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In the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C. - 771 B.C.) there were already a few written records of ancient ballads.
In the first period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C. -256 B.C.) -- The Spring and Autumn Period锛�770B.C.-476 B.C.锛�, the first collection of poems in Chinese history appeared: Shi Jing ( At first it was called Shi or 300 Shi, but renamed Shi Jing during the Han Dynasty) -- the Book of Songs (it is also known as: the Classic of Poetry, Book of Odes or Odes of Book.
Shi Jing included 305 poems that were collected by the officers who were sent out among the population by the court. Shi Jing has three sections:
Feng -- folk songs / ballads ( 160 poems).
Ya -- festival songs sung at court during banquets and the entertainment of guests (105 poems).
Song -- songs in praise of the imperial ancestors and sung on sacrificial occasions (40 poems).
In the 305 poems /songs, the folk songs/ballads are considered most valuable because they express a wide social life with a realistic style.
Shi Jing -- the Book of Songs marked the beginning of ancient Chinese realistic poetry, and has influenced Chinese literature and poetry down the ages.
In terms of language and poetic form, the poems in Shi Jing -- the Book of Songs are Si Yan Shi -- Chinese classical poems with four characters per line.
During the second period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C. -256 B.C.) -- the Warring States Period 锛�476-221 B.C.), the first poet in Chinese history appeared-- Qu Yan(340 B.C.-278 B.C.) and he created an emerging poetic style: Chu Ci - The Songs of the South(Songs of Chu or Verses of Chu).
Before Qu Yuan (340 B.C.-278 B.C.), most Chinese poems were folk songs or ballads, they were created by many people together and passed on mouth by mouth. There was not anyone who devoted their whole life and their energy to write poetry.
Qu Yuan, was the first named poet in the history of Chinese literature and poetry.
Chu Ci - The Songs of the South has two meanings:
Chu Ci was the name of a book that was edited by Liu Xian during the Western Han Dynasty 锛�206 B.C.- 8锛�, and was re-edited by Wang Yi during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). The main content in this book was the poetry of Qu Yuan, but also included the works of other poets that were written in the style of Qu Yuan.
Chu was a state in the Zhou Dynasty; it was in the south of China, in today's Hubei Province and the northern part of Hunan Province.
The works in the book Chu Ci -- The Songs of the South are mainly in the Chu dialect to write the songs of Chu, to record the customs of Chu and to express the local people's thoughts and feelings, there is strong local color.
Therefore, Chu Ci was also the name of a literary style that was created by Qu Yuan and be passed down.
As the first great poet in the history of Chinese poetry and literature, Qu Yuan is regarded as the first author of verse, his main contribution was that he created a new style of poetry -- Chu Ci, and made some meaningful innovations.
For example:
In the length of his poetry, in his representative work Li Sao, there are 370 lines and more than 2400 Chinese characters.
In the language, based on the classical poems in Shi Jing which have four characters per line, he extended the line of poetry to five and six characters each line and added a 鈥渪i鈥� (auxiliary word, there is no meaning, just helps to express a feeling, similar with Ah, or Oh ) style, and together with the folk songs of the Han Dynasty, this laid a good foundation for the new poetic styles of the Tang Dynasty with 5 characters and 7 characters per line.
Chu Ci was the transition between Chinese poems with four characters per line and Chinese poems with five or seven characters per line.
In content and writing style, Qu Yuan's Chu Ci - the Songs of the South, expressed the strong patriotic thoughts and feelings of the poet, with the totally new style of poetry, created a positive romantic poetic style, produced great affection for the development of Chinese poetry.
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