The Book of Songs is the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry.
The Book of Songs is the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry. It is the earliest collection of poems, collecting poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period (11th century BC to 6th century BC), ***311 Six of them are Sheng poems, which only have titles and no content. They are called the six Sheng poems. They reflect the social outlook of about 500 years from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the late Zhou Dynasty.
Confucius once summarized the purpose of the "Book of Songs" as "innocence" and taught his disciples to read the "Book of Songs" as the standard for speech and action. Among the pre-Qin scholars, many quoted the Book of Songs. For example, Mencius, Xunzi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi, etc. often quoted sentences from the Book of Songs to enhance their persuasiveness when reasoning and demonstrating.
By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the "Book of Songs" was regarded as a classic by Confucianism and became one of the "Six Classics" and the "Five Classics". The Book of Songs is rich in content, reflecting labor and love, war and corvee, oppression and resistance, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and banquets, and even celestial phenomena, landforms, animals, plants and other aspects. It is a mirror of social life in the Zhou Dynasty.
Inheriting history
It is said that there were as many as 3,000 poems handed down during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later only 311 poems were left (including six Sheng poems with eyes and no poems). After Confucius compiled the Book of Songs, the earliest clearly recorded inheritor was Zixia, one of the "Ten Philosophers of Confucius" and one of the seventy-two sages. He had the strongest understanding of poetry, so he passed on the poetry.
In the early Han Dynasty, the poets included Shen Peigong from Lu, Yuan Gusheng from Qi, and Han Ying from Yan, collectively known as the Three Poems. Qi poetry died in the Three Kingdoms Wei Dynasty, Lu poetry died in the Western Jin Dynasty, and Korean poetry was still circulating in the Tang Dynasty. Today, only 10 volumes of external works are left. The Book of Songs circulating today is Mao's poems passed down by Mao Gong.