The Nine Songs: A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China

The Nine Songs were composed in the third century BC and have long been recognized by the Chinese as having Shamanic origins. They throw light on a form of religion widely spread throughout the Far East, as well as being of striking beauty as poetry. In this small book Arthur Waley has translated the poems with a commentary that tells of the various deities the Shamans served, and in an introduction he provides a general account of Shamanism in early China.