Playlist: The Book of Songs: “The Great Preface” and Five Notions about Poetry

Transcript

Robert Oxnam: The interpretations of the Book of Songs by Confucian scholars of the Han dynasty have been immensely important to the development of Chinese poetry. Five notions in particular have influenced Chinese poetry for centuries. First is the notion that a poem is a place where one's deepest emotions are expressed. One group of Han scholars put it this way:

From "The Great Preface" to the Book of Songs

The poem is the place to which one's preoccupations go.

Within the mind it is a preoccupation;

emerging in language it is a poem.

The emotions are stirred and take form in words.

If words are not enough, we speak them in sighs.

If sighs are not enough, we sing them.

If singing is not enough,

then unconsciously our hands dance them

and our feet tap them.

Paul Rouzer: As soon as you read the poem, you feel what is in the poem. You feel what the author felt, and you, yourself, can react spontaneously to that.

*The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].

Transcript

Robert Oxnam: Second, the Confucian scholars felt that the poet, by expressing his deepest feelings in a poem, was also commenting on the time in which he lived.

Paul Rouzer: We can understand a historical event better, the Chinese felt, by reading the poems that were produced in reaction to that particular historical event.

*The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].

Transcript

Robert Oxnam: Third, these commentators also maintained that a poet's personality is inscribed in a poem.

Paul Rouzer: In other words, a poem is not merely just the individual single response of a poet to an event in history but also a clue to the poet's whole personality.

*The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].

Transcript

Robert Oxnam: Fourth, it was assumed that poetry reveals the poet's moral fiber.

Paul Rouzer: And a great deal of criticism, traditional criticism of poetry in China, has been involved with the moral critiques of individual poets. The reading of good or bad moral qualities through the reading of the poem.

*The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].

Transcript

Robert Oxnam: Fifth, through his poetry, a poet is seen to live beyond his own time.

Paul Rouzer: If he could inscribe his own particular personality in his poems, then what made him most important as a human being would consequently survive his death and could be read by later people.

*The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].