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78-683: The rhyming practice of Han poets has been studied since the Qing period as an intermediate stage between the Classic of Poetry of the Western Zhou period and Tang poetry . The definitive reference was compiled by Luo Changpei and Zhou Zumo in 1958. This work identifies the rhyme classes of the period, but leaves the phonetic value of each class open. During the Eastern Han, Confucian scholars were bitterly divided between different versions of

156-427: A * -w- medial like Middle Chinese. Moreover, this medial also occurs after other initials, including syllables with Old Chinese * -u- and * -o- before acute codas (* -n , * -t and * -j ), which had broken to * -wə- and * -wa- respectively. Most OC reconstructions include a medial * -r- to account for Middle Chinese retroflex initials, division-II finals and some chongniu finals, and this seems to have still been

234-603: A broad and level lower course. It was long used to irrigate the surrounding farmlands, and was the center of an extensive network of canals and tributaries. Beginning in 1194, however, the Yellow River to the north repeatedly changed its course southwards to run into the Huai River. The resulting silting was so heavy that after the Yellow River changed back to its northerly course for the most recent time in 1897,

312-567: A central area centred on the Central Plain east of Hangu Pass , surrounded by northern, eastern, southern and western areas, and a southeastern area to the south and east of the lower Yangtze . Distinct rhyme systems of the Han period poets identified by Luo and Zhou broadly correspond to these dialect areas. The most influential dialect was the Qin–Jin dialect, from the western group, reflecting

390-578: A characteristic of the modern language, began in the Han period and became more extensive in the following Northern and Southern dynasties period. Old Chinese had a range of personal pronouns, including case distinctions. In the Eastern Han, these were reduced to first person wǒ 我 and second person rǔ 汝 . Similarly, the demonstratives were almost exclusively reduced to shì 是 'this', ěr 爾 'such' and bǐ 彼 'that'. Both kinds of pronouns were often used with plural suffixes -děng 等 , -bèi 輩 and -cáo 曹 . Most of

468-706: A coda *-r in Old Chinese, which became *-j in Shandong and adjacent areas, and *-n elsewhere. Middle Chinese syllables with vocalic or nasal codas fell into three tonal categories, traditionally known as even, rising and departing tones, with syllables having stop codas assigned to a fourth " entering tone " category. André-Georges Haudricourt suggested that the Middle Chinese departing tone derived from an Old Chinese final *-s , later weakening to *-h . Several Buddhist transcriptions indicate that *-s

546-703: A dictionary of classical terms, Xu Shen 's Shuowen Jiezi ( c.  100 AD ), a study of the history and structure of Chinese characters , and Zheng Xuan 's commentaries on various classics. Buddhism also expanded greatly in China during the Eastern Han period. Buddhist missionaries, beginning with An Shigao in AD 148, began translating Buddhist texts into Chinese. These translations include transcriptions in Chinese characters of Sanskrit and Prakrit vocabulary, which were first systematically mined for evidence of

624-452: A distinct phoneme in the Eastern Han period. Since the pioneering work of Bernhard Karlgren , it has been common to project the palatal medial of Middle Chinese division-III syllables back to an Old Chinese medial * -j- , but this has been challenged by several authors, partly because Eastern Han Buddhist transcriptions use such syllables for foreign words lacking any palatal element. However, Coblin points out that this practice continued into

702-477: A final editorial round of decisions for elimination or inclusion in the received version of the Poetry . As with all great literary works of ancient China, the Poetry has been annotated and commented on continuously throughout history, as well as in this case providing a model to inspire future poetic works. Various traditions concern the gathering of the compiled songs and the editorial selection from these make up

780-513: A part of learned discourse and even everyday language in modern Chinese. Since the Qing dynasty , its rhyme patterns have also been analysed in the study of Old Chinese phonology . 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 Han dynasty 's official adoption of Confucianism as

858-546: A poem would by the time of Tang poetry be one of the rules to distinguish the old style poetry from the new, regulated style . The works in the Classic of Poetry vary in their lyrical qualities, which relates to the musical accompaniment with which they were in their early days performed. The songs from the "Hymns" and "Eulogies", which are the oldest material in the Poetry , were performed to slow, heavy accompaniment from bells, drums, and stone chimes. However, these and

