Throughout the Chinese history, composing poetries is a great form of art of all scholars. It is composed by shi, ci and qu, and there is also a special kind of prose-poem called fu. The Ancient Chinese poetries have also gradually been developed into free verse Western style poetries during the modern period.? Most of the traditional Chinese poetries are all in formed of rhymed

Since the burning of books by Qin Shihuang, a series of ancient anthologies had been destroyed. Therefore, the Shi Jing and Chu Ci are the earliest dating back to the Spring and the Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

The more lyrical and romantic anthology was called Chu Ci ("Songs of Chu"), made up mainly of poems ascribed to the semi-legendary Qu Yuan (ca. 340-278 B.C.) and his follower Song Yu (fourth century B.C.). These poems are composed of irregular lengths stanzas in the most common style of Chu. The songs in this collection are more lyrical and romantic which represented a different tradition from earlier times.

During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), the Song of Chu had evolved into the fu style, which is usually in rhymed stanza with exceptions in the introductory and the concluding passages, which are in prose. Fu style poetries are often in the form of questions and answers.

During the Six Dynasties, fu style of the Han Dynasty together with the shi formed the twin pillars of Chinese poetry until shi began to dominate during the Tang Dynasty.

The classical poetries were at its peak during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907). The early Tang period was best known for its which is regulated verses. Lushi composed of eight-stanza poem with five or seven words in per stanza. To tonally constraint the poems, this form required parallelism between the stanza in the second and the third couplets. The stanzas in these couplets had to contain contrasting content, with the words in each stanza in the same grammatical relationship. At the time of Li Bai and Du Fu, the romanticism and morality were the two most popular genres. During the late Tang Dynasty, poets developed greater realism and social criticism to the poems. Poets also refined the art of narration.

Subsequent writers of classical poetry lived under the shadow of great Tang poets. Although there were many excellent poets in subsequent dynasties, none reached the level of Tang. As people required a more elastic way to express their ideas, a more flexible poetic medium, the ci, came up to the scene. Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, the ci lyric became more popular as it was easier to understand and write. Ci are literally new lyrics made up to fit to pre-existing tunes. Each of the tunes had music that was often lost, but retained a metre unique to the tune. Thus, each ci written is labeled "To the tune of [Tune Name]", fits the metre and rhyme of the tune, it may or may not have been sung. The ci, a poetic form based on the tunes of popular songs, some were of Central Asian origin, was developed to its fullest by the poets of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). There are two genres of Ci in Song Dynasty. One is represented by Su Shi (1037-1101 AD) who established the powerful and free school of Ci writing, which was widely different from the subtle and concise school. The other is represented by Li Qingzhao, a representative of the romantic school, wrote euphemistic and graceful poems.

The earliest Chinese poetry begins with the Shi Jing, a collection of 305 poems of varying length, drawn from all ranks of Chinese society. In Chinese, Shi means "song-words." Jing stands for "classic" or "traditional" or in the context of literature, means "writings" or "scripture."

Some of these poems may date back to 1000 BCE. The various poems probably were compiled over several centuries, most of them during the Zhou (also spelled Chou) period around 600 BCE. This treasury of traditional songs is the oldest collection of poems in world. Moreover, it became one of the Five Confucian Classics.

The two best-known poets of Tang Dynasty were Li Bai (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770). Li Bai was known for the romanticism of his poetries; Du Fu was seen as a Confucian moralist with a strict sense of duty to the temporal society.

There are 990 of Li Bai’s poems have been preserve. Li Bai talents were much appreciated by Emperor Tang Xuanzong, and he was appointed as the chancellor of the Hanlin Academy. However, slandered by the flunky, he was later demoted and exiled for many times. Possessing a great talent with no opportunity to use it, Li Bai was very disappointed and resentful in his heart that he had to comfort himself by drinking and writing.

Bai Juyi's poems fall into several categories, such as allegorical poem, leisure poem, sentimental poem, etc. His allegorical poems are masterpieces, which are represented by long narrative poems. This reflects a panoramic view of the social life in the Mid-Tang Dynasty, focusing on the darkness of reality and people's sufferings.

Su Shi (1037 – 1101) was a statesman of the Song Dynasty, and one of the major poets of the Song era. His pseudonym was Dongpo Jushi, and also often referred to as Su Dongpo. Around 2,700 of Su Song's poems have survived, along with 800 written letters. Su Dongpo was good at the shi, ci and fu forms of poetry. The bulk of his poems are in the shi style, but his poetic fame rests largely on his 350 ci style poems. Su also founded the “Haofang School”, which cultivated an attitude of heroic abandon. In both his written works and his visual art, he combined spontaneity, objectivity and vivid descriptions of natural phenomena.