Han poetry is associated with theHan dynasty era of China, 206 BC – 220 AD, including theWang Mang interregnum (9–23 AD). Han poetry is considered a significant period inClassical Chinese poetry due to several important developments. One key aspect was the development of the quasipoeticfu, a distinctive literary form.[1] The activities of theMusic Bureau, which collected popular ballads, led to the creation of what would later be known as theyuefu, a rhapsodic poetic style.[2]
Towards theend of the Han dynasty, anew style ofshi poetry emerged.[3] As theyuefu evolved into fixed-line forms resemblingshi poetry, distinguishing between the two styles became increasingly difficult. Consequently, the classification of certain poems asyuefu orshi is often somewhat arbitrary.
Major works from the Han era include the compilation of theChuci anthology, which contains some of the oldest and most important poetic verses to be preserved from ancient China, after theShijing anthology.
The ruling family of the Han dynasty was theLiu family, founded byLiu Bang. His career began as a minor official during the chaotic final years of the Qin dynasty. During this period of instability, Liu Bang became an outlaw and rebel, eventually rising to the position of King of Han during thedivision of the Qin empire. After establishing the Han dynasty, he was posthumously honored as Emperor Gaozu, also known as the Han High Founder or Han Great Ancestor.
Despite Liu Bang's commoner background and general lack of literacy, he held a great regard for literature and learning. His patronage of literature and the arts, as well as his connections with the unique culture of Chu would set a precedent for the rest of the dynasty which he founded. He granted Liu family princes a great deal of autonomy in their local areas, and the development of subsidiary royal courts and patronage of literature and the arts followed.
Brushing characters with ink is archeologically attested to during the Han period, including on silk,hemp paper, andbamboo slips. The bamboo (or wood) slips were tied together carefully with delicate string cords. However, when these cords deteriorated over time, the slips often became disordered, scrambling the text. While more durable methods such as stamping or marking on clay or engraving on stone were also used, they required fairly elaborate craftsmanship to produce. As a result, much of the poetry from the Han dynasty has not survived in its original form. Instead, most extant works have been preserved through anthologies compiled during theSix Dynasties period.
Han dynasty poets inherited a rich poetic legacy, notably influenced by theShijing (Classic of Poetry) and theChu Ci (Songs of Chu) traditions. There is little or no direct poetic influence from the preceding Qin dynasty, which engaged in apurge of heterodoxy, destroying its imperial library.
TheShijing, characterized by its "classic" four-character line structure, played a crucial role in shaping Han poetry. This verse style emphasized the direct expression of immediate experience, intended to offer a window into the poet’s inner soul.[4] Han state policies promotedConfucian philosophy, which elevated theShijing as one of the central canonical texts, giving it lasting prominence in Chinese literary and cultural tradition. TheChu Ci introduced innovations such as varied line lengths. Han poets expanded upon this body of work, contributing new material that was later compiled into an edited anthology. Han poets also drew inspiration from orally transmitted folk songs and ballads.
The expansion of the Han empire into new areas introduced new and exotic ideas and objects, which sometimes became subjects in thefu prose-poetry literary form.
Some well-known poets from Han times are known; however, many of the poets are anonymous, including the poets behind the Music Bureau collections including theNineteen Old Songs, as is typical of verses from the folk ballad tradition. Important individual Han era authors of poetry includeZhang Heng andLiu Xiang. Many of the Han poets who wrote in their own personal voice under their own name or pen-name wrote in thefu style, in thesao (Chuci) style, or both. In other cases, poems have been attributed to specific Han dynasty persons, or written in perspective of theirpersona, but the real author remains unknown. For example, the cases of the poems attributed toSu Wu andConsort Ban are not determined. Other Han poets includeSima Xiangru,Ban Gu, andMi Heng.
Sima Xiangru (179–127 BC, also known as Szu-ma Hsiang-ju) was one of the most important poets of the Han dynastic era, writing in both theChuci and thefu styles.
