"Shangshu Shundian" says that "poetry and words, songs and words, sound and harmony". In the previous chapter, "Ming Poetry Sixth", it is precisely following the "Poetry and Aspirations, Song Yongyan" that reveals the essence of poetry and derives a definition: poetry is the expression of words that express ambition and feelings. So, what does it mean to "sound in harmony and harmony"?

Since human beings have moved towards civilized life, the material basis for cultural exchanges and artistic inheritance has relied on its most basic sensory organs, that is, the so-called "sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch" derived from the "five senses" such as eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. In the midst of this, the instinct of human behavior to speak or sing is obviously closely related to hearing. Therefore, anything that can be "verbally sung" must be inseparable from the sound that stimulates the sensory organs. In ancient China, after analyzing the rhythm, pitch and strength of sounds, some of them boiled down to the "five tones and twelve rhythms", that is, the "five tones" such as gong, shang, jiao, zheng and yu according to the scale; and the six yang laws according to the tone, namely "Huang Zhong, Tai Tuan, Gu Xi, Ruibin, Yi Ze, and Death Shot", and six Yin laws, namely "Da Lu, Jia Zhong, Zhong Lu, Lin Zhong, Nan Lu, and Ying Zhong", which are collectively known as the "Twelve Laws". In essence, sound is simply composed of sound waves with different frequencies and amplitudes. Intuitively, sound is composed of different tones of high, low, strong and weak, while from a vocal point of view, musical poetry is just some tones with a fixed rhythm. Therefore, if any poem that expresses aspirations and feelings is only recorded in books and used by people to read or circulate, it can be generally said to be "poetic writing". However, if the "poetic text" can not only be pronounced and pleasing to the ear, but also can be sung into a beautiful and beautiful singing voice...... If you want to give it a name, it will be called "Yuefu".

Legend has it that above the heavens, in the place where God lives, there is always a loud and melodious sound that continues to be heard. During the period from Ge Tianshi to the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, it is also said that there was a song called "Eight Runs" that was entertaining and educational. However, all this, just like the rumors that the Yellow Emperor wrote "Xianchi" and Emperor Yu once wrote "Six Ying", can no longer be verified and implemented. According to the record of "Lü's Spring and Autumn • Ji Chun Ji • Yin Chu": Tu Shan's daughter looks forward to Xia Yu's singing "Waiting Song", which should be the first of the southern music songs; The "Ballad of Feiyan", which was read by the two daughters of the Lou family when they were sad, was the beginning of the northern music song; The "Song of Breaking the Axe" composed by Kong Jia in the Xia Dynasty living in Dongyang should be the end of oriental music; The longing song of the Shang Dynasty is the beginning of Western music. In fact, delving into the specific evolution process of regional music songs from all directions should be far from being so simple, let alone so generalized. Because in ancient times, the common people, husbands and wives, men and women, depending on the heavens and the earth, and from person to person, were completely eclectic and sang Acura or lyrical chant for some reason. At that time, the emperors and leaders would usually send special people to collect wind from all directions, and select fashionable and popular moving works from them, which were generally composed by blind musicians, and then played with orchestral bells, and there would be special people to listen to and analyze, so as to achieve the ruling needs and management purposes of discerning and listening to music. Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Jin State Division heard about the "Southern Music" and predicted the rise and fall of the Chu State; Wu Guoji listened to the "Book of Songs" and understood the rise and fall of the princes. This level of ability is amazingly subtle! It can be seen that folk songs and folk sounds are all from the liver and gallbladder heart, not only the objective embodiment of people's true feelings, emotions and wishes, but also this emotional atmosphere can also infect and penetrate each other, and even be engraved in the marrow of people's souls, becoming a symbol of regional civilization, leading the style of life to continue to change completely. Because of this, the emperors and sages of all dynasties have always attached great importance to the limelight direction of music and poetry, and must detect and resolutely put an end to the breeding and proliferation of any obscene and disorderly music and songs. Moreover, it is precisely because they are well aware of the educational value and significance of music culture, so they have always strictly disciplined the emperor and the children of the world, requiring them to only listen, sing and learn poetry and music that magnificently govern and ceremonies, the purpose is to be able to educate the three talents, the four seasons and the eight directions, and at the same time to ensure the hereditary inheritance of power and wealth.

