Martin Kern Explores Lasting Impact of The Book of Songs

BBC's Culture section unveils the history behind The Book of Songs, a Chinese collection of poetry that, according to Martin Kern, has functioned as "satire, diplomacy and moral instruction" since Chinese antiquity. "It is the first poetic anthology of China; Confucius himself is said to have compiled the 'three hundred songs'—another early name for the text – out of a body of 3,000, 'removing duplicates and choosing only what could be matched to the principles of ritual'. By the end of the Western Han dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE), there were no fewer than four schools of the Songsat the imperial academy, offering a range of different interpretations for each song," Kern explains. On from there: 

In the same way that Homer’s epics took hold within the West, The Book of Songs played a role in spheres far beyond literature, with a lasting influence on Chinese civilisation. The collection had an impact on education, politics and communal life: in antiquity, the Songs were quoted and recited as coded communication in diplomatic exchange; invoked as proof to cap a philosophical argument; read as commentary – satirical more often than not – on historical circumstances; and taught for the purposes of moral edification. It has continued to affect Chinese society since then, both through what the Songs say and the form they take.

The received anthology emerged from the “Mao tradition”, one of the four early schools, and is divided into four parts: 160 Airs (guofeng), 74 Minor Court Hymns (xiaoya), 31 Major Court Hymns (daya), and 40 Eulogies (song). Within the Eulogies, the 31 Eulogies of Zhou are considered the oldest segment of the anthology, purportedly dating back to the very early years of the Western Zhou (1046-771 BCE) dynasty.

Read on at BBC.