Odes and Songs in the Tang Dynasty

Abstract

Folk poetry was very developed in the Tang dynasty. We cannot see “Yang Wu Banlu” (the 6-character odes made by Yang Junzhi) (Yang Wu Banlu (杨五伴侣): According to History of the Northern Dynasty. Yang Xiuzhi (《北史·阳休之》), “Yang Wu Banlu” referred to the 6-character odes made by Yang Junzhi (阳俊之), Yang Xiuzhi’s younger brother. Because the contents of his odes were often lascivious and unskilled, thus was named as “Yang Wu Banlu”.) in the Six dynasties any longer, but they still existed in the works of Wang Fanzhi, Gu Kuang, Luo Yin, Du Xunhe and the like in the Tang dynasty. Bai Juyi’s poetry, though it was said to be understood by everyone, was truly not folk poetry. They were not popular enough, neither dared to write especially for the common people, nor to introduce the dialects into the poetry, nor to grasp the emotions and moods of the common people and express them too. The poetry of Wang Fanzhi and the like were really the very folk poetry, which could be understood and enjoyed by the true common people.