\tThe yuefu \u4e50\u5e9c "[songs of the] Music Bureau" is a poetic genre prevalent during the Han period \u6c49 (206 BC-220 CE). In this narrow sense it is called Han yuefu \u6c49\u4e50\u5e9c. It introduced both a new kind of shape (five-syllable verses) and new contents at a social and often very personal level into Chinese poetry. The yuefu was so popular that Han period yuefu were imitated by later poets until the mid-Tang period \u5510 (618-907). The term Han yuefu often includes ancient, i. e. anonymous songs (gushi \u53e4\u8bd7) from the Han period which are, from the origin and the content, actually no yuefu songs. Examples of these songs can be found in the collection Gushi shijiu shou \u53e4\u8bd7\u5341\u4e5d\u9996.<\/p>\n
\tThe Music Bureau was a Han period central government institution collecting and administrating music needed by the court at special occasions, like sacrifices, inspection tours, court ceremonies, bankets or archery contests. It was established during the reign of Emperor Wu \u6c49\u6b66\u5e1d (r. 141-87 BCE), probably already under Emperor Hui \u6c49\u60e0\u5e1d (r. 195-188 BC) with the appointment of a Grand Director of Music (taiyueling \u592a\u4e50\u4ee4). During the early decades of the Han dynasty the court either used melodies and chants from the Qin dynasty \u79e6 (221-206 BC) of songs from the ancient kingdom of Chu \u695a in southern China. Emperor Wu, in the course of his general reform and standardization of the state administration, established the Music Bureau. This bureau defined 19 chants for the state offerings (Han jiaosi ge shijiu zhang \u6c49\u90ca\u7940\u6b4c\u5341\u4e5d\u7ae0). These had to be rubberstamped by members of the Confucian department of the National University (taixue \u592a\u5b66). Text and melody were refined by Li Yannian \u674e\u5ef6\u5e74, his sister, Lady Li \u674e\u592b\u4eba, and her team of dancers, and the writer Sima Xiangru \u53f8\u9a6c\u76f8\u5982. This new type of song (xinsheng qu \u65b0\u58f0\u66f2) laid stress on state offerings, the service of the dynasty to Heaven and Earth and the incovation of felicity and good omina, and less on the veneration of the imperial ancestors. Emperor Wu had thus reformed the ancient odes and hymns used at the royal courts during the Western Zhou \u897f\u5468 (11th cent.-770 BCE) and Warring States \u6218\u56fd (5th cent.-221 BCE) periods. The performance of music was so important that at the end of the Former Han period \u524d\u6c49 (206 BCE-8 CE) the court employed almost a thousand female dancers for various occasions. While the Director of Music was concerned with sacrificial court music, the Music Bureau had to manage the other types of music. While the sacrificial music was very refined and written in an antique style (the so-called "elegant music" yayue \u96c5\u4e50), people preferred a more fresh and familiar style for other occasions (suqu xinsheng \u4fd7\u66f2\u65b0\u58f0). Emperor Ai \u6c49\u54c0\u5e1d (r. 7-1 BCE) therefore suspended the work of the Music Bureau.<\/p>\n
\tAt the beginning of the Later Han period \u540e\u6c49 (25-220 CE) Confucianism was less strong because it had divided into several contending branches. It lost therefore its influence on the music sponsored by the court. Five-syllable poems (wuyan shi \u4e94\u8a00\u8bd7) had won over the old four-syllable verses (siyan shi \u56db\u8a00\u8bd7). The organisation of the court music was restructured. Offerings and official banquets were arranged by the Grand Director who was subject to the Chamberlain for Ceremonials (taichang qing \u592a\u5e38\u537f), while all other musical events were laid into the hands of the Director of Palace Entertainments (chenghualing \u627f\u534e\u4ee4) who was subject to the Chamberlain for the Palace Revenues (shaofu \u5c11\u5e9c). The Bureau was now also responsible for the active collection of songs from among the population. This decision was not an expression of benevolence towards the people but had to do with the popularity of the apocryphal interpretation of the Confucian Classics. This branch of Confucianism expected portents and omina appearing all over the country, and also in the voice of the people. Their songs therefore could be a help for a better government.<\/p>\n
