The Yuefu shiji is an anthology of songs and ballads. It was compiled by Guo Maoqian under the Northern Song. Its eighty-sixth juan is headed “Miscellaneous songs and ballads, part four”.[1] Among its entries are the Chile song and the song of General Xue.[1]
The Chile song
The entry for the Chile song opens with a passage from an earlier work, the Yuefu guangti.[1] In it Gao Huan attacks Yubi and loses four or five in ten of his soldiers.[1] He falls ill with rage.[1] The king of Zhou then gives out an order: the crossbow has shot once, and the chief villain has perished.[1] Gao Huan forces himself to sit up and calm his men.[1] He calls in the nobles and has Hulü Jin sing the Chile.[1] He joins in the singing himself.[1]
The passage names the enemy Zhou, a name the western state took only in 557. The histories of the time say Western Wei.
A note after the passage says that the song was first in the Xianbei language and was put into the speech of the Qi. This is why its lines are of unequal length.[1]
The song of General Xue
The entry for the song of General Xue quotes a work that it calls the Tang Shu.[1] According to the quotation, Xue Rengui led troops in the time of Gaozong and attacked the Göktürks of the Nine Surnames at the Tianshan.[1] The Nine Surnames then had more than a hundred thousand men.[1] They sent out several tens of valiant men to challenge him.[1] Xue shot three arrows and killed three men.[1] The rest dismounted and asked to surrender.[1] Xue feared trouble later and had them buried alive.[1] From then on, the quotation says, the Nine Surnames declined and were no longer a trouble on the frontier.[1] The army sang of it in a song of two lines.[1]
The anthology gives no year for the campaign. Whether the account agrees with the Chinese histories of the Tang has not been checked here.
Reliability
The Yuefu shiji is much later than the events it sets beside its songs. It quotes earlier works for that setting, so a statement in it is no better than the work it quotes. The quoted passage on Yubi is a case in point, since it uses a state name that does not fit the year.
The Atlas reads juan 86 in a transcript that is marked there as not fully proofread. The passages it quotes were read at that text and not at a printed edition.
The passage
北齊神武攻周玉壁，士卒死者十四五。
神武恚憤，疾發。
周王下令曰：『高歡鼠子，親犯玉壁，劍弩一發，元凶自斃。』
神武聞之，勉坐以安士眾。悉引諸貴，使斛律金唱《敕勒》，神武自和之。」
其歌本鮮卑語，易為齊言，故其句長短不齊。
敕勒川，陰山下。
天似穹廬，籠蓋四野。
天蒼蒼，野茫茫，風吹草低見牛羊。
Shenwu of the Northern Qi attacked Yubi of the Zhou, and four or five in ten of his soldiers died.
Shenwu was enraged, and his illness broke out.
The king of Zhou issued an order: ‘Gao Huan, that rat, attacked Yubi in person. The crossbow shot once, and the chief villain perished of himself.’
When Shenwu heard it, he forced himself to sit up to calm his soldiers. He called in all the nobles and had Hulü Jin sing the Chile, and Shenwu joined in himself.”
The song was originally in the Xianbei language. It was changed into the speech of the Qi, and so its lines are uneven in length.
The plain of the Chile, below the Yin mountains.
The sky is like a domed tent and covers the wilds on every side.
The sky is deep blue, the wilds are boundless. The wind blows, the grass bends low, and cattle and sheep come into view.
《唐書》曰：「高宗時，薛仁貴領兵擊九姓突厥於天山。
時九姓有眾十餘萬，令驍健數十人逆來挑戰。
仁貴發三矢，射殺三人，自餘一時下馬請降。
仁貴恐為後患，並坑殺之。
九姓自此衰弱，不復更為邊患，於是軍中歌之。」
將軍三箭定天山，戰士長歌入漢關。
The Tang Shu says: “In the time of Gaozong, Xue Rengui led troops and attacked the Göktürks of the Nine Surnames at the Tianshan.
The Nine Surnames then had more than a hundred thousand men, and they sent several tens of valiant men to come out against him and challenge him to battle.
Rengui shot three arrows and killed three men, and all the rest dismounted at once and asked to surrender.
Rengui feared trouble later and had them all buried alive.
From then on the Nine Surnames declined and were weak, and were no longer a trouble on the frontier, and so the army sang of it.”
The general with three arrows settled the Tianshan, and the fighters sang long songs as they entered the Han pass.
References
Articles resting on this source 1
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Yuefu Shiji (Collection of Yuefu Songs).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/yuefu-shiji/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
