Han Fu is a rhyming prose that appeared in the Han Dynasty. It is characterized by the combination of prosody and rhyme, and is good at narration. From the form of fu, it lies in "biography"; As far as the content of Fu is concerned, the emphasis is on "writing things and writing ambitions". The content of Han Fu can be divided into five categories: one is to render Miyagi; The second is to describe the emperor hunting; The third is to describe the travel experience; The fourth is to express unsatisfied feelings; The fifth is about animals and plants. In the past, they were representatives of Han Fu. Fu is the most popular style in Han Dynasty. During the 400 years of the Han Dynasty, most ordinary literati devoted themselves to this style of writing, so it flourished for a time, and later generations often regarded it as the representative of the literature of the Han Dynasty. Main representatives: Jia Yi's Ode to Hanging Qu Yuan (later regarded as "Wen") and Ode to Catching Birds; Mei Cheng's "Seven Hair" (later regarded as "Seven Style"), Liu Fu and Liang Wang's "Tufuyuan"; Sima Xiangru's Zixu Fu, Shanglin Fu, Adult Fu and Changmen Fu; Yang Xiong's Ganquan Fu, Hedong Fu, Feather Hunting Fu, Changyang Fu and Shudu Fu; Yan Feng's County Records Fu; Ban Gu's "DuDu Fu" and "Tongyou Fu"; Zhang Heng's Erjing Fu, Sixuan Fu and Guitian Fu; Zuo Si's Sandu Fu.
There were two popular literary forms in the Tang Dynasty:
(1) First of all, there are Tang poems with various forms. There are mainly five-character poems and seven-character poems in Tang Dynasty. There are also two kinds of modern poems, one is called quatrains, and the other is called metrical poems. Quatrains and metrical poems are five words and seven words respectively. Therefore, there are basically six basic forms of Tang poetry: five-character archaic poetry, seven-character archaic poetry, five-character quatrains, seven-character quatrains, five-character rhythmic poems and seven-character rhythmic poems. Classical poetry has a wide range of requirements for rhyme and meter: in a poem, the number of sentences can be more or less, the chapters can be long or short, and the rhyme can be changed. Modern poetry has strict requirements on rhyme and meter: the number of sentences in a poem is limited, that is, four-line quatrains and eight-line meter poems. The words used in each poem have certain rules, and the rhyme cannot be changed; Rhyme also requires that the middle four sentences become antithesis. The style of ancient poetry is handed down from the previous generation, so it is also called ancient style. Modern poetry has strict rules, so some people call it metrical poetry.
(2) Followed by Tang legends and essays, the representative novels of the Tang Dynasty are "Tang legends" and short stories pursuing "strangeness". Excellent representative works include Biography by Yuan Zhen, Biography of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian, Biography of Song of Eternal Sorrow by Chen Hong, Biography of Liu Yi by Li and Biography of Huo Xiaoyu. The birth of "legendary" literature in the Tang Dynasty marked the beginning of the maturity of novels. Legends of the Tang Dynasty are mainly divided into three categories: stories of ghosts and gods, love stories and chivalrous stories, which are mainly developed to meet the needs of citizens.
"Bianwen" is a kind of folk rap art, which was developed by Buddhist temples and used popular stories to publicize Confucian classics. Representative works include: Mulian Bianwen, Wu Zixu Bianwen, Wang Zhaojun Bianwen and Qiuhu Bianwen.
(3) In addition, the word "drama" came into being in the Tang Dynasty. Drama in the Tang Dynasty is mainly "all-around drama, song and dance drama, military drama and puppet show". Influenced by western drama, Tang drama absorbed the nutrition of ancient Indian Brahma drama, formed Tang drama, and spread to Korean Peninsula and ancient Japan.
Western drama, mainly Qiuci opera, is the main musical instrument "Zan" of Qiuci, which improved the "vertical elegance" and "Quxiang Pipa" originated in West Asia and spread to central China. It was popular all over the country in the Tang Dynasty and spread to ancient Japan, ancient Korea, ancient Myanmar and ancient Vietnam. Props commonly used in western drama, such as ribbons and tassels, were also adopted in Tang drama.
Brahma drama, an ancient Indian drama, was introduced into the Tang Dynasty with Indian Buddhism around the 7th century. Brahma drama "Sharifutsu Drama" and "Maitreya Plays" were later unearthed in Xinjiang.
