Yiming Sun 2022.March
I mainly use Heaven Above ( Western Han Yue-fu, P227.), Nineteen Old Poem II ( P259.) and Nineteen Old Poem XV( P261.).
I also used other Yuefu poems as supplements:
Meeting(Eastern Han?, 231.), South of the Walls We Fought (Western Han Yue-fu, P228.) and Mulberries by the Path(Eastern Han?, P234.)
How do yuefu and Old Poems differ in terms of their historical development? When did they first start, and how were they used or circulated?
What are some of the differences in form between the two types of poetry? (Ex., length, meter, use of stanzas, relationship to music, etc.)
What are some of the different concerns that seem to be addressed in each type of poetry?
1.
Different classes create Yuefu and Nineteen Old Poems, but they are of the same time. Yuefu is a collective creation of the masses, originating from folk songs and knowledgeable people. It embodies the public's will and reflects people's general and direct life feelings. On the contrary, the Nineteen Old Poems show more individuality. The Nineteen Old Poems were written by lower-class literatis to pursue ideals, career, friendship and love, as well as expressing the feelings of unfulfilled ambitions and longings. The rulers of the Han Dynasty spent a great deal of resources on extravagance and prolonged wars. Thus, excessive taxes left peasants poor and in debt, while political corruption prevented the lower intelligentsia from realizing their ambitions. Within this same historical context, Yuefu mainly reflects society's will, while Nineteen Old Poems explicitly demonstrates the vision of lower-class intellectuals. Yuefu poetry embodies the spirit of realism, involves almost every aspect of social life and reflects the thoughts and lives of people of all classes at that time. It discloses the extravagant lifestyle of the upper class and expresses the pursuit of love. Meeting straightly points out that they are the direct makers of social disasters; Heaven Above uses five impossible assumptions to show her loyalty to love; South of the Walls We Fought embodies the tragic scene of dead bodies everywhere outside the gates. From these examples, one could see that Yuefu Poems uncovered and criticized the dark society at that time and expressed people's desire for a happy, stable life. Nineteen Old Poems were generated by anonymous literatis around the end of the Han Dynasty. At that time, floods, droughts, earthquakes and locust plagues made the social conflicts more acute, and the corruption and darkness among the ruling class were deepened. As the lower-class intellectuals couldn’t find a way to realize their ambitions, they felt helpless and angry at the social reality, their emotions turned from dissatisfaction to depression. Taking Nineteen Old Poem XV as an example, after the author's ideal of helping the society was ruthlessly wiped out by reality, he revealed the sadness of the shortness of life "Life's year do not reach a hundred, but we always have cared for a thousand." and the idea that it is better to have fun in time "Joy must be seized as its moment."
2.
Although the Nineteen Old Poems inherit some characteristics from Yuefu poems, their forms of them are still different. Yuefu poems are sung in conjunction with music, so there are often a lot of repetitions to strengthen the key points. As Heaven Above as an example, it repeats the five intentions " hills no longer rise; river's water dries, winter thunder rolls; snow in summer falls, sky and earth fuse." to emphasize her persistence of love constantly. Also, there is no limit on the number of words and number of sentences.
On the other hand, Nineteen Old Poems use a five-character poem format and are not limited by external music but rely on the poem's text themselves. As Nineteen Old Poem II as an example, its structures are more tidy and precise with a sense of rhythm and syllables "Green, green in the grass by the river," paying attention to the modification of language and using a lot of dualities to pursue the harmony between two sentences consciously.
3.
Yuefu emphasizes the dissemination nature of literature and uses it as a political and educational tool. Yuefu poetry includes poems praising merit and poems reflecting social conditions to give advice to the rulers to make political decisions in need. For example, Yuefu poems depicted many feminine images with different social statuses: Meeting demonstrates the carefree life of upper-class women; the beautiful, clever women in Mulberries by the Path reflect the marriage situation of folk women at that time, The women in Heaven Above reflects her persistence and perspective on love. Together, they reflected the broad social picture of the everyday life of people during the Han Dynasty, including the rich and poor. Also, it depicted both the usual and unusual social themes like war, marriage and love.
Meanwhile, Nineteen Old Poems mainly reflected the theme of individuality and cared about people's feelings, personalities and desires. Concerns are from the educated people in the lower class. As Nineteen Old Poem XV and Nineteen Old Poem II reflect the author was desiring to make political achievements to help restore political clarity and country stability, and wishing for a happy life. We can find the poet's persistence to realize his ideal expectancy for life even when he wrote it in the pessimistic exclamation, "The fool who cannot bear to spend wins only mocking in later days."
Overall, Yuefu poetry is a specific and detailed reflection of people’s everyday life. According to the development of things as a clue, they are documentary narrative works, and the author’s feelings are expressed implicitly in the narrative text. While the lyricism and subjectivity of the Nineteen Old Poems are explicit. The poems fully express the authors’ inner world together with images of natural scenery and environment (Yixiang意象) which function as the backdrops for expressing authors’ subjective moods.
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