Su Wu (140 – 60 BC) was held captive for 19 years, returning to China in 81 BC: 4 poems collected in theWen Xuan are only questionably attributed to him.[5] However, at the time, it was not uncustomary to confuse the persona of a poem with the person of the author. There is a story about Su Wu which became a common allusion in Chinese poetry. According to this story, during the beginning of his captivity in theXiongnu empire Su Wu was treated harshly, to the point it is said of having to eat the lining of his coat for food and to drink snow which he melted for water. Later Su was elevated in status, even it is said given a wife who bore him children. Upon the Han emperor sending an ambassadorial mission toward the territory in which he was being held, the Xiongnu ruler (the chanyu) wished to conceal the presence of Su Wu, presumably in order avoid diplomatic complications; but, Su Wu hearing of this tricked the chanyu by claiming that he had sent a message to the emperor by tying it to the leg of a goose, and accordingly, that since his presence was already known to the Chinese delegation that any attempts at concealing his presence would be viewed as unseemly. This is at least part of the origin of the use of the image of a flying goose as a messenger, carrying tied to its foot (perhaps symbolically) a letter between two people separated so far seasonally north and south that a migrating goose could be conceived as a possible mode of communication.
Ban Jieyu also known asLady Pan (Pan Chieh-Yü) was a concubine toEmperor Cheng of Han (reigned 33–7 BC) and the great-aunt of the poet, historian, and authorBan Gu. A well-known poem in theWen Xuan is attributed to her. Although most unlikely to actually be by her (especially since it is not in her grand-nephew Ban's biography of her),[6] it is certainly written as if it could have been written by her or someone in her position. It is an important early example of thesecluded palace lady genre of poetry.
Ban Gu was a 1st-centuryChinese historian and poet best known for his part in compiling the historical compendium theBook of Han. Ban Gu also wrote a number offu, which are anthologized in theWen Xuan.
One of the most important Han era contributions to poetry is the compilation of theChuci anthology of poetry, which preserves many poems attributed toQu Yuan andSong Yu from theWarring States period (ended 221 BC), though about half of the poems seem to have been in fact composed during theHan Dynasty.[7] The meaning ofChuci is something like "The Material of Chu", referring to the ancientLand of Chu. The traditional version of theChu Ci contains 17 major sections, anthologized with its current contents byWang Yi, a 2nd-century AD librarian who served underEmperor Shun of Han, who appended his own verses derivative of theChuci or "sao" style at the end of the collection, under the title ofNine Longings. The poems and pieces of theChu Ci anthology vary in their formal poetic styles, including varying line metrics, varying use of exclamatory particles, the use or not of titles for individual pieces within a section, and the varying presence of theluan (or, envoi). Other Han period poets besides Wang Yi the librarian who are known or thought to be contributors of poems collected in theChuci include the poetWang Bao and the scholarLiu Xiang.Liu An, the Prince ofHuainan, and his literary circle were involved with theChuci material, but the attribution of authorship of any particular poems is uncertain.
One of the major forms of literature during the Han dynasty was thefu (sometimes translated as "rhapsody"), a kind of eclectic grab bag of prose and verse, not easy to classify in English as being either poetry or prose. In Chinese, thefu is classified aswen rather thanshi, however these terms do not correspond to English categories of prose and verse (one of the differences in the traditional Chinese categorization being thatshi was sung or chanted, whereas thefu was not, at least according to theHanshu), the credibility of this being enhanced by the fact that one of the compilers of theHanshu (also known asBook of Han orHistory of the Former Han Dynasty) wasBan Gu, who was himself a practitioner of thefu style.[8] The Hanfu derived from the rhetorical expositions of theIntrigues of the Warring States and theChuci,[9] which was traditionally considered to be the work ofQu Yuan, who was a wanderer through the countryside and villages of theKingdom of Chu, after his exile from court. In this context the "Li Sao" is particularly relevant. The Hanfu of the second and first centuries BCE were intimately associated with the courts of the emperor and his princes.[10] In other words, they were refined literary products, ornate, polished, and with an elite vocabulary; and, often the subject matter includes topics such as life in the palaces of the Han capital cities. The development of thefu form of literature during the Han dynasty shows a movement toward later more personal poetry and the poems of reclusion, typical for example, ofTao Yuanming, theSix Dynasties poet.[11] The famous Han dynasty astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholarZhang Heng (78–139 CE) wrote afu about his own, personal experience (real or imagined) of getting out of the city and its politics and getting back to the country and nature.[12] Thefu form continued to be popular in the centuries following the demise of the Han imperial power.
