Three Literary Patterns of The Book of Change: The Transformation of Literary Spirits in Chinese Axial Age

The Book of Change (周易) is composed of three documents of different times, namely, the Ancient Songs in the Classics of Change (易经) in the Shang Dynasty, the Divination Words in the Classics of Change in the Zhou Dynasty after the "Change from the Yin Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty", and the Commentaries of Change (易传) in the Warring States Period, which belongs to the "Change from the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty". This is the embodiment of the conception transformation in Chinese Axial Age. Accordingly, The Book of Change shows three different literary patterns and represents three different literary spirits of different times. The Ancient Songs expresses the "sad" literary spirit of all walks of life in the late Shang Dynasty in the form of poetry. The Divination Words shows the literary spirit of the "apprehensive" of the clan aristocracy in the early Western Zhou Dynasty in the form of prose. The Commentaries of Change shows the "magnificent" literary spirit of the intellectual elite in the Warring States Period in the form of rhyming essay and prose.