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Shi Jing , translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems
Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry is the most highly regarded Chinese literature. Traditionally, it is divided into shi , ci and qu . There is also a kind of Prose poetry called Fu ....
. It comprises 305 poems, some possibly written as early as 1000 BC. It forms part of the Five Classics
Five Classics

The Five Classics is a corpus of five ancient Chinese language books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. According to tradition, they were compiled or edited by Confucius himself....
.

collection is divided into three parts according to their genre
Genre

A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other Art#Art forms or utterance....
, namely feng, ya and song, with the ya genre further divided into "small" and "large":

The Confucian tradition holds that the collection, one of the Wu Jing
Five Classics

The Five Classics is a corpus of five ancient Chinese language books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. According to tradition, they were compiled or edited by Confucius himself....
, or Five Classics, came to what we have today after the editing of Confucius
Confucius

This articles talks about a Chinese thinker and social philosopher. For a food company in China with its brand name "Master Kong", please refer to Tingyi Holding Corporation....
.






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Shi Jing , translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems
Chinese poetry

Chinese poetry is the most highly regarded Chinese literature. Traditionally, it is divided into shi , ci and qu . There is also a kind of Prose poetry called Fu ....
. It comprises 305 poems, some possibly written as early as 1000 BC. It forms part of the Five Classics
Five Classics

The Five Classics is a corpus of five ancient Chinese language books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. According to tradition, they were compiled or edited by Confucius himself....
.

The collection

The collection is divided into three parts according to their genre
Genre

A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other Art#Art forms or utterance....
, namely feng, ya and song, with the ya genre further divided into "small" and "large":
Chinese character(s) Pinyin Number and Meaning
? feng 160 folk songs (or airs)
?? xiaoya 74 minor festal songs (or odes traditionally sung at court festivities)
?? dàya 31 major festal songs, sung at more solemn court ceremonies
? sòng 40 hymn
Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities, a prominent figure or an epic tale....
s and eulogies
Eulogy

A eulogy is a Speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. The word is derived from the Greek word e?????a , meaning praise ....
 , sung at sacrifices to gods and ancestral spirits of the royal house


The Confucian tradition holds that the collection, one of the Wu Jing
Five Classics

The Five Classics is a corpus of five ancient Chinese language books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. According to tradition, they were compiled or edited by Confucius himself....
, or Five Classics, came to what we have today after the editing of Confucius
Confucius

This articles talks about a Chinese thinker and social philosopher. For a food company in China with its brand name "Master Kong", please refer to Tingyi Holding Corporation....
. The collection was officially acknowledged as one of "Five Classics" during the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
, and previously in Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in China history?though the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty only lasted during the Western Zhou....
 Shi was one of "Six Classics". Four schools of commentary existed then, namely the Qi, the Lu, the Han, and the Mao schools. The first two schools did not survive. The Han school only survived partly. The Mao school became the canonical school of Shi Jing commentary after the Han Dynasty. As a result, the collection is also sometimes referred to as "Mao Shi". Zheng Xuan
Zheng Xuan

Zheng Xuan , courtesy name Kangcheng , was an influential commentator and Confucian scholar of the Han Dynasty. He was born in modern Weifang, and a student of Ma Rong....
's elucidation on the Mao commentary is also canonical. The 305 poems had to be reconstructed from memory by scholars since the previous Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was preceded by the feudal Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. The unification of China in 221 BCE under the Qin Shi Huang marked the beginning of Imperial China, a period which lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 CE....
 had burned the collection along with other classical texts
Burning of books and burying of scholars

Burning of the books and burial of the scholars is a phrase that refers to a policy and a sequence of events in the Qin Dynasty of China, between the period of 213 and 206 BCE....
. (There are, in fact, a total of 308 poem titles that were reconstructed, but the remaining three poems only have titles without any extant text). The earliest surviving edition of Shi Jing is a fragmentary one of the Han Dynasty, written on bamboo strips, unearthed at Fuyang
Fuyang, Anhui

})|-| Area| 9,775 km?|-| Population| 8,978,000 |-| GDP'- Total'- Per Capita|  Renminbi20.93 billion ?2,344 ...
.

The poems are written in four-character lines. The airs are in the style of folk songs, although the extent to which they are real folk songs or literary imitations is debated. The odes deal with matters of court and historical
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
 subjects, while the hymns blend history
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
, myth
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
 and religious material.

