OR


BOOK OF POETRY.


INTRODUCTION.


CHAPTER I.


THE NAME AND CONTENTS OF THE CLASSIC.

1. Among the Chinese classical books next after the Shu in point of
antiquity comes the Shih or Book of Poetry.

The meaning of the character Shih.

The character Shu, as formed by the combination of two others, one of
which signified 'a pencil,' and the other 'to speak,' supplied, we saw
in its structure, an indication of its primary significance, and
furnished a clue to its different applications. The character Shih was
made on a different principle, that of phonetical formation, in the
peculiar sense of these words when applied to a large class of Chinese
terms. The significative portion of it is the character for 'speech,'
but the other half is merely phonetical, enabling us to approximate to
its pronunciation or name. The meaning of the compound has to be learned
from its usage. Its most common significations are 'poetry,' a poem, or