The New Yuefu Movement is a literary reform movement advocated by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi, which echoes the ancient prose movement advocated by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. "New Yuefu" is a new subject of self-reliance and self-improvement in Tang Dynasty. The main difference with Han Yuefu is that the new Yuefu is not happy. As for the purpose of the movement, it is "articles are written in time, songs and poems are written in things", which emphasizes the social function and satirical function of poetry.
The origin and background of the times
After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty witnessed social unrest and political corruption, and people of insight witnessed increasingly serious social problems, hoping to save the declining national situation through political improvement and the promotion of national spirit. This thought was embodied in the ancient prose movement and the new Yuefu movement in the literary world. The poet inherited Du Fu's social realism style and tried to reflect the sufferings of people's livelihood and the disadvantages of social reality in his poems.
However, this type of creation is bound to touch powerful people, so it is not smooth in promoting the atmosphere. However, such a spirit of caring for the country and the people is commendable in both literary history and humanitarian care.
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Characteristics of new Yuefu
The so-called new Yuefu is relative to the ancient Yuefu. This concept was first put forward by Bai Juyi. He has compiled more than 50 poems, such as Beauty is Better than Happiness and Setting a Topic for Something, into New Yuefu.
New Yuefu has three characteristics:
One is to use new questions. Since Jian 'an, most of the songs written by literati are based on current events and follow ancient topics, often with limited content and inconsistent topics. Bai Juyi writes current affairs with new topics, so it is also called "New Topic Yuefu".
The second is to write current events. After Jian 'an, writers have their own innovative themes, but most of them have nothing to do with current affairs. Writing new themes and current events began with Du Fu. Bai Juyi followed the tradition and stabbed the reality with the new Yuefu.
Third, it is not measured by whether you are happy or not. Most new Yuefu poems have never been "broadcast in music songs". Musically, it has the name of Yuefu, but in content, it directly inherits the realistic spirit of Han Yuefu and is a real Yuefu.
The forerunner of the New Yuefu Movement was Du Fu, followed by Yuan Jie and Gu Kuang, and finally Zhang Ji and Wang Jianwei. During the period of "Bai Yuan", it clearly put forward a whole set of theories of "combining articles with the times, and combining songs and poems with phases". In addition, Yuan and Bai poems were the best in the world, and a large number of new Yuefu poems appeared, which had a great influence at that time, making this great literary movement a great success.
"Biography of Teachers and Friends" contains: "Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji and Wang Jianchuang are new Yuefu, and they are also their own." During Zhenyuan and Yuanhe years, the new Yuefu movement and the ancient prose movement of Han and Liu successively dominated the literary world and had the same social reasons.
Music bureau
The Western Han Dynasty set up Yuefu, which was in charge of court and court music. Poems collected and created by Yuefu are called Yuefu. A considerable number of Yuefu poems are collected from the people, which are easy to understand, reflect reality and can be appreciated. Later, scholars also copied Yuefu poems. By the Tang Dynasty, Yuefu poems before the Southern and Northern Dynasties were collectively called Ancient Yuefu.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-New Yuefu Movement