Guan Heming's osprey, accompanied by the small continent of the river. A beautiful and virtuous woman is a good spouse of a gentleman. These four poems can be said to be well known to women and children. They are from the earliest book of songs in ancient China, namely The Book of Songs.
The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in the history of China. 305 poems from the early Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period were collected, which were divided into three categories: style, elegance and vulgarity, and praise. Wind is folk music, elegance is the joy of kings, and ode is the joy of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods. It turns out that all poems can be sung. Known as "Poetry" and "Poetry 300" in the pre-Qin period, it was regarded as a classic by Confucianism in the Western Han Dynasty and has been in use ever since.
Most of the authors of the poems in The Book of Songs have been anonymous, and even can't be verified. So who compiled and collected the classic Book of Songs? There is no specific record, and there are different opinions in history. It is generally believed that it was compiled by Confucius. However, according to Zuo Zhuan, Confucius was less than ten years old when The Book of Songs appeared, so it was impossible for Confucius to edit it.
According to Historical Records, there are 3,000 ancient poems in The Book of Songs. According to the Records of Hanshu Shihuozhi, during the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial court sent a special person to collect poems and songs from all over the country, and the Book of Songs came into being. Some studies believe that the Book of Songs was originally 3,000, but it has been lost for a long time, or for other reasons, only 305 are left.
Reading today, I found this collection of poems really worth appreciating.