General Literary Chinese from Scratch/To Study the Odes

Comment to be written. The Categories of the Classic of Poetry The Shijing is traditionally divided into three broad categories: 風 (Airs), 雅 (Odes), and 頌 (Hymns). The Odes are subdivided into 大雅 (Greater Odes) and 小雅 (Lesser Odes). What each of these genres exactly entailed is not entirely clear. Feng 風 These can be roughly described as state songs, which reflect contemporary issues for the ancient Sinitic peoples. They contain strong "salt of the earth" commentary; love, marriage, social criticism, political criticism, work, riding horses, and the like. Guan Ju 關雎, the first song in the classic, is a Feng about a person seeing a woman across an islet that they want to court with, but cannot reach. The traditional translation is "Airs," or "Airs of the States" when translating Guofeng. Ya 雅 These are aristocratic songs that reflect Zhou culture, and would have been performed for the royal court. They typically celebrate the exploits of past Zhou royalty and culture heroes; most notably, King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, and the semi-legendary Hou Ji. They can be read as something analogous to national anthems or classical music, and the traditional translation for the term is "Ode". There are two types of 雅: Minor 小 and Greater 大, so Minor and Greater Odes. The biggest distinction between these is their length: Greater Odes 大雅 tend considerably longer than Minor Odes 小雅, whilst being more archaic in tone and appealing to deep-seated traditions. Minor Odes, on the other hand, are more similar to the Airs, but more centred around courtly life. Banquets, lament, military action, and complaints can be found here. Song 頌 These are, essentially, religious hymns, which were used to accompany certain sacrificial events. Specifically, the songs used in sacrifices within Shang 商, Zhou 周, and Lu 魯 are given. These often speak of venerated ancestors, legendary creatures that founded their nations, and give considerable praise to rulers who received the Mandate of Heaven 天命 and carried it to its completion. However, the exact sacrifices these were for is not exactly known. However, while the "Shang Song" category claims to be of Shang 商, these are preserved hymns from the Zhou dynasty State of Song 宋. This state succeeded Shang after the original state was sacked in the Battle of Muye in 1046 B.C. Therefore, how much of the material is actually of Shang and not Song culture is unclear; the earliest copies of the Classic of Poetry date back to 330 B.C., over 700 years after the war. It is not impossible to say that the culture may have diverged considerably. Text 蟋蟀·姬旦 國風·唐風 蟋蟀在堂，歲聿其莫。今我不樂，日月其除。無已大康，職思其居。好樂無荒，良士瞿瞿。 蟋蟀在堂，歲聿其逝。今我不樂，日月其邁。無已大康，職思其外。好樂無荒，良士蹶蹶。 蟋蟀在堂，役車其休。今我不樂，日月其慆。無已大康，職思其憂。好樂無荒，良士休休。 黃鳥 小雅·鴻鴈之什 黃鳥黃鳥，無集于穀，無啄我粟。 此邦之人，不我肯穀。言旋言歸，復我邦族。 黃鳥黃鳥，無集于桑，無啄我粱。 此邦之人，不可與明。言旋言歸，復我諸兄。 黃鳥黃鳥，無集于栩，無啄我黍。 此邦之人，不可與處。言旋言歸，復我諸父。 References Deng, Q. (2013). 诗经 [Classic of Poetry] (Q. Kong, Ed.; 2nd ed, Vols 1–2). 东南大学出版社 [Southeast University Press]. Smith, Adam; Poli, Maddalena (2021), "Establishing the text of the Odes: The Anhui University Bamboo Manuscript", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 84 (3): 515–557, doi:10.1017/S0041977X22000015. 《蟋蟀·姬旦 國風·唐風》Available at: https://www.fanyahanwen-corpus.cn/corpus_viewer/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E6%BC%A2%E6%96%87/clean/%E5%91%A8%E6%9C%9D/%E6%9D%B1%E5%91%A8/%E6%88%B0%E5%9C%8B%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3/%E5%91%A8/%E8%A9%A9%E7%B6%93/%E5%9C%8B%E9%A2%A8/%E5%94%90%E9%A2%A8/%E8%9F%8B%E8%9F%80