Peacocks Fly to the Southeast – A Yuefu Poem

Yuefu poetry generally refers to folk songs that were collected, compiled, and set to music by the imperial music bureau. These poems offer a broad reflection of social reality and everyday life, using simple, natural language and making good use of narration and dialogue.

Peacocks Fly to the Southeast is the first long narrative poem in Chinese literary history and a towering masterpiece in the development of Yuefu poetry. Later generations have celebrated it as one of the "Twin Jewels of Yuefu Poetry." Its original title was A Poem for the Wife of Jiao Zhongqing, but it came to be known by its opening line, "Peacocks Fly to the Southeast."

The poem is based on a marital tragedy. With 357 lines and 1,785 Chinese characters, it tells the story of the married couple Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi, who are forced apart by family pressure and ultimately take their own lives. Through their story, the poem gives voice to the people's deep desire for freedom in love and a happy life.

The poem succeeds in creating vivid, memorable characters—something rarely seen in earlier poetry. It portrays the devoted, unyielding bond between Jiao and Liu, while vividly depicting the stubbornness of Jiao's mother and the overbearing nature of Liu's brother. Overall, the narrative is masterfully paced, balancing richly detailed scenes with concise narration. Its romantic ending, in which Jiao and Liu are buried together and transformed into a pair of mandarin ducks flying side by side, has also had a profound influence on many later love stories.