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One of the five Confucian classics, The Book of Songs (Shijing) is the oldest collection of poetry in world literature and the finest treasure of traditional songs left from antiquity. Where the other Confucian classics treat "outward things: deeds, moral precepts, the way... Read Full Overview

One of the five Confucian classics, The Book of Songs (Shijing) is the oldest collection of poetry in world literature and the finest treasure of traditional songs left from antiquity. Where the other Confucian classics treat "outward things: deeds, moral precepts, the way the... Read Full Overview

First published in 1937 this volume is a collection of ancient Chinese songs, dating from 800 to 600 B.C. Until it was published in 1937 it had not been translated into English since the middle of the nineteenth century.

Joseph R. Allen's new edition of The Book of Songs restores Arthur Waley's definitive English translations to the original order and structure of the two-thousand-year-old Chinese text. One of the five Confucian classics, The Book of Songs is the oldest collection of poetry in... Read Full Overview