Book of Songs

The Book of Songs was compiled during the Zhou dynasty, gathered from the folk songs of fifteen states and the ceremonial music of the imperial court. The full work is divided into three parts: Airs, Elegant Verses, and Hymns, comprising three hundred and five pieces in total. It was written primarily in four-character verse, with some irregular forms, and largely rhymed. Its subjects encompass ritual offerings, banquets, farming affairs, warfare, and matters of love and marriage. During the Western Han, it was enshrined among the official academies and a designated Scholar was appointed to its study, marking the beginning of the Book of Songs as a classical discipline. From the Han onward, every age has extolled it as a teaching of "gentle and sincere virtue," and it stands first among the Six Classics of Confucianism.