Abstract: Separating from the dynamic and diversified musical context,the textualization of the musical poetry strips away additional musical information other than the poems of the “musical texts”. This process makes the musical poetry a plain,static and solidified pure texts,resulting in the ambiguity and incomprehensibility of certain verses. The complex texts in the present version of The Book of Songs,such as some irregularly superimposed chants,may be variations caused by improper textualization of the musical poetry. And some variational melodies and lyrics,such as figurative expressions,the last chapter as luan ci(乱辞),ready-made sentences and old tunes,have been recorded as regular texts in the process of textualization. As the result of a high degree of textualization,the present version of The Book of Songs cannot be used to restore what the creation and singing of the musical poetry really are in the Zhou Dynasty.

Key words: The Book of Songs, musical texts, oral performance, textualization