Fu (poetry)

Fu (traditional Chinese: 賦; simplified Chinese: 赋; pinyin: fù, meaning "Descriptive poem") is a kind of rhymed prose, or poetry style essay, popular in Classical Chinese literature. The fu is especially associated with the Han Dynasty, although perhaps first being exemplified in the Chuci and retaining popularity until fairly recently with the rise of modern Chinese literature. The term fu is often used in a multiway contrast with the more purely poetic shi style, with the fixed-rhythm forms of poetry (such as the ci and the sanqu), and with various more explicitly prosaic forms of literature, such as rhythmic parallel prose. In terms of traditional Chinese literary classification the fu was considered to be a form of wen (文) rather than shi (詩); however, these categories do not translate easily or exactly into English. One major distinction between fu and more purely poetic forms of literature (as stated in the Book of Han) is that fu were quoted, rather than being sung.

During the Han Dynasty, the Chu Ci type of lyrics contributed toward the evolution of the fu. It is a type of prose-poem which may include introductory, concluding, or other interspersed passages that are in prose, typically in the form of questions and answers. However, some fu are completely written in a regular meter with rhyme. The fu is usually called rhapsody in English, but has also been called "rhyme-prose," "exposition," and sometimes "poetical essay." This type of fu is distinctly different from the different Chinese character/word fu used to describe the style of poetry developed in the Han Dynasty known as yue fu, in which case fu (府) is a different term meaning "bureau", as in the governmental Music Bureau.

Han fu

A Han fu is typically very long, describes a subject exhaustively from every possible angle, and is usually meant to display the poet's rhetorical and lexical skill rather than express personal feeling. Since it is meant to impress and display, the Han fu is termed the "epideictic fu." One of the most well-known Han fu is Sima Xiangru's Tianzi Youlie Fu (天子遊獵賦 "Rhapsody on the Son of Heaven on a Leisurely Hunt"). The philosopher Yang Xiong, historian Ban Gu, and astronomer Zhang Heng also wrote important rhapsodies during Han.

Six Dynasties fu

During the Six Dynasties, fu remained a major poetic genre, and together with shi formed the twin generic pillars of Chinese poetry until shi began to dominate in the Tang dynasty. The typical Six Dynasties fu is very different than those of the Han, being much shorter, and often personal, expressive, and lyrical. Many have no prose appendages, consisting entirely of rhymed verse in regular, usually hexametric, metre. A fine early example of this "short lyrical fu" (shuqing xiao fu 抒情小賦) is Xi Kang's Qin Fu (琴賦) "Rhapsody on the Zither). Another representative work of this kind is Yu Xin's Ai Jiangnan Fu (哀江南賦 "Rhapsody in Lament of the South").

Social protest

Part of the great legacy associated with the fu is as a form of sociopolitical protest. For example, the Han Dynasty historian and author Ban Gu in his book History of the Former Han Dynasty refers to a fu by Qu Yuan (famous for being attributed as author of the Li Sao) as a literary example of a loyal minister who has been unjustly exiled, rather than receiving the promotion and respect which he truly deserves. This theme can be seen to contribute to the development of the somewhat personal Xiaoxiang, or poetry lamenting the exile of the poet (or, transferatively, of friends or historical figures), genre(s) of poetry. However, it should be understood that the Confucian perspective on poetry very much included that poetry should perform a certain general function of social criticism or protest. A progressive step in the process of synthesis between the personal and the general (which later can be seen in a fully developed state with the poetry of Tao Yuanming) can be seen in the poetic works of Zhang Heng, such as his "Return to the Country" (a fu of the Later Han era). Another example of such a fu is his Return to the Field.

See also

• Ban Gu
• Chuci
• Classical Chinese poetry forms
• Han poetry
• Qu Yuan
• Sima Xiangru
• Society and culture of the Han Dynasty#Poetry and rhapsodies
• Yu Xin (poet)
• Zhang Heng, and also his Return to the Field

References

• Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction, The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse. (Baltimore: Penguin Books (1970).
• Frankel, Hans H. (1978). The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) ISBN 0-300-02242-5
• Watson, Burton (1971). CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century. (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-03464-4