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Yuanqu is a general term for zaju and Sanqu, and Sanqu is different from others. The combination of Yuan Qu, Tang Poetry and Song Poetry is three important milestones in the history of China literature. With the demise of the Song Dynasty and the establishment of the Mongolian regime, Yuanqu began to spread in Dadu (now Beijing) and Lin 'an (now Hangzhou).
Yuanqu has a strict form, and each qupai has a fixed format requirement in terms of sentence pattern and word number, but it is also flexible, allowing lines to be frozen, adding sentences to some qupai, and allowing even strokes in rhyme.
Yuanqu combines traditional poetry, folk songs and dialects, forming a humorous, free and easy, frank artistic style. The works describing love in Yuan Qu are also more inflammatory and bold than the poems of past dynasties. Compared with Tang poetry and Song poetry, the style of Yuanqu is closer to ordinary people, and it has also become a popular performance for ordinary people.