\tAt the end of the Former Han period, the Music Bureau had collected 314 songs from all over the country, of which actually only 55 were really songs from the people and not court hymns for sacrifices. During the Later Han period it was also local officials that sponsored the composition and collection of yuefu songs. Two traditions of yuefu had thus come into being, the one consisting of songs collected by the court and officially recorded in imperial bibliographies. A list can be found in the treatise on music in the official dynastic history Songshu \u5b8b\u4e66 (19-22 Yue zhi \u4e50\u5fd7). The others were circulating among the population or the local gentry and was only occasionally recorded so that these songs were dispersed in various writings. The earliest collections came up in the 6th century, the Yutai xinyong \u7389\u53f0\u65b0\u548f. The first comprehensive collection of Han yuefu is the Yuefu shiji \u4e50\u5e9c\u8bd7\u96c6 from the Song period \u5b8b (960-1279). This collection is also the first attempt to categorize yuefu songs according to use, content and the musical keys of modes. Jiaomiao ge \u90ca\u5e99\u6b4c "Temple songs", Guchui qu \u9f13\u5439\u66f2 "Drum-and-pipe melodies" and Wuqu \u821e\u66f2 "Dances" were court songs, but the Guchui type also includes songs from among the people, which are otherwise found in the categories Xianghe qu \u76f8\u548c\u66f2 "Joint harmony melodies" and Zaqu \u6742\u66f2 "Miscellaneous melodies". The court songs can compared with the old hymns (song \u9882) of the Shijing \u8bd7\u7ecf, the popular songs with the feng \u98ce category in this Confucian Classic. The popular song is called geyao \u6b4c\u8c23, and it is often subsumed unter the term yuefu. Both the musical compositions used by the court as well as popular songs were anonymous, at least during the Han period. Only very few authors of Han yuefu are known, like Xin Yannian \u8f9b\u5ef6\u5e74 (song Yulin lang \u7fbd\u6797\u90ce), Song Zihou \u5b8b\u5b50\u4faf (Dong Jiaorao \u8463\u5a07\u5a06) or Li Yannian \u674e\u5ef6\u5e74 (Beifang you jiaren \u5317\u65b9\u6709\u4f73\u4eba).<\/p>\n
\tTogether with the yuefu songs from the Later Han period, more than 100 Han period yuefu are surviving. They are to be found in various texts, from the treatises on music in the official dynastic histories Hanshu \u6c49\u4e66 and Houhanshu \u540e\u6c49\u4e66 and the literary anthologies Wenxuan \u6587\u9009 and Yutai xinyong. The whole corpus of yuefu songs, from the Han period to the Tang, has been assembled in the Song period collection Yuefu shiji.<\/p>\n
\tHan period yuefu songs are to a great extent songs with a deep emotional content, describing the suffering of people of all social backgrounds. Part of them even includes a direct critique towards the social conditions under which the people lived during that time. Soldiers, husbands and wives, orphans, widows, retainers of betrayed nobles, girls forced into marriage are the themes prevalent in a large part of Han period yuefu poems. To this category belong the famous songs Dongmen xing \u4e1c\u95e8\u884c "The eastern gate", Guer xing \u5b64\u513f\u884c "The orphan", Fubing xing \u5987\u75c5\u884c "A wife was