Abstract:
In times of the Han, the Wei and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, most Yuefu poems took four lines as “one stanza” matching with a given melody. Up till the Tang Dynasty, part of Yuefu poems succeeded the old subjects but their texts were much lengthened, which made it obviously impossible to match with the original melodies. A careful investigation of this kind of lengthy Yuefu poem based on The Collection of Yuefu Poems, the rhyme of most such lengthy poems varied every four lines, which can be inferred to be associated with melodies. In other words, it was by playing the same melody repeatedly that a lengthy Yuefu poem would be completed, which was much similar to the old unitopic system.
