The two short songs are two poems written by Cao Cao, a politician and writer at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the theme of ancient Yuefu. The first poem expresses the poet's desire for virtue and ambition to unify the world through the singing of banquets. The second song praises Zhou Wenwang, Qi Huangong and Jin Wengong's adherence to the history of the Minister's Day, indicating that they only have the ambition to help the Han Dynasty, but have no intention of representing the Han Dynasty's independence.
These two poems are elegant, solemn, profound and full of emotion. Their political content and significance are completely integrated into the rich lyrical artistic conception, which fully shows Cao Cao's personality, knowledge, ambition and ideal, and his magnificent and elegant poems.
Overall appreciation
"Short songs" is an old topic in Han Yuefu, which belongs to "harmony and flat tone". This means that it was originally the name of a piece of music. The singing of this piece has been lost.
However, in Yuefu's Harmony Tune, there are "long tunes" as well as "short tunes". Jason Wu's Interpretation of Ancient Poems in Yuefu in Tang Dynasty quoted the ancient poems Long song in Full swing, Ge Yanxing and Short Songs Can't Grow by Wei Wendi Cao Pi, Ge Yanxing and Ge Yanxing by Fu Xuan in Jin Dynasty, and The Governor came to Long song to continue short songs.
Now we can only understand the musical characteristics of "short songs" according to this material. The music "A Short Song Line" originally had the corresponding lyrics, that is, "Yuefu Ancient Ci", but this ancient ci has been lost. The earliest "short song" that can be seen now is Cao Cao's "Two Short Songs", which is a quasi-Yuefu (adding new words with old Yuefu songs).