Part II The Book of Songs

        The Book of Songs
        The history of Chinese Literature begins with 《The Book of Songs》--《诗经》in Chinese characters —（pronounced as “Shī Jíng”）.《The Book of Songs》is a record of verbal poems appeared more than 2,500 years ago. We know that music was already very developed at the time when the book came into being, as a matter of fact all the verses in the book could be sung.
 
        The poems in 《The Book of Songs》were collected by scholars. There had been four versions of 《The Book of Songs》. That is to say four scholars engaged in the work of collections. They were Lu(鲁), Qi（齐）, Han（韩） and Mao Heng. Qi’s version got lost during the Three-Kingdom Period, Lu’s version got lost during the West Jin Period and Han’s version disappeared after Southern Song Period. Only Mao Heng’s collection survived, and 《The Book of Songs》we read today is actually Mao’s version. Unfortunately we can not find any traces of the other three versions today.
          According to documents of Qin and Han Dynasties, there were two sources for the book; firstly, designated officials of the Zhou Court (referred to as “travelling officials” at the time) were responsible for collecting local ballads for purpose of providing to the King’s Court. Such collection carried strong local flavor and reflected local attitude towards the rule of the King. Assisted by duke states, these “travelling officials” were able to cover a very broad land expanses and gather ballads from localities; secondly, there was a system of “contributing poems” at the Court of Zhou, dukes and officials should present poems to the King at special occasions. A considerable number of the poems in the Part of “Ya” was gathered through such presentations.
         Some people held that Confucius made some deletions on 《The Book of Songs》. But most historians tend to denial of such a conclusion, because they couldn’t find any proof to support it. However, Confucius must have read these poems, since he mentioned them in his works. He died in 479 B.C., so the book was compiled earlier, probably in the 6th century B.C., It has been verified that the earliest poems included in the book came into being around 1122 B.C. when Zhou Defeated Shang. Aside from these poems, 《The Book of Songs》also included those appeared until mid Spring and Autumn Period (7th century B.C.). So, the book covers a period of 500 years.
         In the Han Dynasty, 《The Book of Songs》was formally listed as one of the Five Classics that should be taught at schools. (The other four classics are 《The Book of Changes》,《The Book of History》,《The Book of Rites》and《The Spring and Autumn Annals》.