Song-ci (宋词) lyrics are a tighter discipline than generic guofeng or even shi (诗). Ci uses fixed long-short line patterns from named tunes (词牌), an intricate tonal pattern (平仄), and a leaner imagery vocabulary than Tang shi. AI usually flattens all of this into one beige “ancient soup.” The 10 prompts below each lock the model to one named Song-ci master and one explicit ci tune feel, so the output reads like a real Song-era ci, not an anime opening that wishes it were one.
TL;DR: Name the master and the tune feel, hand the model an imagery whitelist, ban the fake-ancient words, and fix one rhyme group. Copy a template, swap the theme, generate three times, keep the version with the most concrete closing image. The prompts below do the heavy lifting; you mostly change one historical detail per run.
Which model writes the best Song-ci
No model nails strict 平仄 — that is the honest baseline. The 2025-2026 PoeTone benchmark scored top proprietary models around 80-82% on formal conformity (line count, character count, rhyme position) but found high formal scores did not equal poetic quality; human raters preferred the more fluent proprietary outputs even when their tonal compliance was looser. Practical picks as of June 2026:
| Model | Why for Song-ci | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | Strongest at long-short line discipline and imagery restraint in Mandarin | Google AI Pro $19.99/mo |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | Cleanest at obeying the imagery whitelist and forbidden-word ban | Claude Pro $20/mo |
| GPT-5.5 (Thinking) | Good at the upper/lower que hinge; ask for three variants | ChatGPT Plus $20/mo |
All three read and write Chinese characters fluently; the differences are in restraint, not vocabulary. For the full breakdown see the ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini guide. Whichever you use, generate three variants and keep the cleanest closing image rather than trusting the first draft.
The structure these lyrics actually use
Song ci has a more flexible skeleton than a four-line shi. A workable structural recipe to spell out in the prompt:
- Upper que (上阕): opening scene; one location, one season, one time of day
- Hinge line: a single line that bridges scene into feeling, often a question or fragment
- Lower que (下阕): interior thought, memory, or address to an absent person
- Repeated short refrain: many ci tunes carry a 3-4 character refrain echoed across both que
- Closing image: return to one concrete object from the upper que, transformed by what was said in the lower que
- No moral: Song ci never ends on a lesson; it ends on a held image
Once these six slots are spelled out, AI stops drifting into generic moon-and-longing pastiche.
A great prompt always includes
- Theme: not “sadness,” but “Li Qingzhao after her husband Zhao Mingcheng dies, looking at the chrysanthemums he planted”
- Structure: name upper / lower que, hinge line, refrain length
- Chorus or hook: name the refrain word and how many times it repeats
- Forbidden phrases: 红尘 / 苍生 / 万古 / 永恒 / 一生一世 — fake-ancient markers
- Rhyme: name one rhyme group: ang / ong / ou / ai
- Mood: bittersweet farewell, detached calm, drunken regret, late-life acceptance
- Length: total character count (90-120 chars total is real Song ci range)
10 copy-ready prompt templates
1. Li Qingzhao bittersweet farewell
Best for: Female-vocal Song-ci original
Write a Chinese Song-ci style lyric in the voice of Li Qingzhao after parting from her husband.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, scene of west chamber at dusk) / hinge line (1 line, a question) / lower que (4 lines, what she could not say) / closing line that returns to one object from upper que.
Refrain: the word "瘦" appears twice, once in upper, once in lower.
Imagery whitelist: 西窗, 黄花, 雁字, 罗衾, 香炉.
Rhyme: ou.
Forbidden: 红尘, 万古, 永恒, 一生一世.
Mood: bittersweet, not weeping.
Total length: about 100 Chinese characters.2. Su Shi Mid-Autumn moon
Best for: Mid-Autumn brand film, period drama
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Su Shi on the Mid-Autumn night he wrote 水调歌头.
Structure: upper que (questioning the moon, 4 lines, 7/5/7/5 char pattern) / hinge line / lower que (thinking of his brother Ziyou, 4 lines) / closing image of the moon over the rooftop.
Refrain: the character "明" appears 3 times across the piece.
Imagery: 月, 楼, 影, 酒, 兄弟, 长夜.
Rhyme: an.
Mood: drunken philosophical, warm not bitter.
Forbidden: 苍生, 红尘, 万古.
Length: ~110 chars.3. Xin Qiji battle remembrance
Best for: Wuxia / historical drama theme
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Xin Qiji remembering his northern frontier campaigns in his old age.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, present scene: lamp, sword on wall, autumn rain) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, memory: gallop, banner, drum) / closing line back to the sword.
Refrain: the word "醉" appears twice.
Imagery: 灯, 剑, 旗, 鼓, 沙场, 白发.
Rhyme: ang.
Mood: heroic but resigned, not weeping.
Forbidden: 苍生, 万古, 永恒.
Length: ~110 chars.4. Liu Yong urban-night poet
Best for: Period romance, courtesan-district scene
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Liu Yong wandering the Bianjing night entertainment quarter.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, lantern-lit alley, lute music from a pavilion) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, conversation with a courtesan-singer) / closing image of dawn approaching.
Refrain: the word "灯" appears 3 times.
Imagery: 灯, 楼, 琵琶, 酒, 朱户, 残更.
Rhyme: ou.
Mood: melancholy in a crowd.
Forbidden: 红尘, 万古, 一生一世.