Song Dynasty: The literature of Song Dynasty has an important and special position in the history of China literature development, which is in the stage of connecting the past with the future, that is, the period when China literature changed from elegance to vulgarity. The so-called "elegance" refers to the literati literature mainly circulating in the upper and middle classes of society, which refers to poetry, prose and ci; The so-called "vulgarity" refers to novels and operas mainly circulating in the lower classes of society. Traditional sayings such as "Tang Poetry", "Song Ci", "Yuanqu" and "Novels and Dramas of Ming and Qing Dynasties" pointed out the key points of the development and prosperity of literary styles in various dynasties. We should fully evaluate the achievements of poetry and prose in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, but we can assert that it failed to surpass Song, Yue and Tang Dynasties. If the poetry and songs of the Song Dynasty (especially the poetry and songs) are yesterday that writers of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties yearn for and admire constantly, then the great development of novels and operas in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties is the brilliant tomorrow of vernacular novels and operas that have just developed in the Song Dynasty.
After the Tang Dynasty, there was another poetic climax in the Song Dynasty. Although there is not a complete Song poetry yet, there is no doubt that its total amount is several times that of the whole Tang poetry. Most poets in the Song Dynasty worked hard all their lives and created many works, such as more than 2,700 by Su Shi, more than 4,000 by Yang Wanli, and nearly 10,000 by Lu You, far exceeding Li and others in the Tang Dynasty (Li Jin Qian, 1400), which fully demonstrated the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.
The history of the Yuan Dynasty was not long. It was only 96 years before Kublai Khan changed the Mongolian dynasty to Dayuan in 127 1 (before the final demise of the Southern Song Dynasty) and died in 1367. It has been 133 years since the Mongol dynasty destroyed the gold and unified the north and the Yuan dynasty perished. Compared with the literature of the previous generation, the most outstanding achievement of Yuan Dynasty literature is drama, and later generations often equate Yuan Qu with Tang Poetry and Song Poetry. Poetry, ci, prose and other styles are relatively declining.
Yuanqu is generally divided into zaju and Sanqu. Today, there are more than 3,800 Sanqu songs and more than 450 sets. Because Sanqu grew up on the basis of folk songs in the Northern Jin Dynasty, most of them were northern songs. More than 200 writers left their names. Many zaju writers have also made achievements in the creation of Sanqu. The early writers of Sanqu were Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Pu, Lu Zhi and Guan Yunshi, with simple style and many dialects. In the later period, there were Georgie, Sui, Zhang and Liu Shizhong, whose poems were slightly gorgeous. Because Sanqu is the lyrics of banquet geisha, there are more erotic songs. But there are also many poems about scenery, lyricism, nostalgia and sighing; As well as several sets of heroes who satirize the world, criticize the shortcomings of the times and ridicule the troubled times, such as Ma Zhiyuan's Borrowing Horses, Liu Shizhong's Prefectural Mansion, and Sui's The Return of Gaozu, all have the characteristics of the times and high artistic achievements.
The Ming Dynasty was a period when popular literature such as novels and operas flourished and orthodox poetry declined relatively. However, the change of this power is not reflected in the reduction of the number of poems, but in the deterioration of the ideological and artistic quality of the works. From the time point of view, the time of enjoying the country in the Ming Dynasty is roughly the same as that in the Tang and Song Dynasties, about 300 years. In terms of quantity, the number of poetry and song writers and works in Ming Dynasty is far above that in Tang and Song Dynasties. There are nearly 5,000 different collections of Ming people recorded in Qian Qingtang Bibliography alone, and there are more than 3,400 poets included in Poems of Ming Dynasty. However, in terms of quality, it is difficult for poets in Ming Dynasty to find such great masters as Li Bai, Du Fu and Su Shi who have made epoch-making contributions to poetry, and they also lack the innovative spirit of poets in Tang and Song Dynasties.
Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China and the last important stage in the history of ancient literature. Poetry, ci, prose, novels and operas have all made important achievements. Literati writers in Qing Dynasty also created a large number of great and excellent novels, among which A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin, Scholars by Wu and Three Heroes and Five Righteousness by Shi Yukun are outstanding representatives.
Generally speaking, the basic context of China's ancient style is: pre-Qin prose, Han Fu, Tang poetry, Song ci, Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing novels.