Han Yuefu
It was originally an official office for collecting poems and making music in the early Han Dynasty. Later, it specifically referred to the Yuefu poems of the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, there was an official Yuefu Ling, and there may have been a Yuefu at that time. During the reign of Emperor Wu, the Yuefu expanded in size and became a dedicated official office, responsible for the music of suburban sacrifices, parades, court gatherings, and banquets, as well as the collection of folk songs, so that the rulers could observe customs and understand the sentiments of the people. These collected ballads and other poems set to music by Yuefu became known as Yuefu poetry by later generations. There was still a Yuefu in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
According to "Hanshu Yiwenzhi", there are 138 folk songs from various places collected by the Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty, but only 30 or 40 have been passed down to this day. In addition to the folk songs of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the literati There are more than 100 works of Han Yuefu in existence, scattered in "Hanshu", "Houhanshu", "Selected Works" and "New Odes of Yutai" compiled by Xu Ling in the Southern Dynasty. "Yuefu Poetry Collection" is the most complete collection. "Collection of Yuefu Poems" arranges works according to music categories, and there are four categories related to Han Yuefu. Among them, "Han Jiao Sacrifice Song" listed first in "Jiao Temple Song Ci" is a song composed by literati in the Western Han Dynasty for the ancestral temple; "Drumming Song" The works marked "Ancient Ci" under the title "Ancient Ci", "Xianghe Song Ci" and "Zaqu Song Ci" are basically folk songs of the Western Han Dynasty. Some of the literati works included in "Zaqu Song Ci" are from the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The majority of Han Yuefu is folk songs, and folk songs are the essence of them. When people mention Han Yuefu, in a general sense, they often refer to the folk songs in Han Yuefu. These folk songs are all "feeling sad and happy, and are inspired by events", such as "Travel to the East Gate", "Travel to the Orphan", "Travel to Women's Disease", "Battle to the South of the City", "Fifteenth Military Expedition", "Drinking Horses in the Great Wall Grottoes" Chapters such as "Traveling" and "Going Up the Mountain to Collect Weeds" extensively and profoundly reflected the social living conditions and the suffering of the people at that time; "Thinking" and "Shangxie" and other chapters are sincere love songs; "Mo Shang Sang" praises a working woman's contempt and resistance to powerful figures and embodies the people's wishes; "Peacock Flying Southeast", with the theme of criticizing feudal ethics and praising noble sentiments, is also titled "Ancient Poetry Written by Jiao Zhongqing's Wife" ", is an unprecedented long narrative poem, occupying a high position in the history of Chinese literature. There are also excellent Yuefu poems written by literati in the Han Dynasty, such as "Yu Lin Lang" by Xin Yannian, "Dong Jiao Rao" by Song Zihou, etc., but these poems were also created under the influence of folk songs.
The excellent tradition of realism in the Han Dynasty Yuefu played an exemplary role for many poets of later generations. Its form of mainly five-character and miscellaneous words also promoted the development of poetic style.
Han Yuefu
Han Yuefu folk songs, in the history of Chinese poetry, are the third important stage of development after the "Book of Songs" and "Chu Ci". It truly reflects the vast social life of the Han Dynasty and the people's thoughts and feelings with a realistic creation method.
The Han people called the poems performed by Yuefu organs as song poems. In the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, they began to call poems Yuefu or Yuefu poems, so the name of Yuefu changed from the name of the organ to the name of the poetry style. The "Collection of Yuefu Poems" compiled by Guo Maoqian of the Song Dynasty divides the Yuefu poems from the Han to the Tang Dynasty into 12 categories: 1. Lyrics for suburban temples, 2. Lyrics for Yanshe, 3. Lyrics for drumming music, 4. Lyrics for horizontal blowing music, 5. Lyrics for Xianghe, 6. Qing Shang lyrics, 7. Dance music lyrics, 8. Qin music lyrics, 9. Ninth music lyrics, 10. Modern music lyrics, 11. Miscellaneous ballad lyrics, 12. New Yuefu lyrics. The aristocratic movements of the Han Dynasty are recorded in the suburban temple lyrics category, all written by literati; Han Yuefu folk songs are mainly preserved in three categories: Xianghe lyrics, agitation lyrics and miscellaneous lyrics, especially in Xianhe songs. Xianghe songs are folk music from the south, and drum music is music from the northern ethnic groups, mostly used in military music. Zaqu lyrics are a kind of music lyrics whose tone has been lost and has no place to belong to.
Han Yuefu folk songs not only have rich social content, but also have profound ideological significance. The reason why they are "feeling sad and joyful and inspired by events" means that the authors of Yuefu folk songs are oriented to real life and create based on people's joy, anger, sorrow and joy in various encounters. It truly and concretely reflects the social outlook and the people's thoughts and feelings at that time, and is the inheritance and development of the fine tradition of realism in the Book of Songs.
