Fu is the most distinctive style in the Han Dynasty, and most writers in the Han Dynasty are devoted to the creation of this style. Fu can be said to be the representative of Han Dynasty literature.
Fu appeared as early as the Warring States period, and Xunzi should be the first to write Fu. According to Hanshu, Xunzi wrote 10, and there are five existing poems, including Li, Zhi and Yun. Fu writers in the early Western Han Dynasty inherited the style of Chu Ci and created Sao Fu. The most successful ones should be Jia Yi and Mei Cheng. Four of Jia Yi's works are well preserved, the most representative of which are "Ode to Diaoqu Yuan" and "Ode to Pengniao".
"Mourning" is to express inner indignation by mourning Qu Yuan. The work expresses the true feelings of one's lack of talent, and adds new content to Sao Style Fu. "Pengniao Fu" is an article based on the assumption of dialogue with Pengniao, focusing on how to solve their worries with Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's thoughts, which is very representative of that era. Mei Cheng is another famous lyricist after Jia Yi. His work "Seven Hairs", which has been handed down to this day, expresses feelings with exquisite exaggeration, with magnificent structure and extraordinary momentum. Its appearance marks the formal formation of three-body doctors in Han Dynasty. From the early Western Han Dynasty to the middle Eastern Han Dynasty, it was the peak of the development of Han Fu. The History of Han Literature and Art records more than 900 pieces of Han Fu with more than 60 authors. Sima Xiangru is the founder and the most accomplished writer of Da Fu in Han Dynasty. Zi Xu and Shang Lin in Selected Works are his representative works. Other writers in this period include Dong Fangshuo, Gao Mei, Wang Bo and others. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the ideological content and system of Han Fu began to change. The representative figure of this period is Zhang Heng. His most representative works are Erjing Fu and Guitian Fu.
Judging from the history of literary development, the prosperity of Ci and Fu in the Western Han Dynasty promoted the formation of China's literary concept, began to distinguish literature from learning, and had a certain understanding of the basic characteristics of literature, which gradually made the literary concept clear.
2. Prose
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, prose developed. Because the Qin Dynasty pursued a policy of destroying culture, there was a saying that "the Qin Dynasty was illiterate".
During the Western Han Dynasty, the development of prose entered a glorious period, and the most representative of this period were Sima Qian's Historical Records and Ban Gu's Hanshu. Historical Records is China's first biographical general history, in which various characters are portrayed. As a classic of biographical literature, Historical Records plays an important role in the history of Sima Qian's portrait prose in China. Hanshu is China's first biographical history book and Ban Gu's favorite work. Its narrative is concise and clear, and its structure is rigorous, which reflects the development and changes of historical biography in Han Dynasty and pushes the development of prose to a new height.
Step 3 be poetic
Poetry in Han Dynasty was developed on the basis of The Book of Songs, Songs of the South and folk songs in Qin and Han Dynasties. The content comes from folk songs and literati creation. The poems with the highest achievements and the greatest influence in the Han Dynasty belong to the folk songs of Yuefu in the two Han Dynasties and the five-character ancient poems of Anonymous in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
The most popular short songs of Chu Yin in the late Qin Dynasty and early Han Dynasty are Gaixia Song by Xiang Yu and Da Feng Song by Liu Bang. During this period, Chu Ci became a popular poetic style for emperors, nobles and literati to express their feelings, leaving many works, such as Autumn Wind Ci, Song of Praise, Song of Tianma and so on.
Today's Yuefu ballads in the Han Dynasty are mostly works of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Narrative techniques have a wide range of subjects and rich contents, and are generally used to expose the darkness and suffering in real life. The most famous work of Yuefu in the Eastern Han Dynasty is the long narrative poem Peacock Flying Southeast, which marks the development of folk song art to a highly mature stage and creates a fine tradition of ancient narrative poetry.
Poetry in the Han Dynasty inherited and developed the traditional styles of The Book of Songs and Songs of the South, reflected the social life and class contradictions in the Han Dynasty, and expressed people's thoughts and wishes.
Most of the poems in Han Dynasty are preserved in Historical Records, Hanshu, Houhanshu and other historical books, among which Yuefu songs are mostly found in Song Shuyuezhi and Yuefu Poetry Collection.