#Type fu similar series#

A native of Chengdu, he was traditionally said to have been summoned to the imperial court after Emperor Wu happened to personally read his ' Fu of Sir Vacuous' ( Zǐxū fù 子虛賦), though this is almost certainly a story added later. Of all the authors from the golden age of 'grand fu' composition, Sima Xiangru is generally considered to be the greatest. In 'Seven Stimuli', Mei Sheng acts as a Warring States-style travelling orator who tries to cure a Chu prince of an illness caused by overindulgence in sensual pleasures by pushing his senses to their limits with his fu descriptions. The earliest grand fu of Emperor Wu's reign is 'Seven Stimuli' ( Qī fā 七發), by Mei Sheng ( 枚乘 d. Emperor Wu summoned famous fu writers to the imperial court in Chang'an, where many of them composed and presented fu to the entire court. Įmperor Wu of Han ascended the throne in 141 BC, and his 54-year reign is considered the golden age of 'grand fu' ( Chinese: 大賦 pinyin: dàfù). ' Fu on the Owl', besides being the earliest known fu, is unusual in the author's extended use of philosophical reflection upon his own situation in life. Jia Yi's ' Fu on the Owl', written around 170 BC, was composed following on the third year of his exile to Changsha, and uses much of the style of the Li Sao and other songs of the Verses of Chu. See also: Han poetry Western Han įu achieved its greatest prominence during the early Han dynasty. Jia's surviving writings mention an earlier fu he wrote upon his exile to Changsha which he modeled upon Qu Yuan's 'Encountering Sorrow' ( Li Sao), but it has not survived to the present. The earliest preserved and definitely datable fu is Jia Yi's ' Fu on the Owl' ( Fúniǎo fù 鵩鳥賦), composed about 170 BC.

#Type fu similar series#

A chapter of Xunzi containing a series of riddles has been theorized to be the earliest known fu. During the golden age of fu in the 2nd century BC, many of the greatest fu composers were from the southwestern area of Shu (modern Sichuan Province). įu poetry is often viewed as a descendant of the Verses of Chu ( Chu ci) songs combined with the rhetorical expositions of the Intrigues of the Warring States ( Zhanguo ce). Han dynasty historian Ban Gu in the 'Monograph on Arts and Letters' defined fu as 'to recite without singing' ( bù gē ér sòng 不歌而誦). Over the course of the late 1st millennium BC, fu became the name of poetic expositions in which an author or composer created a comprehensive exposition and performed it as a rhapsody. It was also one of the three literary devices traditionally assigned to the songs of the Classic of Poetry ( Shijing). 1046–221 BC), where it meant 'to present', as in poetic recitations. The term ' fu', when applied to Chinese literature, first appears in the Zhou dynasty ( c. Main article: History of fu poetry Origins Since then, study of fu has gradually returned to its previous level. Because of these historical associations, scholarship on fu poetry in China almost ceased entirely between 1949 and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. During a large part of the 20th century, fu poetry was harshly criticized by Chinese scholars as excessively ornate, lacking in real emotion, and ambiguous in its moral messages. There is no counterpart or similar form to the fu genre in Western literature. The largest collections of historical fu are the Selections of Refined Literature ( Wen xuan), the Book of Han, New Songs from the Jade Terrace, and official dynastic histories. Fu were used as grand praises for the imperial courts, palaces, and cities, but were also used to write ' fu on things', in which any place, object, or feeling was rhapsodized in exhaustive detail. The fu genre came into being around the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC and continued to be regularly used into the Song dynasty (960–1279). They were not sung like songs, but were recited or chanted.

Fu composers usually strove to use as wide a vocabulary as possible, and classical fu often contain many rare and archaic Chinese words. Features characteristic of fu include alternating rhyme and prose, varying line length, close alliteration, onomatopoeia, loose parallelism, and extensive cataloging of their topics. Fu are intermediary pieces between poetry and prose in which a place, object, feeling, or other subject is described and rhapsodized in exhaustive detail and from as many angles as possible. Song dynasty (960–1279) painting of a 2nd-century BC literary gathering at the court of Liu Wu, Prince of Liang Fuįu ( Chinese: 賦), often translated 'rhapsody' or 'poetic exposition', is a form of Chinese rhymed prose that was the dominant literary form during the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220).