The Book of Poetry
by WU GAUNGPING
"Book of Poetry" is the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry and the earliest collection of poems. A collection of 305 ancient poems from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC were originally called "Poems" or "Three Hundred Poems". In the Western Han Dynasty, they were revered as Confucian classics and they were called "Book of Poetry". "The Book of Poetry" is divided into three parts: "Wind", "Ya" and "Ode". It is rich in content, reflecting labor and love, war and corvee, oppression and resistance, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and banquet, and even astronomical phenomena, landforms, animals, Plants and other aspects are a mirror of social life in the Zhou Dynasty.