The author of this article: Nalan Chuncan
When it comes to Chinese poetry, we will think of Liu Bang's "Song of the Great Wind", Liu Che's "Autumn Wind Ci" and other works of imperial poets The Chinese poetry works written by Xiang Yu, even the "Gaixia Song" by Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, are also classified as Chinese poetry. There are also some official-level Chinese poetry works, such as Zhang Heng's "Poems of Four Sorrows", Zhao Yi's "Poems of Disease and Evil", etc., and these works are also lucky enough to have signatures - at least we know who the author is.
However, the names of the authors of most Chinese poems cannot be verified, and they are usually signed as "Anonymous". For example, the famous "Nineteen Ancient Poems" of the Han Dynasty did not leave the author's name. Several works that were once mistakenly attributed to poems by Su Wu and Li Ling were not created by Su Wu or Li Ling. The real author was someone else, but it is difficult to confirm who it is today.
What is the reason that caused the author of Chinese poetry to become "anonymous"? Below I will try to analyze the reasons.
Following the "no signature" tradition in the era of "The Book of Songs"
The "Anonymous" Chinese poems are not without authors, nor are they "the crystallization of collective wisdom", but A long-established tradition since the time of the Book of Songs. Chinese poetry is mainly Yuefu poetry, and many of the works included in the Yuefu Poetry Anthology, except for a few pieces created by court literati, most were collected from the folk. During the compilation process, the official awareness of copyright protection was weak. Not only the author's signature, but also the age, background, and even the title of the poem were difficult to retain. The first sentence of "Nineteen Ancient Poems" is often used as the title, which is an example.
The status of the creators and singers is extremely low
The Han Yuefu still continues the singing form of the "Book of Songs" era, which is essentially lyrics that can be sung with tunes. Creators are often also singers, and this type of person has an extremely low status. Folk artists are the "main force" in creation, and most of them reflect the lives of people at the bottom of society. Even though Li Yannian, a court musician who was highly regarded by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was a trinity of lyrics, music and singing, and is now a leading "singer-songwriter" in the music world, Li Yannian had to be castrated before he was qualified to enter and exit the palace to serve the royal family.
The trend in the literary world of the Han Dynasty was to emphasize Fu rather than poetry
The writers of Fu in the Han Dynasty enjoyed a very high reputation, but the treatment of poets was not high. The poet is like a shining star on the stage, while the poet is like a street singer who performs in the arena. For example, Zuo Si, a little-known writer of poetry and poetry, worked hard for ten years and finally wrote "Sandu Fu", which made him famous and even made Luoyang's paper expensive. Empress Chen, who fell out of favor, spent a lot of money to hire Sima Xiangru to write "Ode to Changmen". Although it failed to change Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it actually raised Sima Xiangru's worth in disguise.
These examples can prove that fu-style prose was the absolute mainstream style in the Han Dynasty and could bring rich returns to the creators. It can be said to be "both fame and fortune". However, the excellent poetic works produced during the same period did not attract enough attention and protection, so that the author's name cannot be verified.
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