Length: ~120 chars.5. Ouyang Xiu spring rain
Best for: Brand spring campaign with literary tone
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Ouyang Xiu watching spring rain at West Lake.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, scene: rain, swallow, fallen petals) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, drifting interior thought) / closing image of one petal on the water.
Refrain: the word "春" appears twice.
Imagery: 春雨, 燕, 落花, 湖, 杏花, 帘.
Rhyme: ing.
Mood: tender, lightly melancholy.
Forbidden: 红尘, 苍生.
Length: ~100 chars.6. Yan Shu autumn melancholy
Best for: Quiet autumn period drama interlude
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Yan Shu walking the garden alone in late autumn.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, scene: chrysanthemum, falling leaves, empty pavilion) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, recall of an old guest who never returned) / closing image of an empty cup.
Refrain: the word "独" appears twice.
Imagery: 菊, 落叶, 亭, 酒, 旧客, 西风.
Rhyme: i.
Mood: composed solitude, not self-pity.
Forbidden: 永恒, 万古.
Length: ~100 chars.7. Yan Jidao willow-bridge parting
Best for: Period drama farewell scene
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Yan Jidao parting from a singer-girl at a willow bridge.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, scene of the willow bridge at dawn) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, what was said and not said) / closing image of a single willow branch handed over.
Refrain: the word "柳" appears 3 times.
Imagery: 柳, 桥, 露, 酒, 红袖, 马蹄.
Rhyme: ou.
Mood: tender resignation.
Forbidden: 再见 said directly, 红尘, 万古.
Length: ~110 chars.8. Zhou Bangyan Xihu spring dawn
Best for: West Lake tourism brand, literary documentary
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Zhou Bangyan watching West Lake at spring dawn.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, dawn mist on water, distant pagoda, plum blossom) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, thought of court politics he left behind) / closing image of one bird crossing the water.
Refrain: the word "晓" appears twice.
Imagery: 西湖, 烟, 塔, 梅, 朝, 鸟.
Rhyme: ao.
Mood: detached calm.
Forbidden: 红尘, 苍生, 万古.
Length: ~115 chars.9. Jiang Kui pavilion-by-river
Best for: High-literary single, scholar’s aesthetic
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Jiang Kui composing music in a riverside pavilion at dusk.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, river twilight, lone reed, fishing boat lantern) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, memory of an old friend now far away) / closing image of the lantern crossing the water.
Refrain: the word "夜" appears twice.
Imagery: 江, 芦, 渔火, 笛, 故人, 夜.
Rhyme: eng.
Mood: refined sadness, restrained.
Forbidden: 永恒, 红尘.
Length: ~115 chars.10. Lu You late-life regret
Best for: Period drama elderly-protagonist theme
Write a Song-ci style Chinese lyric in the voice of Lu You in old age, recalling his lost love Tang Wan.
Structure: upper que (4 lines, scene: Shen Garden walls, moss, peach blossom) / hinge / lower que (4 lines, what he would say if he saw her again) / closing image of one peach petal on the wall.
Refrain: the word "错" appears 3 times (echo of his 钗头凤).
Imagery: 墙, 苔, 桃花, 红, 旧, 春.
Rhyme: o.
Mood: late-life regret without bitterness.
Forbidden: 红尘, 万古.
Length: ~110 chars.Common mistakes
- Treating ci like shi — fixed 5/7 lines instead of long-short que pattern
- Allusion stacking — three ancient figures in one upper que is one too many
- Forbidden words sneak back in — model loves 红尘 and 万古 unless explicitly banned
- No refrain — Song ci almost always carries a 1-2 character echo across both que
- Ending on a moral — Song ci ends on a held image, not a lesson
How to push results further
- Name the ci master, not just “Song style” — Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji write very different upper que
- Specify upper-que line count separately from lower-que line count
- Add one historical biographical detail to the prompt (Su Shi exiled to Huangzhou) and the imagery sharpens
- Pair with a Suno (v5.5, March 2026) style prompt like
pentatonic, guzheng, dizi, slow, singing in Mandarin Chinesefor matching music; see the Suno Chinese fusion prompts guide - Generate three versions and pick the one whose closing image is most concrete
FAQ
Q: Can AI write actual ci-pai tonal pattern correctly?
A: Not reliably. The PoeTone benchmark (2025-2026) put even top proprietary models around 80-82% on formal conformity — and noted that the highest formal scores did not produce the best-judged poems. So specify character count and rhyme group, accept that strict tonal pattern (平仄) will be approximate, and judge on feel rather than textbook compliance.
Q: How is Song ci different from Tang shi for prompting?
A: Tang shi is fixed 5 or 7 chars per line, four or eight lines, strict parallelism. Song ci is long-short lines from named tunes, two que (上阕 / 下阕), more interior. Prompt accordingly.
Q: Should I name the actual ci-pai (e.g., 念奴娇)?
A: Yes for character count guidance, but expect the model to be loose with tonal pattern. The named tune helps it set the right line-length rhythm.
Q: Can Suno sing Song ci?
A: Suno v5.5 (March 2026) sharpened consonant articulation, but classical and low-frequency characters still trip its Mandarin pronunciation. Best path: write the lyric in modern Mandarin that keeps the Song-ci structure, run it in Custom Mode with singing in Mandarin Chinese in the style prompt, or generate an instrumental and record real vocals over it.
Q: Difference between this and ancient-poetic lyrics?
A: Ancient-poetic is a broader bucket that includes shi, fu, and ci. Song-ci is specifically the Song-era ci form — long-short lines, two que, named-tune patterns. Tighter constraints, more authentic feel.