The Ancient Yuefu, the Yuefu is a palace official office established by the feudal dynasty of the Han Dynasty to manage music. Its mission is to collect and compile folk music from various places. Later, people called the poems collected and composed by this institution Yuefu poems, or simply Yuefu. After the Tang Dynasty, the Yuefu poems of the Han, Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties were called ancient Yuefu. The works of later generations imitating its system are sometimes also called ancient Yuefu.
Quatrain, also known as broken sentences, short sentences and quatrains, is a form of modern poetry. Quatrains are composed of four sentences, divided into Lvjue and Gujue, among which Lvjue has strict metrical requirements. Common quatrains include five-character quatrains and seven-character quatrains, while six-character quatrains are relatively rare.
Rhymed poetry is a genre of traditional Chinese poetry, which belongs to the category of modern poetry. It is named because of its very strict metrical requirements. Rhymed poetry originated in the Southern Dynasties and became popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Rhymed poetry has strict regulations in terms of words, rhyme, level, and antitheses. Its common types include five-character poems and seven-character poems.
Yuan Opera is a literary and artistic form popular in the Yuan Dynasty, including Zaju and Sanqu, and sometimes refers specifically to Zaju. Sanqu is a form of music that was especially popular in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Its content is mainly lyrical, and there are two types: Xiaoling and Santao.
About the author
1. Cao Cao (155-220), courtesy name Mengde, was born in Qiao County, Peiguo (now Bozhou, Anhui). He was a politician, strategist and poet in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was one of the representative poets during the Jian'an period. His representative works include "Dan Ge Xing", "Guan Cang Hai", "Gui Sui Shou", etc.
2. Li Bai (701-762), also known as Taibai and Qinglian Jushi, was a great romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty and was hailed as the "Immortal of Poetry" by later generations. Together with Du Fu, he is called "Li Du". He is cheerful and generous, loves drinking, writing poetry, and making friends. The poetic style is majestic and unrestrained, and the imagination is rich. There is "The Collection of Li Taibai" handed down from generation to generation. His representative works include "Looking at the Lushan Waterfall", "The Road is Difficult", "The Road to Shu is Difficult", etc.
3. Wang Wan, whose birth and death dates are unknown, was born in Luoyang (now part of Henan) and was a poet of the Tang Dynasty. He was a Jinshi during the Kaiyuan period of Xuanzong, and ten of his poems are recorded in the "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty". "Under the Cibeigu Mountain" is a famous poem that has been recited.
4. Ma Zhiyuan (approximately 1251-1321), named Dongli, was born in Dadu (now Beijing) and was a Sanqu master in the Yuan Dynasty. Together with Guan Hanqing, Zheng Guangzu and Bai Pu, they are known as the "Four Masters of Yuan Opera". His works include "Autumn in the Han Palace" and other 15 kinds of dramas. "Tian Jing Sha Qiu Si" is the most famous and is known as the "ancestor of Qiu Si".
Background link
1. "Viewing the Canghai" is the first chapter of "Stepping out of Xiamen" and was written by Cao Cao when he was conquering Wuhuan. In the twelfth year of Jian'an (207), Cao Cao led his army to the north to pursue and annihilate the remnants of Yuan Shao. In May, he vowed to fight for the Northern Expedition, and won a complete victory in September. Returning victoriously in late autumn, he passed through Jieshi Mountain. He jumped on his horse and whipped his whip, climbed the mountain to view the sea, and faced the surging sea. He was moved by the scene and wrote this magnificent poem.
2. "I heard that Wang Changling moved to the left and sent this message to Long Biaoyuan" was probably written in the twelfth year of Tianbao by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (753). At that time, Wang Changling was demoted from Jiangning Cheng to Lieutenant of Longbiao County (now Hongjiang City, Hunan Province). Li Bai wrote this poem after hearing that his friend was demoted in Yangzhou.
3. In ancient times, transportation was underdeveloped, and people who lived in other places or worked abroad could not return for a long time, so they would naturally miss their hometown, so homesickness became a part of poetry