1. Help provide some sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs and their appreciation
Sacrificial poems are the earlier works in the Book of Songs and are used to praise gods in religious sacrificial activities. , poems that pray for blessings and ward off disasters.
Although the number of sacrificial poems is not as high as that of poems about abandoned wives and love poems, their themes are unique, their national characteristics are distinctive, and they have a strong religious flavor and cultural value. They occupy an important position in the "Three Hundred Poems". The emergence of sacrificial poetry is an inevitable product of the development of human culture to a certain stage and is a cultural phenomenon.
This type of poem is mainly represented by "Song of Zhou", the central content of which is to praise the merits of the reigning Zhou king or his ancestors. From ancient times to the Zhou Dynasty, human beings' understanding of the surrounding world has improved a lot, but primitive society's worship of supernatural and mysterious powers has accumulated as a deep-seated culture.
Sacrificial activities are intended to maintain or restore a good relationship between people and "gods" and to connect the entire society through collective activities. After entering the class society, sacrifices were transformed into symbols of rights. The Zhou Dynasty advocated respecting heaven and respecting the clan, and offered sacrifices to heaven and earth, with Zhou ancestor Houji and King Wen matching heaven. Its political direction was very obvious. In fact, it showed that its political power was ordered by heaven, and sacrifices were made to the ancestors to safeguard the clan. Organizations also play a role in maintaining rule.
Abstract: The literary characteristics of sacrificial poems have always been ignored by people, and some even deny their literary achievements. In fact, sacrificial poems have characteristics such as vague character images, pious thoughts and feelings, grand scene descriptions, and various artistic techniques such as duplication, duplication, repetition, questioning and rhetorical questioning.
Its research intensity needs to be strengthened. Keywords: sacrificial poems, literary characteristics. The Book of Songs is the first anthology of poetry in ancient my country, and sacrificial poems are an important part of it.
"The major affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and military service." In other words, sacrifice was one of the two most important national affairs in the Zhou Dynasty. Sacrifice penetrated into all aspects of Zhou people's social life. The so-called sacrifice refers to the social activities that ancient people carried out in accordance with certain rituals to worship ghosts and gods.
Generally speaking, the objects of sacrifice are nothing more than worshiping ancestors and worshiping heaven (generally referring to nature). Sacrificial activities originated from primitive clan society and were fully developed in the Zhou Dynasty.
Sacrifice poems can be divided into narrow and broad senses. Sacrificial poems in a narrow sense refer to those poems that are sung during sacrificial activities to praise gods and ancestors and pray for blessings and warding off disasters.
Sacrificial poems in a broad sense refer to all poems written about sacrifices or used for sacrifices and praising gods. It includes not only pure sacrificial poems, but also hymns, some agricultural poems and epic poems. This article's discussion of the literary characteristics of sacrificial poems covers sacrificial poems in a broad sense, and there are about sixty of them.
When it comes to the literary characteristics of "The Book of Songs", most people like to analyze the chapters of Guofeng and Xiaoya. As for sacrificial poems, they are often studied only from the cultural (ritual) aspect, and there are very few discussions on the literary aspect.
To be fair, the literary characteristics of sacrificial poems are not as outstanding as those of Guofeng and Xiaoya, and their achievements are not as good as those of Guofeng and Xiaoya. However, we have to admit that sacrificial poems still have their own merits in literature. feature. I will not make any shallow guesses below, but try to analyze it from four aspects: character image, thoughts and feelings, scene description and artistic techniques.
1. Fuzzy character images. The characters in sacrificial poems include the sacrificer, the person being sacrificed, and other related characters. Most of these characters belong to people with status, ranging from kings and princes to ministers and officials. Unlike scholars, most of the characters in the national style are common people or slaves. The reason why this phenomenon occurs is, on the one hand, related to the different themes and content of the poems, and on the other hand, it is also related to the fact that the sacrificial power in the Zhou Dynasty was mainly in the hands of the nobles (family members). The sacrificial power meant privileges at that time, and the control With the right to sacrifice, one also has political power.
The characters in sacrificial poems, such as ancestors, gods, and heaven, are basically abstract concepts, and there is no specific image description of them. Let's take a look at "Zhou Song·Wei Tian's Destiny": Wei Tian's destiny is endless in Mu.
It is not obvious that King Wen’s virtue was pure! If it overflows me, I will collect it. Junhui, King Wen, is the great-grandson of Duzhi.
This is a poem dedicated to King Wen. The whole poem only praises King Wen's "pure virtue" in general and does not describe his character and virtue in detail. Therefore, in people's minds, King Wen is always just a prince. A vague shadow. Another example is "Zhou Song·Zhi Jing". This poem is a poem about "sacrifice to King Wu". The sentences written about King Wu and those who participated in the sacrifice are "Zhi Jing Wu King, without competition, it will be fierce", "The majesty is contrary, both With a few sentences such as "Drunk and full", the character image is also thin and vague.
