Chongwen in the Han dynasty, the heyday of the unified empire, required literature to sing and dance. As a result, a literary style that mainly describes emperors and urban life-Ci Fu came into being. Fu is the most popular style in Han Dynasty, and it is the symbol of a generation of literature. Its style originated from Xunzi's prose and absorbed some formal elements of Chu Ci. At the beginning of Han Dynasty, Jia Yi's and Huainan Xiaoshan's Fu were not divorced from Chu Ci, which was called Sao Style Fu. Mei Cheng's "Seven Hair" laid the formal pattern of great fu in Han Dynasty. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the atmosphere of chanting Fu flourished, resulting in a large number of Fu writers. Sima Xiangru's Zixu Fu and Shanglin Fu described the prosperity of the imperial garden and the joy of hunting, and later Yang Xiong had Ganquan Hunting Feather Fu. These poems are written in a comprehensive way: mostly for the purpose of singing praises. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu's Dong Fu, Xi Fu, Zhang Heng's Tokyo Fu and Xijing Fu were still magnificent works in prose poetry. With the intensification of social contradictions, the imperial power is no longer strong, and some people of insight began to express their feelings with ci fu, stabbing the times. Zhang Heng's Return to Tianfu, Zhao Yi's Ci on Diseases and Cai Yong's Fu on Shuxing are all famous works in this field. Their creation broke through the original system of great fu, which had a positive impact on Fu Xiao, a lyrical poet in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and prose fu in Tang and Song Dynasties.
The most valuable literature in Han Dynasty is folk songs in Yuefu poems. Yuefu is a national music management institution, which has the functions of editing and editing folk songs and singing along with music. Later generations called the songs sung by Yuefu organizations Han Yuefu poems. Han Yuefu folk songs and The Book of Songs are in the same strain, and The Book of Songs is "Hungry people sing about their food, and laborers sing about their affairs". Han Yuefu profoundly reflected all aspects of social life in the Han Dynasty and expressed the wishes and demands of the working people at that time with the realistic spirit of "feeling sad and happy, all because of things". Some accused the rulers of their militaristic policies, such as the Battle of the South of the City and the Fifteenth Conscription, some exposed the evils of feudal ethics and patriarchal clan system, expressed their yearning for sincere love, such as Peacock Flying Southeast, Evil and Thinking, and some expressed deep sympathy for the misfortune of the lower classes, such as Travel Notes to the East Gate, and The Book of Songs was mainly lyrical. Peacock Flying Southeast is the first narrative poem of Han nationality in ancient China.
Literati' poetry in Han Dynasty never achieved anything. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, under the influence of Yuefu folk songs, scholars tried to write five-character poems. Ban Gu's Poem of Ode to the Historic Poem is the earliest extant five-character poem of literati. Nineteen Ancient Poems, which came into being at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, became a symbol of the maturity of literati's five-character poems. Nineteen Ancient Poems is a group of lyric short poems created by anonymous literati in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. It did not take away a person's moment, but expressed the sadness of the lower-class literati in the turbulent years, which has certain social significance. Different from the folk songs of Han Yuefu, the main artistic feature of Nineteen Ancient Poems is that it is longer than lyric. It is tactful, natural and simple, showing the artistic characteristics of refinement, and its predecessors have won the praise of "the crown of five words"
The achievements of prose creation in Han Dynasty are very high. In the early Han Dynasty, Jia Yi and Chao Cuo's political comments were sharp-minded, outspoken and literary. Prose from the late period to the Eastern Han Dynasty tends to be parallel prose, but it can preserve the writing style of paying attention to reality and criticizing the disadvantages in the early Han Dynasty. The highest achievement of prose in Han Dynasty is Sima Qian's Historical Records. Historical Records created a biographical style with people as the center. It dares to criticize and praise beauty, and its spirit of recording without hiding evil is praised by people. From the literary point of view, Sima Qian created a large number of characters with different backgrounds and personalities with full emotions and rich historical knowledge, making it a model of biographical literature in China. Such as Xiang Yu in Biography of Xiang Yu, Li Guang, a flying general in Biography of General Li, and Lin Xiangru in Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru. The superb characterization skills, changeable layout and extraordinary language expression of Historical Records have all set an example for later narrative prose. Lu Xun enthusiastically evaluated the outstanding historical and literary achievements of Historical Records with the words "Historian's swan song, Li Sao has no rhyme". What can be compared with historical records is Ban Gu's Hanshu. Hanshu has detailed records, wonderful words and unique features. However, Ban Gu's adherence to Confucian principles in writing history is rigid and conservative, and his achievements are slightly inferior to Historical Records.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, literature gradually got rid of the influence of Confucian classics, gained independent development, and began to enter the conscious era of literature. Poetry, prose, ci fu, parallel prose, novels and other styles have made remarkable achievements.