There are only more than 40 Han Yuefu folk songs that have survived, but the social content they reflect is very rich. Some reflect the suffering of the working people and their resistance struggles. For example, "Women's Disease" describes a woman from a poor family who finally died due to poverty and illness. She asked her husband to take care of the children before her death. However, under the cruel exploitation and oppression, the working people With no way to make a living, father and son could not protect each other. In the end, he had to violate his wife's last words and abandon his child. "Travel to the East Gate" describes the process of the poor and kind-hearted people taking risks when the government forces them to rebel and take risks when they have no food or clothing and are desperate. Some expose the disasters and pain caused by war and corvee to the people. For example, in the poem "Fifteen Years of Military Expeditions", the protagonist joined the army at the age of 15 and returned to his hometown at the age of 80. Looking at his hometown in the distance, he saw numerous tombs. When he returned home, his eyes were full of It was desolate and deserted. At this time, the old man was despairing of all thoughts. He leaned against the door and stared blankly into the distance, not knowing how to spend his lonely remaining years. This short poem of a dozen lines is poignant and touching. Some wrote about the innocent love of young men and women and the fate of oppressed women. "Thinking" and "Shangxie" wrote about the painful and complex emotions and the single-minded and persistent affection of women in love who were tortured by love. "Going Up the Mountain to Collect Weeds" writes about the misfortune of innocent women being abandoned. In addition, there are also stories about the bullying of the people by wealthy officials and the corruption and shamelessness of the upper class society, etc.
Volume 1 of Hu Yinglin's "Poetry Sou" says: "The Yuefu of the Han Dynasty picked up Lu Yan, not for polishing, but for quality and not slang. It is shallow but can be deep, close and can be far. The best literature in the world can't be surpassed. The poems of later generations continued since then. "Liang Han, Yiye." These words mean that the Yuefu of the Han Dynasty comes from the folk. It uses popular and natural language to truly and vividly reflect the broad social life and people's likes and dislikes, and is highly ideological and artistic. This evaluation is very pertinent.
"Mo Shang Sang" is a famous piece of Han Yuefu that has always been loved and praised by people. This poem was first recorded in "Book of Song Dynasty·Le Zhi" and was titled "Yan Ge Luo Fu Xing". "New Odes of Yutai" also included this poem, titled "Sunrise Traveling to the Southeast Corner".
Han Yuefu
In the history of Chinese poetry, during the evolution and development process from Chu Ci (poetry) to Han Fu (non-poetry), Han Yuefu filled a gap in the poetry world during this period. "Yuefu" was originally the name of an ancient music institution. According to research, Yuefu was first established in the Qin Dynasty. The rise of Yuefu was in the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. The Yuefu official office collected folk songs on a large scale. According to the "Book of Han". "Book of Rites and Music" records: When Emperor Wu decided to perform rituals in the suburbs, he set up a Yuefu, collected poems and recited them at night, which were praised by Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu. With Li Yannian as the commander of Xielu, he selected Sima Xiangru and dozens of other people to compose poems and poems, briefly discussed the rules and regulations, and composed a song of nineteen chapters based on the tune of eight tones."
Han Yuefu refers to the poetry collected by the Yuefu government office in the Han Dynasty. Part of the poetry under the control of the Han Dynasty Yuefu was temple-style songs used by the rulers to worship ancestors and gods. Their nature was the same as the "odes" in the "Book of Songs"; the other part was collected from the folk. The popular music without an owner is called Yuefu folk song in the world. According to "Hanshu Yiwenzhi", "In the following dynasties, the styles of Zhao, Qin and Chu were all inspired by sorrow and music. You can observe the customs and know the thin and thick clouds." It can be seen that this part of the works is the essence of Han Yuefu. "Yuefu Poems" compiled by Guo Maoqian of the Song Dynasty has 100 volumes and is divided into 12 categories (Suburban Temple Songs, Yanshe Songs, Advocate Songs, Hengchui Songs, Xianghe Songs, Qing and Shang Songs, Dance Songs, Qin Songs, Zaqu Songs, Jinshi Songs, Zages and Ballads, and New Yuefu Ci), which is the most complete collection of Yuefu from Luohan to the Five Dynasties. A collection of poems. "Collection of Yuefu Poems" contains more than 40 pieces of Han Yuefu folk songs, most of which are works from the Eastern Han Dynasty. They reflect the social reality and people's lives at that time, express love and hate with sharp words, and tend to be more realistic.
Han Yuefu is another collection of ancient folk songs after the Book of Songs. Different from the romantic approach of the Book of Songs, it opens a new trend of poetic realism. Works on female themes occupy an important position in Han Yuefu folk songs, and it uses popular styles. The language structure of the works is close to life. It gradually moves from miscellaneous words to five words. It adopts oblique writing method to depict the characters in detail, create distinctive characters and complete storylines. It can also highlight the ideological connotation and focus on depicting typical details, pioneering oblique poetry. The new stage of development and maturity is an important stage in the development of the five-character poetry style in the history of Chinese poetry.