An important aspect of Han poetry involves the influence of the folk ballad tradition, which can be seen in the poetry collectionsNineteen Old Poems and theyuefu of theMusic Bureau.
One of the stylistically most important developments of Han poetry can be found in theNineteen Old Poems collection. Although extant versions exist only in later collections, particularly theWen Xuan literary compendium, the 19 poems themselves appear to be from the Han period. They are influential both toward thegushi ("old style") poetic form, but also for their "tone of brooding melancholy....Anonymous voices speaking to us from a shadowy past, they sound a note of sadness that is to dominate the poetry of the centuries that follow."[13] Many versions of these 19 poems thus continued to be reinvented in post-Han times, including a major revival inTang poetry times. AsNineteen Old Poems literally means "19gushi, poetry written in inspiration by this style were referred to as being in thegushi style, or simply labeledgushi (also transcribed asku-shi, in English).
Another important aspect of Han poetry involved the institution known as theMusic Bureau, or, in Chinese,Yuefu (or,Yüeh-fu). This is contrast with the "literaryyuefu", which are written in the general style of Music Bureau's collection ofyuefu, or derived from particular pieces thereof. The Music Bureau was a Chinese governmental institution existing to historical and archeological evidence at various times during the history of China, including an incarnation during theQin dynasty. The Han dynasty largely adopted the Qin institutions for their own organizational model, and in particularHan Wudi is associated with a revival or an elevation in the status of the Music Bureau, which he relied upon for the elaborately spectacular ceremonial performances conducted under his regime. The traditional functions of the Music Bureau included collecting music and poetry lyrics from around the empire, and conducting and choreographing their performance for the emperor and his court. Poetry verses published by the Music Bureau are known as "Music Bureau" pieces, later works modeled on the style of the Music Bureau pieces are known as "Music Bureau style" pieces (yuefu); and, some of these "literaryyuefu" and "newyuefu" poems were written by some of the best of the subsequent poets. The Han era Music Bureau (yuefu) pieces were collected and transmitted to future times in such (mostly Six Dynasties era) anthologies as theWen Xuan and theNew Songs from the Jade Terrace.
The final regnal era of Han was calledJian'an. At this period the political structure of Han was breaking down, while new developments in poetry were arising. ThisJian'anyuefu poetry style continued on into theThree Kingdoms andSix Dynasties era, as did the lives of some of the authors of poetry such asCao Cao, who was born during the Han dynasty but survived it. The Han Music Bureau style which developed out of the models of the Music Bureau poetry was a particularly important feature ofJian'an poetry and the subsequentSix Dynasties poetry: the evolutionary trajectory of this poetry was towards the regular, fixed-length line verse which reached such acclaim in its Tang realization. Poetry preserved from the Han dynastic era not only exists as a monument to the achievement and skill of the poets of that time, but also serves as a link in a poetic legacy that was explicitly valued during the Tang dynastic era (during which the poems developed in the tradition of this style were known to critics as ("new yuefu"), and continued to be valued in subsequentClassical Chinese poetry, and on to the poetry of today; which is in turn, another link in a long chain of development in the field of poetry, to which the poets known and anonymous made their unique contributions.
