Early references refer to the anthology as the 300 Poems (shi). The Odes first became known as a jīng, or a "classic book", in the canonical sense, as part of the 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 forth … See more

Confucian allegory
The Book of Odes has been a revered Confucian classic since the Han dynasty, and has been … See more

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 drawn from … 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 an overall literary polish together with some general stylistic consistency. About … See more

According to tradition, the method of collection of the various Shijing poems involved the appointment of officials, whose duties … See more

• Legge, James (1871). The She-king, or the Lessons from the States. The Chinese Classics. Vol. 4. Part 1, Part 2. rpt. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press (1960).
• —— (1876). The She king, or The Book of Ancient Poetry (PDF). London: Trübner. Archived from See more