Editing Metre (poetry) (section)

===Classical Chinese===
{{Main|Classical Chinese poetry forms}}
[[Classical Chinese]] poetic metric may be divided into fixed and variable length line types, although the actual scansion of the metre is complicated by various factors, including linguistic changes and variations encountered in dealing with a tradition extending over a geographically extensive regional area for a continuous time period of over some two-and-a-half millennia. Beginning with the earlier recorded forms: the [[Classic of Poetry]] tends toward [[couplets]] of four-character lines, grouped in rhymed quatrains; and, the [[Chuci]] follows this to some extent, but moves toward variations in line length. [[Han poetry|Han Dynasty poetry]] tended towards the variable line-length forms of the folk ballads and the [[Music Bureau]] [[yuefu]]. [[Jian'an poetry]], [[Six Dynasties poetry]], and [[Tang poetry|Tang Dynasty poetry]] tend towards a poetic metre based on fixed-length lines of five, seven, (or, more rarely six) characters/verbal units tended to predominate, generally in couplet/[[quatrain]]-based forms, of various total verse lengths. The [[Song poetry]] is specially known for its use of the ''[[Ci (poetry)|ci]]'', using variable line lengths which follow the specific pattern of a certain musical song's lyrics, thus ''ci'' are sometimes referred to as "fixed-rhythm" forms. [[Yuan poetry]] metres continued this practice with their ''[[Qu (poetry)|qu]]'' forms, similarly fixed-rhythm forms based on now obscure or perhaps completely lost original examples (or, ur-types). Not that [[Classical Chinese poetry]] ever lost the use of the ''[[Shi (poetry)|shi]]'' forms, with their metrical patterns found in the "old style poetry" (''[[Gushi (poetry)|gushi]]'') and the [[regulated verse]] forms of (''[[Lushi (poetry)|lüshi]]'' or ''jintishi''). The regulated verse forms also prescribed patterns based upon [[Tone (linguistics)|linguistic tonality]]. The use of caesura is important in regard to the metrical analysis of Classical Chinese poetry forms.