The History of the Book of Songs

Author: Qian Faping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The Book of Songs is an ancient collection of Chinese poetry passed down through the ages, regarded as the cornerstone of Chinese poetry. It consists of three parts: Feng, Ya, and Song. Feng refers to folk tunes, totaling 160 poems; Ya are musical pieces conforming to court rituals, totaling 105 poems; Song are hymns used in court and temple sacrifices, divided into Zhou Song, Lu Song, and Shang Song, totaling 40 poems. This book breaks the traditional selection model of The Book of Songs in its editorial format, adopting a "Left History, Right Poetry" approach. The left page provides historical background introductions to The Book of Songs, while the right page offers annotations and analyses of the works. This innovative editorial format offers readers two reading threads: one introduces the life and customs of emperors, feudal lords, court officials, and commoners from the early Western Zhou to the mid-Eastern Zhou (approximately 600 years), while the other focuses on the annotations and analyses of The Book of Songs works. This is also what distinguishes this book from other contemporary selections of The Book of Songs. For years, Chinese undergraduates in universities typically study about 10 poems of The Book of Songs, while graduate students in classical literature study about 70 to 80. This book selects works based on this standard and makes appropriate extensions, with its included poems sufficient for a broad readership. The book provides detailed introductions to jade, plants, birds, and primitive idioms in The Book of Songs, and the appendix explains the system and related terms of The Book of Songs. The entire book includes over 400 exquisite illustrations. These images not only reflect the dwellings, clothing, life decorations, and sacrificial utensils of the royal nobles and impoverished commoners of that time but also represent the artistic interpretations of The Book of Songs by masters of painting since the Han and Tang dynasties.