【原文】

Long before the emergence of the written word, ballads, accompanied by music and dance,and myths, passed around by word of mouth, were widely popular. Chinese literature finds its origins in these traditions. However, ballads were what people improvised out of daily life, and due to lack of means to record and preserve them in ancient times, they quickly disappeared without leaving much of a trace. Today, we can only deduce their existence from ancient books, which recorded some time-honored ballads, though most of these are belived to be derivatives of later generations. Ballads in the Book of Songs are the earliest writings that can be dated. From this point of view, ancient mythology obviously has had a great influence on Chinese literature.

【譯文】

與舞蹈和音樂相伴的歌謠跟口頭流傳的神話，遠在文字出現之前就已大量產生。中國的文學正是發端于此。不過歌謠本是人們在生活中隨興而發的東西，上古時代也沒有保存和記載它們的手段，因之也就很快湮滅，不留痕跡。我們只能從一些古籍書中推斷它們的存在。古書中記載了一些據稱年代非常久遠的歌謠，但是大多出于后人的偽托，能夠斷定朝代的歌謠要到《詩經》里才能看見。從這點來看，古代神話對中國文學的影響更為顯著。