Taxonomy of meanings for 詩:
- shī (OC: qhljɯ MC: ɕɨ) 書之切 平 廣韻：【説文曰志也詩序云發言爲詩釋名曰詩之也志之所之也書之切六 】
- SONG
- nsong (note that one 歌s these songs)
- nprpluralthe canonical Songs, particularly those collected in what is known later as Shijing
- nprtextthe Book of Songs
- text only> POEM
- nthe written text of a SONG > poem
- nadV(express something) in/with a poem
- nprthe Book of Odes
- nmkind of poetryCH
- relevant action> CHANT
- vtoNGUOYU: chant literary texts in prose or rhymed poetry
- genre defined by> LITERARY GENRE
- nrhyming lyrical poemCH
- typical related action> SING
- vtoN
- SONG
Additional information about 詩
說文解字: 【詩】，志也。从言、寺聲。 【書之切】【𧥳】，古文詩省。
- Criteria
- SONG
1. The current general word for a song with or without accompanying music of any kind is gē 歌.
2. Shī 詩 refers to a regularly rhymed song with a generally regular number of syllables per line.
3. Fēng 風 refers to a folk song with a given melody.
4. Fù 賦 refers originally to any narrative or descriptive song in early texts but came to refer to the genre of rhyme prose.
5. Yáo 謠 refers to a folksong, mostly in ancient texts to a children's ditty, with a more or less fixed melody, but the focus seems to be on the text and there is no accompanying music involved.
6. O!u 謳 is a dialect word (state of Qi) referring to popular work-songs with a more or less fixed melody.
7. Yín 吟 is occasionally used, from late Han and Three Kingdoms times onwards, as a noun and refers to a popular song.
- POET
1. There is no common and current word for a poet, but note the occasional use of the term 詩人 "author of songs" and of gǔ 瞽 "blind singer".
- Word relations
- Object: (SONG)學/STUDY
The dominant word is xué 學 (ant. jiào 教 "train teach")which refers primarily to studying or training under another person, and secondarily to the learning by heart texts. Very often, the word retains a tinge of immitation. - Contrast: (SONG)書/DOCUMENT
The dominant general word for everything written is shū 書. (However, note that the word also refers specifically to a letter.)