China‘s musical culture has an outstanding history, which needed the relevant institutions to process the management work. As a result, the musical institutions such as Yue Fu and Jiao Fang appeared gradually. Since those musical institutions were established by the imperial palace, they all had large scale with strict structure and management, greatly promoting the development of Chinese music. In addition, a large group of excellent talents in music were cultivated, making a positive contribution to the musical art in ancient China.
As early as in Zhou Dynasty, the musical education institution named Da Si Yue was established in China. But themusical institutions with the best reputation appeared in Han and Tang Dynasties. Some of the overseas students who attend to online Chinese Lessons may have heard that the musical institution of the highest level was Yue Fu, which originally appeared in Qin Dynasty but greatly developed in Han Dynasty, especially in the period of Emperor Wu.
The great development of musical institution in Han Dynasty indicated not only in the expansion of the staffs in the institution, but also in the increasing functions of Yue Fu. The most important renovation is that Yue Fu began to take in charge of collecting songs, being called Cai Feng. The imperial palace sent people to the folk to collect the songs materials and observed the condition of the people. This type of large scale songs collecting activity promoted the concentration and spread of the folk songs. For this reason, people in later generations called those songs as Yue Fu.
As time went by, the meaning of Yue Fu was expanded gradually such as the poetry with the company of music called Yue Fu Poetry, The creation of it was no longer limited in the folk and the men of letters could also create. Later, some works were also called Yue Fu even though they just inherited the style of Yue Fu Poetry withjous music.
Except for the function of collecting songs, Yue Fu was also responsible for formulating musical notation, collecting the lyrics and training the musical staffs for the purpose of preparing to perform when the imperial court holding sacrificing ceremony or banquet or other ceremonies. Teachers in Chinese learning programs would tell you that Yue Fu in Emperor Wu period was managed by Li Yannian. And there were couples of men of letters took the responsibility of recreating and compiling poetry.