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936-556: A refined technique on the part of the poets". These traditional allegories of politics and morality are no longer seriously followed by any modern readers in China or elsewhere. The Odes became an important and controversial force, influencing political, social and educational phenomena. During the struggle between Confucian, Legalist , and other schools of thought, the Confucians used the Shijing to bolster their viewpoint. On

1014-498: A single initial * ɡ- in such words, but some of them distinguish * ɡ- and * ɣ- . Some Eastern Han dialects show evidence of the voiceless sonorant initials postulated for Old Chinese, but they had disappeared by the Eastern Han period in most areas. The Old Chinese voiceless lateral and nasal initials yielded a * tʰ initial in eastern dialects and * x in western ones. By the Eastern Han, the Old Chinese voiced lateral had also evolved to * d or * j , depending on syllable type. The gap

1092-461: A vowel and an optional coda. The consonant clusters postulated for Old Chinese had generally disappeared by the Eastern Han period. One of the major changes between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese was palatalization of initial dental stops and (in some environments) velar stops , merging to form a new series of palatal initials. Several Eastern Han varieties show either or both of these palatalizations. However, Proto-Min , which branched off during

1170-400: Is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry , comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. It is one of the " Five Classics " traditionally said to have been compiled by Confucius , and has been studied and memorized by scholars in China and neighboring countries over two millennia. It is also a rich source of chengyu (four-character classical idioms) that are still

1248-588: The Analects recounts that Confucius' son Kong Li told the story: "The Master once stood by himself, and I hurried to seek teaching from him. He asked me, 'You've studied the Odes?' I answered, 'Not yet.' He replied, 'If you have not studied the Odes, then I have nothing to say.'" According to Han tradition, the Poetry and other classics were targets of the burning of books in 213 BCE under Qin Shi Huang , and

1326-580: The Classic of Poetry often focuses on doing linguistic reconstruction and research in Old Chinese by analyzing the rhyme schemes in the Odes , which show vast differences when read in modern Mandarin Chinese . Although preserving more Old Chinese syllable endings than Mandarin, Modern Cantonese and Min Nan are also quite different from the Old Chinese language represented in the Odes. C.H. Wang refers to

1404-467: The Classic of Poetry . In 2015, the Anhui University purchased a group of looted manuscripts, among which is one of the oldest extant scribal copies of the Classic of Poetry (at least part of it). The manuscript has been published in the first volume of this collection of manuscripts, Anhui daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian ( 安徽大學藏戰國竹簡 ). The Confucian school eventually came to consider

1482-573: The Hwai , is a major river in East China , about 1,110 km (690 mi) long with a drainage area of 174,000 km (67,000 sq mi). It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze River , the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins in China. Historically draining eastwards directly into the Yellow Sea , erosion from floods have changed the course of

1560-536: The Odes were a valuable focus for knowledge and self-cultivation, as recorded in an anecdote in the Analects : 詩可以興，可以觀，可以群，可以怨。邇之事父，遠之事君。多識於鳥獸草木之名。 The Odes can be a source of inspiration and a basis for evaluation; they can help you to come together with others, as well as to properly express complaints. In the home, they teach you about how to serve your father, and in public life they teach you about how to serve your lord. They also broadly acquaint you with

1638-448: The Odes , though frequently on simple, rustic subjects, have traditionally been saddled with extensive, elaborate allegorical meanings that assigned moral or political meaning to the smallest details of each line. The popular songs were seen as good keys to understanding the troubles of the common people, and were often read as allegories, and complaints against lovers were seen as complaints against faithless rulers. Confucius taught that

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1716-515: The Poetry ( 毛詩傳 Máo shī zhuàn ), attributed to an obscure scholar named Máo Hēng ( 毛亨 ) who lived during the 2nd or 3rd centuries BCE, was not officially recognized until the reign of Emperor Ping (1 BCE to 6 CE). However, during the Eastern Han period, the Mao Poetry gradually became the primary version. Proponents of the Mao Poetry said that its text was descended from the first generation of Confucius' students, and as such should be

1794-504: The Shijing does not specify the names of authors in association with the contained works, both traditional commentaries and modern scholarship have put forth hypotheses on authorship. The "Golden Coffer" chapter of the Book of Documents says that the poem "Owl" ( 鴟鴞 ) in the "Odes of Bin" was written by the Duke of Zhou . Many of the songs appear to be folk songs and other compositions used in

