When was China's first book of poetry published?
The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in ancient China, which contains 305 poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. At first, it was just called "Poetry" or "Poetry 300". It was not until the Han Dynasty that scholars regarded it as one of the Confucian classics and called it The Book of Songs. The works in The Book of Songs are originally musical songs that can be accompanied by musical instruments, so Mozi * Meng Gong said: "There are 300 string poems and 300 songs." According to the different music, it is divided into three parts: wind, elegance and ode. The so-called "wind" refers to local music, including the wind of fifteen countries, that is, the folk songs of fifteen places. "Elegant" means "positive". At that time, people regarded the music in the area directly ruled by the Zhou Dynasty as "positive tone". It is divided into "elegance" and "Xiaoya". "Elegance" is the music played by the court, and "Xiaoya" is the music used in general banquets. Ode is a dance music for ancestral temple sacrifice. Ode poems include Zhou Song, Lu Song and Shang Song. The number of chapters in The Book of Songs is: Guofeng 160, Daya 3 1, Xiaoya 74, Zhou Song 3 1, Truffle 4 and Shangsong 5.