A Comparative Study On The Book Of Songs And The Han Yuefu Poetry About Abandoned Wives

Based on the abandoned wives, the poetry of the abandoned wives is a kind of poetical works to describe their life experiences and to present their thoughts, feelings and mental activities. The Book of Songs is the first Chinese anthology of poetry, and there are many chapters describing marriage, love and female image, including a lot of poetries of the abandoned wives. The poetry of the abandoned wives in the Book of Songs opened a basic pattern for the creation of the poetry of the abandoned wives in the history of Chinese literature, influencing much on later generations’ literature writing that are based on the abandoned wives. The later poetry of the abandoned wives of Yue-fu in the Han Dynasty is just an example that inherits and develops the Book of Songs a lot, so there are many similarities between them. But due to the different ages, the contexts of the two kinds of poetries’ creation change. In addition, because of the changes of the creation subjects and different process of writing the poetry, the abandoned wives of the Book of Songs and Yue-fu in the Han Dynasty have obvious diversities and differences about the character image, such as the abandoned wives’ attitude and behavior that they uphold when they deal with emotional problems. There are also many diversities and differences about the amount, the geographical distribution and the artistic expression as well as the style of poetry of the abandoned wives. Solving this problem has significance in the process of the insight into the poetry of the abandoned wives of the Book of Songs and Yue-fu in the Han Dynasty, and revealing the primary creation background of the poetry as well as its development and change.