What is the Book of Songs?

The Book of Songs is China's first collection of poems, which collected 305 poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. The pre-Qin people called The Book of Songs "Poetry", or "Poetry 300" or integer "Poetry 300". In the Western Han Dynasty, it was revered as a Confucian classic, called The Book of Songs, which is still in use today. The Book of Songs was written in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was taught by Qi (Shen Pei), Lu (Mao Heng), Han (Han Ying) and Mao (Zhao Renmao) in the Han Dynasty. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Qi, Lu and Han were all lost, leaving only the Biography of Mao Poetry.

We are most familiar with the contents of The Book of Songs in three categories: style, elegance and ode.

Ode is used for temple sacrifice, mainly as a kind of praise.

Elegant is written by nobles at all levels, and its content is mainly praise and criticism (expressing dissatisfaction with current politics, etc.). The author of Daya has a high status, and the content of the poem is mostly related to major historical events. The authors of Xiaoya are mostly lower-class aristocrats, who express their views on dynasty politics by chanting their own lives.

Wind comes from different regions and widely reflects the life and feelings of different regions and different authors.

The Book of Songs is the glorious starting point of China's realistic literature. It is extremely rich in content, with extremely high ideological and artistic achievements, and occupies a very important position in the cultural history of China and even the world.