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

Paul Rouzer :: Eventually when Confucianism became increasingly important in Chinese culture and among the Chinese educated classes, particularly in the Han dynasty from about the second century BC through the second century AD, it became very important for Confucian philosophers of this period to take all of these early texts and find major moral Confucian reasons for why these texts should be so important.

** 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].