The Chinese are a poetic people. The scene of literati gathered to read and write poetry while imbibing spirits appears again and again in Chinese literary history. Wang Xizhi's "Gathering at Orchid Pavilion" is not only an outstanding Jin calligraphy but also a vivid portrayal of how people in those times would gather to compose verse.

How far back can this tradition be traced? Ko Ching-ming, professor of Chinese at National Taiwan University, believes it started at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty with the statesman Cao Cao and his son and first Wei emperor Cao Pi, who together moved Chinese verse beyond the traditional heart-felt folk songs to the artistic fruit of friendly competitions at literary gatherings. From Cao Cao's description of "putting down a spear to write poetry" in his "Short Song" to the "Jian'an Seven" and Cao Pi, the Caos and their contemporaries created "banquet poetry." "This could be described as the origin of Chinese poetry societies," Ko says.

Poet parties

To show off their noble pedigrees, the scholars of the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties held poetry-composing sessions and theoretical discussions modeled on the Taoist classics. "Gongti shi"--or court poetry--appeared during the Qi and Liang dynasties. The emperor would select a topic and invite scholars to gather and compose poems. In these circumstances, "Poetry was no longer necessarily an expression of desire, but rather a ceremonial game, for which poets became adept at specific techniques such as writing balanced couplets," Ko notes.

The Tang dynasty was a golden age of Chinese poetry, when ever-stricter demands were placed on poems' rhythms and rhyme schemes. After the Empress Wu introduced the civil service exams, in which poetry and essays were given equal weight, poetry became an avenue of advancement through the ranks of officialdom, and the educated worked hard at it.

In times of leisure, the literati would often take trips together, on which they would compose and recite poetry. In "Spring Night Banquet in the Peach and Plum Orchard" Li Bai describes how a father and his sons caroused among blossoming fruit trees one spring night, passing along one bird-shaped mug of wine after another. "Without poetry how is one to express elegant emotions?" They agreed upon a format, and those who couldn't finish their poems on time would have to drink three penalty shots of wine.

In the Ming dynasty, literary societies flourished. According to Chien Chin-sung, an associate professor of Chinese literature at National Sun Yat-sen University, literati would gather to compete at writing "eight-legged" essays, and if they had any energy left over they would write poetry. The Ming writer Li Dongyang noted in his essay "Huailu Hall Poetry Talk" how "the people of the southeast hold poetry societies in high regard. In their verse-writing competitions a poet is appointed to make the topic and serve as judge, and the scored results are announced in order, much like for the civil service exams." It sounds a lot like today's poetry societies, doesn't it?

During the Qing dynasty, poetry writing competitions were very popular in Fujian, and a collection of some of the best of these poems has been passed down.

Cao Xueqin's Qing classic The Dream of the Red Chamber describes in detail how Jia Baoyu and his cousins established a poetry society. One them suggested it, the others agreed, and they started by writing poems in praise of the Chinese flowering apple. During the Mid Autumn Festival they held contests with the topics of crabs and chrysanthemums. Their personalities came out in their verse. Look at this poem in praise of the Chinese flowering apple by Lin Daiyu: "It has stolen some of the white of the pear blossom's pistils while borrowing the spirit of the plum bloom." It's a potentially dangerous approach, but Lin, who has a unique character, pulls it off skillfully.

An East Asian tradition

"The fact is that the Chinese don't have a monopoly on writing traditional Chinese poems," notes Chien Chin-sung. The much-loved Japanese Haiku is also bound by a very specific form. Japanese and Koreans who write classical Chinese poems correspond with Taiwanese poetry societies. In fact, Korea and Japan were immersed in the Chinese cultural tradition in the Tang dynasty, much earlier than Taiwan. Poetry societies can also be found in overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the West. New York's Four Seas Poetry Society held a contest last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of victory over the Japanese and the retrocession of Taiwan. It received more than 5000 submissions from around the world. Societies are found all over mainland China as well. Sometimes they exchange information with their counterparts in Taiwan or submit poems to Taiwanese poetry journals.

"Similar to how the like-minded band together to put out a newspaper or magazine to promote commonly held views, in days past the literati would seek to find their identities through establishing societies to compose and recite poems," says Ko.

Even in today's industrialized society, fellow enthusiasts form poetry societies and publish poetry journals and anthologies. Perhaps "making friends through verse" is still an unspoken desire of many.