Fu (poetry)

File:Liangyuan Gathering.jpg

Song dynasty (960–1279) painting of a 2nd-century BC literary gathering at the court of Liu Wu, Prince of Liang

Fu (Template:Zh), often translated "rhapsody" or "poetic exposition", is a form of Chinese rhymed prose that was the dominant literary form in China during the Han dynasty (206 BCTemplate:SndAD220). Template:Tlit are intermediary pieces between poetry and prose in which a place, object, feeling, or other subject is described and rhapsodized in exhaustive detail and from as many angles as possible.Template:Sfnp They were not sung like songs, but were recited or chanted.Template:Sfnp The distinguishing characteristics of Template:Tlit include alternating rhyme and prose, varying line lengths, close alliteration, onomatopoeia, loose parallelism, and extensive cataloging of their topics.Template:Sfnp Classical Template:Tlit composers tended to use as wide a vocabulary as possible in their compositions, and therefore Template:Tlit often contain rare and archaic Chinese words and characters.Template:Sfnp

The Template:Tlit genre came into being around the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC and continued to be regularly used into the Song dynasty (960Template:Ndash1279). Template:Tlit were used as grand praises for the imperial courts, palaces, and cities, but were also used to write "Template:Tlit on things", in which any place, object, or feeling was rhapsodized in exhaustive detail. The largest collections of historical Template:Tlit are the Selections of Refined Literature (Template:Tlit), the Book of Han, New Songs from the Jade Terrace, and official dynastic histories.

There is no counterpart or form similar to the Template:Tlit genre in Western literature.Template:Sfnp During a large part of the 20th century, Template:Tlit poetry was harshly criticized by Chinese scholars as excessively ornate, lacking in real emotion, and ambiguous in its moral messages.Template:Sfnp Because of these historical associations, scholarship on Template:Tlit poetry in China almost ceased entirely between 1949 and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.Template:Sfnp Since then, study of Template:Tlit has gradually returned to its previous level.

History

Origins

The term "Template:Tlit", when applied to Chinese literature, first appears in the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046Template:Ndash221 BC), where it meant "to present", as in poetic recitations.Template:Sfnp It was also one of the three literary devices traditionally assigned to the songs of the Classic of Poetry (Shijing).Template:Sfnp Over the course of the late 1st millennium BC, Template:Tlit became the name of poetic expositions in which an author or composer created a comprehensive exposition and performed it as a rhapsody.Template:Sfnp Han dynasty historian Ban Gu in the "Monograph on Arts and Letters" defined Template:Tlit as "to recite without singing" (Template:Zhi).Template:Sfnp

Template:Tlit poetry is often viewed as a descendant of the "Verses of Chu" (Chu Ci songs combined with the rhetorical expositions of the Intrigues of the Warring States (Zhanguo ce).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp During the golden age of Template:Tlit in the 2nd century BC, many of the greatest Template:Tlit composers were from the southwestern area of Shu (modern Sichuan Province).Template:Sfnp A chapter of Template:Tlit containing a series of riddles has been theorized to be the earliest known Template:Tlit.Template:Sfnp The earliest preserved and definitely datable Template:Tlit is Jia Yi's "Template:Tlit on the Owl" (Template:Zhi), composed about 170 BC.Template:Sfnp Jia's surviving writings mention an earlier Template:Tlit he wrote upon his exile to Changsha which he modeled upon Qu Yuan's "Encountering Sorrow" (Li Sao), but it has not survived to the present.

Han dynasty

Western Han

Template:Tlit achieved its greatest prominence during the early Han dynasty. Jia Yi's "Template:Tlit on the Owl", written around 170 BC, was composed following on the third year of his exile to Changsha, and uses much of the style of the Li Sao and other songs of the Verses of Chu. "Template:Tlit on the Owl", besides being the earliest known Template:Tlit, is unusual in the author's extended use of philosophical reflection upon his own situation in life.Template:Sfnp

Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne in 141 BC, and his 54-year reign is considered the golden age of "grand Template:Tlit" (Template:Zhi).Template:Sfnp Emperor Wu summoned famous Template:Tlit writers to the imperial court in Chang'an, where many of them composed and presented Template:Tlit to the entire court.Template:Sfnp The earliest grand Template:Tlit of Emperor Wu's reign is "Seven Stimuli" (Template:Zhi), by Mei Sheng (; d. 140 BC).Template:Sfnp In "Seven Stimuli", Mei Sheng acts as a Warring States-style travelling orator who tries to cure a Chu prince of an illness caused by overindulgence in sensual pleasures by pushing his senses to their limits with his Template:Tlit descriptions.Template:Sfnp Template:Verse translation

Of all the authors from the golden age of "grand Template:Tlit" composition, Sima Xiangru is generally considered to be the greatest.Template:Sfnp A native of Chengdu, he was traditionally said to have been summoned to the imperial court after Emperor Wu happened to personally read his "Template:Tlit of Sir Vacuous" (Template:Zhi), though this is almost certainly a story added later.Template:Sfnp After arriving in the capital around 136 BC, Sima Xiangru expanded his "Template:Tlit of Sir Vacuous" into his magnum opus, "Template:Tlit on the Imperial Park" (Template:Zhi), generally considered the most famous Template:Tlit of all.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp This work, whose original title was probably "Template:Tlit on the Excursion Hunt of the Son of Heaven" (Template:Zhi), is a grand celebration of the Emperor's personal hunting park east of Chang'an,Template:Sfnp and is famed for its rich number of rare and difficult words and characters.Template:Sfnp If not for the survival of Chinese scholar Guo Pu's early 4th century AD annotations to "Template:Tlit on the Imperial Park", much of its ancient and esoteric terminology would now be unintelligible. The following portion of the rhymed list of names of minerals, precious stones, and flora and fauna from the first half of the "Template:Tlit on the Imperial Park" exemplifies much of the cataloging and rare terminology characteristic of grand Template:Tlit:Template:Sfnp

The grand Template:Tlit of the Western Han dynasty were read and recited as celebrations of pure poetic delight, and were the first pieces of Chinese literature to fuse both unrestrained entertainment and moral admonitions together in single works.Template:Sfnp However, after the reign of Emperor Wu, his court culture began to be criticized as having placed undue emphasis on the grandiose language in Template:Tlit and therefore having missed opportunities to encourage moral restraint.Template:Sfnp The most prominent critic of "grand Template:Tlit" was the other great Template:Tlit writer of the Han dynasty: Yang Xiong.Template:Sfnp As a youth, Yang was an admirer and imitator of Sima Xiangru's Template:Tlit, but later came to disapprove of grand Template:Tlit.Template:Sfnp Yang believed that the original purpose of Template:Tlit was to "indirectly admonish" (Template:Zhi), but that the extended rhetorical arguments and complex vocabulary used in grand Template:Tlit caused their hearers and readers to marvel at their aesthetic beauty while missing their moral messages.Template:Sfnp Yang juxtaposed early Han dynasty Template:Tlit with the Template:Tlit-like expositions in the Classic of Poetry, saying that while those in the Poetry provided moral standards, the Template:Tlit of the Han poets "led to excess".Template:Sfnp While known as one of the Template:Tlit masters of the Han dynasty, Yang's Template:Tlit are generally known for their focus on admonishing readers and listeners to uphold moral values.Template:Sfnp

Eastern Han

Two of the most famous Template:Tlit writers of the Eastern Han period were the polymaths Zhang Heng and Cai Yong. Among Zhang Heng's large corpus of writings are a significant number of Template:Tlit poems, which are the first to have been written in the shorter style that became typical of post-Han Template:Tlit.Template:Sfnp Zhang's earliest known Template:Tlit is "Template:Tlit on the Hot Springs" (Template:Zhi), which describes the hot springs at Mount Li (modern Huaqing Pool) which famously later became a favorite of Imperial Concubine Yang during the Tang dynasty.Template:Sfnp "Template:Tlit on the Two Metropolises" (Template:Zhi) is considered Zhang's masterpiece.Template:Sfnp Zhang spent ten years gathering material for the Template:Tlit, a response to an earlier Template:Tlit by Ban Gu that is a poetic comparison between the two capitals of the Han dynasty: Luoyang and Chang'an.Template:Sfnp Zhang's Template:Tlit is highly satirical and cleverly mocks many aspects of the Western Han period, including Emperor Wu himselfTemplate:Sfnp The piece contains long passages colorfully describing life in the two capitals in great detail, including the entertainment areas.Template:Sfnp

