Beginning early in the twentieth century, Western scholars have emphasized the oral origins of early world literature, including Chinese literature. With respect to the Shijing or Classic of Poetry, China's earliest collection of poetry, two proponents of this theory of oral literature have been particularly influential: Marcel Granet (1884–1940) and C. H. Wang. It is little known among Sinologists that Granet's Fêtes et chansons anciennes de la Chine, published in 1919 and perhaps the most important single Western contribution to the study of the Classic of Poetry, was heavily influenced by the early studies of Jean Paulhan (1884–1968). It is better known that C. H. Wang's The Bell and the Drum: Shih Ching as Formulaic Poetry in an Oral Tradition (1974), the second great contribution to this theory, was deeply indebted to the theories of Milman Parry (1902–1935) and Albert B. Lord (1912–1991). As a prelude to a broader study of recently excavated textual materials and their significance for the early history of the Classic of Poetry, in this article I examine the background of these two scholars' studies of the Classic of Poetry, and explore as well some of the influence that they have had in the scholarship of the last century.