Xunzi's Study of the Book of Songs and the Commentaries on the Book of Songs before the Qin Dynasty

Xunzi is a Confucian who propagated doctrines of the ancient saga and handed down the classics in the Warring States Period.His poetics is different from the system of Maoshi.Xunzi gave a profound explanation to the classics and made The Book of Songs authoritative,at the same time,he demonstrated the ceremonial rites and regulations with The Book of Songs and promoted the development of ceremonial rites and regulations.His basic research spirit,learning the classics in order to make use of them,became the headstream of the school of up-to date writing study in Han Dynasty.Xunzi maybe had written the commentaries on The Book of Songs,for there are two kinds of the excerption about the commentaries on The Book of Songs in Xunzi,that threw daylight on the basic condition of Xunzi's commentaries on The Book of Songs.