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2007•Zhongguo wenxue yanjiuRequires access

A Cultural Study of the Repetitive Structure of The Book of Songs

LI Xun-hua

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Abstract

The 305 songs of The Book of Songs were originally lyrics for music.The present pieces still retain the qualities of songs,among which the repetitive structure is typical.The songs composed in the repetitive structure share not only the same number of words in each stanza,the same syntactic rules,also few variants on diction.As a result,they were easy to remember and chant,which made The Book of Songs popular in the Zhou Dynasty.That is why The Book of Songs is so intact among the ancient books handed down from the preQin times.The repetitive structure,characterized with one chant followed by three sighs,is expressive with circular and undulating tones,which adds a strong artistic appeal to the songs.

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What this paper is about

The 305 songs of The Book of Songs were originally lyrics for music.The present pieces still retain the qualities of songs,among which the repetitive structure is typical.The songs composed in the repetitive structure share not only the same number of words in each stanza,the same syntactic rules,also few variants on diction.As a result,they were easy to remember and chant,which made The Book of Songs popular in the Zhou Dynasty.That is why The Book of Songs is so intact among the ancient books handed down from the preQin times.The repetitive structure,characterized with one chant followed by three sighs,is expressive with circular and undulating tones,which adds a strong artistic appeal to the songs.

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Available abstract

The 305 songs of The Book of Songs were originally lyrics for music.The present pieces still retain the qualities of songs,among which the repetitive structure is typical.The songs composed in the repetitive structure share not only the same number of words in each stanza,the same syntactic rules,also few variants on diction.As a result,they were easy to remember and chant,which made The Book of Songs popular in the Zhou Dynasty.That is why The Book of Songs is so intact among the ancient books handed down from the preQin times.The repetitive structure,characterized with one chant followed by three sighs,is expressive with circular and undulating tones,which adds a strong artistic appeal to the songs.

Key concepts: Lyrics, Stanza, Diction, Literature, Linguistics, Art, History, Poetry

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