Originally a music official office, it was located in the Western Han Dynasty. In charge of the music used in the temple, making music scores, training musicians and collecting folk poems and songs. Later, the songs collected and created by Yuefu officials were collectively called "Yuefu Poetry", or simply "Yuefu". Later generations also refer to poems that can be appreciated since Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties and works that imitate the ancient theme of Yuefu by later generations as "Yuefu". Ci, Sanqu and opera in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties are sometimes called "Yuefu" because of their coordination with music.
New Yuefu Movement
In the middle Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen advocated a poetry innovation movement centered on the creation of new Yuefu poems.
New Yuefu refers to Yuefu poems written by the Tang people themselves. Guo Maoqian in Song Dynasty pointed out: "New Yuefu is a new song in Tang Dynasty. With its words, it is actually a Yuefu, but it has never been heard, so it is called a new Yuefu. " ("Yuefu Poetry") In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Zhenheng said: "Yuefu is different from the old. To the topic, the following Han Wei, Sui Chen above Yuefu ancient topic, the Tang Dynasty also put forward. The new topic was not found in ancient Yuefu, and the new system in Tang Dynasty was also the topic of Yuefu. " (Tang Yin Gui Qian) Poets in the early Tang Dynasty wrote Yuefu poems, most of which copied old Yuefu poems, but a few created new Yuefu poems. This new theme Yuefu has developed greatly since Du Fu. Du Fu is good at describing current events with Yuefu poems, such as Chedian, Two Roads, Sad Chen Tao, Mourning for the Head, etc. , and "the rate is famous, there is nothing to rely on" ("Preface to Ancient Poems of Yuan Zhen Yuefu"). Jie Yuan, Wei, Dai Shulun and Gu Kuang. There are also new Yuefu works. Jie Yuan also proposed that poetry creation should be "the way for emperors to control chaos and the stream of ancient people's rules and satires" (On Poetry of Erfeng), so as to achieve "the emotion above, the emotion below" (Preface to New Yuefu). They can be said to be pioneers of the new Yuefu movement.
The new Yuefu movement was the product of a specific era in Zhenyuan, Yuanhe years. At this time, the Anshi Rebellion had passed and the Tang Dynasty was in decline. On the one hand, feudalism in the buffer region, the autocratic power of eunuchs, heavy taxes, the disparity between the rich and the poor, the intrusion of barbarians and frequent wars further exposed the contradictions in all aspects of social life; On the other hand, some people of insight in the ruling class have a clearer understanding of the disadvantages of reality. They hoped that by improving politics and easing social contradictions, the Tang Dynasty would flourish. This situation was reflected in the literary and poetic circles at that time, and the ancient prose movement advocated by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan and the new Yuefu movement advocated by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen appeared respectively.
In the fourth year of Yuanhe (809), Shen Lixian wrote 20 new Yuefu poems (modern poems) for Yuan Zhen. Yuan Zhen thought that "elegance is the so-called, not worth writing", so he "listed those who were particularly anxious when they were sick" and wrote 650 new Yuefu poems of Li School. Later, Bai Juyi wrote 50 new Yuefu poems, which officially marked the name of the new Yuefu. Bai Juyi also has 10 Qin Zhongyin, which also embodies the same spirit. As a poetry movement, the creation of new Yuefu is not limited to writing new Yuefu. During this period, Zhang Ji, Wang Jian, Liu Meng, Li Yu and others all embodied the direction of poetry innovation. Yuan Zhen initially agreed with Bai Juyi and Li Shen that "no more ancient poems will be arranged". Later, when he saw the ancient Yuefu poems written by Liu Meng and Li Yu, he thought that "one or twenty of them were salty and original", so he wrote 19 in ancient poems. Although ancient poems are used, they are either "completely devoid of ancient meanings" or "completely innovative words with ancient meanings" (Preface to Yuefu Ancient Poems by Yuan Zhen), and their essence and functions are consistent with those of the new Yuefu. In this way, a poetic movement with great influence at that time was formed, which was called the New Yuefu Movement in the history of literature.
