Shijing, also The Book of Songs or Shih Ching, is the     1     (early) collection of Chinese poetry. It     2     (make) up of 311 poems dating from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle stage of the Spring and Autumn Period. Nowadays, Confucius is generally believed to be the     3     (edit) of the book.

Shijing is rich in content,     4     (describe) love and labour, war and slavery, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and special events. It is called a mirror of social life.

Poems included in Shijing fall into three sections-poems that come from villages belong to Feng; those written to persuade or praise the rulers belong to Ya; those used at religious     5     (ceremony) belong to Song. Ya and Song are flowery and serious in language.     6    , Feng is relatively inspiring and full of passion.

The opening poem of Shijing, “Cooing and Wooing” (《关雌》), is about love,     7     reads:

By riverside are cooing, a pair of turtledoves;

A good young man is wooing, a fair maiden he loves.

It is vivid that the man is longing     8     (win) over the girl.

Shijing enables people to have a better understanding of Chinese civilization and is also     9     beginning of ancient Chinese poetry. Additionally, it is also frequently quoted in other Chinese texts and has always been referred to     10     moral truth and lessons.

5 . In the long history of about 5,000 years, numerous Chinese traditional festivals were celebrated in memory of gods or some significant days, some of which are passed down from generation to generation and people always practice special traditional activities in each festival.

Qingming Festival

Qingming Festival is on the 15th day after Spring Equinox, round April 4 or April 5 every year.     1     They remove the weeds growing on the ancestors’ tombs to make them clean, so this festival is also called Tomb-sweeping Festival. In some areas, people are forbidden to use fire to cook food, so they only eat cool food.

Double Ninth Festival

    2    The Chinese character of September is the same as 9, so we get this special name. Chinese people, especially the north Chinese, climb the mountains to the peak to enjoy the wonderful scenery, and admire the beauty of chrysanthemum.

Winter Solstice(冬至)

Winter Solstice is on around December 22 or 23 of solar calendar each year. From Winter Solstice on, the daytime will be longer and longer.     3     In the northern region, people eat dumplings and wonton(馄饨), while in the southern region rice balls.

    4    

In China, this festival is in late January or early February, the last day of the Lunar year. People celebrate it by having a family reunion dinner, setting off fireworks and staying up late. Breaking the dishes and bowls is a thing all the people scare, but if you did it, you have to say: “sui sui ping an”.     5    

6 . China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day (Longtaitou) is one of them. This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar (阴历). It stands for the start of spring and farming. This year, the day falls on March 4th.

The dragon is important in Chinese culture. We Chinese people call ourselves the “descendants (传人) of the dragon”. Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragons.

On the day in ancient times, people put ashes (灰) in the kitchen. This was to “lead the dragon into the house”. People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest in autumn.

Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat “dragon whisker (细须)” noodles and dumplings called “dragon teeth”.

Today, many customs have faded away. But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the mother’s brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

9 . I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office？”

Foreign tourists are often confused in Japan because most streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks（地标）in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”

In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”

People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office？” you ask. “Oh,” they answer “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it？” They don’t know.

It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan！