4. LI SAO
• "Li Sao" is an ancient Chinese poem
from the anthology Chuci traditionally
attributed to Qu Yuan.
• Li Sao dates from the 3rd century BCE,
during the Chinese Warring States
period.
6. FAMOUS CHINESE POEMS
1. 悯农 (Sympathy for the Peasants)
2. 登鹳雀楼 (Climbing Stork Tower)
3. 关雎 (The Crying Ospreys)
4. 相思 (Lovesickness)
5. 乡愁 (Nostalgia)
6. 终南山 (The Zhongnan Mountains)
7. 题西林壁 (Written on the Wall of the West Woods Temple)
8. 桃夭 (The Peach Tree Tender)
9. 枫桥夜泊 (Night Mooring at Maple Bridge)
10. 过故人庄 (Visiting an Old Friend’s Farmhouse)
7. BOOK OF ODES
• The Classic of Poetry
• Called Shijing or Shih-ching, translated as the
Book of Songs, Book of Odes or Odes or
Poetry
• Oldest existing collection of Chinese Poetry
with 305 works
• One of the “Five Classics, believed to be
compiled by Confucius
8. OLD AND NEW
from the Book of Odes
She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs;
She came down the mountain and met her former
husband.
She knelt and asked her former husband,
“What do you find your new wife like?”
“My new wife, although her talk is clever,
Cannot charm me as my old wife could.
9. In beauty of face there is not much to choose,
But in usefulness they are not all alike.
“My new wife comes in from the road to meet me;
My old wife always came down from her tower.
My old wife was good at plain sewing,
My new wife is clever at embroidering silk.
Of silk embroidery one can do an inch a day;
Of plain sewing, more than five feet.
Putting her silk by the side of her sewing,
I see that the new wife will not compare with the old.”
