Significance

The Book of Poetry, said to have been edited by Confucius, was among the texts suppressed during the Qin dynasty, but survived in four slightly different versions. The version preserved in the Mao family, known as the Mao shi, is the most-complete and best known. The version preserved by the Han family, or "Han School", the Han shi, edited by Han Ying, reflects the family tradition of producing a quote from the Shijing to fit particular situations. The Han shi waizhuan collects stories or quotations to illustrate and interpret these quotes.

Han Ying's biography in the Historical Records of Sima Qian says that he compiled two commentaries, the neizhuan (inner) and the waizhuan (outer), whose interpretations "very much differed" from the Mao School and other schools.

The quotations and excerpts in the Hanshi waizhuan are useful in corroborating or doubting other pre-Qin texts, for instance, the text of the Xunzi.

References and further reading

• "Han shi waizhuan (Exoteric traditions of the Han version of the Songs),"

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• The Chinese text with Hightower's translation and annotation is online for free: link Traditions of Exemplary Women (University of Virginia).

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