Listen to this articleyǒnɡmínɡtǐ 永明体
The Yongming Poetic Style
南朝齐武帝永明年间（公元483—493年）出现的、以讲求声韵对偶为主要特征的诗歌风格。也称“新体诗”（与汉魏以来的“古体诗”相对而言）。代表人物是谢朓（tiǎo）、沈约和王融。“永明体”标志着诗人已经熟练掌握声韵对偶的规律并自觉运用于诗歌创作，增加了诗歌的形式美感与艺术表现力，为近体诗的产生奠定了基础。不足的是，“永明体”过于受声韵拘束，内容有所削弱，受到当时一些诗论家的批评，在新变中也蕴藏了危机。
Poems of this style first emerged during the reign of Emperor Qiwu of the Southern Dynasties. That period, lasting from 483 to 493, assumed the regal title of Yongming, hence the name of this poetic style. Yongming poems featured metrical structure and parallelism. They were also known as the “new poetry,” as opposed to the “old poetry” of the Han Dynasty and the Wei period. Xie Tiao, Shen Yue, and Wang Rong were leading poets of the Yongming style. This style was marked by a poet’s deft use of metrical structure and parallelism, thus enhancing the stylistic beauty and artistic expressiveness of poetry. It laid the foundation for the emergence of the “early modern” poetry, or regulated verse. However, the Yongming poetic style was weakened by an excessive emphasis on tonal patterns at the cost of content, drawing criticism of some poetry critics of the time. The style was thus burdened by this inherent risk in its quest for innovation.
引例 Citation：
◎永明末，盛为文章，吴兴沈约、陈郡谢朓、琅琊王融以气类相推毂，汝南周颙（yóng）善识声韵。约等文皆用宫商，以平上去入为四声，以此制韵，不可增减，世呼为“永明体”。（《南齐书·陆厥传》）
（永明末年，文学创作大盛，吴兴人沈约、陈郡人谢朓、琅琊人王融等以共同的志趣相互推举，汝南人周颙精通声韵。沈约等人的创作都讲求音律，以平声、上声、去声、入声为四声，以此来创制韵律，不能随意增加或减少，世人称之为“永明体”。）
Literary writing flourished towards the end of the Yongming period. Shen Yue from Wuxing, Xie Tiao from Chenjun, and Wang Rong from Langya, encouraged and praised each other out of their shared artistic aspirations. Zhou Yong from Runan was well versed in metrical patterning. The poems by Shen Yue and the others were very strict about the use of metrical schemes, namely, the level tone, the rising tone, the falling-rising tone, and the falling tone, and departure from the strict use of such metrical schemes was forbidden. This particular style of poetic creation became known as the Yongming style. (The History of Qi of the Southern Dynasties)
