Confucius taught people six arts: ceremony, music, shooting, imperial, calligraphy and numeracy, among which shooting, imperial and numeracy can be regarded as a skill, while ceremony, music and calligraphy are related to the cultivation of personal moral cultivation and gentleman's demeanor. I think this chapter of Confucius is about how to cultivate a gentleman, or what steps should be taken to learn etiquette, music and books, so as to cultivate a gentleman's demeanor.
The so-called poetry in the Confucius era refers to the Book of Songs, but it was not called The Classic at that time. The Analects of Confucius called history or it was not until the Han Dynasty that it was respected as classics. Poetry can be regarded as a kind of "book" of the six arts. Xing is the rise of righteousness, and "Xing is poetry", that is to say, the cultivation of personal morality begins with learning poetry, that is, from poetry. The importance of poetry is mentioned more than once in The Analects of Confucius. For example, Confucius once said, "Why do boys learn poetry?" ? Poetry can be appreciated, watched, grouped and resented; Your father is a thing, and your father is a distant thing; Learn more about the names of birds, animals and plants. "Through this sentence, we can see that learning" Poetry "can broaden our horizons, observe society, increase social experience, learn to deal with social ethical relations, and even apply it to poetry in related political activities in the future. First of all, learning poetry well is the foundation of acting and foothold in the future. Therefore, learning begins with poetry.
Rites can be said to be various systems and norms of social relations, and also the etiquette of personal behavior. "Standing on the ceremony", after learning poetry, if you want to gain a better foothold in society and better integrate into society, that is learning the ceremony. Confucius once said, "If you don't learn manners, you can't stand." Only by learning etiquette can we better stand on the society, and because of the foundation of poetry, can we be comfortable in various social activities in the future and form our own polite manners.
Music, in Confucius' view, is the most important, moving and changing human nature. Under the influence of music, you can further cultivate your mind, cultivate your sentiment, improve your personal accomplishment and form a gentleman's demeanor. At the same time, in social activities, a gentleman must have all kinds of "ritual" activities, including poetry, which should be sung with music, that is, in the ritual activities, poetry should be accompanied by music to complete the "ritual" activities. Therefore, in this activity, it is more helpful to learn music well and master the law and beauty of music. Therefore, music is the most important and the highest order, so learning to the end, because the first two kinds of learning, and finally can be achieved. Confucius teaches people, starting with poetry, emphasizing etiquette and music, and finally cultivating a gentleman.