Ancient Chinese Literary Style Norms Reader -- Fu

Author: Meng Zhaochen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The Artistic Garden of Yan and Huang, the Literary Courtyard of China. Exquisite flowers and plants vie in beauty. Among them, a rare gem exists, called Fu and Parallel Prose, straddling the line between poetry and prose. Descended from the lineage of Shijing and Shu, it is a new chapter of unrestrained brilliance. It originated in the Warring States period, flourished in the ornate styles of the Six Dynasties, evolved through the transformations of the Tang and Song dynasties, and continued into the Ming and Qing dynasties. Over a millennium, it blossomed into a grand spectacle. The essence of Fu lies between poetry and prose. It cannot be called poetry, yet it is not prose. To say it is not poetry is to ignore its parallelism and rhyme; to say it is not prose is to overlook its independent and scattered lines. Its strength lies in combining the best of both, possessing the poetic essence and rhythm of poetry, as well as the structural layout of prose. In Chinese literary genres, it holds a unique position. Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian includes Jia Yi’s Eulogy to Qu Yuan and Eulogy to the Cuckoo in the Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Yi, and The Master of the Empty Valley and The Garden of the King in the Biography of Sima Tansun. After Records of the Grand Historian, Ban Gu’s Book of Han collected Yang Xiong’s Eulogy to the Sweet Spring, Eulogy to the Eastern River, Eulogy to the Bird Hunt, and Eulogy to the Long Yang. To regard a work as a historical record was the highest praise ancient people could give to literary works. Those ancient literary works that enjoyed this honor were not limited to Fu alone, but there were few. Fu emerged after the Shijing and Shu, and before regulated verse, drama, and fiction. Chronologically, Fu is the origin of ancient Chinese literature, shouldering the responsibility of advancing its development. It expanded themes, enriched expressive techniques, and evolved forms, exerting a profound influence on later literary development. In terms of themes, the Selection of Refined Literature categorizes Fu into fifteen types. Modern scholars often trace the origins of various subjects through Fu. Fu’s descriptive works on journeys and tours offer abundant depictions of landscapes, paving the way for the literature of the Eastern Jin dynasty. Later, the landscape and pastoral poetry school emerged, giving rise to great writers like Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, and Liu Changqing. In Ming and Qing vernacular novels, Fu was a commonly used genre, employed to describe scenery, express emotions, or set the mood. In a sense, novels also rely on Fu. This book consists of two parts: the first introduces the literary knowledge of Fu, and the second is a selected collection of classic Fu. The literary knowledge section references the works of many experts, striving to be both profound and accessible. In the Fu section, considering its archaic and challenging nature, the selected works are mostly short and highly readable. The annotations are concise and to the point, aiming to help readers understand the original text without delving into tedious etymological.