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1 Duke of Zhou (11th c. BC), son of King Wen of Zhou 周文王[Zhōu Wén wáng], played an important role as regent in founding the Western Zhou 西周[Xī Zhōu], and is also known as the "God of Dreams"

Idioms (3)

周游列国

zhōu yóu liè guó

1 to travel around many countries (idiom); peregrinations
2 refers to the travels of Confucius

众所周知

zhòng suǒ zhōu zhī

1 as everyone knows (idiom)

周而复始

zhōu ér fù shǐ

1 lit. the cycle comes back to the start (idiom); to move in circles
2 the wheel comes full circle

Sample Sentences

那么先看春秋时期，春秋时期的外交辞令简言之就是以“吟诗”为主要形式，这儿的“诗”，指的正是我国第一部诗歌总集《诗经》，《诗经》是周礼的象征，工于委婉，这与外交语言需符合“礼”的观念不谋而合，以至于在《左传》中所记录的外交辞令中“引诗七十五则”，引用《诗经》数量之多也让后人叹为观止。

nàme xiān kàn chūnqiū shíqī ，chūnqiū shíqī de wàijiāo cílìng jiǎnyán zhī jiùshì yǐ “yínshī ”wéi zhǔyào xíngshì ，zhèr de “shī ”，zhǐ de zhèngshì wǒguó dì yī bù shīgē zǒngjí 《shījīng 》，《shījīng 》shì Zhōu Lǐ de xiàngzhēng ，gōngyú wěiwǎn ，zhè yǔ wàijiāo yǔyán xū fúhé “lǐ ”de guānniàn bùmóuérhé ，yǐzhìyú zài 《zuǒzhuàn 》zhōng suǒ jìlù de wàijiāo cílìng zhōng “yǐn shī qīshí wǔ zé ”，yǐnyòng 《shījīng 》shùliàng zhī duō yě ràng hòurén tànwèiguānzhǐ 。

So, first let's look at the Spring and Autumn Period. In simple terms, the diplomatic rhetoric of the Spring and Autumn Period was mainly in the form of reciting poetry. Here "poetry" refers to China's first anthology of poems, the Book of Songs (Shijing). The Shijing was a symbol for the Rites of Zhou, with its ability for euphemism, this diplomatic language needed to be in line with the concept of rites, to the extent that there are 75 instances of nobles citing poems in diplomatic rhetoric recorded in the Commentary of Zuo, the amount of references to the Shijing is amazing to see looking back.

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