The Book of Songs is the beginning of China's ancient poems and the earliest collection of poems. His numerous creative methods became the basic principles of China literature in later generations. There are 305 poems in The Book of Songs, so later generations often call it "Three Hundred Poems". In terms of time, it includes poems from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. Geographically, it is mainly produced in the Yellow River basin, and there are also some works in the Yangtze River and Hanjiang River basins.
The Book of Songs consists of three parts: wind, elegance and ode. Wind poems are mainly local folk songs, with 15 national styles, which concentrate most excellent chapters in the Book of Songs. Poetry is mainly the song of the official court, which is divided into elegance and vulgarity.
The Book of Songs is a sacrificial song in the temple, which consists of three parts: ode to the Lord, truffle and Zhou Song. They are mainly sacrificial songs accompanied by dances. We don't need chorus in today's poetry, but in ancient times, poetry, music and dance were inseparable, and poetry was generally the lyrics of chorus. The Book of Songs can be enjoyed together and sung by people.
The artistic achievements of The Book of Songs;
The Book of Songs has a lofty position and far-reaching influence in the history of China literature, which has laid a fine tradition of China's poetry and thus formed the national characteristics of China's poetry art.
The birth of The Book of Songs (including its generation, collection and compilation) first created a new style in the history of China's poetry-four-character style. It was in The Book of Songs era that China's poetry really laid its own creative pattern and formed a relatively stable style. That is to say, the real start of China's poetry began in The Book of Songs era.
In terms of the rhythm of poetry, The Book of Songs has also set a precedent for later poetry, especially in the rhyming form and voice of poetry, which provides a paradigm and model for later poetry and has important value and significance in the history of poetry creation.