Becoming A Reader Of Han China Yuefu Songs And Ballads: Poetry On Immortals In The Ideological And Political Contexts Of Han China

Corpus of Han poems on immortals is extensive. It includes early anonymoussongs preserved by the Yuefu Music Bureau, a large number of conventional courtpoems, and more complicated meditations on immortality ascribed to some individualauthors of Late Han China. All these pieces had direct or indirect connection with thecult of immortality represented by various rituals and ceremonies in different sectors ofHan society. In this paper I shall analyse the poems on immortals of Han era fromhistorical perspective rather than from philological point of view. I shall trace how thesesongs were connected with the actual immortality cult and how the conventionalcontents of these poems were changing along with the process of disapproval of the cultof immortality.The theme of the current research lays at the intersection of philology, history, andphilosophy. Apart from general problems of composition, attribution and dating of thepoems on immortality of Han era, the current research deals with analysis of thefollowing political and social questions: what were the connections between the courtceremonies, the ancient immortality and longevity beliefs, the religion of Taoism andthe philosophical school of Tao; how the political and social circumstances during theEmperor Wu’s reign initiated the establishment of the Yuefu Music Bureau; what werethe political reasons behind the popularity of immortality cult and related ceremonies atHan courts. These questions are important to analyse in order to understand how thesocial and political background determined the appearance and development of theliterary tradition of the poetry on immortality which proved to be much more durablethan the actual cult of immortality.Although, the attitudes to the idea of immortality were changing with time, poetryabout immortals remained one of the most important literary traditions which wasintroduced in the art of many poets of later centuries. The motifs of immortality in theirpoetry have roots in ancient songs on immortals of Han era. In this research I alsoanalyse four Han songs on immortals to illustrate how the conventional court patterswent beyond conventions by the end of Han period turning into a more complex andcreative poetical phenomenon.The suggested topic of research is very broad and may lead into many differentareas. The particular aim of this research is to define the main social and political circumstances of Han China which determined the beginning of the tradition of poetryabout immortality in Chinese literature.