In ancient times, information technology was underdeveloped in ancient times, so it was very inconvenient for people to transmit information from one region to another, so they composed written poems into songs, and the poems were transmitted from people's mouths. Poetry originated from ancient social life, and it is a rhythmic and emotional language form due to labor production, sexual love and primitive religion. "Shangshu Yu Shu" records: "Poetry expresses ambition, singing words, sound is eternal, law and harmony." "Book of Rites and Music" records: "Poetry expresses its ambition; Song, chanting its voice; Dance, move its capacity; The three are based on the heart, and then the instrument follows it. " In the early days, poetry, song, music and dance were integrated. Poetry is the lyrics, which are always sung in concert with music and dance in actual performances. Later, poetry, song, music and dance developed independently and became independent adults. Distinguish between songs and poems by entering music or not. Entering music is a song, and not entering music is a poem. Poetry is a language art, which is differentiated from songs, while songs are a kind of music literature with a long history. The Book of Songs is sung with music. Strictly speaking, it is a song. Because of this, the Book of Songs is called by scholars as a symbol of the maturity of Chinese music literature.
Poetry is the oldest and most literary style, which originated from the labor chant (later developed into folk songs) and sacrificial eulogy in ancient times. Poetry used to be the general term of poetry and song, and poetry combined with music and dance was called poetry. China's poems have a long history and rich heritage, such as The Book of Songs, Songs of the South, Han Yuefu and the works of countless poets. European poetry originated from Homer and Sappho in ancient Greece and Virgil and Horace in ancient Rome.