School of Classics - Standard Edition of Classical Masterpieces

Author: Chen Xuguo
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Publication Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The earliest poetry anthology in China is the Classic of Poetry. The Classic of Poetry is the forefather of Chinese rhymed literature. The Classic of Poetry is an important source of ancient Chinese literature. These propositions have long become common knowledge among the Chinese people. The Classic of Poetry is divided into three parts: Feng, Ya, and Song. The two Nans have always been included in the Feng poems, and their separation from the Feng poems is not without reason. My former teacher, Mr. Guo Junzhong, said: "Zhou Nan Zhao Nan, Zhou refers to Duke Ding of Zhou, Zhao refers to Duke Mu of Zhao, 'they are the descendants of Dan Shi,' 'Nan refers to the southern regions of the Yangtze and Han rivers,' 'thus they are roughly consistent with the themes sung in the two Nans,' but they originally belong to the Feng poems." Generally, Feng poems are considered folk creations, songs of the laboring people. In fact, this is not entirely true. It can even be said that out of the 300 poems in the Classic of Poetry, only a small portion were truly created by the laboring people. For example, the Ya and Song poems outside the fishing poems basically have no works by the laboring people. Although some Feng poems retain the features of folk songs to this day, most are not folk songs. Many of them were originally created by the nobility. Some were refined by noble scholars, making them seem less like the works of the laboring people. However, researchers should not, therefore, deny or undervalue the worth of the "three hundred poems."