Using AI to Illustrate Classical Chinese Poetry: A Midjourney and GPT‑4 Case Study

In this article the author showcases how AI tools such as Midjourney and GPT‑4 can be used to generate vivid illustrations for classical Chinese poems that are rated “Level 10 difficulty”.

Examples include a dramatized visualisation of Li Bai’s “将进酒”, Du Fu’s “茅屋为秋风所破歌”, and other famous verses. The images, originally posted on B‑station (Bilibili), are displayed to illustrate the “soul‑out‑of‑body” effect that many netizens described.

The workflow described is:

1. Feed a line of poetry to GPT‑4 for interpretation (even if the analysis contains minor errors). 2. Combine the interpretation with a carefully crafted prompt that asks for an “exaggerated, abstract” scene in 16:9 aspect ratio. 3. Submit the prompt to Midjourney to obtain the first set of images. 4. Refine the prompt by adding attributes such as “personified”, “humorous”, etc., to steer the style.

Sample prompts are reproduced in the text, for instance:

Please generate an image that matches the mood of the poem, with an exaggerated and abstract style, output size 16:9.

Multiple rounds of generation are shown, demonstrating how slight changes in wording can dramatically alter the visual output, highlighting the emerging role of “prompt engineers”.

Beyond static images, the author also experiments with generating comic‑strip style illustrations for passages from “醉翁亭记” and animating still frames with AI video tools.

The article concludes with reflections on how such AI‑generated illustrations can aid memorisation of classical texts, while also warning against overly “nonsense” interpretations.