How to study The Book of Songs?

Learning The Book of Songs should be done step by step. Although the meaning of this poem is easy to understand, it still needs some efforts to really understand it. The biggest drawback of reading poetry, I think, is that we can't talk about the past with the present and restore the original face of the Book of Songs. Restoring the true colors comes from exegesis, and the Qing people work hard. You can refer to the works of three exegetical masters of the Book of Songs in Qing Dynasty. For example, Hu Cheng's Annotations on Mao Poetry, His Annotations on Poetry and Ma's Annotations on Mao Poetry all failed to proofread Chen's works. Of these three books, I prefer the horse's book. A book written is the best of the two schools.

Ming exegesis, when Ming poetry. I suggest referring to Wen Yiduo's The General Meaning of The Book of Songs A and B and The New Meaning of The Book of Songs, and expounding and interpreting the Book of Songs from the perspectives of folklore, sociology and anthropology. I think the original meaning of the Book of Songs is the best.

However, the above books are not very good to read, involving exegesis and boring. Jiang Jianyuan and Chen's Notes on the Book of Songs can be used as an introductory reading, which is analytical and interpretable, with high academic value and easy to read. Zhonghua Book Company has a traditional vertical edition.

In short, the most important thing in reading poetry is to go back to the era of The Book of Songs and look at the Book of Songs from the perspective of that era, so we must be familiar with the history of that era. In this way, we have to read Zuozhuan and Guoyu to understand the history at that time. You can't help reading the Book of Rites and the Book of Rites to understand the etiquette system at that time. The text of The Book of Songs is simple, but it is not easy to read.