A Study on the Documents of the Book of Odes from Xianghuishilu during the Ming Dynasty

Applying the expertise on the Book of Odes and imperial examination by historical analytics and statistics, the writer conducts this study on the documents of the book of Odes within the XianghuiShilu during the Ming Dynasty to sort out the exam questions and examinees’ exemplary compositions. The purpose of this study is to recognize the long and short exam questions on the Book of Odes, the distribution of the categories: Feng, Xiaoya, Daya, Song on exam, the appearing percentage of Zhengshi and Bianshi and the tendency of setting questions. The study can also probe into the Book of Odes to know whether the length and argumentation match the interpretation of Zhuxi’s Shiji Chuan. This study can also research out the diverse conditions of the subjects mentioned above in separate periods and how different the exam questions and exemplary compositions base on the Book of Odes from Xiangshi and Huishi were, and compare the Book of Odes with other classic literatures as well.