The most striking feature of this poem in art is that it takes the slave's working life as the content and organizes it in the narrative order of seasons and months. The whole poem begins with a year of farming from winter to spring, and ends with a year of ice-cutting, sacrifice and banquet. In the middle six chapters, according to the chronological order of seasons and months, it describes all kinds of labor of male and female slaves in a year, such as picking silkworms, raising silkworms, spinning, hunting, repairing houses, harvesting and serving, which reflects the painful life of agricultural slaves in the early Western Zhou Dynasty from different aspects. They not only have to bear all kinds of hardships for slave owners. The whole poem uses the technique of line drawing, through objective and concrete description, vividly and comprehensively shows a life picture of ancient slave society, which makes people feel vivid and true, sad and touching.
It is another artistic feature of this poem to describe the working life of slaves with the emphasis on "clothing" and "food". This kind of description, some people call it "positive pen" (see Yao Jiheng's General Theory of the Book of Songs). The first chapter is the general idea of "positive pen". "No clothes and no brown, why are you dead?" Point "clothes"; Repair furniture ("Yu"), start spring ploughing ("Ju Jian"), and order "food". Food and clothing, always get the full text. Chapter two, three, four and five, mainly from the aspect of "clothes"; The sixth and seventh chapters mainly focus on "food". At the end of the chapter, the year-end banquet is written, and "clothing" and "food" are both collected. The whole poem is long and involves many problems, but because the poet has grasped this general outline, it still makes people feel that the context is clear, the levels are orderly, many are not chaotic, long but not tendril. When describing, the author uses the method of Fu (that is, narration) to describe around the center, or to write about the scenery, or the atmosphere, or to remember the calendar, or to describe what he saw, or to express his feelings, which is at his fingertips and is both sources, but every sentence is closely related to the center.
However, if a poem is only narrated with "regular pen" without "idle pen" as a foil and contrast, it will tend to be thin in content and pale in image. Smart artists often say that "there are few positive pens, but many idle pens, and it is not easy to please with positive pens. It is all in the idle pens that please, and the drummer pays attention to the side sound, and the painter pays attention to the painting angle" (Yao Jiheng's General Theory of the Book of Songs). The so-called "idle pen" refers to the description of the environment, scenery and all other details. Because this kind of description can make the image of the work more full, the content more abundant, and thus have a stronger artistic effect. For example, in the first chapter of this article, a few words are written: the cold winter is coming, the north wind is howling ("roaring"), and the climate is chilly ("Li Lie"), which not only provides a strong foil for the following winter to start spring ploughing, but also makes a strong contrast for the slave's painful life of "no clothes and no brown, why he died". In the second chapter, it is written that the spring is beautiful and Oriole ("Cang Geng") crows, pointing out that spring is coming, which leads to the young girls who work in mulberry picking, and at the same time, it makes a strong contrast for the sad mood of writing below that they are "almost (afraid) and their sons will return together". In the fifth chapter, it is written that the cricket moves under the bed when the pheasant crows, suggesting that the season will change and the year will be over. The following chapter will naturally transition to the slave's "stuffing to the household" and "entering this room". In the eighth chapter, the sky was crisp in September and the sky was clarified in October, suggesting that the farming was finished, thus paving the way for the year-end banquet below. Outside, such as "spring is late, picking Qi Qi"; "Beautiful in April, singing in May"; "Peel (strike) dates in August and get rice in October". These poems either describe the scenery, point out the seasons, or exaggerate the atmosphere, "all set each other off with the skill" (Wu Kaisheng's "Poem Meaning Will Pass", Volume I)-that is, all set each other off with the content of the poem, which is closely related and becomes an organic part of the whole poem. This article is also very vivid in details or other descriptions. For example, the first chapter reads "Tian Tu (Tian Guan) is very happy", and Tian Tu is the supervisor of slave labor, thus showing the personal freedom of slaves. In the second chapter, I wrote "I want soft mulberry" to feed the newborn silkworms; Writing "Collecting Qi Qi" is to wash the unborn silkworms of Artemisia argyi ("Silkworm" means Artemisia argyi, and the silkworms are easy to come out when they are boiled), and to write the contents of silkworm labor from two aspects. The third chapter describes that silk has black, yellow, red and fresh colors to express the joy after work. Writing "reed in August" is to prepare for sericulture next year (reed can be woven into silkworm foil). The fourth chapter describes that after the pig is killed, the pig (raccoon) is kept for himself, and the wild boar (raccoon) is given to its owner, exposing the social irrationality. The fifth chapter is about "blocking the north-facing window and painting the bamboo door with mud" to prepare for the winter, which shows the simplicity of the earth house where slaves live. The sixth chapter lists the differences between slave owners and slaves in detail (slave owners eat "depression", "bitter", "sunflower" and "glutinous rice", while slaves eat "melon", "pot", "tea"), revealing social inequality. The seventh chapter describes that during the slack season, they cut the thatch during the day ("the grass grows in the daytime") and rub the rope at night ("the rope grows in the night"), which shows that they have no day off between four o'clock. Because of the description of these contents, the scale of the poem is expanded, the social content of the poem is enriched, and the whole poem presents a colorful and magnificent spectacle.
It is also an artistic feature of this poem to express the theme of the work through strong contrast. For example, in the first chapter, slaves are "naked and brown" in the cold winter, while in the third and fourth chapters, slave owners wear silk products and fox fur coats; The sixth chapter describes that slave owners ate delicious fruits ("depression" and "stinging") and sunflower ("sunflower") and beans ("glutinous rice"), while slaves ate melons, roe deer ("pot"), pockmarked seeds ("glutinous rice") and bitter vegetables. The fifth chapter describes that slaves lived in shabby huts with firewood and bamboo weaving as the portal, while the seventh chapter describes that slave owners lived in palaces and mansions. Through the distinct connection of clothing, food and shelter, it reveals the essential characteristics of cruel exploitation of slavery, truly reflects the face of society in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and has high historical and literary value.