Sebastian Münster

The Traditional of the worms , or Livre of the Odes (詩經, Cheu King , Shi Jing or Shi ) is a collection of approximately three hundred ancient Chinese songs whose date of composition could be spread out Western Zhou in the middle of the Printemps and of the Falls. It contains the oldest examples of Chinese poetry. It is since the Han one of the traditional Five with the training scheme of the future civils servant. He for this reason exerted a great influence on the Chinese literature. In China it is also called Three hundred poems (1) or Poèmes of Mao (2), of the name of the glosateurs Han of the only edition which reached us. The Jesuit Seraphin Roofer in translated integrality. The sinologist Marcel Granet studied this in-depth collection and in deduced the principal features from the ancient Chinese culture.

(1) 詩三百 (2) 毛詩

Composition

It contains 305 poems divided into four categories (1): songs of the kingdoms (2), great odes (3), small odes (4), religious anthems (5). The small odes include/understand moreover 6 empty titles of words (6), the Shi Jing thus contains 311 titles.
  • the songs of the kingdoms, 160, would be popular songs of the various states of the Zhou empire divided into 15 regional groups (7). Except for some, their style evokes indeed a rural origin, but it is impossible to determine if they are authentic songs collected on the ground or of the imitations.
  • the large ones and the small odes, respectively including/understanding 31 and 74 poems, are clearly a production of the class well-read woman and have as an essential subject the approval or the criticism of controlling and their policy.
  • the anthems of court include/understand 40 works: 31 anthems of Zhou (former to kings Zhao (8) and Driven (9) for the majority), 4 Lu anthems (Duke Xi) (10) and 5 anthems of Song (11).

The glosateurs divided the poems into six categories stylistics (12): three types of music (songs feng , odes ya and anthems song ) and three modes of expression ( fu direct exposure (13), explicit Bi comparison (14), xing evocation (15)).

(1) Sishi 四始 (2) guofeng 國風 (3) daya 大雅 (4) xiaoya 小雅 (5) song 頌 (6) shengshi 笙詩 (7) Zhounan 周南, Zhaonan 召南, EIB 邶, Yong 鄘, Wei 衛, Wang 王, Zheng 鄭, Kuai 檜 IQ 齊、 Wei 魏 Tang 唐 Qin 秦、 豳 Chen 陳 CAD 曹 (8) 周昭王 (9) 周穆王 (10) 魯僖公 (11) 宋國 (12) liu yi 六義 (13) 賦 (14) 比 (15) 興

Origin

The Shi was regarded as traditional a jing (1) under Han and its compilation allotted officially to Confucius, which would have selected three hundreds and some poems among three thousand of origin because of their value of illustration of the rites, one of the essential bases of the government and the social order confucéens. This opinion, reflected inter alia in the Shiji , never was unanimously accepted. The Livre of Han (2) sees in the work the work of Zhou civils servant sent each year at the time of harvests in the campaigns to collect the popular songs in order to inform the sovereign about the frame of mind of the population. The Zuo Zhuan mentions the Shi Jing like existing already time of the childhood of Confucius.

The places mentioned in the Shi are in the valley of the yellow Fleuve between the Shanxi and part of the Gansu in the west, the Shandong in the east, the south-west of the Hebei in north and the area between the Chang Jiang and Han in the south.

The Chinese historians estimate that the poems were a possible mode of diplomatic communication at the time of Springs and the Falls.

(1) 經 (2) 漢書•食貨志

Comments

That it or not took part in its compilation, Confucius often mentions the Shi , of which it says: “Which does not study the Shi can neither speak nor to act correctly” (1).

Under Han Western, whereas the specimens existing had been theoretically destroyed on order of Qin Shihuang, three well-read men taught the Shi which they had memorized: Shen Pei (2) of the country of Lu, Yuan Gu (3) of IQ and Han Ying (4) of Yan. Of their teaching remains only the not-official version of Han (5), the Hanshi waizhuan . At the end of IIe front century J.C., one named Mao Heng (6) of Lu gave to prince Xian de Hejian (7), relative of the emperor Wudi and large collector of pre-Qin texts, a version allegedly older. Glosée by Mao Heng and his disciple Mao Chang of Zhao (8), then famous commentators of traditional Zheng Xuan (9) (Han Eastern) and Kong Yingda (10) (Tang), this version became the Classique worms current.

Each poem is preceded by a foreword explaining its significance (11). The foreword of the Guansui (12), first poem (Songs of the kingdoms, Zhounan) contains a presentation of the whole of the work. The sources do not get along on the identity of their (S) author (S). Although their relevance with respect to the original direction of the poems is disputed, their influence was and remains large.

(1) 不學詩, 無以言. 不學詩, 無以立 (2) 申培 (3) 轅固 (4) 韓嬰 (5) 韓詩外傳 (6) 毛亨 (7) 河間獻王 (8) 毛萇 (9) 鄭玄 (10) 孔穎達 (11) xiaoxu 小序 (12) 關睢

See too

  • Marcel Granet Festivals and old songs of China , 1st ED. 1919, rééd. 1929, Paris, E. Leroux.

  • Seraph Roofer Cheu king , Ho-kien-insane, 1896, rééd. His-hien, 1926
  • Shi Jing in line (UQAC). Translation of Seraph Roofer (1896).
  • Shi Jing , University off Virginia Chinese Text Initiative. Chinese text and English translation of James Legge (1879).

Zh-classical: 詩經 Zh-yue: 詩經

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