1872-469: The Western Jin period, when the writer Guo Pu described them as quite distinct from other varieties. Jerry Norman called these Han-era southeastern dialects Old Southern Chinese, and suggested that they were the source of common features found in the oldest layers of modern Yue , Hakka and Min varieties. Eastern Han Chinese syllables consisted of an initial consonant, optional medial glides ,

1950-407: The " shi " style for much of Chinese history. One of the characteristics of the poems in the Classic of Poetry is that they tend to possess "elements of repetition and variation". This results in an "alteration of similarities and differences in the formal structure: in successive stanzas, some lines and phrases are repeated verbatim, while others vary from stanza to stanza". Characteristically,

2028-485: The "Eulogies" consist of a single stanza, and the "Court Hymns" exhibit wide variation in the number of stanzas and their lengths. Almost all of the "Airs", however, consist of three stanzas, with four-line stanzas being most common. Although a few rhyming couplets occur, the standard pattern in such four-line stanzas required a rhyme between the second and fourth lines. Often the first or third lines would rhyme with these, or with each other. This style later became known as

2106-567: The Confucian side, the Shijing became a foundational text which informed and validated literature, education, and political affairs. The Legalists, on their side, attempted to suppress the Shijing by violence, after the Legalist philosophy was endorsed by the Qin dynasty , prior to their final triumph over the neighboring states: the suppression of Confucian and other thought and literature after

2184-567: The Eastern Han period, suggesting that they were shorter, possibly reflecting this final glottal stop. In comparison with Warring States texts, colloquial Eastern Han texts display a massive increase in compound content words in clearly distinguished word classes . They also make much less use of function words in favour of periphrasis . The monosyllabic words of the classical period were largely replaced by disyllabic compounds with clearly defined syntactic roles: The widespread use of measure words between numerals or demonstratives and nouns,

2262-559: The Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan , the latest material in the Shijing was the song "Tree-Stump Grove" ( 株林 ) in the "Odes of Chen", dated to the middle of the Spring and Autumn period ( c. 700 BCE). The content of the Poetry can be divided into two main sections: the "Airs of the States", and the "Eulogies" and "Hymns". The "Airs of the States" are shorter lyrics in simple language that are generally ancient folk songs which record

2340-550: The Grand Historian was the first work to directly attribute the work to Confucius. Subsequent Confucian tradition held that the Shijing collection was edited by Confucius from a larger 3,000-piece collection to its traditional 305-piece form. This claim is believed to reflect an early Chinese tendency to relate all of the Five Classics in some way or another to Confucius, who by the 1st century BCE had become

2418-450: The Han period, has palatalized velars but not dentals. The retroflex stops and sibilants of Middle Chinese are not distinguished from plain stops and sibilants in the Eastern Han data. There is some uncertainty whether the Middle Chinese initials g- , ɣ- and j- can all be derived from a single Old Chinese initial * ɡ- , or whether an additional fricative initial * ɣ- or * ɦ- must be reconstructed. Most Eastern Han dialects have

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2496-806: The Huai River system with the Xinyi River (part of the Yishusi River system) which exits into the sea at Guanyun in Lianyungang . In part to circumvent flooding, in Jiangsu province the Huai River system is interconnected with different waterways and thereby forms part of the Grand Canal . Historically, the Huai River entered the Yellow Sea at Yunti Pass (modern day Yunti Village, in Huangwei Town of Xiangshui County ) through

2574-724: The Huai River then runs southwards as the Sanhe River by way of the Gaoyou Lake and Shaobo Lake , emptying into the Yangtze River at Sanjiangying (三江营) near Yangzhou . There is also a passage called the Huaihe Sea Entryway and Subei Irrigation Canal that passes Huai'an and empties into the sea at Biandan Port. A separate course runs north by way of the Huaimu River and Huai Shu River and connects

2652-755: The Qi Poetry ( 齊詩 Qí shī ) and the Han Poetry ( 韓詩 Hán shī ) were officially recognized with chairs at the Imperial Academy during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 BCE). Until the later years of the Eastern Han period, the dominant version of the Poetry was the Lu Poetry , named after the state of Lu , and founded by Shen Pei, a student of a disciple of the Warring States period philosopher Xunzi . The Mao Tradition of

