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Preface
The Book of Poetry, China's first ancient poem collection, was compiled in the middle of theSpring and Autumn Period, around the 6th century BC, and roughly contemporary with the epicsIliad and Odyssey by Homer of ancient Greece. At the beginning it was called Poetry, 300 Poemsor Collected 300 Poems. It didn't have its current name until the Western Han Dynasty （206 BC-AD 25） when it was regarded as a Confucian classic and listed in the "Six Classics" along withCollection of Ancient Texts, The Rites, The Book of Music, The Book of Changes and The Springand Autumn Annals.
Its compiler has been usually ascribed to Confucius, ancient Chinese educator. Accordingto Historical Records by Sima Qian, historian of the Western Han Dynasty, prior to Confucius'time, there were over-3,000 poems in circulation. After strict screening, Confucius saved only305 and used them and the other five classics as textbooks to teach his disciples.
During the Han Dynasty annotating and teaching The Book of Poetry were four schools,founded respectively by Yuan Gu of the Qi State, Shen Pei of the Lu State, Hart Ying of the YahState, Mao Heng of the Lu State and Mao Chang of the Zhao State. Nonetheless, only the editionannotated by Mao Heng and Mao Chang was handed down to this very day.
Poems included in The Book of Poetry were written approximately between the early yearsof the Western Zhou Dynasty （1 lth century BC） and the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period（6th century BC）, dating back about 2,500 years.
Legend goes that official collectors went on a special mission to solicit folk songs andballads from Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Hubei, and presented them tothe imperial court of the Zhou Dynasty. Some other poems in the book are odes to the Zhou king,composed by high court officials and the literati. Imperial musicians then wrote music for all thepoems to amuse the king.