There are many such examples. In sharp contrast, the images of gods in ancient Greek mythology are very specific and vivid, such as the passionate Zeus, the jealous Hera, the brave Prometheus and so on.
This difference in character portrayal between China and the West in ancient times stems from different cultural backgrounds and aesthetic tastes. 2. Pious Thoughts and Feelings The ancients had a very clear purpose of performing sacrifices, which was to bring blessings from gods.
To achieve this goal, in addition to preparing rich and clean sacrifices and strictly following the procedures, the attitude must be serious and the heart must be sincere, that is, before, during and even after the sacrifice. Have a pious heart.
If your heart is not sincere, the gods will not bless you.
Reading the sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs, it is not difficult for us to understand the sacredness and reverence of the ancients before and after sacrifices. The sacredness of sacrifice is firstly reflected in the solemn environment in which the sacrificial activities are carried out, which can make people feel the sacred and solemn atmosphere before the ceremony begins, and make people's reverence for the ancestors and gods arise spontaneously.
"There are tungs in the palace, and there are many of them." ("Palace") The princes of the emperor who held the sacrificial ceremony were serious and cautious, dignified and orderly.
"In the Qing Temple of Mu, Su Qi appears. He helps the monks and upholds the virtues of literature.
The more he flies in the sky, the horses gallop in the temple." ("Qing Temple") ) "When Yong Yong comes, he will be solemn and solemn.
When the prime minister defends the public, the emperor Mu Mu." ("Yong") "The majesty of the emperor is counter-rebellious" ("Si Wen"), "The gentleman's wife must not do anything" ".
("Chu Ci") From the words "Yongyong", "Susu", "Mumu", "anti-anti" and "Momo", we can see that the participants are serious. manner. 3. Description of grand scenes The scenes referred to in this article include sacrificial scenes and labor scenes.
Among the approximately sixty sacrificial poems, ancestors are the most popular objects of sacrifice, accounting for half of all sacrificial poems. From this, we can see the peak of ancestor worship in the "Book of Songs" era. Second only to the ancestor sacrifices, there are ten agricultural sacrificial poems, which reflect the Zhou people's agricultural-oriented thinking and emphasis on agriculture.
Sacrifice scenes and labor scenes are convenient. 2. What is the name of the poem used for ancestral temple sacrifices in the Book of Songs?
The poem used for ancestral temple sacrifices in the Book of Songs is called "Ode".
The Book of Songs is divided into three parts: "Wind", "Ya" and "Song". "Wind" is a ballad from various places in the Zhou Dynasty; "Ya" is a formal song of the Zhou people, and is divided into "Xiaoya" and "Daya"; Song", "Song of Lu" and "Song of Shang".
There are 40 chapters in "Ode". The interpretation of "Ode" was first seen in "Poetry·Preface": "The eulogist is a description of beauty and virtue, and he is the one who tells the gods about his success."
According to Ruan Yuan's "Study Room Collection" According to the explanation of "Shi Song", "rong" means dancing appearance, and "the description of beauty and virtue" is the dance movement that praises "shengde". For example, "Song of Zhou·Weiqing" is a song dedicated to King Wen, and the "Small Preface" says: "The elephant dance is also performed."
Zheng Xuan's "Biography of Mao's Poems" says: "The elephant dances when the elephant uses troops. "The Dance of the Conquest" is to express the plot and movements of King Wen of Zhou in the form of dance when he used troops to conquer the Conqueror. This can prove that there are not only songs but also dances when offering sacrifices to the ancestral temple. "Singing and dancing" can be said to be the ancestral temple music. Features.
Modern scholars also believe that "Song" is the music of ancestral temple sacrifices, and part of it is dance music. The famous poems mainly include "Qing Temple", "Weitian's Destiny", "Ai Xi", etc.
Extended information
Historical background of "The Book of Songs"
The works in "The Book of Songs" were produced after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty (1066 BC). "Zhou Song" is the earliest, produced in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is a work of aristocratic literati. It mainly focuses on ancestral temple music and songs praising gods, and also partially describes agricultural production.
"Daya" is a product of the prosperous period of the Zhou Dynasty and is the only remaining epic in ancient China. "Xiaoya" was produced in the late Western Zhou Dynasty after the movement to the east. Both "Song of Lu" and "Song of Shang" were produced after the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward (770 BC).