Throughout the music and poetry, since the silence of the righteous and the righteous, the promiscuous and promiscuous have overflowed so much that they have taken over the dominance. In addition, Qin Shi Huang wantonly burned the "Book of Music", and it was not until the founding of the Han Dynasty that the music was able to resume its prosperity. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the vocal rhythm was determined by the musician system (the name of the birth and death is unknown), and the Shusun Tong (born and died unknown, a native of Xue County, who had formulated the court rites for the Han Dynasty for Dr. Qin) clarified the ritual procedures and contents. As a result, there was the "Wude Dance" of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and the "Dance of the Four Seasons" of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, although it was said that it was imitated in the style of "Yu Shao" and "Daxia", but in fact it inherited the music of the Qin Dynasty. It can also be seen from this that the melody charm of the ancient times can no longer be restored. Because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty advocated etiquette and religion, the imperial court set up a full-time institution of "Yuefu". This kind of government agency focusing on music culture initially focused on collecting folk music and folk songs from the Zhao, Dynasty, Qi and Chu regions, and then mainly composed music and harmony by musician Li Yannian (a musician whose birth year is unknown, Western Han musicians) and others, making them suitable for playing and singing. At the same time, like Zhu Maichen (born and died unknown, Wengzi, a native of Wu County, Western Han Dynasty) and Sima Xiangru, they also followed the waves, and incorporated the Chu Ci style into the songs of the time, so Tang Ji of Han Gaozu also created the "Guihua" miscellaneous song, although it was gorgeous and not compliant; In addition, the "Red Goose" articles of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's eastern tour are difficult to call classics despite their extravagance. Therefore, at that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ignored the classical music recommended to the imperial court by King Hejian Xian (Liu De, the second son of Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Jing Dynasty in 171-130 BC). However, at that time, Ji Di (a native of Puyang, a famous minister of the Western Han Dynasty, from ?-112 BC) proposed to include Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "Song of Heavenly Horses" in the eulogy of the "suburbs...... Such a slippery tout is not to maintain the dignity of the emperor, it is really a detachment from morality. Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty (Liu Xun, formerly known as Liu Ai, the tenth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, reigned from 74 to 49 BC, a famous virtuous monarch in Chinese history) ascended the throne, and for a period of time, he advocated "Ya" and "Song", especially the "Luming" of "The Book of Songs, Xiaoya"; However, in the two dynasties of Emperor Yuan and Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, the dregs of lewd pleasure reappeared, Yazheng corrected the deviation in vain, and the world was obediently departed. After the Han Zuo moved eastward, the new suburban ritual "Wude Dance Song" composed by Liu Cang, the king of Dongping (the son of Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty in ?-83 AD), although the lyrics of Yazheng were mixed in the tone of ancient music, in the actual rhythm and charm effect, there was no classical music official like Shun Kui and Shi Kuang's voice.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the three ancestors of Cao Wei (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Rui) were refreshed and talented. Their poems are not only harmonious and ancient, but also harmonious and new, and have the characteristics of extravagance and flattening, so they are fixed as "Huang Chu Coquettish". Among them, such as Cao Cao's "Bitter Cold Travel", Cao Pi's "Yan Ge Xing", etc., or a hearty feast, or a tiring journey, indulgent and frank, and sad rhetoric, although the "three tones" (clear tone, flat tone, and Se tune) conform to the rhythm of Ji Zhou, but the temperament flows in the Zheng sound of "Shao" and "Xia". Transferred to the Jin Dynasty, Fu Xuan (217-278 A.D., a native of Niyang County, Beidi County, Xiuyi, and a writer and thinker in the Western Jin Dynasty) was proficient in music and rhythm, and his works were elegant and positive, mainly praising the ancestors of the Jin Dynasty. Zhang Hua (232-300 AD, a native of Fanyang Fangcheng, a politician, writer, bibliophile, and bibliophile in the Western Jin Dynasty) was erudite and talented, and his new works were full of both inside and outside the court at the time. However, in terms of determining the tonal standard at that time, such as the ancient music calibrated by Du Kui in the late Han Dynasty (the year of birth and death is unknown, about the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the era of Emperor Wen of Wei, the character Gongliang Luoyang), it is said that the rhythm is too soothing; And the Wei Jin Xun Xun (AD?-289 character Gong Zeng Yingchuan Yingyin people) corrected Zhong Xuanqinse, the tone is too rapid and complaining. Their contemporary, Ruan Xian (born and died in an unknown year, Zhong Rong, one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest" at the end of the Wei Dynasty, was proficient in music), questioned whether the scale of tuning used at that time might be different from that of ancient times. Later, archaeological verification turned out to be as Ruan Xian expected. Therefore, the subtlety of music is a thousand miles away.

