Classic of Poetry

The Classic of Poetry, also known as the Shijing and translated variously as the Book of Songs or Book of Odes, is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. It is one of the Five Classics traditionally said to have been edited by Confucius, and has been studied and memorized by scholars in China and neighboring countries for over two millennia. Its stately verses are usually composed of couplets with four characters or syllables per line and a formal structure of end rhymes, and a number of the early poems establish the later tradition of opening with a description of nature that leads into emotionally expressive statements. It is also a rich source of chengyu, four-character classical idioms that remain part of learned and everyday modern Chinese, and since the Qing dynasty its rhyme patterns have been analysed in the study of Old Chinese phonology.