Cai Yong, like Zhang Heng, was a prolific writer in addition to his mathematical, astronomical, and musical interests.Template:Sfnp In 159 CE, Cai was summoned to Chang'an to perform on the guqin for the imperial court, but became ill shortly before arriving and returned to his home.Template:Sfnp Cai composed a poetic record of his journey in "Template:Tlit on Recounting a Journey" (Template:Zhi), his most well-known Template:Tlit.Template:Sfnp In "Template:Tlit on Recounting a Journey", Cai cites examples of treacherous and dishonest rulers and officials from Chinese history, then criticizes the eunuchs of the capital for similar crimes.Template:Sfnp

A number of Template:Tlit writers from the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries CE became considered great Template:Tlit poets, and were noted for their descriptions of the chaos and destruction following the collapse of the Han dynasty. Wang Can, who lived as a refugee in Chu following the assassination of Dong Zhuo in 192 CE, wrote a famous Template:Tlit entitled "Template:Tlit on Climbing the Tower" (Template:Zhi) in which Wang movingly describes climbing a tower near Jingzhou and gazing longingly in the direction of his home in Luoyang.Template:Sfnp Poets often used subjects of descriptive Template:Tlit poems to symbolize themselves, as in "Template:Tlit on the Parrot" (Template:Zhi), by Mi Heng, in which Mi uses a caged parrot as an allegory for a scholar whose talents go unrecognized and whose inability to control his tongue results in his captivity.Template:Sfnp During the Three Kingdoms period, the court of the warlord Cao Cao and his sons Cao Pi and Cao Zhi became a famous literary salon, and a number of Template:Tlit poems from their court have survived to modern times. Template:Verse translation

Six Dynasties

During the Six Dynasties period (220Template:Ndash589), Template:Tlit remained a major part of contemporary poetry, although shi poetry was gradually increasing in popularity.Template:Sfnp Six Dynasties Template:Tlit are generally much shorter and less extravagant than Han dynasty Template:Tlit, likely due to a tradition of composing works entirely in parallel couplets that arose during the period.Template:Sfnp While lyrical Template:Tlit and "Template:Tlit on things" had been starkly different forms in the Han dynasty, after the 2nd century CE the distinction mostly disappeared.Template:Sfnp Although the extravagant Template:Tlit style of the Han mostly disappeared, "Template:Tlit on things" continued to be widely written.

Xie Lingyun is one of the best-known poets of the entire Six Dynasties period, second only to Tao Yuanming. In contrast to his older contemporary Tao, Xie is known for the difficult language, dense allusions, and frequent parallelisms of his poetry.Template:Sfnp Xie's greatest Template:Tlit is "Template:Tlit on Dwelling in the Mountains" (Template:Zhi), a Han-style "grand Template:Tlit" describing Xie's personal estate that borrows its style from the famous "Template:Tlit on the Imperial Park" by Sima Xiangru.Template:Sfnp Like classical Han Template:Tlit, the poem uses a large number of obscure and rare characters, but "Template:Tlit on Dwelling in the Mountains" is unique in that Xie included his own annotations to the poem,Template:Sfnp without which the poem would be nearly incomprehensible.

During the Liang dynasty (502Template:Ndash587), Template:Tlit continued to be a popular form of literature, though it began to merge with the popular five- and seven-syllable poetry forms, which completely eclipsed Template:Tlit during the Tang dynasty.Template:Sfnp Some Template:Tlit pieces, such as Shen Yue's "Template:Tlit on Dwelling in the Suburbs" (Template:Zhi)Template:Mdashan homage to Xie Lingyun's "Template:Tlit on Dwelling in the Mountains"Template:Mdashfollowed the traditional forms and subjects of classical Template:Tlit, but an increasing number did not.Template:Sfnp "Template:Tlit on Lotus-picking" (Template:Zhi), by Xiao Gang (later Emperor Jianwen of Liang), is a short, lyrical Template:Tlit that mixes freely with popular lyric poetry,Template:Sfnp and portrayed southern China as a romantic land of pleasure and sensuality.Template:Sfnp Lotus-picking was an activity traditionally associated with peasant women, but in the early 5th century became a popular topic in Template:Tlit and poetry.Template:Sfnp

