New Yuefu movement

The New Yuefu movement, called Xin yuefu yundong in Chinese, was a literary reform movement of the middle Tang dynasty promoted by Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen and their circle. It was a counterpart to the ancient-prose movement of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. New Yuefu poems are verses on newly chosen titles written in the manner of yuefu ballads, but, unlike the Han yuefu, they were not set to music. The movement held that writing should serve its time and poetry should respond to events, which strongly stressed the social function and satirical purpose of verse. After the An Lushan rebellion left Tang society in disorder and politics corrupt, its poets followed the socially realistic example of Du Fu and tried to show the hardships of ordinary people and the failings of the state, a stance that angered powerful figures and slowed its spread. The shared plain style of Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi is called the Yuan-Bai style.