| The poems comprising what is now known as the Classic of Odes have long been important material in the construction of texts in China. The Odes often function as primary sources upon which authors create arguments. This paper examines the usage of odes in two recently discovered manuscripts: the Wuxing from Mawangdui Tomb 3 and the Kongzi shilun from the Shanghai Museum corpus. The widespread use of the odes in both these manuscripts and other received texts demonstrate that odes were established cultural constructions as early as the late fourth century B.C.E. Conversely, the nature of the odes' inclusion in these manuscripts---their arrangement as well as the various commentaries on them---suggests that there were multiple collections of odes and the received version of the Odes is one of many groupings.;This study first analyzes the use of certain odes in the Mawangdui Wuxing, remarking briefly on the commentarial strategies employed by the text's author(s). Next, it examines the various odes in the Kongzi shilun, tabulating each instantiation of the odes and commenting on a few noteworthy examples. |
