Similarities Between The book of Songs and Robert Burns’Poetry

College of Foreign Languages，Hebei North University/Zhou Juntao Sun Gengmei

【Abstract】As the first general collection of poems in China， The Book of Songs resembles the poems composed by the late 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns.From a new perspective， this paper explores the similarities between them.

【Key words】The Book of Songs； Robert Burns； Similarities

The Book of Songs， formerly called Poetry， is the earliest general collection of ancient Chinese poems.Containing 305 poems in total， it is also called Three Hundred Poems.The poems in this book were created during 500 years from Western Zhou to Spring and Autumn period.Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty， Poetry was regarded as a must read by the Confucians.Later， it became one of the six classics of the Confucian school.The Book of Songs comprises three parts， namely， the folk songs， the odes， and the temple hymns.It has four separate versions， of which the Mao version has survived to the present day， the other three existing only in fragments.Being rich in content and wide in subject， this book depicts a panorama of the life in remote ancient China.Today， The Book of Songs is not only the resplendent treasure of Chinese people， but also an integrated part of the cultural heritage of the world.

The Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns（1759-1796） is best known as a pioneer of the Romantic movement.He wrote many poems in the Scots language or a light Scots dialect.As well as making original compositions， Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland， often revising or adapting them， among which the well-known ones are A Red， Red Rose， A Man's a Man for A' That， and To a Mouse.These achievements being counted， Burns has made a great contribution to the preservation of the heritage of the distinctively characteristic ethnic culture.

Rationality is exclusively owned by human beings， and it is what distinguishes human from animals.Since the moment when human beings came into this world， rationality or reason has led people to be able to make great progress in almost every area such as education， business， and technology.However， the creation of works of art relies more on emotion rather than rationality， and the more time a work dates back to， the more it approximates to its pristine state， as what the story of Adam and Eve indicates in The Bible.

Created in Zhou Dynasty that conforms to the conception of “harmony between man and nature”， The Book of Songs involves subject matters which are similar to that of the poetry of the “heaven-taught plough-man” Robert Burns.Thematic concern like the romantic relationship set in natural surroundings is especially common.endprint

Both being passionate， romantic， fanciful and sincere， the love poems in The Book of Songs and Burns poetry make it clear that labor and love are interwoven with each other and the idyllic picture of rural life injects original ecology into literary work.In this chapter the author mainly analyzes the love poems in two aspects respectively， including the description of peoples appearance and their natural emotions in The Book of Songs and Burns passionate love and the poets personal life that deserves analysis for its influence on his poems.

Created in Zhou dynasty when the “harmony between man and nature” theory prevailed， The Book of Songs involved many aspects that concerning ecological thinking such as the love poetry， imageries employed and the poetic language.Similarly， in the west， the Scottish tenant farmer and poet Robert Burns who was brought up in nature and embraced warmly his motherland wrote enormous poems in Scotts and they resemble The Book of Songs in terms of the above respects that embodied ecological thinking.In both cases， we can find that man and nature have innate and close relationship with each other.And through the comparison we can naturally draw the conclusion that there exists many similarities in adapting folk songs into poems between the east and the west.

References：

[1]Abrams，M.H.& Harpham， Geoffrey.Galt.A Glossary of Literary Terms.9th ed.Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2010.

[2]Burns， Robert.Poems， Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect Luath Press Ltd， 2009.

[3]Crawford，Robert.Robert Burns and Cultural Authority.University of Iowa Press， 1997.

[4]Leask， Nigel.Robert Burns and Pastoral.New York： Oxford University Press Inc.， 2010.endprint