(1) Explanation of the Name of the Book of Poetry
The Book of Poetry is China's first general collection of poems, which contains 305 poems from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period of about five hundred years, and was originally known as Poetry only, or even the number of its compositions was called the Poetry of Three Hundred, and then became the Confucian classic known as the Book of Poetry.
(2) Classification of the Works of the Book of Poetry
The Book of Poetry is categorized and arranged in the order of wind, elegance, and ode. ***There are 15 national winds (Zhou Nan, Zhaonan, name of feudal states, name of Yong, Wei, Wang, Zheng, Qi, Wei, Tang, Qin, Chen, Hui, Cao, Bin), 160 pieces.
The "Ya" is the music of the Zhou Emperor's royal family, and it is the "proper music" as opposed to local music, which was used for court ceremonies and rituals. Ya" is divided into "Daya" and "Xiaoya", which is also a distinction of music. There are 31 "Daya" pieces, 74 "Xiao Ya" pieces, and 105 "**** pieces".
"Ode" is a song and dance of the Zhou royal vassals to the gods and ancestors. There are 31 Songs of Zhou, 4 Songs of Lu, 5 Songs of Shang, and 40 Songs of ****.
(3) The Authors of the Book of Songs
Most of the authors of the works of the Book of Songs remain unnamed.
Most of the Psalms are folk songs, which are of the nature of collective creation, and the exact authors are always unknown.
Five of the works of the aristocratic literati in the Book of Songs name their authors (e.g., Daya - Song Gao, "Jifu made an ode to his poem Kongshuo, and his style was unbridled good.") , but there are also almost entirely blanks about the author.
Only a few works, due to the exact historical records, can know the name of the author and the background of creation. For example, the "Yong Feng - Zai Chi" is known to have been written by Mrs. Xu Mu.
(4) Dating of the Poetry WorksThe earliest poem in the Book of Songs is Bin Feng - Broken Hatchet, which talks about the "Duke of Zhou's Eastward Expedition" around 1114 B.C.
The latest poem is Chen Feng - Zhu Lin, a satire of the people of the State of Chen on the adultery of Duke Ling of Chen with Xia Ji, which is recorded in the Zuozhuan - the Ninth and Tenth Years of the Duke of Xuan (宣公九年、十年), which is equivalent to 600 B.C.
(599 years ago), 599 BC. It is difficult to say whether there are earlier and later works.
Roughly speaking:
The "Songs of the Zhou" are all pre-Western Zhou works.
The Daya are all Western Zhou works. (Mostly pre-period, a small portion post-period)
Most of the Xiaoya are late Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn period works, and a small portion are pre-period Western Zhou works.
The National Winds are mostly Spring and Autumn period works, with a small portion of Western Zhou works.
The Lu Ode and the Shang Ode are both Spring and Autumn period works.
(5) The Collected Poetry of the Book of Songs The Poetry of the Book of Songs was composed over a period of five or six hundred years, with a geographical area of several thousand kilometers, and its authors included all classes of society. Under the ancient conditions, how were these poems collected and compiled into a book?
The collection of folk songs - the "poetry collection" - is a question worth exploring. 1.
The Han Book - Food and Wine Zhi: "the month of Bengchun, the group will be dispersed, pedestrians vibrate wooden pole favoritism in the road in order to pick poems, dedicated to the master, than the sound of its rhythms, in order to be heard by the son of God. Therefore, it is said that the king knows the world without peeping into the house."
He Huo, "The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Rams": "Men and women who had a grudge against each other sang to each other, the hungry sang about their food, and the laborers sang about their deeds. If a man was sixty years old and a woman was fifty years old and childless, the government clothed and fed them, and made them collect poems from the people. The township moved to the euphony, the euphony to the state, and the state to the Son of Heaven. Therefore, the king did not go out of his house to know all the sufferings of the world, and did not go down to the hall to know the four directions."
The above is the Han Dynasty people said that the ancient "poetry" system, not in the pre-Qin literature, although there is a tendency to glorify the Son of Zhou, but there should be a certain factual basis. Because only in the world **** master position of the Zhou Emperor can launch such a large-scale poetry activities, with any private or vassal state power is not done.
2. Noble literati poetry collection method - "offering poetry said" "Guoyu - Zhou language": the son of heaven to listen to the government, so that the ministers to the Lishi offer poetry, goze offer song ...... and then the king discretion.
"Offering poems" was a way of using poetry in political life for the Zhou Dynasty scholar-officials. When some people saw the king or their superiors or colleagues doing something good or bad, they would often compose a poem and dedicate it to them to express their praise and praise or to criticize them. Some people also offered poems to vent and complain about their personal grievances or misfortunes. All these were called "dedicating poems".
"Xiao Ya - Lane Bo": "Mengzi, the temple master, made this poem; all the hundreds of gentlemen listened to it with respect." Xiao Ya - April: "The gentleman makes a song to tell his sorrow." Poems dedicated to the Son of Heaven of the Zhou Dynasty were to be sung by the tai shi (who was in charge of music) and musicians with music, and poems dedicated among the nobles were also to be sung by musicians with music and brought together in the tai shi.
