An Examination of Difficult to Walk:Its Dissemination and Evolution

Yutaixinyong( New Odes from the Jade Terrace) includes nine poems of Xinglunan( Difficult to Walk) composed in the Southern Dynasties( 420-589),with its subjects related to females,and each line mostly consisting of seven characters.At the beginning,they were popular folk songs lamenting the difficult journey,as the name suggests.After Yuan Shansong's adaptation,they were widely circulated in the Southern Dynasties as elegies.Bao Zhao not only preserved the original meanings,but also extended the theme and style of the poems entitled Difficult to Walk,which marked the first time the subject of females had been adopted in these poems,with an ornate style and gorgeous words to express their grief.In addition,the heroic style was inherited by Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty.