Poetry on history refers to poems written to convey a poet’s sentiments by reflecting on historical events or historical figures. A poem on history touched on historical events and expressed the poet’s historical insight as well as his emotional attachment to history. Such poems recounted, relived, revived, interpreted, or chanted about history. S…
Ci (词) originated in the Tang and the Five Dynasties, and developed to maturity as a new literary form in the Song Dynasty. Also known as “lyric with a melody,” “yuefu (乐府) poetry” or “long and short verses,” ci developed from poetry. Its main feature is that it is set to music and sung. Each piece of ci has a name for its tune. There are s…
Music itself should not be divided into joyful music and sad music – it can only accommodate or inspire feelings. This idea was first raised by Ji Kang (223-262 or 224-263) of the Three Kingdoms period. Ji held that music should be separated from emotion and aspiration. Emotion and aspiration, he said, are controlled by the soul and show themselves…