As for the hymns used in clan and temple rituals, they were composed by the nobles and literati under orders, and were also under the control of the tai shi.
The tai shi and the musicians were specialized in collecting and keeping poetry. The tai shi of each country had the obligation to submit poems to the tai shi of Zhou, who was the only one most likely to gather them together and compile them into a collection.
The poems in the Classic of Poetry and the Songs of Songs, of which the works of Zhou's great masters accounted for the majority, were collected and preserved by Zhou's masters; and the folk songs of various countries, if they were not collected by Zhou's masters but by the mutual collection of each other, would have been very difficult to be complete.
The folk songs of the Book of Songs were produced in a vast area, but the dialect differences, phonetic differences, and formal differences were very small, so they were obviously processed and organized, and the most probable processors and organizers were the Zhou masters and musicians.
"Zhou Li - spring official": "the teacher taught six poems, said the wind, said the fugue, said than, said the rise, said the elegant, said the ode." It can be seen that the master not only in charge of poetry, but also responsible for teaching poetry. The use of poetry expression, is the children of the nobility will participate in political activities, especially when dealing with diplomatic skills must be mastered. In order to teach, Zhou Taishi also had to collect and organize poems.
So, Zhou was not only a collector of poems, but also an organizer and editor of the Book of Songs.
4. About "Confucius deletes poems"
"Records of the Grand Historian - The Family of Confucius": "There are more than 3,000 poems in the ancient times, but Confucius deletes all of them and takes the 3,500 poems that can be applied to the rites and righteousness of the people of the world." This is the so-called "Confucius delete poetry", in ancient times, has a great influence.
The Tang Kong Yingda's "Justice of Mao Poetry" first raised doubts about "Confucius deleting poems", and later more and more people doubted it.
The main reasons are:
(1) The Historical Records says that Confucius deleted poems and only "took the ones that could be applied to ritual and righteousness". But in the Analects of Confucius, it is recorded that Confucius scolded the poet for his "obscene voice" in the Book of Poetry.
(2) According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Confucius deleted the poems after he "defended himself against Lu". He was 69 years old at the time of his rebellion against Lu, but before that he often mentioned the "300 poems", so it can be seen that the collection of 300 poems had already existed.
(3) Zuo Zhuan (左传-襄公二十九年)records: In this year, Wu Gongzi Jiza went to Lu to watch the Zhou music, and the musicians of Lu played for him fifteen parts of the state winds, and the parts of elegance and ode, which were in accordance with the "Poetry Classic". And Confucius was only eight years old at that time.
(4) Ancient diplomatic occasions often have to "poems to express their will", the poems mastered by the scholarly officials of various countries should be basically the same, in order to be able to give poems on one side, the other side immediately understand its intention, if Confucius alone delete poems, who will believe in the scholarly officials of various countries from him?
Seeing that the Book of Poetry could not have been written by Confucius, he said, "I don't know what I think, but I do know what I think of the Book of Poetry. However, Confucius had done some textual and musical processing of the Book of Songs, and made a great contribution to the preservation of the Book of Songs. The Analects of Confucius - Zihan (《论语-子罕》)："I have been fighting against Lu since Wei, and then the music was corrected, and the elegance and the ode were each in its place."
(6) The Teaching of the Book of Poetry
1. The Political Role of Poetry in the Zhou Dynasty. Poetry in the Zhou Dynasty, in addition to its application to rituals, banquets and ceremonial rites, was also a common tool for the exchange of thoughts and feelings in the political life of the people, and it was an important element of the ritual and music system of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition to the "dedication of poems" mentioned above, there were also diplomatic occasions of "poems".
The so-called "poems", is in diplomatic banquets and other occasions, by the parties point into the poem, called the musicians sing; poems implied in the position of the parties on the events involved and attitude, so that the other party to experience. This is a typical way of using poetry out of context, often regardless of the content and meaning of the work itself, only the views and aspirations of the poets on a few lines of the poem, to make analogies and hints.
"Poetry" has an important and subtle role in diplomacy. If you master this skill, you can accomplish your task in diplomatic occasions; if you lack this skill, you will make a fool of yourself in public, or even get into serious trouble. Zuozhuan - Xianggong sixteen years": the marquis of Jin hosted a banquet for all the lords, let the countries of the great doctor "poems", the great doctor of Qi, Gao Hou, because of the poems are not decent, provoked the anger of Jin's courtiers, and even want to unite with the participating lords *** to attack the state of Qi.
2. "Poetry" became "scripture"
By the time of Confucius, due to the rise of new sounds and the decline of ancient music, "poetry" and "music" began to be separated, while the political role of "poetry" was also declining. Confucianism took the responsibility of passing on poetry as a textbook for cultivating one's moral character and increasing one's intellectual capacity.