2730-551: The Qin victories and the start of Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars era, starting in 213 BCE, extended to attempt to prohibit the Shijing . As the idea of allegorical expression grew, when kingdoms or feudal leaders wished to express or validate their own positions, they would sometimes couch the message within a poem, or by allusion. This practice became common among educated Chinese in their personal correspondences and spread to Japan and Korea as well. Modern scholarship on

2808-499: The Tang period, for which a -j- medial is generally accepted. Scholars agree that the difference reflects a real phonological distinction, but there have been a range of proposals for its realization in early periods. The distinction is variously described in Eastern Han commentaries: Most recent reconstructions of Old Chinese identify six vowels, * i , * ə , * u , * e , * a and * o . Eastern Han rhyming practice indicates that some of

2886-509: The account of King Wu 's victory over the Shang dynasty in the "Major Court Hymns" as the "Weniad" (a name that parallels The Iliad ), seeing it as part of a greater narrative discourse in China that extols the virtues of wén ( 文 "literature, culture") over more military interests. Note: alternative divisions may be topical or chronological (Legge): Song, Daya, Xiaoya, Guofeng Huai River The Huai River , formerly romanized as

2964-530: The area suffering droughts in between floods. In the 450 years to 1950, the Huai River saw, on average, 94 major floods per century. Attempts to solve the Huai River's problems have focused on building outlets for the Huai River into the Yangtze River and the sea. Currently, the major part of the river's flow enters the Yangtze River via Lake Hongze. The North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal also diverts some of its water along its old historical course to

3042-547: The ascendancy of the state of Qin . Second was the Chu dialect , from the southern group, which spread both to the south and to the east. These two dialects were also the principal sources of the Han standard language. The central dialects of the area of former states of Lu , Song and Wei were the most conservative. The dialects of the eastern area, which had been more recently and slowly sinified, include some non-Chinese vocabulary. The Eastern Han glosses come from 11 sites, all to

3120-503: The authoritative version. Xu Shen 's influential dictionary Shuowen Jiezi , written in the 2nd-century CE, quotes almost exclusively from the Mao Poetry . Finally, the renowned Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan used the Mao Poetry as the basis for his annotated 2nd-century edition of the Poetry . Zheng Xuan's edition of the Mao text was itself the basis of the "Right Meaning of the Mao Poetry " ( 毛詩正義 Máo shī zhèngyì ) which became

3198-562: The changes found in Middle Chinese had already occurred: The Middle Chinese finals -jo and -je occur with finals of all kinds, while -jæ occurs only after plain sibilant and palatal initials, with no known conditioning factor. The Middle Chinese codas -p , -t , -k , -m and -ng are projected back onto Eastern Han Chinese. The Middle Chinese coda -n also appears to reflect *-n in most cases, but in some cases reflects vocalic codas in some Eastern Han varieties. Baxter and Sagart argue that these words had

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3276-506: The classic text of the Odes : "Royal Officials' Collecting Songs" ( 王官采詩 ) is recorded in the Book of Han , and "Master Confucius Deletes Songs" ( 孔子刪詩 ) refers to Confucius and his mention in the Records of the Grand Historian , where it says from originally some 3,000 songs and poems in a previously extant " Odes " that Confucius personally selected the "300" which he felt best conformed to traditional ritual propriety, thus producing

3354-436: The classic written for the benefit of novice students, and therefore in a more contemporary style. Similar passages are also found in the commentaries of Wang Yi , Zheng Xuan and Gao You . Several texts contain evidence of dialectal variation in the Eastern Han period. The Fangyan , from the start of the period, discusses variations in regional vocabulary. By analysing the text, Paul Serruys identified six dialect areas:

3432-535: The classics: the officially recognized New Texts, and rediscovered versions written in a pre-Qin script known as the Ancient Script Texts . To support their challenge to the orthodox position on the classics, Old Text scholars produced many philological studies. Many of these works contain remarks of various types on the pronunciation of various words. The sources with the most glosses are the Shiming ,

3510-465: The court ceremonies of the aristocracy. Furthermore, many of the songs, based on internal evidence, appear to be written either by women, or from the perspective of a female persona . The repeated emphasis on female authorship of poetry in the Shijing was made much of in the process of attempting to give the poems of the women poets of the Ming - Qing period canonical status. Despite the impersonality of

