On The History Of Han Yuefu' Reception

This thesis examines the singing, recording, research and criticism of the ballads, folk songs and their imitations by literary men in Han Dynasty of each historical period before Tang Dynasty as well as the receptive situation of various methods such as simulation and use for reference during the course of creation. It introduces the theory of western receptive aesthetics and comes to the main theme from the angle of literary reception. The author expects his readers to have a deeper understanding of people's views on the ballads, folk songs and their imitations by literary men in Han Dynasty in each historical period and the change of status of it in people's minds, and thus reveals the reason that it becomes classic.The thesis is divided into 4 chapters and one appendix:chapter one The generation, spread and reception Han yuefu in the Dynasty of East Han and West Han. It introduces in classification the generation of Han yuefu and their imitations and the general situation of various kinds of poems and examines the singing of Han yuefu and their imitations on each occasion and the record of its situation in history. The ballads, folk songs and their imitations was generated and spread initially in this period. The way of its spread and reception is achieved mainly through singing and listening. That is to say, Han yuefu and their imitations in this period appeared mainly in the form of music and lyrics and haven't achieved the independent status of poetry. Influenced by creation, the imitation of literary men was just in the bud. However, the Confucian intellectuals with Ban Gu as its representative held a denouncing attitude toward it.Chapter two the reception of Han yuefu during Cao Wei Dynasty, which mainly explores the singing situation of Han yuefu and their imitations and the influence of the creation of the ballads modeled after the ancients yuefu poems During this period, there were still many yuefu poems writed by Cao Cao and his son as well as the cabinet minister around and men of letters were the main acceptors. Influenced by these songs, Cao Cao and his son as well as Cao Rui, emperor Ming of Wei Dynasty and so on created a great many of ballads, poems modeled after the ancients, which lead the ballads, folk songs to the way of literary men and took on the mental outlook totally different from yuefu poems. But it keeps up many distinctive characteristics of the ballads, folk songs in terms of content and form and shows the reception of the influence of yuefu poems. The ballads modeled after the ancients initiated the trend of the ballads, folk songs, which was separated from music and existed independently.Chapter Three The reception of Han yuefu in East and West Jin dynasty. In this period, part of the music of yuefu poems were still sung, which shows the way of spreading in oral form and listening with one's own ears continued to exist. The books that are not directly related to the subjects of the imperial examination in this period and music in Note of All Time by Cui Bao examine the situations such as the original story, origin, author and the use of 21 ancient topics of yuefu poems. And the first book on music that records the singing situation of yuefu poems and Record of Xun Shi by Xun Xun appeared at this time, which is all the new fruits in the history of the reception of yuefu poems. This laid a good foundation for the further spreading and reception of yuefu poems. In the aspect of ballads modeled after the ancients on yuefu poems. Fu Xuan, Lu Ji and so on were consciously influenced by yuefu poems in terms of the writing of yuefu poems, which makes a great contribution on the classification of yuefu poems. At the same time, the ballads modeled after the ancients on the ballads in this period further broke away from the independence on music and became the independent yuefu poems literary man that is identical with Tu poem.chapter four the reception of the han yuefu in Nan and Bei Dynasty and Sui Dynasty. In these dynasties, the spreading scope of yuefu poems was further widened. On one hand, a small part of its music was still being sung; on the other hand, more literature recording its tune, temperament, musical instrument, lyrics and way of singing emerged, such as Yuan Jia Zheng Sheng Ji Lu by Zhang Ying, Da Ming San Nian Yan Yue Ji Lu by Wang Seng Qian, Record of Music All Time by Shi Zhijiang and the historical book Song Shu Yue Zhi, which are indispensable materials for later generations researching into the ballads, folk songs. Meanwhile, research and criticism on the ballads, folk songs in the monumental work on literary theory Wen Xin Diao Long, the record of part of yuefu poems in Wen Xuan, the first poem anthology of female theme added new characteristics in terms of the reception of yuefu poems in this period. In the creation of yuefu poems, distinctive characteristics showed up, i. e. the number of poets who write ballads modeled after the ancients and the number of poems on it rose sharply. The ballads modeled after the ancients on the ballads in the new Yong Ming style and folk song style of Nan Dynasty presented the aesthetic feature different from yuefu poems in Jin Dynasty, which shows that the enthusiasm of the literary men was running high and the influence of yuefu poems was further extended. Thousands of ballads modeled after the ancients on yuefu poems eventually helped to establish formally the classic status of the ballads, folk songs.Appendix the case example of the history of reception: the ancient history of reception of Mo Shang Sang. The reception situation from Han Dynasty to Qing Dynasty of Mo Shang Sang is examined in this chapter. This poem adopted the topic of mulberry collection in ancient literary works and narrates the story of chance meeting of a man and a woman in the mulberry forest in spring. The style is bright and lively, romantic and interesting, which cause poets of later generation to imitate and use for reference and cause scholars to research, record, collect and appraise. These reception fruits show to advantage the artistic value of Mo Shang Sang and helped to make it ascend the throne of classic literature. The ancient history of reception of Mo Shang Sang is just the epitome of the history of reception of yuefu poems s.To sum up, the thesis analyzes the process of the ballads, folk songs from composition of Han Dynasty gradually growing into classic literature through examination of the receptive fruits of readers' multiple way in various historical periods. This process confirms again that the classic status of yuefu poems is brought up by the aesthetic value lies in it and the positive reception by readers of each generation.