Shen Yue (traditional Chinese: 沈約; simplified Chinese: 沈约; 441–513), courtesy nameXiuwen (休

文), was a poet, statesman, and historian born in Huzhou, Zhejiang. He served emperors under
the Liu Song Dynasty, the Southern Qi Dynasty, and the Liang Dynasty.
He was a prominent scholar of the Liang Dynasty and the author of the Book of Song, an historical
work covering the history of the previous Liu Song Dynasty. He is probably best known as the
originator of the first deliberately applied rules of tonal euphony (so called "four tones and eight
defects" 四聲八病) in the history of Chinese prosody. He was also the leading scholar on the musical
practices of his time and author of the essays on qilin and omenology.[1]

Shen Yue was one of the most import writers in terms of contributing to the ideas behind much of
later Classical Chinese poetry.

Contributions to Regular Verse tonality theory[edit]

Shen Yue apparently was the initial developer of the theoretical basis for the development of tonality
in relationship to regulated verse.[4][5]This would become crucial to certain forms especially
associated with poetry of the Tang Dynasty, such as the lüshi (poetry).

Yuefu[edit]
Main article: Yuefu
Shen Yue is also credited with being the first to apply the term Yuefu in a generic sense to the Han
Dynasty ballad style poetry, as opposed to the earlier meaning of referring to the Yuefu, or the Han
imperial Music Bureau[6]

Book of Song[edit]
Shen Yue was largely responsible for writing and compiling the Book of Song, a history of
the Southern Song Dynasty. One of the most important sections on this is his Treatise on Music.