Yu Xin is generally considered the last great Template:Tlit poet of Chinese history.Template:Sfnp Yu, like Yan Zhitui, was born in the south but forced to relocate to northern China after the south's defeat, and spent the rest of his career writing of the loss of the south as a loss of an entire culture and way of life.Template:Sfnp Yu's most famous piece is "Template:Tlit on Lamenting the South" (Template:Zhi), in which he describes his life's experiences in the context of the larger context of the destruction of the south and its culture.Template:Sfnp

Tang and Song dynasties

The Template:Tlit genre changed rapidly during the Tang dynasty (618Template:Ndash907). During the early Tang, a new form of Template:Tlit called "regulated Template:Tlit" (Template:Zhi) supplanted the original form.Template:Sfnp "Regulated Template:Tlit" had strict rules of form and expression, and required the use of consistent rhymes throughout each piece.Template:Sfnp Additionally, rules were created to govern the arrangement of tones in each poem, as the introduction of Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit and Pali had stimulated the Chinese to methodical study of their own language and the identification of the four tones of Middle Chinese. Beginning in the Tang dynasty, these "regulated Template:Tlit" were required for the composition sections of the imperial examinations.Template:Sfnp Tang writers added new topics to the traditional subjects of Template:Tlit, such as purely moral topics or scenes from Chinese antiquity.Template:Sfnp The "parallel Template:Tlit" (Template:Zhi) was another variant of the Template:Tlit developed in the Tang, and was only used for rhetorical compositions.Template:Sfnp

In 826, Tang poet Du Mu's poem "Template:Tlit on E-pang Palace" (Template:Zhi)Template:Refn laid the foundation for a new form of Template:Tlit called "prose Template:Tlit" (Template:Zhi), in which prose is freely rhymed.Template:Sfnp This form of Template:Tlit became the dominant Template:Tlit form during the late Tang and the Song dynasty (960Template:Ndash1279).Template:Sfnp By the 9th and 10th centuries, traditional Template:Tlit had become mainly historical pursuits, and were largely read and copied because of their inclusion on the imperial examinations.Template:Sfnp

Topics

"Template:Tlit on things"

Between 130 and 100 BC, Emperor Wu greatly expanded China's territory into Central Asia, northern Vietnam, and the Korean Peninsula through a series of military campaigns and invasions.Template:Sfnp As the expansion progressed, many foreign plants, animals, goods, and rarities were brought to the imperial capital at Chang'an.Template:Sfnp Throughout the Han dynasty, court officials and poets often composed special Template:Tlit called "Template:Tlit on things" (Template:Zhi) on these new and unusual things, in which they described and catalogued extensively.Template:Sfnp These "'Template:Tlit on things" became a major genre in Template:Tlit poetry, and cover a vast number of instruments, objects, and phenomena.

Ban Zhao, one of the most famous female poets of Chinese history, wrote a well-known Template:Tlit during the reign of Emperor He of Han entitled "Template:Tlit on the Great Bird" (Template:Zhi), believed to be a description of an ostrich brought to the Han court from Parthia around AD 110.Template:Sfnp Scholar Ma Rong wrote two well-known Template:Tlit on ancient board games: "Template:Tlit on Chaupar" (Template:Zhi), which the Chinese believed to actually have been invented by Laozi after he departed west out of China, and "Template:Tlit on Encirclement Chess" (Template:Zhi), one of the earliest known descriptions of the game Go.Template:Sfnp Han dynasty librarian Wang Yi, best known as the compiler of the received version of the Verses of Chu, wrote several object-description Template:Tlit in the early 2nd century AD, such as "Template:Tlit on the Lychee" (Template:Zhi), the earliest known poetic description of the lychee fruit.Template:Sfnp