3588-441: The evolution of Chinese phonology by Edwin G. Pulleyblank . The Shiming glosses were collected and studied by Nicholas Bodman . Weldon South Coblin collected all the remaining glosses and transcriptions, and used them in an attempt to reconstruct an intermediate stage between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese , both represented by the reconstructions of Li Fang-Kuei . Axel Schuessler included reconstructed pronunciations (under

3666-450: The failure of the ruling dynasty to ensure the prosperity of their subjects. The people's folksongs were deemed to be the best gauge of their feelings and conditions, and thus indicative of whether the nobility was ruling according to the mandate of Heaven or not. Accordingly, the songs were collected from the various regions, converted from their diverse regional dialects into standard literary language, and presented accompanied with music at

3744-576: The geography of the Huai River basin was changed significantly by the creation of new high lands, lakes, and the built-up silt of the Yellow River's historical southern course. As a result, water from the midsection of the river could not easily flow into the lower section, while water in the lower section could not find an outlet to the sea. The problem worsened in the Second World War , when the Nationalist government, in an attempt to check

3822-545: The guiding principle of Chinese society. The same word shi later became a generic term for poetry. In English, lacking an exact equivalent for the Chinese, the translation of the word shi in this regard is generally as "poem", "song", or "ode". Before its elevation as a canonical classic, the Classic of Poetry ( Shi jing ) was known as the Three Hundred Songs or the Songs . The Classic of Poetry contains

3900-618: The imperially authorized text and commentary on the Poetry in 653 CE. By the 5th-century, the Lu, Qi, and Han traditions had died out, leaving only the Mao Poetry , which has become the received text in use today. Only isolated fragments of the Lu text survive, among the remains of the Xiping Stone Classics . The Book of Odes has been a revered Confucian classic since the Han dynasty, and has been studied and memorized by centuries of scholars in China. The individual songs of

3978-436: The interrogatives of Old Chinese were replaced with periphrastic forms. The demonstrative shì 是 also came to be used as a copular verb in sentences of the form A 是 B (as in modern Chinese), replacing the typical classical pattern A B 也 ( yě ). Unlike any other verb, shì 是 was not negated with bù 不 – the negative copula fēi 非 was retained from the classical language. In classical texts,

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4056-510: The later actual musical scores or choreography which accompanied the Shijing poems have been lost. Nearly all of the songs in the Poetry are rhyming, with end rhyme, as well as frequent internal rhyming. While some of these verses still rhyme in modern varieties of Chinese, others had ceased to rhyme by the Middle Chinese period. For example, the eighth song ( 芣苢 Fú Yǐ ) has a tightly constrained structure implying rhymes between

4134-477: The many officers, Holding fast to the virtue of King Wen . Responding in praise to the one in Heaven, They hurry swiftly within the temple. Greatly illustrious, greatly honored, May [King Wen] never be weary of [us] men. 於穆清廟 肅雝顯相 濟濟多士 秉文之德 對越在天 駿奔走在廟 不顯不承 無射於人斯 Whether the various Shijing poems were folk songs or not, they "all seem to have passed through the hands of men of letters at

4212-478: The model of sages and was believed to have maintained a cultural connection to the early Zhou dynasty. This view is now generally discredited, as the Zuo zhuan records that the Classic of Poetry already existed in a definitive form when Confucius was just a young child. In works attributed to him, Confucius comments upon the Classic of Poetry in such a way as to indicate that he holds it in great esteem. A story in

4290-553: The name Later Han Chinese) in his dictionary of Old Chinese. The customary writing style of the period was strongly modelled on the classics, and thus provides only occasional glimpses of contemporary grammar. Some works, while generally following the conventional archaizing style, contain passages in a more colloquial style thought to reflect contemporary speech, at least in part. any such examples are found in translated Buddhist literature, particularly direct speech . Similarly, Zhao Qi 's commentary on Mencius includes paraphrases of

4368-610: The names of birds, beasts, plants, and trees. The extensive allegorical traditions associated with the Odes were theorized by Herbert Giles to have begun in the Warring States period as a justification for Confucius ' focus upon such a seemingly simple and ordinary collection of verses. These elaborate, far-fetched interpretations seem to have gone completely unquestioned until the 12th century, when scholar Zheng Qiao ( 鄭樵 , 1104–1162) first wrote his scepticism of them. European sinologists like Giles and Marcel Granet ignored these traditional interpretations in their analysis of

