Wufu 舞賦

Wufu 舞賦 "The rhapsody on dance" is a poetic work on the aesthetics of dances written during the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE) by Fu Yi 傅毅 (d. 90 CE), courtesy name Wuzhong 武仲, who was around 80 CE clerk in the Censorate (Lantai lingshi 蘭臺令史).

The text is an authentic account of the night feasts and dances of the Han court. It begins with a description of a ballet accompanied by songs and performed by 16 female dancers. The next part explains, in a lyrical mode, the "Dance of the Seven Plain [Drums]" (qipan wu 七盤舞, i.e., bangu 般鼓), with detailed information on various figures and postures performed by the dancers. The author shows that dances were used to express certain moods in an infinite number of expressions. The will or intention of the theme aimed at "transforming" the audience (yu zhi qian hua 與志遷化) by visually expressing the meaning of a song (ming shi biao zhi 明詩表指).

Fu Yi laid the words of his rhapsody in the mouth of the famous writer Song Yu 宋玉 (298-222 BCE), who composed the words to the dances Ji Chu 激楚, Jiefeng 結風, and Yang'a 陽阿. The text of Fu Yi's rhapsody is quoted in the anthology Wenxuan 文選.

The rhapsody was imitated in later times, for instance, by Emperor Jianwen 梁簡文帝 (r. 549-550) of the Liang dynasty 梁 (502-557), and several times during the Tang period 唐 (618-907).

Another Han-period work with the title was written by Zhang Heng 張衡 (78-139). Instead of using Song Yu as the lyrical speaker, Zhang lays the words of the song into the mouths of guests who attended a banquet of the Prince of Huainan 淮南王 during the Former Han period. The text is quoted in the Tang-period encyclopaedia Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚.

Both rhapsodies are not just literary products, but are also testimonies of the art of dancing during the early imperial era.