In terms of cultural policy, Hui Di abolished the law of leaning on books in the Qin Dynasty, and "collected a large number of books and opened up the road of offering books" (History of Han, Art and Literature). In addition, due to the influence of a hundred schools of thought contending since the Warring States Period, governors all over the country have also imitated the methods of the philosophers of the Warring States Period, attracting all kinds of talents to their own door, making philosophy and social thoughts more active and free in the early Han Dynasty and promoting the development of academic culture.
The literary achievements in the early Han Dynasty were mainly manifested in the development of harmony and ci-fu. Scholars in the early Han Dynasty had a lingering wind of wandering in the Warring States. They liked to run around under the authority of princes and dignitaries, cared more about the problems of the country and society, and dared to express their views, which promoted the development of political papers. Jia Yi was the most famous political commentator in the early Han Dynasty. He paid attention to summing up the experience and lessons of the Qin Dynasty from weak to strong and the gains and losses of political power, and expressed his own political views on how to consolidate the rule of the Han Dynasty and improve the centralized political system. These political articles are broad-minded, eloquent, full of emotion and rich in literary talent, which have obvious influence on prose creation after Tang and Song Dynasties. Cifu in the early Han Dynasty belongs to the legacy of the Warring States, but the authors of Cifu in the early Han Dynasty lacked such strong feelings, and most of them were imitations, and their works were also lost. The existing "Recruit Hermit" is one of the best because of its weather and style close to buckling. When Jia Yi was relegated to Changsha, he wrote "Ode to Hanging Qu Yuan" and "Ode to Flying Birds", which permeated his personal life experience and expressed his political ambition, especially the latter, which showed traces of the transition from Chu Ci to Han Fu in system and writing style. Mei Cheng is an important writer in Wenjing period. He is famous for writing about the King of Wu and remonstrating his rebellion. Although his Qifa is not a famous work of Han Fu, its writing style and pattern can be said to be the first work formed by Handafu, a new style of Han Fu, which plays an important role in the development of Han Fu. From the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, literary achievements were mainly manifested in the establishment and expansion of Yuefu institutions and the prosperity and emergence of Ci and Fu creation.
During the reign of Emperor Gaozu, Sun Tong, his uncle, made a court document, which made Emperor Gaozu realize that "the emperor is the most important thing" and the importance of the ritual and music system in establishing the feudal dynasty order. Yuefu was founded in the early Han Dynasty, which mainly managed the activities of suburban temples and chaohui. However, due to "the big shots are too busy", they are still unable to carry out the large-scale work of "customizing music" ("Han Shu Li Lezhi"). Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty expanded the scale and function of Yuefu, and collected folk songs from all over the country on a large scale to enrich the court movement, with the aim of "making the past serve the present" (Ban Gu's Preface to Two Beijing) and "promoting harmony" (the history of rites and music in the Han Dynasty). The so-called "Wu Xuantian is a ritual-worshipping officials, taking an examination of articles, setting up the Golden Horse Shiqu House inside and promoting Yuefu Xiefa outside" (Ban Gu's Preface to Two Capitals), reciting poems at night, with Zhao Qin Chu as the trustee and Li Yannian as the coordinator, and giving dozens of people more poems. On the rhythm of Lu, with eight tones as the key, it is nineteen. The establishment and expansion of Yuefu organs made it possible to record, condense and perfect folk songs in various places, which was of epoch-making significance in the history of China literature. It had a far-reaching influence on the development of China's ancient poetry. The music played by Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty was based on the original version, except The Song of Anshifang, which was founded by Mrs. Tang Gaozu Tangshan, and The Song of Suburb Sacrifice in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty? There are also 55 folk songs all over the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Now, except for Eighteen Songs of the Song Dynasty, most of them have not been handed down. "Song of Songs" is a military music that absorbed northern folk music during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Its lyrics are difficult to understand because of too many mistakes in words. Among them, a few love stories and chapters reflecting the tragic scenes of the battlefield are understandable and can be recited, which has certain practical significance. In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the need of "keeping things quiet", the creation of Ci and Fu has been greatly developed and entered the most prosperous era of Han Fu creation. There were more than 900 fu poems in the Western Han Dynasty, not counting miscellaneous fu poems, and there were more than 400 fu poems during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Sima Xiangru is the most accomplished representative writer of Han Fu. With its grand structure, gorgeous literary talent and exaggerated presentation, Zixu Shanglin Fu described the magnificence of the Shanglin Garden of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the magnificent momentum of the emperor's hunting, which catered to the psychology of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, so it was paid attention to and showed the characteristics of Han Fu as court literature. Before and after the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, besides Sima Xiangru, there were so-called "speech ministers" such as Yang Xiong and Gao Mei, who "thought about it day and night, and offered it in the sun and the moon", while ministers such as Ni Kuan and Dong Zhongshu also "intercropped from time to time", thus resulting in the heyday of Han Fu. Xuan Di's stories about Liang Wudi are also good at ci. There are also a number of ci writers around him, such as Zhang and Hualong. Their works include some great poems describing the emperor's hunting and palace gardens, as well as some small poems praising things, which are called "arguing and pleasing" and "worrying about (entertaining) the eyes and ears". But most of the works of this period did not exist.
Yang Xiong was a famous poet in the late Western Han Dynasty. His four poems, Ganquan, Hedong, Hunting Feather and Changyang, are full of imitations of Sima Xiangru's poems and lack of creativity. However, due to his high academic level, some of his writings are very fluent and full of charm. In his later years, Yang Xiong realized that Han Fu didn't help satire and admonition, so he stopped. He put forward his own literary thoughts in his works such as Fa Yan, emphasizing the social function of literature and the unity of literary content and form, which was of certain progressive significance at that time.
Han Fu is the product of highly developed economy, politics and culture in the Western Han Dynasty. However, as far as its ideological and artistic achievements are concerned, it is not enough to show the development of all aspects of the Western Han Dynasty. What truly represents the highest achievement of cultural development in this era is Yes. During the period of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, "the strategy of building a treasure was to set officials to write books, and all the legends of various schools had secrets" (Han Shu's Records of Literature and Art), which prepared material conditions for the writing of Historical Records. Sima Qian's Records of the Historian, which was independently completed, set up a monument for the development of China's ancient history and culture. Historical Records, centered on biographies of people, not only created biographical history, but also created history. The so-called "historian's swan song, Li Sao has no rhyme" correctly evaluates Sima Qian's contribution to the development of history and literature.
Sima Qian's Historical Records spread in the society after Emperor Xuan Di. Because its records ended in the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, many scholars compiled current events to supplement them, but most of them were vulgar books, which could not be compared with Historical Records. The achievements of prose in the late Western Han Dynasty are manifested in political essays. Huan Kuan's proofreading books "Harmony" and "Narration" inherited the tradition of political essays in the early Han Dynasty, which were rich in content and clear in logic, and showed the author's enthusiasm for saving the current disadvantages.