The First Collection of Poems--the Book of Songs

In the 7th century BC, China's first collection of poems "The Book of Songs" made its debut. It included epics, satirical poems, ballads, love songs, battle songs, odes, seasonal rhymes, and work chants. The book was composed by several people and appeared a few hundred years before the famous "Epic of Homer" of the ancient Greeks.

"The Book of Songs" includes 305 poems collected over a span of 500 years from the early years of Western Zhou (11th century BC) to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period (7th century BC). There are three sections: Feng, Ya, and Song. "Feng" consists of 160 folk songs from 15 states. "Ya" has 105 songs from around the capital of the Zhou Empire. "Song" includes 40 songs of sacrifice that were sung to praise the monumental contribution of the forefathers and the magnificent power of ghosts.

Most of the works in the "The Book of Songs" are referred to as four-word poems. That means each line in the poem is only four words long. However, other poems range from two to eight words. Common phrases specific to a group were often used, as well as rhymes and alliteration. These tools made the works vivid, varied, graceful and pleasing to the ear. The works in "Feng" reflected the life of common people. Themes included war, love and slavery. "Feng" originated from the people and, while it had little polish, it portrayed the varied lives of the Zhou people very well.

Little is known about the writers themselves and it's hard to determine who they were or their social status. Given the content of the poems, the writers could have been laborers, soldiers, officials and noblemen.

The poems in the book were used for three purposes: they were sung at ceremonies, used for personal enjoyment, and used to express ideas on social and political issues. Later on, however, "The Book of Songs" became a popular textbook for the education of the nobility and studying the book was compulsory. Teaching the book helped make the languages more eloquent. People would often quote some lines from the book to express themselves. Confucius himself once referred to the "The Book of Songs". He said "people can say nothing valuable without studying ¡®The Book of Songs' first".

In general, "The Book of Songs" marked the starting point and eventual maturity of China's literary development. Its contents covered a wide range of subjects and dealt with all aspects of social life in early China. The material contained in the book is the most important resource for studying Chinese language between the 11th and 6th centuries BC.

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