Richard John LYNN
The fu ? (rhapsody or prose-poem) developed during the Han era as the dominant literary genre, and it continued to be composed by many later major writers. Fu initially meant a presentation, usually at court, of narrative compositions. Such compositions later included more personal literary expressions that served as vehicles of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist ideas.
Although the fu (rhapsody) is principally associated with the Han era (206 BCE–220 CE), when