In the Han Dynasty, it was generally called "Songs of the South" as Fu, which was not appropriate. Chu Ci and Han Fu are completely different in genre. The former is poetry and the latter is rhyming prose. Their syntactic form, structural organization and rhyme rules are two different categories. Judging from the relationship between music, although they are all recited without songs, the distance between Han Fu and music is farther than that of Chu Ci. Therefore, Sima Qian said: "After Qu Yuan's death, Song Yu, Le Tang, Jing Ke and other scholars in Chu all liked to express their opinions and called them Fu Jian." (Biography of Qu Yuan in Historical Records) It can be seen that there is a difference between Ci and Fu. Because Han Fu is a style directly influenced by Chu Ci, people in Han Dynasty used to call it Ci Fu, equating Qu and Song Ci with Mu Cheng and De Ci. Therefore, the concepts of word and fu are confused. From then on, Qu Yuan's works and even all Chu Ci were called Fu. In fact, they are two different styles and should not be confused. As for later generations, Li Sao was called "Sao" instead of Chu Ci. For example, Wen Xin Diao Long has a chapter on "distinguishing Sao" and Wenxuan has the category of "Sao". This is the same as people in later generations called the Book of Songs "wind". Although the name is not true, they all deliberately distinguish between Chu Ci and Han Fu. As far back as the early Zhou Dynasty, Jianghan Rushui folk songs, such as Han Guang and Jiang Yousi in The Book of Songs, were all produced in Chu. Other documents have also preserved a lot of Chu folk songs, such as Song Ziwen, Chu people's songs, Yue people's songs and Canglang songs (see "Shuo Yuan" for three articles: Zhi Gong, Jian Zheng and Shan Shuo). ) and so on are all early folk literature of Chu state, and some lyrics use an auxiliary word at the end of a sentence, such as ""and "Si". Later, it became the main form of Chu Ci. More importantly, the folk witch songs of Chu State. Witchcraft is prevalent in Chu, and witches will "make songs and play music to enlighten the gods" during folk sacrifices, which is full of primitive religious atmosphere. The "Nine Songs" in "Songs of Chu" were formerly folk songs offering sacrifices to gods in all parts of Chu, including the hometown. The witches on the altar are dressed up as gods, beautifully dressed and solemnly decorated, singing and dancing with the rhythm of music, which is very much like a dramatic scene. This was a concrete manifestation of witchcraft at that time. This primitive religious witchcraft had a direct influence on Qu Yuan's works. Witch and salt in Lisao, witch and yang in Evocation, self-image building and noble moral symbols of all poets in Songs of the South, such as lofty admiration and the use of rich fairy tales, are all the best explanations. Therefore, "A Song of Lu Chunqiu's Luxury Music" said: "The decline of Chu is also a witch sound." Chu Ci is such a kind of poem with witchcraft color.
There is also the local music of Chu, which has a certain influence on the Songs of Chu. In the Spring and Autumn Period, music songs were called "South Wind" and "North Wind". Zhong Yi, who played Nanyin in the Jin Dynasty, was known as "fond of playing the local customs and never forgetting the past" (Shi Kuang said: "Suddenly singing the north wind and the south wind. The south wind does not dispute, and there are many deaths, and Chu will be reactive. " See Zuo Zhuan for eighteen years. Zhong Yi saw Zuo Zhuan in the ninth year of Chenggong). Since then, Chu songs, Chu sounds and Chu dances have always been loved by Chu people, and many people have recorded them in the literature. This is natural. During the Warring States Period, the local music of Chu State was extremely developed, and its songs were like Country, Picking Ling, Laoshang, Autumn Dew, Yangchun and Snow White. , have been mentioned by the author of "Songs of the South". Although "Songs of the South" is not a movement, it may not be sung (after "Nine Songs" was rewritten by Qu Yuan, do you want to use the original music? )。 However, many of its poems contain the word "chaos", and some also include "advocating" and "singing less", which are all part of music. The form in which these pieces of music are preserved in Chu Ci shows that it is very close to music. Of course, because the authors are Chu people, most of their musical influences belong to Chu. At the same time, it is the dialect of Chu that is related to this and affects Chuci. Chu dialect has a special meaning and a special tone. There are many dialects in Chuci, such as Hu, Gu, Ping, Qiang, Jiao and Chan Yuan, which can be understood by consulting ancient annotations and other documents. As for the readers of the tone at that time, they have long been lost. When Emperor Xuandi was proclaimed in the Han Dynasty, Jiujiang (now Shouxian County, Anhui Province, the last capital of Chu State) was allowed to read Chu Ci. By the Sui Dynasty, there were also Taoist masters who were also good at reading Chu Ci and "could clearly understand the rhyme" (Biography of Wang Han Bao and Annals of Classics). Later, the Tang people also inherited his reading method. It can be seen that there is a voice of knowing Chu in the songs of Chu during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. But the influence is secondary, mainly the relationship between folk literature and local music.
In a word, Chu had its own cultural tradition, and was later influenced by northern culture. The combination of the two forms a huge cultural stream, which has accumulated rich literary and artistic materials in the long-term development and provided sufficient favorable conditions for literary creation. It is on this superior cultural basis that such a great poet as Qu Yuan was born, and such a brilliant and immortal poem as Songs of the South was produced.