Beginnings of The Tradition: Shijing and Chuci
The earliest extant anthologies are the Shi Jing and Chu Ci. Both of these have had a great impact on the subsequent poetic tradition. Earlier examples of ancient Chinese poetry may have been lost because of the vicissitudes of history, such as the burning of books by Qin Shihuang, although one of the targets of this last event was the Shi Jing, which has nevertheless survived .
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