The lyrics in The Book of Songs are the mainstream. The Book of Songs is almost all lyric poems except the epic poem in Daya and several chapters in Xiaoya and Guofeng. Moreover, from the perspective of the maturity of poetry art, the level of lyric poetry is obviously higher than that of narrative poetry. And Homer's epic in ancient Greece, which is roughly contemporary with The Book of Songs, is completely narrative. Just as Homer's epic laid the development direction of western literature with narrative tradition as the main one, The Book of Songs also laid the development direction of China literature with lyric tradition as the main one. China's later poems are mostly lyric poems; Besides, lyric poetry has become the main style of China literature.
In The Book of Songs, a large number of expressive techniques of Fu, Bi and Xing were used, which strengthened the image of the works and achieved good artistic effects. The so-called "Fu" is interpreted by Zhu as "telling the truth" in Shi Zhuan. This includes general statements and layout statements. Generally speaking, except for a few examples such as July, there are few sentences with arrangement in National Wind. There are many large and small scenes in Ya, especially epic. The basic feature of Ci and Fu in Han Dynasty is a large number of expositions. Although there are still many connections between The Book of Songs and Han Fu, it is not unreasonable to say that its original factors originated from The Book of Songs. Zhu's interpretation of "comparison" is "comparing one thing with another", which is metaphor. Metaphors are used in many places and in various ways in The Book of Songs. For example, Dream uses the change of mulberry trees from lush to withered to compare the rise and fall of love; "heming" uses the metaphor that "stones from other mountains can attack jade" to govern the country with sages; In Shuo Ren, the metaphor of beauty's hand, beauty's skin, beauty's teeth and so on are all good examples of using "Bi" in The Book of Songs. "Fu" and "Bi" are the most basic means of expression in all poems, while "Xing" is the unique means in The Book of Songs and even China's poems. The original meaning of the word "Xing" is "Qi". The word "xing" in The Book of Songs is interpreted by Zhu as "talking about other things first, so as to stimulate what is sung", that is, paving the way for what is sung by other things.
The enthusiasm of paying attention to reality, strong political and moral consciousness and sincere and positive attitude towards life shown in The Book of Songs were summarized as the spirit of elegance by later generations, which directly influenced the creation of later poets.
In a word, the language form of The Book of Songs is vivid and colorful, and it can often achieve "twice the result with half the effort" and "moving thousands of emotions" (Wen Xin Diao Long Seeking). However, elegance, ode and national style are different in language style. Most of the chapters in Ya and Song adopt a strict four-character style, with few miscellaneous words, but many national miscellaneous words. In "Xiaoya" and "National Style", repeated chapters and sentences are often used, but they are rare in the aspect of appealing to both refined and popular tastes. Many modal particles, such as Xi, Zhi, Zhi, Si, Hu, Er, Yi and Ye, are used in national customs. These modal particles have also appeared in Ode to Ya, but they are not as varied as those in National Customs. The wonderful use of modal particles in national style has enhanced the vividness and vividness of poetry and reached a vivid situation. The different linguistic features of elegance, praise and national style reflect the changes of the times and society, as well as the differences in the identity of the creative subject. "Ode to Ya" is mostly a work of the Western Zhou Dynasty, written by nobles, which embodies the dignity of "Elegant Music". "National Custom" is mostly works in the Spring and Autumn Period, mostly collected from the people, which more embodies the freedom and boldness of the new voice and is close to the spoken language at that time.