In the Norton headnote, xing is translated ‘evocative image’: “Xing brings natural images into suggestive resonance with human situations.” How does xing function both in the form and the meaning of the first 4 selections?
These poems are clearly different in form and scope from the epic verse we’ve read so far. But are there similarities as well: In religious and moral instruction? Literary elements? Traces of oral performance?
How does repetition function in the poems? Does it mirror something in the cycle of nature and human existence that the poems address?
Why do you suppose these poems are so central to Confucianism? What values in the teachings of Confucius are celebrated in these poems? (You’ll have to skim some of the selection from Confucius in the Norton Anthology–or read more carefully if you want to consider this for a final paper topic.)