Program Description

Chinese literature begins with ShiJing (Book of Odes), an anthology of songs, poems, and hymns.It is the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, more than three hundred songs, odes and hymns. It consists of 311 poems (6 without text) dating from the Zhou Dynasty (1027-771 BC) to the Spring & Autumn Period (770-476 BC). The collection is divided into three parts according to their genre, namely feng, ya and song, with the ya genre further divided into "small" and "large".The poems are written in four-character lines. The airs are in the style of folk songs, although the extent to which they are real folk songs or literary imitations is debated. The odes deal with matters of court and historical subjects, while the hymns blend history, myth and religious material.