BASC70055 - Foundations of Chinese Poetry: The Ancient Book of Songs

Course Description

The Book of Songs was arguably the first work of Chinese literature to attain classic status. Much like Homer’s epics in the West, the Songs quickly came to constitute the default shared background for literate people no matter their other interests or loyalties; it has continuously shaped East Asian conceptions of poetry and other arts to the present day. The Book of Songs gives modern readers access to a rich, three-dimensional, and long-vanished world of war and sacrifice, spirits watchful and negligent, hard work and harder feelings. Moral thinkers have always taken it as a precious, intimate record of the rise and fall of kingdoms and ages of the world—the smallest gesture or personal detail reflecting urgent social facts. Beyond the beauty and intrigue of the poetry itself, reading the Songs together will help us think through the political and educational possibilities of artistic expression: as one ancient writer put it, "the Songs are for guiding your will."