Book of Songs. Book of Rites. Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon

Author: Beijing Sihai Children's Classic Reading Education Center
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-01
Features: As Chinese people, how many have read the "Four Books" and "Five Classics"? As Americans, how many can recite the "Declaration of Independence"? Even for a college student specializing in Chinese, how many can recite the "Analects" and the "Great Learning"? Even for Chinese and foreign college students specializing in English, how many can recite the works of Shakespeare and Aristotle? Yet all this can be done by a child of around ten years old, and as a result, they become increasingly knowledgeable, kind, intelligent, optimistic, and broad-minded. Do you believe it? The "Book of Songs" is the first of the Six Classics and the oldest extant collection of poetry. It contains 305 poems from the early Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC) to the mid-Chunqiu period (6th century BC). Here, only a small selection is included. The "Book of Rites" includes five selections. Among them, "The Rites of the Zhou" discusses the "Great Unity" ideal where "the world belongs to all" and the utopia of "night gates left unlocked," as well as the "Little Unity" era where "the Great Way fades away" and the world becomes "a family under the heavens," with established rituals and governance. The "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon" is divided into "Basic Questions" and "Spiritual Pivot," advocating the principle of "treating disease before it occurs" with a focus on prevention.