Ritual Awareness, Symbolism and Creativity in Shi Jing Poetics

Abstract

For more than two thousand years, the collection of poetry simply referred to as the Shi Jing, (“The Classic of Poetry”, “Book of Odes” or “Book of Songs”), has shaped the Chinese literary landscape. The classic is one of the central influences on the development of later Chinese poetry, and can appropriately be considered a major contributor to the habits of expression, imagery and structure which remained dominant until the nineteenth century.