Cheng Qianfan recommended ancient fu poetry.

Author: Cao Hong / Cheng Zhangcan
Annotations:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: The term "Ci" and "Fu" were originally the same and could be used interchangeably as literary forms. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the great scholar Liu Xiang compiled the works of authors such as Qu Yuan and Song Yu. Due to their strong regional characteristics, they were collectively titled Chuci (Songs of Chu), meaning the words or literature of the Chu people. However, when his son Liu Xin assisted him in compiling the imperial bibliography Bielu (Annotations) and Qilue (Seven Summaries), he categorized them separately as Qu Yuan’s Fu, Song Yu’s Fu, and so on. This shows that in the eyes of the Han people, there was no distinction between "Ci" and "Fu." However, later works named after "Fu" became more common, leading people to view "Ci" as referring exclusively to the works of Qu Yuan, Song Yu, and their followers. As a general term, "Fu" could include "Ci," but "Ci" did not include "Fu."
The term "Fu" has two meanings in the realm of literature: one refers to a rhetorical device, and the other refers to a literary genre. As a rhetorical device, its meaning is "elaboration"—any description of objective phenomena using this technique can be called "Fu." It was originally embodied in the Book of Songs and was generalized by the Han people, alongside the other two rhetorical devices, "Bi" (comparison) and "Xing" (evocation). This rhetorical device, due to its extensive application by writers and influenced by other indispensable factors, gradually evolved into a distinctive cultural form—Fu.