The so-called Yuefu is music and poetry. Poetry is the backbone of Yuefu, and music is the skin of Yuefu. As far as Yuefu is concerned, what kind of singing voice is generally possessed, when the blind musician listens to it, he will have a clear understanding of what kind of rhyme and tune he composes; Therefore, only with a melody and rhythm that a gentleman can dance and write a splendid rhetoric that is upright, generous, and benevolent. Therefore, in "The Book of Songs, Tang Feng, Cricket", because of the words "good happiness and no waste", Ji Za commented on the cultural atmosphere of the Jin Kingdom, with thoughtfulness and foresight; Also in the "Book of Songs, Zheng Feng, Qin Wei", there is a "Yiqi Xiangyi", so Ji Za predicted that Zheng Guo would die early because of his excessive prostitution. It can be seen that the reason why Ji Zha, who is in the remote state of Wu, and who came to the country of Lu with etiquette and civilization, asked to hear and witness the live performance of the "national style" was not simply to entertain with joy, but to listen to the music and know the government, and the purpose was to foresee the future from it. Needless to say, since ancient times, all obscenity has been accompanied by lust, and grievances must have been rampant. So under the lewd and perverse atmosphere, why can't elegance and righteousness gallop to glory? Because the folk people have always been eager to pursue novelty and chase the trend, and art competitions are often demanding to be innovative, so for the exquisite and gentle elegance that can exist forever, people who are keen on fashion are either stunned or yawning, and they are cheering for the new things that are good to sell, and leaning forward and back. This is the reason why "Yuefu", once it enters the old path of Zheng Sheng in the "Book of Songs", it will definitely decay and die.

Yuefu, or music song, or music poetry, its lyrics are poems, and after the poems are rhymed and pitched, everything that can be sung is a song. If you trace back to the roots, Yuefu has poems and then tunes, so it is suitable for singing; If the original poem is too numerous to compose, it will lose its characteristic nature, so Yuefu is expensive in "simplicity". Because of this, Cao Zhi once praised Li Yannian, saying that he is a musician who is good at editing famous artists or poems into Yuefu. Therefore, for example, the representative works of Yuefu, such as "Song of the Great Wind" by Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and "Song of Mrs. Li" by Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, are all concise and clear poems, even if children hum them, they are also catchy; For example, some of Cao Pi and Lu Ji's poems and masterpieces were just because they were not specially cut by musicians at that time, so they could not be sung, so later generations thought that their works had deviated from the tune of Yuefu. Isn't this a random mandarin duck spectrum, which is purely confusing. As for some other special types of songs, such as the Yellow Emperor's "Drum Song" by Qi Bo, as well as the "Cymbal Song" and "Elegy" that appeared in the Han Dynasty, although they belong to special musical poems such as military music and mourning music, they are also suitable for singing because of their simplicity and clarity, and can be classified as Yuefu; In addition, such as the "Wei Drum Song" of Wei State Miao Xi (186-245 AD name Xibo Donghai Lanling people) and Wu State Wei Zhao (204-273 AD character Hongsi Wu County Yunyang people) "Wu Drum Song" can also be classified as Yuefu. In the Han Dynasty, when Liu Xiang commented on the article to his father and son, he separated "poem" from "song", so in "Seven Strategies", the poems are classified in the "Six Arts Strategy" and the song is in "Poetry Fuluo". Therefore, the main purpose of this article is only to give a general definition of "Yuefu".

In short: music culture, music style, poetry for the body, tune for use. The countryside collects style, the court scores music, Shaoyin is hard to find, and Zheng Sheng is easy to obtain. Chasing the wind from all over the world, kitsch is happy? Lile governor also.