The three major literary figures or styles employed in the poems are fu, bi and xing:
Chinese character Pinyin Meaning
? fù straightforward narrative
? bi explicit comparisons
? xìng implied comparisons


Contents

Summary of groupings of Shi Jing poems


Guo Feng




















Guo Feng

"Airs of the States" poems 001-160; 160 total folk songs (or airs)
group char group name poem #s
01 ?? Odes of Zhou
Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in China history?though the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty only lasted during the Western Zhou....
 & South 		001-011
02 ?? Odes of Shao
Zhao (state)

Zhao was a China state during the Warring States Period. Zhao was a significant state in the period, along with six others. At the beginning of the Warring States Period, the state of Zhao was one of the weakest states but gained strength during the reign of King Wuling of Zhao....
 & South 		012-025
03 ?? Odes of Bei 026-044
04 ?? Odes of Yong 045-054
05 ?? Odes of Wei
Wei (Spring and Autumn Period)

This article is about the State of Wei founded during the Spring and Autumn Period. For the Warring States Period state whose name is pronounced identically, see Wei ....
 		 055-064
06 ?? Odes of Wang 065-074
07 ?? Odes of Zheng
Zheng (state)

Zheng was a Zhou dynasty city-state in the middle of ancient China, modern Henan Province. Its ruling house had the surname Ji, making them a branch of the Zhou royal house, and were given the rank of Chinese nobility, corresponding roughly to an earl....
 		 075-095
08 ?? Odes of Qi
Qi (state)

Qi was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province....
 		 096-106
09 ?? Odes of Wei
Wei (state)

The Wei was a state during the Warring States Period in China. Its territory lay between the states of Qin and Qi and included modern areas in Henan, Hebei and Shanxi and Shandong....
 		 107-113
10 ?? Odes of Tang 114-125
11 ?? Odes of Qin
Qin (state)

Q?n or Ch'in , was a state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Periods of China. It eventually grew to dominate the country and unite it in 221 BC, after which it is referred to as the Qin Dynasty....
 		 126-135
12 ?? Odes of Chen
Chen (state)

Chen was a minor state of the Spring and Autumn Period in Ancient China. It was a relatively minor state based on a single urban centre near what is now Huaiyang in the plains of eastern Henan province....
 		 136-145
13 ?? Odes of Kuai 146-149
14 ?? Odes of Cao 150-153
15 ?? Odes of Bin 154-160



Xiao Ya













Xiao Ya

"Minor Odes of the Kingdom" poems 161-234; 74 total minor festal songs (or odes) for court
group char group name poem #s
01 ?? ?? Decade of Lu Ming 161-170
02 ?? ?? Decade of Baihua 170-175
03 ?? ?? Decade of Tong Gong 175-185
04 ?? ?? Decade of Qi Fu 185-195
05 ?? ?? Decade of Xiao Min 195-205
06 ?? ?? Decade of Bei Shan 205-215
07 ?? ?? Decade of Sang Hu 215-225
08 ??? ?? Decade of Du Ren Shi 225-234



Da Ya








Da Ya

"Major Odes of the Kingdom" poems 235-265;

31 total major festal songs for solemn court ceremonies
group char group name poem #s
01 ???? Decade of Wen Wang 235-244
02 ???? Decade of Sheng Min 245-254
03 ??? Decade of Dang 255-265



Song











Song

"Odes of the Temple & Altar" poems 266-305;

40 total praises, hymns, or eulogies sung at spirit sacrifices
group char group name poem #s
01 ?? Sacrificial Odes of Zhou1 266-296
01a -???? Decade of Qing Miao 266-275
01b -???? Decade of Chen Gong 276-285
01c -?????? Decade of Min You Xiao Zi 286-296
02 ?? Praise Odes of Lu3 297-300
03 ?? Sacrificial Odes of Shang1 301-305


note: alternative divisions may be topical or chronological (Legges): Song, DaYa, XiaoYa, GuoFeng


Translations

  • The Book of Odes, in The Sacred Books of China, translated by James Legge
    James Legge

    James Legge was a noted Scotland sinologist, a Scottish Congregational church, representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong , and first professor of Chinese language at Oxford University ....
    , 1879.
  • The Book of Songs, translated by Arthur Waley
    Arthur Waley

    Arthur David Waley Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire was a noted English Orientalist and Sinologist....
    , edited with additional translations by Joseph R. Allen, New York: Grove Press, 1996.
  • Book of Poetry, translated by Xu Yuanchong, edited by Jiang Shengzhang, Hunan, China: Hunan chubanshe, 1993.
  • The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius, translated by Ezra Pound
    Ezra Pound

    Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an United States expatriate poetry, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist poetry movement in the first half of the 20th century....
    , Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954.
  • The Book of Odes, translated by Bernhard Karlgren
    Bernhard Karlgren

    Bernhard Karlgren was a Sweden sinology, philologist, and the founder of Swedish sinology as a scholarly discipline. His full name was Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren, and he adopted the Chinese name "Gao Ben Han" )....
    , Stockholm: The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950.


External links


  • at Chinese text initiative
  • in Chinese arrayed with James Legge
    James Legge

    James Legge was a noted Scotland sinologist, a Scottish Congregational church, representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong , and first professor of Chinese language at Oxford University ....
     translation.
  • by Harrison Huang
  • Hear musical arrangements of the poetry as well some poetry read in traditional mandarin. Music by Colin O'Donohoe (Donohoe)