The cultural background of The Book of Songs is by no means as simple as compiling a collection of poems. Now we have to compile poems, which can be said to be as fast as a week, as slow as a month or two, or two or three months. It is easy to compile a collection of poems.
But it was very difficult at that time, and poetry collections like The Book of Songs were not simply for entertainment at that time, but had political and cultural significance.
Zhou people gave full play to the function of music, and made full use of the Book of Songs as a medium to publicize and popularize the system of rites and music, and achieved success.
Later, the music score was lost, but the Book of Songs is loved by later generations because of its rich content, harmonious rhythm, touching image and profound thought.
Extended data:
Zhou people can compile such a large collection of poems in five or six hundred years. At that time, language, writing and phonology were not unified, and traffic information was extremely underdeveloped.
Even the whole country is in a very loose federal regime era. It is a miracle that this book of songs with unified language, consistent phonology and perfect structure can be produced and handed down.
The creator of this miracle is Duke Zhou. They collect poems first, then sort them out, transform them with unified rhymes and words, and finally promote them.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-The Book of Songs