4446-631: The north of the Huai River . They often show marked phonological differences. Many of them exhibit mergers that are not found in the 7th-century Qieyun or in many modern varieties. The exception is the Buddhist transcriptions, suggesting that the later varieties descend from Han-period varieties spoken in the region of Luoyang (in the western part of the central dialect area). The southeastern dialects are not reflected in Eastern Han texts. They were known as Wu ( 吳 ) or Jiangdong ( 江東 ) dialects in

4524-492: The officials returned from their missions, the king was said to have observed them himself in an effort to understand the current condition of the common people. The well-being of the people was of special concern to the Zhou because of their ideological position that the right to rule was based on the benignity of the rulers to the people in accordance with the will of Heaven , and that this Heavenly Mandate would be withdrawn upon

4602-477: The oldest chronologically authenticated Chinese poems. The majority of the Odes date to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), and were drawn from around provinces and cities in the Zhongyuan area. A final section of 5 "Eulogies of Shang" purports to be ritual songs of the Shang dynasty as handed down by their descendants in the state of Song , but is generally considered quite late in date. According to

4680-407: The original meanings of the Odes . Granet, in his list of rules for properly reading the Odes , wrote that readers should "take no account of the standard interpretation", "reject in no uncertain terms the distinction drawn between songs evicting a good state of morals and songs attesting to perverted morality", and "[discard] all symbolic interpretations, and likewise any interpretation that supposes

4758-448: The other hand, songs in the two "Hymns" sections and the "Eulogies" section tend to be longer ritual or sacrificial songs, usually in the forms of courtly panegyrics and dynastic hymns which praise the founders of the Zhou dynasty. They also include hymns used in sacrificial rites and songs used by the aristocracy in their sacrificial ceremonies or at banquets. "Court Hymns" contains "Lesser Court Hymns" and "Major Court Hymns". Most of

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4836-546: The pace of the Japanese invasion, flooded the lower Huai basin by opening the Yellow River's southern levee. The main stem of the Yellow River flowed through the levee breach for the next nine years, further disrupting the Huai river system. The result of these changes was that water from the Huai River pooled up into Lake Hongze , and then ran southwards towards the Yangtze River. Major and minor floods occurred frequently, with

4914-404: The parallel or syntactically matched lines within a specific poem share the same, identical words (or characters) to a large degree, as opposed to confining the parallelism between lines to using grammatical category matching of the words in one line with the other word in the same position in the corresponding line; but, not by using the same, identical word(s). Disallowing verbal repetition within

4992-487: The particle qǐ 豈 marked a rhetorical question, for which a negative answer was expected, but in the Eastern Han it was a general question marker. At the same time, a new question marker níng 寧 appeared. Classic of Poetry The Classic of Poetry , also Shijing or Shih-ching , translated variously as the Book of Songs , Book of Odes , or simply known as the Odes or Poetry ( 詩 ; Shī ),

5070-467: The penultimate words (here shown in bold) of each pair of lines: The second and third stanzas still rhyme in modern Standard Chinese , with the rhyme words even having the same tone, but the first stanza does not rhyme in Middle Chinese or any modern variety. Such cases were attributed to lax rhyming practice until the late- Ming dynasty scholar Chen Di argued that the original rhymes had been obscured by sound change . Since Chen, scholars have analyzed

5148-453: The poems were used by the aristocrats to pray for good harvests each year, worship gods, and venerate their ancestors. The authors of "Major Court Hymns" are nobles who were dissatisfied with the political reality. Therefore, they wrote poems not only related to the feast, worship, and epic but also to reflect the public feelings. Ah! Solemn is the clear temple, Reverent and concordant the illustrious assistants. Dignified, dignified are

5226-437: The poetic voice characteristic of the Songs , many of the poems are written from the perspective of various generic personalities. According to tradition, the method of collection of the various Shijing poems involved the appointment of officials, whose duties included documenting verses current from the various states which constituted the empire. Out of these many collected pieces, also according to tradition, Confucius made

5304-497: The rhyming patterns of the Poetry as crucial evidence for the reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology . Traditional scholarship of the Poetry identified three major literary devices employed in the songs: straightforward narrative ( fù 賦 ), explicit comparisons ( bǐ 比 ) and implied comparisons ( xìng 興 ). The poems of the Classic of Poetry tend to have certain typical patterns in both rhyme and rhythm, to make much use of imagery, often derived from nature. Although