The position of poetry is still the most important. At the end of the Han Dynasty, under the social background of Wei Chu's "chaos in the world, surging clouds and rising public grievances", literati's poetry creation entered a period of great development of "five words soaring". During this period, with Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi as the core, Ye Ren Xia Group was formed with Kong Rong, RoyceWong, Serina Liu, Chen Lin and other so-called "seven sons of Jian 'an", which created the glory of Jian 'an literature. The works of Jian 'an literati have the same style of the times as "generosity". Among them, Cao Cao's poems, such as Hao, Short, Walking Out of Xiamen, which reflect the turbulent social reality and express the poet's ambition to make contributions and unify the world, are all relatively successful chapters. Cao Zhi's literary achievements are the highest, and he is called "the outstanding man in Jian 'an". His poem is "high-spirited, and his words are taken from Hua Mao". "White Horse" and "White Horse Wang Biao" are his representative works in his early and later periods. His prose and ci fu also show high ideological and artistic quality, and the famous "Luo Shen Fu" is beautiful. RoyceWong is the most accomplished writer among the "Seven Scholars", and his Seven Wounded Poems and Loutai Fu are masterpieces with realistic spirit in Jian 'an literature.
At the turn of Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the change of social customs, poetry creation showed a different style from that of Jian 'an era. Ruan Ji and Ji Kang's works are either gloomy and difficult, or sharp-edged. They inherited the excellent tradition of Jian 'an literature and further promoted the development of five-character poems. Poetry flourished in the Taikang period of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the poet was known as "three land, two left". But most of the works are in China, and only Zuo Si's poems are vigorous and powerful, inheriting the spirit of Jian 'an literature. His poem "Ode to History" opens up a new way to combine history with nostalgia. Under the influence of metaphysics in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, metaphysical poems with "tasteless rhetoric" once flooded, and Tao Yuanming was the greatest poet who could transcend the secular world. In Tao Yuanming's era, "Zhen Feng died, and the Great Pseudo prospered". He walked out of poverty and witnessed the darkness of officialdom, unwilling to go with the flow. He is determined to resign and retire, keeping his personal spirit. His pastoral poems depict the beauty of natural scenery, praise the tranquility of rural life, and show the joy and hardship of personally participating in agricultural production and labor. It has created an artistic realm that combines emotion, scenery and reason, and is plain and mellow. Drinking in the Garden is his masterpiece of pastoral poetry. The style of Tao's poetry naturally faded into the mainstream, but reading Shan Hai Jing (Jing Wei Fill Micro Wood) and Jing Ke Fu also showed the poet's "King Kong glaring" side. It can be seen that the poet's heart is not peaceful, and he has not forgotten the world. Tao Yuanming's poems have a great influence on later generations, especially the pastoral poetry school in Tang Dynasty. Tao Yuanming's literary achievements are manifold. Although his prose and words are few in number, they are all excellent. His representative works include Peach Blossom Garden, Gui Qu Ci, and Qing Shi Fu.