History of the Book of Songs: Enjoying Nearly 100 Poems from the Book of Songs (Colorful Classic Collection)

Author: Qian Faping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The Book of Songs is an ancient Chinese collection of poetry, regarded as the cornerstone of Chinese poetry. It consists of three parts: Feng, Ya, and Song. Feng refers to folk tunes, totaling 160 pieces; Ya denotes court music conforming to ceremonial norms, with 105 pieces; Song includes hymns used in court and temple rituals, divided into Zhou Song, Lu Song, and Shang Song, totaling 40 pieces. This book breaks the traditional selection format of The Book of Songs by adopting a "Left Historian, Right Poetry" layout, where the left page presents historical background, and the right page offers annotations and critiques of the works. This innovative format provides readers with two reading threads: one introduces the lives of emperors, feudal lords, court officials, and commoners from the early Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Chunqiu period (approximately 600 years), as well as the rituals and customs of the time; the other focuses on annotations and critiques of The Book of Songs works. This is what distinguishes this book from other contemporary selections of The Book of Songs. For years, Chinese undergraduates have generally studied about 10 poems from The Book of Songs, while graduate students in classical literature have studied about 70–80. This book selects works based on this standard, with some extensions, and its included pieces are sufficient for a broad readership. The book provides detailed introductions to jade, plants, birds, and primitive idioms in The Book of Songs, while the Appendix explains the system and related terms of The Book of Songs. The entire book features over 400 exquisite illustrations. These images not only reflect the dwellings, clothing, life ornaments, and ritual vessels of the royal nobles and impoverished commoners of that era but also serve as artistic interpretations of the poetic essence of The Book of Songs by masters of painting from the Han and Tang dynasties onwards.