Yuefu was established from the Qin Dynasty, which was the official department responsible for mixing music, training musicians and collecting folk songs. It was an institution under the jurisdiction of Shaofu at that time. However, after the death of Qin Dynasty, Yuefu was not rebuilt until the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Its duty was to collect folk songs or literati poems for the imperial court to perform during sacrifices or banquets.
The poems it collected were later called "Yuefu Poetry" or "Yuefu Poetry" for short. It is a new poetic style after The Book of Songs and Songs of the South, and it was later called Yuefu or Quasi-Yuefu when it was not enjoyable.
Yuefu poems in the Han Dynasty have distinctive innovative features, the most prominent of which is that women's works occupy an important position. In terms of language style, the language structure is popular and close to life; From miscellaneous words to five words in form. In other aspects, the Han Yuefu used narrative writing to describe characters in detail, created characters with distinctive personality and complete story, highlighted ideological connotation and paid attention to describing typical details, which opened up a new stage in the development of narrative poetry and created a new trend of poetic realism, which was an important stage in the development of China's five-character poems.
It can be said that the position of Han Yuefu is very high in the history of literature, which can keep pace with the Book of Songs and Songs of the South.
From the development point of view, Han Yuefu is divided into two stages according to the development history of Han Dynasty, namely, Western Han Yuefu and Eastern Han Yuefu.
The expansion and development of Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty was in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. The Book of Rites and Music said: "When Emperor Wu decided to sacrifice in the suburbs, ... was a Yuefu, which collected poems and recited them at night, entrusted by Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu." The function of Yuefu was further strengthened during this period. It not only organizes literati to create songs and poems for the use of the imperial court, but also widely collects ballads from all over the country. Many folk songs are sung in Yuefu and handed down. Until Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty wrote a letter to Yuefu officials. Since then, there has been no Yuefu organizational system in the Han Dynasty.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cheng Hualing was in charge of the Huangmen Xuanfu Department of Shaofu, which provided songs and poems for the Emperor, and actually played the role of Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty.
There are many well-known works of Yuefu poems in Han Dynasty, which are highly circulated. In addition to the "two treasures of Yuefu", there are mulberry and others. According to the classification, you can choose one or two representative poems to understand.