This essay redefines the generic feature of the Shih-Ching, or Book of Songs, which characterizes the lyrical tradition of Chinese literature. The lyrics in the Book form a major genre in ancient world literature in contradistinction to epic and drama in ancient Greece which came to dominate western tradition. The Hsing element is discovered to be the key to the understanding of the structure, the beauty, and the miraculous appeal of the Songs; and its primary meaning and function are analysed and exemplified in detail. The Book of Songs is also discussed as a prototype of Chinese literature, for it exhibits the typical interactions of folk tradition with individual creation of later times. This Chinese version, rendered by a modern Chinese poet, may, it is hoped, interest Chinese creative writers as well as scholars. A full presentation of the original is to be found in the Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Vol. XXXIX, Jan. 1969.