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Source 2.5: Social Life in Ancient China

The best window on social life in the early civilization of China comes from a text known as The Book of Songs. Originating as oral traditions during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600–771 B.C.E.), these odes or poems were sometimes collected by rulers seeking to know something of the life of their people. Tradition has it that Confucius himself compiled them into their present form of 305 individual poems. More likely, educated scholars at the Zhou dynasty court reworked folk songs and traditions into a more elegant literary expression. By the time of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), they had become a part of the Five Classics of Confucian orthodoxy, studied by generations of Chinese scholars well into the twentieth century. Many of the poems in The Book of Songs expressed the voices of ordinary Chinese people — peasants, soldiers, officials, and wives. Quite a few of them reflected the perspective of women.

Questions to consider as you examine the source:

What difficulties of life in early China do these selections disclose? Which of them reflect the specific conditions of ancient Chinese civilization, and which give voice to more broadly human longings?
What distinct social groups and conflicts are disclosed in these passages?
How are the more personal relationships of family, clan, marriage, and love articulated in these passages? To what extent do you think they offset the difficulties and disappointments of ordinary life?

The Book of Songs

ca. 1046–771 B.C.E.

Selection A: The Perspective of Soldiers

[The hardship of soldiers serving on the frontier. It was common for only sons to be excused from military service in order to care for their aged parents, but this poem suggests that this provision was not always honored.]

To the Minister of War:

Why be we, the teeth and talons of the King,

Moved about, in miserable case,

With no longer an abiding place?

Why be we, the braves, the talons of the King,

Moved about, in miserable plight,

With the end still hidden from our sight?

Surely here is lack of judgment shown.

Why transport us to this misery,

Who have mothers managing the meals alone?

Selection B: The Perspective of a Local Official

[The burden of a local official and his submission to the will of Heaven.]

Out by the northern gate I go my way,

Bearing a load of sorrow and of care;

Vulgarly poor am I, and sore bestead,

And of my hardships all are unaware.

On me devolves the business of the king,

On me official burdens fast encroach;

On me, at home, arriving from abroad,

My household all conspire to heap reproach

All urgent is the business of the king;

Official cares press on me more and more.

And when at home, arriving from abroad,

My household one and all thrust at me sore.

Ah, so indeed,

Yet Heaven hath so decreed

What therefore can I say?

Selection C: The Perspective of Peasants

[A peasant’s comparison of exploiting landlords and tax collectors to huge rats and a dream of a brighter future.]

Monster rats! O monster rats!

Eat not our millet, we implore.

Three years we’ve borne with you,

And still our presence you ignore.

Now we abandon you,

And to yon pleasant lands repair.

O pleasant lands! O pleasant lands!

A refuge have we surely there.

O monster rats! O monster rats!

Devour not all our crops of wheat.

Three years we’ve borne with you,

Still with no mercy do we meet.

Now we abandon you,

And take to yon glad Land our flight.

Gladsome Land! O gladsome Land!

There justice shall we have, and right.

Monster rats! O monster rats!

Devour not all our springing grain.

Three years we’ve borne with you,

Nor heed you still our toil and pain.

Now we abandon you

For brighter plains that yonder lie.

O brighter plains! O brighter plains!

Whose, then, will be the constant cry?

Selection D: The Perspective of Family or Clan

[A celebration of the delights of family and clan, while comparing them to relationships with friends.]

Is not the cherry-tree, all around,

With opening blossoms grandly crowned?

So, nowhere in the world of men

Is the like of clansmen found.

Bereaved by death in ways we dread,

How is the clansman’s heart oppressed!

O’er hill and dale, amid heaps of dead,

Brother for brother makes his quest.

Though brothers may have private feud,

They fight (as one) the alien foe;

And each has friends, both sure and good,

But friends to help? Ah, surely no!

Make thee a feast, make all complete,

And drink thy heart’s content of wine;

’Tis when the band of clansmen meet

That mirth and childlike joy combine.

Union with wife and child is sweet,

Sweet as when lutes in concert blend;

’Tis when united clansmen meet

That mirth and concord know no end.

Selection E: The Perspective of a Wife Betrayed

[The lament of a woman cast off when her husband found another wife.]

When East winds blow unceasingly,

They bring but gloominess and rain.

Strive, strive to live unitedly,

And every angry thought restrain.

So, while unsullied was my name,

I should have lived with you till death.

With slow, slow step I took the road,

My inmost heart rebelling sore.

You came not far with me indeed,

You only saw me to the door.

Ay, feast there with your new-found bride,

Well-pleased, as when fond brothers meet.

And you can show me no kind care,

Nay, treated like a foe am I!

My virtue stood but in your way,

Like traders’ goods that none will buy.

Once it was feared we could not live;

In your reverses, then I shared;

And now, when fortune smiles on you,

To very poison I'm compared.

Rude fits of anger you have shown,

Now left me to be sorely tried.

Ah, you forget those days gone by,

When you came nestling to my side!

Source: William Jennings, The Shi King: The Old “Poetry Classic” of the Chinese (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1891), A:203, B:67–68, C:126, D:176–77, E:62–64, https://archive.org/stream/shikingoldpoetry00jennuoft#page/n3/mode/2up.