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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 Han Dynasty Codification

RELATED TOPIC:
Individual Voices in the Book of Songs

 
THE BOOK OF SONGS:
"THE GREAT PREFACE"
AND FIVE NOTIONS ABOUT POETRY

Second Notion: Poetry and History

Robert Oxnam :: Second, the Confucian scholars felt that the poet, by expressing his deepest feelings in a poem, was also commenting on the time in which he lived.

Paul Rouzer :: We can understand a historical event better, the Chinese felt, by reading the poems that were produced in reaction to that particular historical event.