5382-856: The river such that it now primarily discharges into the Yangtze. The Huai River is, to this day, notoriously vulnerable to flooding. The Qinling–Huaihe Line , formed by the Huai River and the Qin Mountains , is sometimes regarded as the geographical dividing line between northern and southern China . This line approximates the 0 °C (32 °F) January isotherm and the 800 millimeters (30 in) isohyet in China. The Huai River originates in Tongbai Mountain in Henan province . It flows through southern Henan, northern Anhui , and northern Jiangsu where it pools into Lake Hongze . Nowadays

5460-450: The royal Zhou court". In other words, they show an overall literary polish together with some general stylistic consistency. About 95% of lines in the Poetry are written in a four-syllable meter , with a slight caesura between the second and third syllables. Lines tend to occur in syntactically related couplets , with occasional parallelism, and longer poems are generally divided into similarly structured stanzas . All but six of

5538-488: The royal courts. The Classic of Poetry historically has a major place in the Four Books and Five Classics , the canonical works associated with Confucianism . Some pre-Qin dynasty texts, such as the Analects and a recently excavated manuscript from 300 BCE entitled "Confucius' Discussion of the Odes ", mention Confucius' involvement with the Classic of Poetry but Han dynasty historian Sima Qian 's Records of

5616-416: The sea, and is planned to be upgraded with a new parallel channel. Several former tributaries also carry some water to the sea. There are many tributaries of the Huai River. There are 15 main tributaries cover an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi) each, and 21 main tributaries have a catchment area larger than 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi). The main tributaries on

5694-437: The songs had to be reconstructed largely from memory in the subsequent Han period. However the discovery of pre-Qin copies showing the same variation as Han texts, as well as evidence of Qin patronage of the Poetry , have led modern scholars to doubt this account. During the Han period there were three different versions of the Poetry which each belonged to different hermeneutic traditions. The Lu Poetry ( 魯詩 Lǔ shī ),

5772-783: The stream. Gentle maiden, pure and fair, Fit pair for a prince. Watercress grows here and there, Right and left we gather it. Gentle maiden, pure and fair, Wanted waking and sleep. Wanting, sought her, had her not, Waking, sleeping, thought of her, On and on he thought of her, He tossed from one side to another. Watercress grows here and there, Right and left we pull it. Gentle maiden, pure and fair, With harps we bring her company. Watercress grows here and there, Right and left we pick it out. Gentle maiden, pure and fair, With bells and drums do her delight. 關關雎鳩 在河之洲 窈窕淑女 君子好逑 參差荇菜 左右流之 窈窕淑女 寤寐求之 求之不得 寤寐思服 悠哉悠哉 輾轉反側 參差荇菜 左右采之 窈窕淑女 琴瑟友之 參差荇菜 左右芼之 窈窕淑女 鐘鼓樂之 On

5850-581: The verses of the "Airs of the States" to have been collected in the course of activities of officers dispatched by the Zhou dynasty court, whose duties included the field collection of the songs local to the territorial states of Zhou. This territory was roughly the Yellow River Plain , Shandong , southwestern Hebei , eastern Gansu , and the Han River region. Perhaps during the harvest . After

5928-439: The voice of the common people. They often speak of love and courtship, longing for an absent lover, soldiers on campaign, farming and housework, and political satire and protest. The first song of the "Airs of the States", " Fishhawk " ( Guān jū 關雎 ), is a well-known example of the category. Confucius commented on it, and it was traditionally given special interpretive weight. The fishhawks sing gwan-gwan On sandbars of

6006-414: Was filled by Old Chinese * r , which yielded Eastern Han * l and Middle Chinese l . In some Eastern Han dialects, this initial may have been a lateral tap or flap . Most modern reconstructions of Old Chinese distinguish labiovelar and labiolaryngeal initials from the velar and laryngeal series. However, the two series are not separated in Eastern Han glosses, suggesting that Eastern Han Chinese had

6084-530: Was still present in the Eastern Han period in words derived from Old Chinese *-ts . Other departing tone syllables may have become *-h by the Eastern Han period, as suggested by a slight preference to use them to transcribe Indic long vowels. Based on Haudricourt's analysis of Vietnamese tones, Edwin Pulleyblank suggested that the Middle Chinese rising tone derived from Old Chinese *-ʔ . Syllables in this category were avoided when transcribing long vowels in

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