National Classics -- Fu

Author: Chen Hongzhi (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The fu is one of the most nationally distinctive literary genres in ancient China. It boasts an extremely long history of development and an incredibly rich body of creative works, profoundly influencing various aspects of China's politics, economy, and culture throughout the vast expanse of history. In the long and storied history of Chinese literature, the status of the fu is on par with poetry and ci, both of which were once associated with grand and prosperous feudal dynasties, becoming cultural benchmarks of their eras. The rise of the fu is a matter of great antiquity. Poems composed by officials on high occasions, humorous remarks by entertainers, eloquent speeches by wandering scholars, and lyrical verses by Qu Yuan—when all these were synthesized, they gave rise to this genre. From the rise of the Han Dynasty to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the fu stood alongside poetry as a prominent literary form, enduring for over two thousand years without interruption. Since the May Fourth Movement, the slogans of "the heresy of the Tongcheng school" and "the demon of textual studies" have been widely propagated, leading to even harsher criticism of the fu, until this once illustrious discipline vanished overnight, now reduced to a lost art. How tragic it is to see the end of such a tradition without reflection! The flaws of the fu need no concealment; its decline need no denial; its extinction, however, cannot go unmentioned. It is with this book that we attempt, not to revitalize this art overnight, but to partially compensate for the shortcomings of predecessors and avoid the shame of forgetting our cultural roots. The book is divided into four parts: the first part briefly outlines the historical evolution of the fu to clarify its lineage; the second part selects and compiles famous works and masterpieces of the fu to elaborate on its branches; the third part introduces the essential knowledge of the fu to rectify its reputation; the fourth part collects essays on fu studies by modern scholars to demonstrate the depth and breadth of this field.