MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Songs of the Shijing and Chu

Three hundred and five odes, every one sung

Introduction

Pre-Qin song: the Shijing as sung music and the songs of Chu, still heard in the Hejian singing of the Odes

The songs of the Shijing and Chu are the poems of the pre-Qin period that were performed as song. The 305 pieces of the Classic of Poetry, in the Airs, Odes and Hymns, date mostly from the Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn period and were all sung; the Records of the Grand Historian says Confucius sang all 305 to the strings. In the south, Chu had its own songs, such as the Song of the Yue Boatman and the Nine Songs that Qu Yuan reworked from the sacrificial song and dance of the Yuan and Xiang rivers. This record covers these works as song (tunes, singing and transmission); the texts belong to the classics and to the Chu ci. The pre-Qin scores are long lost, but in Hejian, Hebei, villagers still chant Guan ju and other odes to old melodies, a tradition listed as Hejian geshi (I-21).

Timeline

Western Zhou to present (pre-Qin scores lost; Hejian geshi still sung)
1000 BCE · OriginThe earliest pieces of the Classic of Poetry date from the Western Zhou. Its 305 pieces comprise 160 Airs of the States, 105 Odes and 40 Hymns, all performed to bells, drums and other instruments; the Canon of Shun in the Book of Documents, "poetry expresses intent, song draws out the words", shows that poem and song were one.528 BCE · EvolutionAround 528 BC, when Zixi, Lord of E and brother of the Chu king, was out in his boat, a Yue boatman sang to him; Liu Xiang's Shuoyuan (chapter Shanshuo) records the Yue sounds in 32 Chinese characters together with a Chinese rendering. This is the Song of the Yue Boatman.300 BCE · EvolutionIn the late Warring States period Qu Yuan saw that the people between the Yuan and Xiang rivers "believed in spirits and loved sacrifices", always with song, music and dance, and reworked their songs into the eleven Nine Songs, which welcome, entertain and send off the gods: the classic songs of Chu.2006 · ImpactIn 2006 Hejian geshi of Hejian, Hebei, entered the first national ICH list (I-21). Hejian is where Mao Heng and Mao Chang transmitted the Odes; the singing is said to have begun in the Han and been practised ever since, and villages such as Shijing village still chant Guan ju, Lu e and other odes to old melodies.
  1. 1000 BCEOriginThe earliest pieces of the Classic of Poetry date from the Western Zhou. Its 305 pieces comprise 160 Airs of the States, 105 Odes and 40 Hymns, all performed to bells, drums and other instruments; the Canon of Shun in the Book of Documents, "poetry expresses intent, song draws out the words", shows that poem and song were one.Literature › Book of Documents: Canon of Shun
  2. 528 BCEEvolutionAround 528 BC, when Zixi, Lord of E and brother of the Chu king, was out in his boat, a Yue boatman sang to him; Liu Xiang's Shuoyuan (chapter Shanshuo) records the Yue sounds in 32 Chinese characters together with a Chinese rendering. This is the Song of the Yue Boatman.
  3. 300 BCEEvolutionIn the late Warring States period Qu Yuan saw that the people between the Yuan and Xiang rivers "believed in spirits and loved sacrifices", always with song, music and dance, and reworked their songs into the eleven Nine Songs, which welcome, entertain and send off the gods: the classic songs of Chu.Literature › Songs of Chu: Nine Songs
  4. 2006ImpactIn 2006 Hejian geshi of Hejian, Hebei, entered the first national ICH list (I-21). Hejian is where Mao Heng and Mao Chang transmitted the Odes; the singing is said to have begun in the Han and been practised ever since, and villages such as Shijing village still chant Guan ju, Lu e and other odes to old melodies.Literature › Classic of Poetry: Guan Ju (Ospreys Cry)Literature › Classic of Poetry: Lesser Odes · Luxuriant Artocarpus

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · Ⅰ-21 Hejian geshi · sung Odes (folk literature) · no. 21 · nominated by Hejian · Hebei