The Western Zhou Dynasty replaced the Yin and Shang Dynasties, and the economic system underwent tremendous changes, prompting society to make leaps and bounds in spiritual civilization. The emergence of the "Book of Songs" as a literary representative is an inevitable product of the progress of the times, and in turn it It also promotes the civilization and progress of society.
The influence of "The Book of Songs" on ancient literature
1. The "Book of Songs" is mainly a collection of lyric poems. So far, Chinese poetry has followed the path of lyrical expression of ambition opened up by the "Book of Songs" Moving forward, lyric poetry became the main form of poetry in our country.
2. The enthusiasm for paying attention to reality, strong political and moral awareness, and sincere and positive attitude towards life shown in "The Book of Songs" were summarized by later generations as the "elegant" spirit, which directly influenced the creation of later poets. . For example, Qu Yuan, Han Yuefu poems and the generous voices of Jian'an poets are all direct inheritance of this spirit. Later poets often advocated the "elegant" spirit to carry out literary innovation. Such as Chen Ziang's poetry innovation advocates, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, etc.
3. Bixing provided a model for future generations of writers to learn from in terms of artistic expression techniques, and became a unique national cultural tradition of ancient Chinese poetry. The use of Bixing has formed the artistic characteristics of ancient Chinese poetry that are rich in subtleties and have endless charm.
Sogou Encyclopedia--The Book of Songs 3. What cultural characteristics do the sacrificial poems in the "Book of Songs" display?
As the first collection of poems in my country, the "Book of Songs" has a wide range of contents. Among them, the sacrificial poems are in a category of their own with their strong religious flavor and distinctive ideological characteristics, reflecting rich cultural connotations. The sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs express contents such as offering sacrifices to mountains and rivers, offering sacrifices to farmers, etc. Gods, etc., but more of them are chapters about worshiping ancestors. Its outstanding features are strong religious concepts and clear political purposes, as well as vague descriptions of ancestors and gods. It shows that people trace the roots of their distant ancestors in retrospect, and will A spiritual effort that turns tradition into survival skills.
The emergence of sacrificial poems is a cultural phenomenon and a product of the development stage of human culture. The sacrificial poems preserved in the "Book of Songs" are the reflection of the Zhou people's religious views, destiny views, and values ??in the literary field at that time. "Collected and published" reflects the spiritual outlook of that era. In short, the sacrificial poems in "Ya" and "Song" show that people unearth their own roots in the recollection and review of history, and combine history and reality. Connect with each other and transform traditions into existing spiritual efforts. 4. The Book of Songs is about the priests of the Qin Dynasty
The Book of Songs records the poems from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. At that time, the Qin Dynasty had not yet arrived, and there was no record of the priests of the Qin Dynasty. This is the information about the sacrifices in the Book of Songs. I hope it can help. Go to LL~ The basic content of the sacrificial poems in the "Book of Songs" is to write about the connection between humans and gods, reaching up to the Emperor of Heaven, and praying for blessings and warding off disasters by praising the gods.
Some people think that any poem that writes about sacrifices or is used for sacrifices is a sacrificial poem, but this view is a bit too broad. If so, some epic poems and agricultural poems will also become sacrificial poems. . Therefore, we still take the narrow sense of sacrificial poetry, that is, "poems sung during religious sacrificial activities to praise gods and pray for blessings and ward off disasters."
The sacrificial poems in "The Book of Songs" are mainly concentrated in "Ode". In addition to simply praising the merits of ancestors, there are also some songs that pray to the gods for a good harvest in the spring and summer or reward the gods in the autumn and winter. This reflects the social characteristics of the Zhou people who built their country on agriculture and the situation of agricultural production in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
The characteristics of sacrificial poems are as follows: 1. The sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs are based on the primitive religious concepts of animism and the immortal soul. "The ancient ancestors did not know much about things in nature. They could only be cautious about all changes in the environment, and then worshiped and prayed for nature."
In their eyes, all things There are spirits. In addition to the souls of ancestors, there are also heaven and earth, mountains, rivers and mountains that can be sacrificed, so the sacrificial poems have more content. For example: "Weiqing": "Weiqing and Jixi are the canons of King Wen.
The beginning of the Qing Dynasty has been successfully used to maintain the Zhen of Zhou Dynasty." Praising King Wen's government as undefeated and extremely clear, King Wen's code is the foundation.
From the time when sacrifices were made to heaven, to the achievement of achievements in the world, this is the auspiciousness of the Zhou family. "Heaven made a high mountain, and the king was desolate about it.
He made it, and King Wen made it safe. He made it, and Qi had a barbarian journey.
His descendants will protect it." All things are born in Qishan, and it is a work of worship to Qishan.
"Shi Mai": "Shi Mai's country, Haotian's son, in fact, there is Zhou in the right order. Thin words shock it, and it all shakes.