The Analects of Confucius:
Why should a boy never learn poetry? Poetry is a way to be excited, to be observed, to be grouped, to be complained about, to serve one's father at a distance, to serve one's ruler at a distance, and to know more about the names of birds, animals, grasses, and trees.
No poetry, no words. ...... If you don't learn poetry, you can't stand up.
"Poetry 300", in a nutshell, said "Si Wu Yi".
Zi Gong said: "poor and no flattery, rich and no pride, how? Zi said: "can also, not as poor and happy, rich and good manners." Zi Gong said, "The Poetry says, 'Cut like a dagger, cut like a polish'. Zi Gong said, "I can only talk about the Poetry when I have already said so, and tell those who have gone before to know those who are to come." The Book of Rites:
Zi said, "...... He is a gentle and generous man, and is taught by poetry." Mencius:
The traces of the king were extinguished and the Poetry died; the Poetry died and then the Spring and Autumn Annals were made.
Gongsun Chou said, "The Poetry says, 'Do not vegetate and eat,' and the gentleman does not plow and eat, why?" Mencius said: "The gentleman lives in the country is also, its ruler used, then peace and wealth and honor, its children from the, then filial piety and fraternal duty and loyalty, not vegetarian meal Ruoxi, who is greater then?" During the Warring States period, some people honored "Poetry" as a "classic", and Xunzi said that "Poetry" was one of the "six classics". By the time Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "honored Confucianism", it was officially designated as the "Classic of Poetry" by the feudal state.
(Liu Innocence "Wenxin Diao Long - Zongjing": "Jing is also, constant to the road, not published in the great teachings.") 3. "Three Families' Poetry", "Four Families' Poetry", "Mao Poetry"
After the cultural dictatorship of the Qin Dynasty and the "Burning of the Numbers and Pitting of the Scholarships", most of the pre-Qin Confucian canonical books were destroyed, and it was only after the lifting of the ban during the Han Dynasty that the teaching of the classics appeared one after another.
The four schools that taught the Book of Poetry in the Han Dynasty were Lu, Qi, Han, and Mao:
Lu Poetry, by Shen Pei, a native of Lu;
Qi Poetry, by Yuan Gu, a native of Qi;
Han Poetry, by Han Ying, a native of Yan.
The above three schools were the "Modern Scriptures", which had been established in the Western Han Dynasty, and were called the "Three Schools of Poetry". The three poems were then added to the Mao Poems, which were called the "Four Poems".
The Mao Poetry is the text of the Poetry Scriptures passed down by Mao Gong, and it is the "ancient text of the Scriptures". Mao Gong is divided into Big Mao Gong and Little Mao Gong. According to Lu Gui, a native of the Three Kingdoms, in his "Mao Poetry, Birds, Beasts, Insects and Fish," the Great Mao Gong refers to Mao Heng, a native of Lu, and the Small Mao Gong refers to Mao Jan, a native of Zhao. Mao Heng had written the Poetry Exegesis and Training, which was later taught to Mao Jan. Mao Poetry came out late and was not officially recognized at first, but it was only in the Eastern Han Dynasty that it was established as a school official. After the Three Kingdoms, the "Three Families' Poems" were lost one after another (Qi Poems died in the Three Kingdoms period, Lu Poems died in the Western Jin Dynasty, and Han Poems died in the Southern Song Dynasty), but only Mao Poems have been handed down to us, and we are now reading the Book of Poetry.
4. About the Preface of Mao Poetry
The Preface of Mao Poetry, i.e., the preface to the book of the Book of Poetry, which was handed down by Lord Mao in the Han Dynasty. The preface that crowns the whole book was called the "Great Preface" by the predecessors, and each short essay that resembles a solution to a question was called the "Small Preface".
The Preface to the Poetry of Mao explains poetry by attaching historical facts and feudal ethics and morals, which are mostly undesirable, but it raises some important issues in literary theory, such as Bi-Xing and Mei-Tsing, etc., which have a great influence on the literary thought of the later generations.
About the author of the Preface to the Poems of Mao, there are Zixia, Mao Gong, Wei Hong, etc., and there is no definite conclusion yet.
Examples of poems interpreted in the Preface to Mao Poetry:
Zhou Nan - Guan Ju: "The virtue of the queen consort." It is said to glorify the virtue of the consort of King Wen of Zhou.
"Yong Feng - Bo Bo" (鄘风-柏舟), which is said to have been written by Mao Shi Xu (毛詩序), is about the death of the son of the State of Wei (卫国世子)****伯, and the parents of his wife, *** Jiang (姜), forced her to remarry. （
For some love poems written in a bold and spicy manner, the "Preface to the Poetry of Mao" often says that they are "about lustful running" or "about lustful behavior". There are many works in the "State Winds" of the Book of Songs that reflect the suffering of the laboring people from exploitation and oppression, and express their dissatisfaction, hatred and resistance. The main representative works are Bin Feng - July, Wei Feng - False Sandalwood, the rat.