Classification of Songs Feng Ya Song

Feng, Ya, Song.

Poems in the Book of Songs (詩經) are classified according to the "Liuyi" (六義). "Liuyi" refers to "Feng (風), Ya (雅), Song (頌), Fu (賦), Bi (比), Xing (興)". "Feng, Ya, Song" refers to different categories of music, and "Fu, Bi, Xing" refers to expressive techniques.

"Feng", also known as "Guofeng" (國風), consists of 15 groups and a total of 160 articles. It is generally regarded as the essence of literature in the "Book of Songs". In terms of style, it presents various local characteristics, and in terms of content, most of them are folk poetry.

"Ya" has a total of 105 articles, divided into 31 "Da Ya" (大雅) and 74 "Xiao Ya" (小雅). "Xiao Ya" is the music for entertaining guests. "Dai Ya" is the music for the monarch to accept the worship of his subjects and to state and persuade them. Most of them are the works of court officials and public officials, and a small part is folk poetry. Its content is almost all about politics, some praise good people and good governance, and some satirize bad governance.

"Song" is a piece of music for nobles to sacrifice to ghosts and gods in their family temples and to praise the ruler's merits. It should be accompanied by dance when played. It can also refer to the sacrificial poems of ancestral temples, a total of 40 articles.