sick", Zhan cheng nan \u6218\u57ce\u5357 "Battling south of the ramparts", Shiwu congjun zheng \u5341\u4e94\u4ece\u519b\u5f81 "Aged fifteen I went to war", Yinma changcheng ku xing \u996e\u9a6c\u957f\u57ce\u7a9f\u884c "Watering horses at the breech on the Great Wall", Shanshang cai miwu \u4e0a\u5c71\u91c7\u863c\u829c "Plucking orchids on the mountain", Yuan ge xing \u6028\u6b4c\u884c "A song of sorrow", You suo si \u6709\u6240\u601d "There is someone I think of", or Shang xie \u4e0a\u90aa "Heaven, alas!". The song Mo shang sang \u964c\u4e0a\u6851 "Mulberry trees on the waterside" is a kind of pastourella in which a wife from the nobility renounces the avances of another nobleman. The ballad Kongque dongnan fei \u5b54\u96c0\u4e1c\u5357\u98de "Phoenix flies to the southeast" describes the tragic love between Liu Lanzhi \u5218\u5170\u829d and Jiao Zhongqing \u7126\u4ef2\u537f that are both forced to marry someone else.<\/p>\n
\tSome yuefu poems like Mingji \u9e21\u9e23, Xiangfeng xing \u76f8\u9022\u884c or Chang'an you xia xie xing \u957f\u5b89\u6709\u72ed\u659c\u884c describe the fight for power of some rival families and the prodigity of their lifes in contrast to the simple life of the peasants and the lower gentry. The poems Huainan minge \u6dee\u5357\u6c11\u6b4c and Wei Huanghou ge \u536b\u7687\u540e\u6b4c are a direct critiques towards the imperial house, while Laoshi ge \u7262\u77f3\u6b4c describes the intrigues of court cliques, and Wuhou ge \u4e94\u4faf\u6b4c describes the extravagance of the higher nobility. These poems still stand in the tradition of many feng songs of the Shijing.
\tMorally correct behaviour of women is the theme of the poems Mo shang sang, Yulin lang, Longxi xing \u9647\u897f\u884c and Shang shan cai miwu. In many situations a women laments about separation from her husband, or about his infidelity, like in Quche shang dongmen xing \u9a71\u8f66\u4e0a\u4e1c\u95e8\u884c, Ranran gu sheng zhu \u5189\u5189\u5b64\u751f\u7af9, Qingqing ling shang bo \u9752\u9752\u9675\u4e0a\u67cf, Gu ge \u53e4\u6b4c, Yinma changcheng xing, Yan ge xing or Gao tian zhong xiao mai \u9ad8\u7530\u79cd\u5c0f\u9ea6.<\/p>\n
\tGeneral worldly wisdom is the content of Chang ge xing \u957f\u6b4c\u884c, Meng hu xing \u731b\u864e\u884c and Ku yu guo he qi \u67af\u9c7c\u8fc7\u6cb3\u6ce3.<\/p>\n
\tYet not all songs have a sad and desparate mood. There are also yuefu songs praising competent officials and ideal conditions, like Yanmen taishou xing \u96c1\u95e8\u592a\u5b88\u884c, Jiangnan \u6c5f\u5357 or Cheng zhong yao \u57ce\u4e2d\u8c23.<\/p>\n
\tSome features of the yuefu are very similar to the feng style poems in the Shijing, like the anacrusis of a poem (xing \u5174) in the shape of a picture from nature, like reed, trees on a hill, grass on the banks of a river, with a subsequent and often immediate transition to the personal feelings of the lyrical ego. While the Shijing songs have a kind of refrain and the stanzas are very repetitive, yuefu songs are much more narrative and connected with a concrete personal situation. They are less general – and thus prone to a Confucian interpretation as general description of conduct – but often very concrete descriptions of a personal experience, some of which appear like factual incidents. Allegorical images from nature often serve as stylistic devices, referring to birds or trees. Dialogues are also often involved. The individuals described in the yuefu are very strong personalities, especially the women, like Qin Luofu \u79e6\u7f57\u6577 who resists the immoral offers of another nobelman (or, jokingly, her own husband?), Miss Hu \u80e1\u59ec who criticises the retainers of the Huo \u970d family, or poor Dong Jiaorao \u8463\u5a07\u5a06.<\/p>\n