The anthology Yutai xinyong was compiled by Xu Ling 徐陵 (507-583), an official and court poet during the Liang and Chen Dynasties, and comprises more than 600 poems the Later Han Dynasty down to his own time. The main part of the poems are talking about love themes. Older poetry like the anthology Shijing 詩經 "Book of Songs" that already during the Spring and Autumn period became a classic, and the Chuci 楚辭 "Poetry of the South" is not contained in the Jade Terrace collection. Their interpreters saw these poems as writings with highly political contenct, hidden in special phrases and allegories. Later poems, the Han time on, developed a very different style, not in verse and rhythm, but in content and intention.

For a short time during the reign of the Han emperor Wudi 漢武帝 (r. 140-87 BC), a Bureau of Music (yuefu 樂府) was established to collect poems among the population. Indeed, these poems were of course not written by peasants, but by the nobility. Most of the extant poems of this type are the Later Han period when, scholarship, literati and the nobility was very disappointed by the political events of their time. Many of the yuefu poems therefore sound very elegiacal and sad, many of them are open critics of the behaviour of gouverneurs and magistrates. They are scattered in many writings of that time, and only few are contained in anthologies like Yutai xinyong and Wenxuan 文選. A very popular style of poetry during Han and Jin Dynasties was the elegy fu 賦, a long ballad-style rhyme prose-poem.

the Three Kingdoms period on, scholars and the intelligence in southern China retired governmental posts and enjoyed a natural oriented life with few contact to political events. The poetry of that class mirrors its disengagement in governmental affairs. Nonetheless, the style of court poems laid the foundation of the great age of Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty when writing a poem became an essential part of showing one's good education. Very interesting in the southern court poetry is, that many love poems are seen the standpoint of a girl that has been abandoned by her lover.

One of the most famous poets of the Southern Dynasties is Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (Tao Qian 陶潛, d.427), Xie Lingyun 謝靈運 (d. 433) and Yan Yanzhi 顏延之 (d. 456). The only famous poet of the Northern Wei (Tuoba-Wei) is Yan Zhitui 顏之推 (d. 591), the author of Master Yan's Confucian Home Teachings Yan shi jiaxun 顏氏家訓.
Translated by Anne Birell

＜陌上桑＞

日出東南隅，照我秦氏樓，秦氏有好女，自名為羅敷。羅敷喜蠶桑，采桑城南隅。

青絲為籠系，桂枝為籠鉤。頭上倭墮髻，耳中明月珠。緗綺為下裙，紫綺為上襦。

行者見羅敷，下擔捋鬍鬚，少年見羅敷，脫帽著帩頭。 耕者忘其耕，鋤者忘其鋤。

來歸相怨怒，但坐觀羅敷。使君從南來，五馬立踟躕。使君遣吏往，問是誰家姝？

秦氏有好女，自名為羅敷。羅敷年幾何？二十尚不足，十五頗有餘。

使君謝羅敷，寧可共載不？羅敷前置辭，使君一何愚。

使君自有婦，羅婦自有夫。東方千餘騎，夫婿居上頭。何用識夫婿，白馬從驪駒。

青絲系馬尾，黃金絡馬頭，腰中鹿盧劍，可值千萬餘。十五府小史，二十朝大夫，

三十侍中郎，四十專城居。為人洁白皙，鬑鬑頗有鬚。盈盈公府步，冉冉府中趨。

坐中數千人，皆言夫婿殊。

Six old folk songs: Mulberry up the lane (Sunrise at the southeast corner; Han)

Sunrise at the southeast corner shines on our Qin clan house.

The Qin clan has a fair daughter, she is called Luofu.

Lofu is good at silkworm mulberry, she picks mulberry at the wall's south corner.

Green silk is her basket strap, cassia her basket and pole.

On her head a twisting-fall hairdo, at her ears bright moon pearls.

Green silk is her lower skirt, purple silk is her upper shirt.

Passersby see Luofu, drop their load, stroke their beard.

Young men see Luofu, take off caps, put on headbands.

The ploughman forgets his plough, the hoer forgets his hoe.

They come home cross and happy - all seeing Luofu.

A prefect the south is here, his five horses stand pawing the ground.

The prefects sends his servant forward to aks, "Whose is the pretty girl?"

"The Qin clan has a fair daughter, her name is Luofu."

"Luofu, how old is she?" - "Not yet quite twenty, a bit more than fifteen."

The prefect invites Luofu, "Wouldn't you like a ride with me?"

Luofu steps forward and refuses: "You are so silly, Prefect!

You have your own wife, Prefect, Luofu has her own husband!

In the east more than a thousand horsemen, my husband is in the lead.

How would you recognize my husband? His white horse follows black colts,

green silk plaits his horse's tail. Yellow gold braids his horse's head.

At his waist a lulu dagger - worth more than ten million cash.

'At fifteen he was a country clerk, at twenty a court official,

at thirty a chancellor, at forty lord of his own city.'

As a man he has a purt white complexion, bushy whiskers on both cheeks.

Majestic he steps into his office, dignified he strides to the courtroom,

where several thousand in audience all say my husband has no rival!"

古詩十九首＜青青河畔草＞

青青河畔草，鬱鬱園中柳。盈盈樓上女，皎皎當窗?。

娥娥紅粉狀，纖纖出素手。昔為倡家女，今為蕩子婦。

蕩子行不歸，空床難獨守。

Nineteen Old Poems, Nr. 2: Green green riverside grass (Han)

Green, green riverside grass, lush, lush willow in the garden,

sleek, sleek a girl upstairs, white white faces her window.

Fair, fair her rouge and powder face, slim, slim she shows her white hand.

Once I was a singing-house girl, now I am a playboy's wife.

A playboy roves, never comes home, my empty bed is hard to keep alone.

蔡邕＜飲馬長城窟行＞

青青河邊草，綿綿思遠道。遠道不可思，宿昔夢見之。夢見在我旁，忽覺在他鄉。

他鄉各異縣，輾轉不可見。枯桑知天風，海水知天寒。入門各自媚，誰肯相為言。

客從遠方起，遺我雙鯉魚。呼兒烹鯉魚，中有天素書。長跪讀素書，書中竟何如。

上言加餐食，下言長相憶。

Cai Yong (?): Watering horses at the Long Wall hole (d. 192 AD)

Green, green riverside grass. Skeins, skeins of longing the far road,

the far road I cannot bear to long for. In bed at night I see him in dreams,

dream I see him by my side. Suddenly I wake in another town,

another town, each in different parts. I toss and turn, see him no more.

Withered mulberry known wind the skies, ocean waters know chill the skies,

I go indoors, everyone self-absorbed, who wants to speak for me?

A traveller came far away, he brought me a double-carp.

I call my children and cook the carp. Inside there is a white silk letter.

I kneel down and read the white silk letter. What does it say in the letter, then?

Above it has, "Try and eat!", below it has, "I'll always love you."