SHIJING 《诗经》 as the Craddle of Genre and Individual Author’s Creation in the Classical Chinese Poetry: SONG GAO 《崧高》
https://doi.org/10.24833/2410-2423-2025-2-43-149-162
Abstract
The focus of this article is the Shijing, or the “Book of Songs” (11th– 6th centuries BC), an ancient Chinese poetic anthology and one of the earliest literary monuments not only in Chinese, but also in world literature. Despite the large number of works devoted to the anthology, certain aspects of its poetics either remain scarcely studied or not studied at all. These aspects include 1) the issues of genres presented in the anthology, and 2) the issues of individual author’s poetry, which traces its origins within the Chinese tradition to Shijing. It’s important to specify that the Author takes the following idea as the basis of her study: almost all the genres of the classical Chinese poetry, as well as the first pieces of individual author’s creativity, are already represented in Shijing in their primary, rudimentary form. Within the framework of this study, being limited by the allowable volume of the article, we suggest focusing on the genre of epistle and the work by Yin Jifu 尹吉甫, i.e. consider the “Ode to the Prince of Shen” 崧高 Song Gao. We analyze it as the first literary epistle, as the first poetic epistle zeng 赠, as well as one of the first samples of individual author’s works in the history of Chinese literature. However, beforehand we characterize Shijing itself, as well as highlight those features and traits of its poetics that are important for a correct and complete understanding of the essence of this study. Conducting the research, the Author uses primary sources in Chinese, as well as theoretical, research, and reference materials by Russian, Chinese, and Western scholars. Widely known general and specific scientific methods serve as the methodological basis of the study. As a result of consideration of the relevant aspects of Shijing and analysis of the Song Gao, we make conclusions regarding the originality of the prototype of the very first poetic epistle, one of the first individual author’s works in the history of Chinese literature. This article, being a research work, is nevertheless written in such a way that it can be interesting and understandable not only to a professional philologist and sinologist, but also to a wide circle of readers.
About the Author
N. A. StroganovaChina
Nina A. Stroganova - PhD, Researcher .
Spheres of research and professional interest: Chinese literature, Ancient Chinese literature, theory of literature, genre studies, comparative literary studies.
5, Yiheyuan st., Beijing
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Review
For citations:
Stroganova N.A. SHIJING 《诗经》 as the Craddle of Genre and Individual Author’s Creation in the Classical Chinese Poetry: SONG GAO 《崧高》. Linguistics & Polyglot Studies. 2025;11(2):149-162. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2410-2423-2025-2-43-149-162