Huairou and hundreds of gods, Jiehe Qiaoyue, allowed the king to protect him. After the Ming Dynasty, Shixu was in power. /p>
This is a poem written by King Wu and Zhou Gong on patrol to worship the gods of mountains and rivers. The poem mentions that God protected the Zhou Dynasty. At first, it shook it with its power, and the whole world was afraid of surrendering. Then it came to calm the gods, and worshiped the rivers and mountains in turn. god. "Pan": "When the emperor was in the Zhou Dynasty, he protected the high mountains, the lofty peaks of Mount Lai, and allowed the river to flow.
Apply to the sky, and pay attention to the right time. The destiny of the Zhou Dynasty."
This is a poem praising King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty for his hunting tour and offering sacrifices to rivers and mountains. The poem is full of momentum, praising the beauty of the Zhou state. , all gods of mountains and rivers deserve to enjoy it. 2. The sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs are a kind of religious and political literature with clear political purposes and narrow utilitarian concepts.
The gods arise from the recognition of the existence of heaven and earth during sacrificial activities. People long for the existence of the sacred forest and hope that the gods can bring prosperity to the country and peace of life. Such desires are often achieved through the rule of the country. Therefore, in the hearts of the people, the emperor is ordered by heaven, and his will cannot be violated. Sacrifice provides a good tool for the ruler to achieve his own political goals. Therefore, many chapters in sacrificial poems reflect It showed its clear political purpose and religious and political utility, and became a work dedicated to praising virtues. For example, "Zhou Song Weitian's Mandate": "Weitian's destiny is endless in Mu.
It is not obvious that King Wen's virtue is pure. If it overflows me, I will accept it. < /p>
Jun Hui, my great-grandson Duzhi, said in the poem: Beauty is constantly moving, isn’t this bright! King Wen's virtue was great and pure.
I have been enriched by good words and good deeds, so I should collect them all and use them to rule King Shun Wen according to law, and all my great-grandchildren and future generations will follow them.
This is a poem written by Duke Zhou to worship King Wen when he was making rites. Here, he strongly praises King Wen's virtues. "Yu Hu", isn't it bright? King Wen's tireless teaching of virtue was praised as having the same merit as Heaven.
"Haotian has a destiny to succeed": "Haotian has a destiny to succeed, and the second queen will accept it. The king dare not be healthy, and Su Ye's basic life is secret.
Yu Jixi! Shan Jue The heart is calm. Haotian has a destiny, and King Wen and King Wu are ordered by heaven. The king will accumulate virtue and be generous, and consolidate the world and gain peace." "Si Wen" "Think of Houji and conquer the heaven. I, the people, are the best.
The emperor ordered me to lead you, and there was no such boundary. "
The Duke of Zhou was offering sacrifices to the Zhou Dynasty. The first ancestor Hou Ji said that his virtue was worthy of heaven and that he could offer sacrifices to heaven. 3. The ancestors, gods, and heaven in the sacrificial poems in the Book of Songs are basically abstract concepts, and there is no specific description of them.
It is easy to draw ghosts and gods because in people's minds, ghosts and gods have no shape. The images of ghosts and gods in Chinese literary works in ancient times are mostly vague, or they are abstract thoughts, rather than The specific image, such as the explanation of "Heaven", "Heaven is clear, empty, and big." In people's hearts, the heaven and earth opened by Pangu are Qi. The clear ones rise and become the sky; the turbid ones sink. , for the ground. This understanding is different from the Western view.
The depiction of gods in Greek mythology is very specific and vivid. Such as Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, and Prometheus, all of them are very vivid images, including the ferocity of the mighty god, the cowardice of the river god Oceanus, and the servility of the god Hermes. They are all lifelike, but there is a lack of such image portrayal in the "Book of Songs". In "Song of Zhou", the virtues of King Wen and the self-improvement of King Wu are written, but they are not described in detail and vividly, and they are only expressed in a tone of praise. Merit makes these "ancestors" and "gods" always just a vague shadow in people's minds. This also shows that the Chinese people's understanding of the spiritual relationship between gods and humans and their aesthetic taste are different from those in foreign countries.
The sacrificial poems in "The Book of Songs" are only a small part of the whole work, but they show the social life at that time from one side and are also an important part of our country's poetry treasure house. To understand these, we can at least learn from On the one hand, we understand the political thought of the Zhou Dynasty and the ancient religious culture, but the content mentioned above is only a brief introduction. As the first collection of poems, "The Book of Songs" brings together people's thoughts, and no aspect is just a few words. It can be said clearly that we need to continue to work hard in these aspects in the future. Referenced from Xinhuanet Shaanxi Channel.