On the Creation and Evolution of Impromptu Yuefu Poetry in the Song Dynasty

Yuefu verses are Chinese poems composed in a folk song style.The impromptu Yuefu verses,characterized by impromptu creation and with its concern over the plight of the masses and political malaise of the time at the core,cater to the tastes of poets in the Song Dynasty and become trendy in the literary creations of that time.The Yuefu verses in the Song Dynasty reflected the real social life of that time,and they were characterized both by sincere,penetrating ideas and brisk,vivid art form with noticeable vitality and hence influenced the later creations of Yuefu verses in a very profound way.Compared with the New Yuefu led by poets like Bai Juyi,Yuan Zhen,etc.in the Tang Dynasty,the impromptu Yuefu verses in the Song Dynasty undergo fundamental changes in terms of the stylistic forms.Besides inheriting the old titles of Yuefu of Han Dynasty,the Yuefu poems in the Song Dynasty also take on the folksong-form.What's noteworthy is that the emergence of modern-style poems in such Yuefu verses marks a new milestone in the development of Yuefu poetry.