Judging from their content, Yuefu poems can be roughly divided into three categories:
1. Odes written by noble literati
Songs in suburban temples: for sacrifices It is used by Tiandi, Ancestral Temple, Mingtang and Sheji. The surviving ones include "Song of Suburban Sacrifice" and "Song of Anshifang".
Yanshe Song Ci: Used for court banquets.
Dance lyrics: divided into elegant dance and miscellaneous dance. Elegant dance is used in suburban temples and feasts; miscellaneous dance is used for banquets.
2. Military music
Advocate music and lyrics: It is military music using short flutes, cymbals and drums.
Horizontal blowing music: It is military music played on horseback with drum horns.
3. Folk Songs
Xianghe Songs: It was a street ballad in the Han Dynasty. At first, it was just recited casually by people. Later, it was gradually orchestrated and became Xianghe. song".
Qing Shang Quci: Originated from the three tunes of Xianghe, the content mostly reflects the lives, thoughts and feelings of the people at that time.
The lyrics of Zaqu include writing about one’s aspirations, expressing one’s thoughts, recounting banquets and travels, expressing resentment and anger, talking about war and military service, either due to Buddha or Lao, or from barbarians. They are all collected and recorded, so they are called Za. song.
Han Dynasty Yuefu poems mostly use vivid spoken language, are cordial and simple, combine narrative with lyricism, and have truly touching emotions. The rhymes of Han Yuefu poetry are free and flexible. Han Yuefu poetry cleverly casts dialogues to depict characters, and their voices and emotions are so vivid that it makes people feel like they hear their voices and see their people. Although Han Yuefu poems mostly describe reality, many works also use romanticism.
Extended information
"Yuefu" was originally the name of the government office, which was responsible for composing music, training musicians, collecting poems and folk songs for the imperial court to sing during sacrifices and banquets, and You can observe the local customs and examine political gains and losses. Our country's poetry collection system has a long history, and "Xia Shu·Yin Zheng" has records of poetry collection. The Book of Songs, which has been handed down to this day, was originally a standard selection that was officially promulgated and recognized by society.
After the Spring and Autumn Period, rituals collapsed and music collapsed, wars continued, and the system of collecting poems could not be implemented. In the Qin Dynasty, the unification period was short, and many wastes were waiting to be revitalized. Although it had the name of Yuefu official office, it still had no actual ability to collect poems. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the economy was in decline. The Yuefu institutions could only maintain the old ones without making any additions or updates. After sixty or seventy years of recuperation, by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the national power had become much stronger, and the scale of Yuefu was expanded, and poems were collected and recited at night.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, poetry collection became a major event in political life. Emperor Guangwu once "asked the people for information and listened to rumors", while Emperor He sent envoys "incognito and alone, to various prefectures and counties to observe rumors". This kind of custom was followed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the reign of Xiao Liang, the society had changed "Yuefu" from the name of an official office to a poetic style.
In addition to "Poems of the Ming Dynasty", Liu Xie's "Wenxin Diaolong" also has a special chapter on "Yuefu". Zhaoming's "Selected Works" and Xu Ling's "New Odes of Yutai" also opened the "Yuefu" column. There are both literati poems and folk songs and poems, that is, all songs and poems that can be sung with music are collectively called "Yuefu".
Baidu Encyclopedia-Yuefu Poetry