Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/70

Among sinologues the late Dr. Legge devoted great labour to amassing information about this remarkable collection of ancient poems. Judging from the trouble taken in bringing them together by Wan Wang and Duke Chou at the beginning of the twelfth century before Christ; from the fact that they were deposited for purposes of use and reference in the national archives as well as distributed among the feudatories, and from the remarks of Chinese commentators, it is inferred that they were regarded not merely as an anthology of remarkable verses, but also as a guide to the condition of the people and the methods of government in the various localities of their composition. They do not at all partake of an epic character: alike in China and in Japan the epic poem had no existence. Neither do they attain any high standard of poetic excellence, or deal with the stronger passions that sway humanity. But in spite of these inferiorities, in spite of metaphors often ill-chosen, illustrations occasionally puerile, and rhymes which, being necessarily monosyllabic, lack variety and cadence, the great age of these odes, their religious character, and the indications they furnish of Chinese customs and sentiments, invest them with exceptional interest. Their influence, too, upon the Chinese mind has been incalculable. Scarcely an educated lad in the immense realm fails to commit the whole 305 odes to memory before he offers himself at the competitive ex-