Fu (poetry)

"Fu" (Chinese: 賦 "Descriptive poem") is a kind of prose-poem popular in ancient China, especially during the Han Dynasty.

During the Han Dynasty, the "Chu Ci"-type of lyrics evolved into "fu". It is a type of prose-poem with introductory, concluding, or other interspersed passages that are in prose, typically in the form of questions and answers. The "fu" is usually called rhapsody in English, but has also been called "rhyme-prose," "exposition," and sometimes "poetical essay."

A Han "fu" is typically very long, describes a subject exhuastively from every possible angle, and is usually meant to display the poet's rhetorical and lexical skill rather than express personal feeling. Since it is meant to impress and display, the Han "fu" is termed the "epideictic "fu"." One of the most well-known Han "fu" is Sima Xiangru's "Tianzi Youlie Fu" (天子遊獵賦 "Rhapsody on the Son of Heaven on a Leisurely Hunt").

During the Six Dynasties, "fu" remained a major poetic genre, and together with "shi" formed the twin generic pillars of Chinese poetry until "shi" began to dominate in the Tang dynasty.

The typical Six Dynasties "fu" is very different than those of the Han, being much shorter, and often personal, expressive, and lyrical. Many have no prose appendages, consisting entirely of rhymed verse in regular, usually hexametric, metre. A fine early example of this "short lyrical "fu" ("shuqing xiao fu" 抒情小賦) is Xi Kang's "Qin Fu" () "Rhapsody on the Zither). Another representative work of this kind is Yu Xin's "Ai Jiangnan Fu" (哀江南賦 "Rhapsody in Lament of the South").