The Book of Odes: A Case Study of the 2600 Years Chinese Hermeneutic Tradition

Kuang Yu Chen
Rutgers University

The Book of Odes or The Book of Songs (Shi Jing), dated 1100-600 BC, is the earliest collection of poems in China. Both poetry and scripture, the Book of Odes is considered as one of the five major Confucian Classics. Over the past 2600 years, the Book of Odes has played a central role in Chinese literature and Chinese scholarship. Confucius said “One phrase that summarizes all the three hundred poems (i.e. in The Book of Odes) is: think no evil (keep the heart right)”. This comment started the hermeneutic tradition of interpreting the Book of Odes (of course, Confucius did not call the collection the Book of Odes; instead, he called it Shi, i.e. Poetry). In fact, Confucius was credited as the person who edited the collection of the three hundred or so poems. According to Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian: “Confucius personally sang all the three hundred and five songs (poems) and played the music on the string instrument to ensure that they fitted into the score of Shao-Wu and Ya-Song. Through his efforts, the tradition of ancient rites and music was therefore rescued from oblivion and handed down to posterity, that they may help in carrying out the ideal of King’s Way (Wang Dao) and in teaching the Six Arts.” Sima Qian’s words summarized well the traditional hermeneutics on the Book of Odes over the last 2000 years. In general, the traditional or Confucian interpretation of the Book of Odes centers around two major themes, namely, its relationship to the use of language (Confucius said “without learning poetry, without polished language”) and its relationship to ritual and education. Intriguingly, throughout the hermeneutic history of the Book of Odes, scholars have never seriously discussed the question on the authorship of the book. Chen-Tong Li first raised the question on the authorship of The Book of Odes in his 1971 book entitled Shijing tongshi (General Interpretation of The Book of Odes). Li’s basic hypothesis that the Book of Odes was written by a single author, Yin Ji-fu, was based on a set of well-defined hermeneutic rules. Li’s study, predictably, has generated little enthusiasm among his contemporaries. Nevertheless, I believe that Li’s hypothesis deserves serious scholarly discussion. In this paper, I wish to show first how the Book of Odes can be understood based on Li’s single author hypothesis; second, to contrast Li’s view with the traditional Confucian interpretation; and lastly, to discuss Li’s hypothesis from the perspective of Chinese hermeneutics.