lines each. The works of Tao Yuanming and three others (included in the Tao Peng Zeji) each contain four lines, and are serial works on the same theme. The Chengnan Lianqu (Chengnan Lianqu) by Han Yu and Meng Jiao of the Tang Dynasty alternate two lines of five characters each. Renku is a literary form that allows us to enjoy the excitement of each moment, as it develops an interesting poetic realm that is not found in poems by a single author, by interacting with the previous and following renku by other authors. In Japan, it was also performed as entertainment at poetry gatherings in the mid-Heian period, and had a variety of influences on renga. It also gave rise to Wakan renga (Kanwa renga), which could be considered a hybrid form of renku and renga.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

中国の詩の一形態。複数の作者が1句，または2句，4句ずつつくり，連ねて1編の詩をなすもの。漢の武帝時代の作といわれる『柏梁台聯句』 (前 108) が最古で，これは1人が七言1句ずつをつくり連ねたもの。六朝時代以後には五言で1人2句または4句ずつの形式が生じ，詩人の余技として行われた。晋の賈充 (かじゅう) 夫妻の唱和は1人2句ずつの問答体である。陶淵明ら3人の作 (『陶彭沢集』所収) は1人4句ずつで，同一主題のもとに連作している。唐の韓愈と孟郊の『城南聯句』は五言の2句ずつを交互につけている。聯句は他作者による前後の聯と相より相助けて，単独作者の詩にはないような，おもしろい詩境を展開していく，その瞬間瞬間の感興を楽しむ文学である。日本でも平安時代中期には詩会の余興として行われ，連歌にさまざまの影響を与えた。また聯句と連歌の混合形態ともいうべき和漢連歌 (漢和連歌) をも生じた。

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