Selected Rhapsodies of the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties

Author: Chen Qingyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The fu is a literary form that falls between poetry and prose. It is said to lean towards poetry because it often has rhymes. Early fu had linguistic forms that were either close to the Book of Songs or adopted the style of Chu Ci. Later short fu in the Late Northern and Southern Dynasties often mixed poetic phrasing. It is said to lean towards prose because it lacks the regular sentence structures of poetry and, except for regulated fu, does not have strict tonal requirements. This book selects more than thirty fu from the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties periods. Due to space limitations, some lengthy masterpieces such as Zixu and Shanglin Fu, The Fu of the Three Capitals, and The Lament for the South of the Yangtze River had to be omitted. The selected texts strive to include important writers and famous works from each era.