A Study of the Poems of North China in the Age of Warring States

Author: Chuang Wan-shou(Department of Chinese College of Liberal Arts)

Abstract：

Poems can express the feelings and thought of human beings. That is Why poems exist everywhere in all ages. Before and during the Age of Spring and Autumn（春秋）, odes and folk songs were popular in North China. The only existent collection of these poems and songs were popular in North China. The only existent collection of these poems and songs is odes or Shih Ching（詩經）. Later, in the Age of warring States（戰國）, this situation changed completely; few poems and songs of any kinds were collected in North China. However, the culture of South China, especially that of the State of Ch'u（?）,was flourishing at that time. As a result, the State of Ch'u was abundant in various kinds of poems and songs. The only existent collection of these poems and songs is The Songs of Ch'u（楚辭）. Nevertheless, it is the poems and songs of North China which this article is concerned.
Because of There were hardly any poems and songs collected in North China
the interruption of song-collecting in the Western Chou Dynasty（西周）;
the adventures of the people and the failure of song-collecting and are dealt with through;
the opposition of the orthodox scholarship.
The contents of the poems and songs of North China
The form of To ke（徒歌）;
The form of folk songs; and
The form of the four-character poems.

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