Bai Juyi expounded the theoretical proposition of the new Yuefu movement in his poems, such as Nine Books with Yuan Dynasty, Preface to New Yuefu, Commemorating Tang Sheng, Wounding Tang Qu and Reading Zhang Ji's Ancient Yuefu, while Yuan Zhen expounded the theoretical proposition of the new Yuefu movement in his poems, such as Preface to New Yuefu and Preface to Ancient Yuefu. The so-called "writing articles in time, writing songs and poems for things" (Nine Books with the Same Yuan) and "for the monarch, ministers, people, things and things, not for articles" (Preface to New Yuefu) clearly put forward the basic purpose of the New Yuefu Movement. The so-called "helping the people's sufferings and making up for the lack of time", "focusing on current events and releasing human feelings" (nine books at the end of Yuan Dynasty) and "elegance wins prosperity and there is no empty writing" (reading Zhang Ji's ancient Yuefu) emphasize the social function and ironic function of poetry; The so-called "only singing makes people sick" (posting), "only hurting people's diseases" (hurting Tang songs), "satirizing things at that time" (preface to Yuefu ancient poems) and opposing "gardening with snow" (nine books in the same yuan) advocate that poetry should have social content, reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood and the disadvantages of social reality. The so-called poetic theories, such as "root feeling, Miao characters, Hua Sheng, true meaning" (nine books at the end of Yuan Dynasty), "the quality of its words is just as important", "its substance is real", "its body is smooth and smooth" (preface to New Yuefu) and "there is no need to seek high palace rules, but not to express strangeness" (send).
The poetry creation of the New Yuefu Movement practiced the above theoretical proposition. The Yuefu poems of Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji and Jincon reflect the extremely broad social life in the middle Tang Dynasty, reveal the social contradictions that existed at that time from various aspects, and put forward extremely acute social problems. For example, Bai Juyi's Ling Du CuO and Selling Charcoal Weng, Yuan Zhen's Tian Jia Ci and Zhi Nv Ci, Zhang Ji's Wild Old Songs and Wang Jian's Shuifu Ballad all directly describe the cruel exploitation and oppression suffered by the working people, which is unfair to their tragic fate. Bai Juyi's dazzling silk, red carpet, emphasis on wealth and contempt for fat directly criticized the arrogance and extravagance of the ruling class, reflecting the disparity between the rich and the poor and class opposition. Bai Juyi's Su Zige Mountain North Village, Zhang Ji's Roaring Tiger and Wang Jian's Walking in the Feather Forest have exposed the evil forces of the privileged class who are doing evil and endangering the people. Bai Juyi's Xinfeng Brokeback Man, Yuan Zhen's Husband's Expedition, Zhang Ji's Song of Xia Sai, Wang Jian's Crossing the Liao River, etc., all reflect the sufferings of soldiers in the border areas and the tactics of opposing militarism. Bai Juyi's The Salt Merchant's Wife, Yuan Zhen's Guessing Guest Music and Jia's novel reflect the abnormal development of commodity economy at that time and the contradiction between rich businessmen and poor peasants. Bai Juyi's Shang, A Silver Bottle at the Bottom of the Well, My Concubine's Misfortune, Wang Jian's Wang Fuzhi and Qu Fu, etc. Sympathize with women's misfortune. Most of these works have strong practical significance and distinct tendencies. In art, although everyone's achievements are different and their styles are different, most of them reflect the common characteristics of simplicity, directness and clarity. They show the achievements of the new Yuefu movement.
The creation of the New Yuefu Movement should not only criticize the reality, but also criticize the current shortcomings, so it is natural to offend many powerful people. Bai Juyi said that his poems once made "the powerful and close friends look at each other and change color", "those in power hold their wrists", "those in important positions gnash their teeth", and even "there is something in what they say, but they have never heard of what they say" (nine books at the end of Yuan Dynasty), which shows the fierce struggle. In the tenth year of Yuanhe, Bai Juyi was demoted to Jiangzhou, and the new Yuefu movement with him as the main advocate was also frustrated. In fact, the corruption of the ruling class and the darkness of real politics also made it impossible for the new Yuefu movement to continue. Nevertheless, it left a glorious page in the history of China's poetry and had a far-reaching influence on the development of later poetry. In the late Tang Dynasty, Pi Rixiu wrote 10 Zheng Yuefu, and Nie also wrote more realistic Yuefu poems, which directly inherited the tradition of the new Yuefu movement.
Thank you for your attention.