Prose & Verse

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The alternation of prose and verse is among the pertinent features of the early vernacular fiction, a genre convention shared with the better part of the performance genres of ‘telling and singing’, shuochang. In some genres verse is inserted with fairly long intervals into the prose narrative, clearly distinct from the truly prosimetric genres where prose and verse play more equal roles. The proportion of prose and verse in each item is indicated as follows:

1. Metric throughout
2. Metric with occasional prose passages
3. Prosimetric, balanced ocurrence of prose/verse
4. Prose with occasional verse
5. Prose with no verse inserted