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What is parallelism?
In both wulu and qilu , some form of parallelism must be present in addition to tonal variations. By parallelism it is meant that the verbal units at the same position within a couplet must be balanced in terms of word order and parts of speech. Parallelism can take many forms, including contrast, analogy, and similarity. In an eight-line verse, only the two middle couplets requires parallelism.
To illustrate how parallelism is used, let's take a look at the following poem by Wang Wei:
山居秋暝
空山新雨後 天氣晚來秋
明月松間照 清泉石上流
竹喧歸浣女 蓮動下漁舟
隨意春芳歇 王孫自可留
Since the five-character line normally consists of an initial disyllabic unit and a final trisyllabic unit, we are going to separate them to see how parallelism is performed.
明月 松間照 míng yuè sōng jiān zhào bright moon shines through the pines
清泉 石 上流 qīng quánshí shàng liú clear spring flows over the rocks
In the above couplet, the first units to be matched are 明月 and 清泉. As can be seen, 月( moon ) and 泉 (spring) are both nouns while 明(bright) 清 (clear) are adjectives. In the trisyllabic units that follow, 松間照 (to shine through the pines) and 石 上 流 (to flow over the rocks), are also appropriately matched.
蓮動 下漁舟 lián dòng xià yú zhōu water lilies moving fishing boat is coming down
In the above couplet, the first characters 竹 (bamboos) and 蓮 (water lilies) are both nouns while 喧 (to rustle) and 動 (to move) are verbs. In the second unit, 歸浣女 (washer-girls are returning) and 下漁舟 (the fishing boat is going down) are matched in grammatical relationship.
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