Jian'an poetry

The term "Jian'an poetry" covers the final years at the end of the Han dynasty and during which the Cao family was rising, or risen, to prominence were known as the Jian'an era (196–220), the penultimate era of Emperor Xian: the following period is known as the Three Kingdoms era, due to the three kingdoms which divided up the Han dynasty, and war with one another for succession to the Han empire.

The typical Han fu is typically very long, describes a subject minutely from every possible angle, giving long and detailed lists of various categories of things and is usually meant more to display the poet's rhetorical and lexical skill than to express personal feeling.

Another important aspect of Han poetry was the institution of the Music Bureau, a government organization originally charged with collecting or writing the lyrics.

The developments in both of these forms of poetry in the Han dynasty help in the understanding of the work of the Jian'an poets.

In the major developments in terms of poetic voice, whereas Han poetry tended to use an anonymous voice which was either impersonal or in the mode of certain shallow and conventionalized characters, the Jian'an poetry tended to be more personal and immediately direct.