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 do repetition and variation function in the poems? Think in terms of the analogies the poems draw between natural and human cycles.
Why do you suppose these poems are so central to Confucianism? What values in the teachings of Confucius are celebrated in these poems?
In the Analects, Confucius writes “The three hundred Poems are summed up in one single phrase: ‘Think no evil’.” Is this evident in the poems you read? Where?