RELATED TOPIC:
The Book of Songs and China's Literary Tradition

RELATED TOPIC:
Legends of the Zhou and the Nature of Chinese Society

RELATED TOPIC:
"The Great Preface" and Five Notions about Poetry

RELATED TOPIC:
Individual Voices in the Book of Songs

Robert Oxnam :: Confucius and his followers included the Book of Songs as one of the original classics of the Confucian canon from earliest times.

Later generations of Confucian scholars made every effort to incorporate the Book of Songs into their worldview.

Stephen Owen :: As China changed from this early period, 600 BC to 400 BC, the Spring and Autumn Annals period, as it changed to the Warring States period, which is the period that follows, you begin to find the Classic of Poetry becoming the possession of the Confucians; that is, the old courts are breaking up, the old sort of feudal dynasties are falling apart.**

** The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].