What is China's earliest poem?

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Pre-Qin Dynasty: Anonymous

Broken bamboo, continued bamboo;

Fly to the earth and leave.

Cut the bamboo, chop it, bend it into a slingshot and load it with bullets. Shoot mud balls as fast as flying, hunt birds and animals and have a good meal.

Dage is an ancient ballad and an original hunting song. This is the earliest ancient ballad recorded in China's classics. Ancient ballads: Folk ballads originated in primitive society and early civilized society, and were created orally by people before the Book of Songs. It is the earliest source of China's classical poetry. It has the characteristics of short sentences, concise language and lively rhythm.

This song records the fact that primitive people in China invented bows, arrows and characters. It is said that it originated in the period of three emperors and five emperors five thousand years ago, that is, the primary stage of China culture. This song sums up the whole process of primitive collective hunting: from chopping bamboo and making slingshots to shooting projectiles and hunting birds and animals.

Extended data

Creation background

This article is an ancient ballad (ancient ballad refers to a folk ballad that originated from primitive society and early slave society, and was an oral creation of people before the Book of Songs. Because of its long history, oral creation in primitive society is rarely spread to later generations and recorded.

The greatest feature of ancient ballads in ideological content is their close connection with real life. In artistic form, as an ancient folk oral creation, it generally has the characteristics of short words, simple language and lively rhythm.

Ge Tan is selected from Wu Yue Chun Qiu, which records that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Gou Jian, the monarch of the State of Yue, asked Chen Yin, an archer of Chu, about the reason of bows and bullets, and Chen Yin quoted this song Ge Tan in his reply.

Wu Yue Chun Qiu was written by Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was written late. However, judging from the language and content of "playing songs", this short song is probably handed down orally from primitive society and written by later generations.

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