The Classic of Poetry contains the oldest chronologically authenticated Chinese poems. The majority of the Odes date to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), and were d… See more

Whether the various Shijing poems were folk songs or not, they "all seem to have passed through the hands of men of letters at the royal Zhou court". In other words, they show … See more

Although the Shijing does not specify the names of authors in association with the contained works, both traditional commentaries and modern scholarship have put fo… See more

According to tradition, the method of collection of the various Shijing poems involved the appointment of officials, whose duties included documenting verses current from the va… See more

Confucian allegory
The Book of Odes has been a revered Confucian classic since the Han Dynasty, and has been studied and memorized by centuries o… See more