The literary salon of Cao Pi's court produced a number of notable "Template:Tlit on things" in which a group of poets known as the Seven Masters of the Jian'an period each composed their own version of the Template:Tlit. During this period, Cao Pi was once presented with a large agate of unusual quality which Cao had made into a bridle.Template:Sfnp Each of the men composed their own "Template:Tlit on the Agate Bridle" (Template:Zhi) for the occasion.Template:Sfnp Another object-description Template:Tlit from the Cao court is "Template:Tlit on the Template:Tlit Bowl" (Template:Zhi),Template:Refn which was a bowl made of a coral- or shell-like substance from somewhere near India, which was then known as the "Western Regions".Template:Sfnp

One of the poet Shu Xi's (; AD 263–302) Template:Tlit has become well known in the history of Chinese cuisine: his "Template:Tliton Pasta" (Template:Zhi) is an encyclopedic description of a wide variety of dough-based foods, including noodles, steamed buns, and dumplings,Template:Sfnp which had not yet become the traditional Chinese foods they are in modern times. Western Jin poet Fu Xian's "Template:Tlit on Paper" (Template:Zhi) is well known as an early description of writing paper, which had only been invented about 150 years earlier.Template:Sfnp

Sociopolitical protest

Part of the legacy associated with the Template:Tlit is its use as a form of sociopolitical protest, such as the theme of the loyal minister who has been unjustly exiled by the ruler or those in power at the court, rather than receiving the promotion and respect which he truly deserves. In the Verses of Chu, one of the works attributed to Qu Yuan is the "Li Sao", which is one of the earliest known works in this tradition, both as ancestral to the Template:Tlit as well as its incorporation of political criticism as a theme of poetry.Template:Sfnp The theme of unjust exile is related to the development of Xiaoxiang poetry, or the poetry stylistically or thematically based upon lamenting the unjust exile of the poet, either directly, or allegorically through the use of the persona of a friend or historical figure (a safer course in the case of a poet-official who might be punished for any too blatant criticism of the current emperor). During the Han dynasty, along with the development of the Template:Tlit stylistically, the idea that it incorporate political criticism through indirection and allegory also developed. Han dynasty historian and author Ban Gu in his Book of Han pointedly refers to a Template:Tlit by Qu Yuan as a literary example of the use of the theme of the loyal minister who has been unjustly exiled, rather than receiving the promotion and respect which he truly deserves. As Hellmut Wilhelm puts it: "...the Han Template:Tlit can easily be classified into a limited number of types. All types have one feature in common: almost without exception they can be and have been interpreted as voicing criticism—either of the ruler, the ruler's behavior, or certain political acts or plans of the ruler; or of the court officials or the ruler's favorites; or, generally, of the lack of discrimination in the employment of officials. The few examples that are positive in tone recommend the authors or their peers for employment, or even contain specific political suggestions. In short, almost all Template:Tlit have a political purport, and, in addition, almost all of them deal with the relationship between the ruler and his officials." Seen in context, Ban Gu's discussion of Qu Yuan and the Chu sao style is less to the point of the actual evolutionary path of the Template:Tlit and more to the point that the main purpose of the Template:Tlit is political and social criticism through poetic indirection: thus, in Template:Tlit, paradoxically, the "fantastic descriptions and an overflowing rhetoric...can be reduced to...restraint", as the sociopolitical criticism which was key to the Template:Tlit was constrained within a very subtle, elaborately indirect, occasional, and allusive mode.

Collections

Template:Tlit pieces comprise the first main category in the Wen Xuan (Selections of Refined Literature), an early Chinese literary anthology which is still extant.Template:Sfnp The Selections collects all known Template:Tlit pieces from the early Han dynasty to its compilation in the 6th century CE, during the Liang dynasty; it has since been the traditional source for studying classical Template:Tlit.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, scholar Chen Yuanlong (1652Template:Ndash1736) compiled a collection of all known Template:Tlit extant in his day, publishing his collection in 1706 as Collection of Fu Through the Ages (Template:Zhi). Chen's Collection in total contains 4,155 Template:Tlit.

See also

• Classical Chinese poetry forms
• Dong Zhongshu
• Han poetry