Most cipai consist of three characters. The literal meaning of a cipai can be rather obscure, making it difficult to translate. Some are taken straight from earlier poems, and some are clearly of Non-Han origin — mostly songs introduced from Central Asia. Some cipai have alternative names, usually taken from a famous piece of that very cipai. There also are variants of certain cipai, indicated by a prefix or a suffix.
Read more about this topic: Ci (poetry)