The Book of Songs

Author: Compiled by the Editorial Department
Publisher:
Publishing Date: August 1, 2001
Features: The Classic of Poetry has a history of over 2,500 years. For modern readers, understanding it requires not only familiarity with its historical and cultural background but also a clear grasp of its language. The language of the Classic of Poetry belongs to ancient Chinese, which differs significantly from modern Chinese in terms of phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar. The differences in phonetics are evident in many poems that no longer rhyme when read in modern Chinese, whereas they did rhyme during the era of the Classic of Poetry—a result of the evolution of Chinese phonetics. The differences in vocabulary are obvious, and this is one of the primary focuses of this book. It strives to explain the words in the Classic of Poetry that differ from modern Chinese using clear and fluent modern Chinese. The differences in grammar are also undeniable and cannot be overlooked. This book has dedicated considerable effort to explaining the unique sentence structures of ancient Chinese, such as negative sentences, interrogative sentences with the object placed before the verb, and other formats. Additionally, it explains certain grammatical elements like ri (), yu (), yan (), and qi (). The goal is to enable readers to comprehend the original text. As a classic, the Classic of Poetry has been studied by scholars across generations, yielding rich and substantial achievements. This book draws heavily on the annotations of previous scholars but does not blindly follow ancient interpretations or rigidly adhere to them.