The Book of Songs was called "The Classic" in the Western Han Dynasty. During the Western Han Dynasty, Sima Qian first proposed "Confucius' theory of deleting poems".
Specifically:
1. According to various opinions, it is generally believed that "The Book of Songs" began to be called the "Book of Songs" in the Western Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "hundred schools of thought were deposed and only Confucianism was respected." The status of Confucianism was unprecedentedly improved. The "Shi", which was considered to be compiled by Confucius, became a Confucian classic, so it was called "The Book of Songs". Exactly who started to call it "The Book of Songs" , no verification yet.
2. The "poetry deletion theory" originally came from Sima Qian, and later both Ban Gu and Zheng Xuan supported this statement. It was not until Kong Yingda in the Tang Dynasty who compiled "Mao Shi Zhengyi" and wrote a commentary for Zheng Xuan's "Poetry Book" that he began to put forward different views. However, Kong Yingda only said that Confucius would not delete so many poems, but did not publicly deny that Confucius "deleted poems". Later, famous figures who supported the "poetry deletion theory" included Ouyang Xiu, Cheng Hao, Wang Yinglin, Ma Duanlin, Gu Yanwu, Zhao Tan, Wang Song and others; the camp that opposed the "poem deletion theory" was larger, including Zheng Qiao, Zhu Xi, Lu Zuqian, Ye Shi, Zhu Yizun, Wang Shizhen, Zhao Yi, Cui Shu, Wei Yuanfang Yurun, etc. The main modern opponents are Liang Qichao, Hu Shi, Gu Jiegang, Qian Xuandong. Contemporary "Book of Songs" scholars basically disagree with Confucius's statement that he "deleted poems".
Note: However, the idea that Confucius compiled the "Book of Songs" is also questionable. "Historical Records: The Family of Confucius" says that there were originally more than 3,000 poems. After Confucius deleted and selected them, they became the three poems seen by later generations. The final version of more than a hundred articles. This account was met with widespread skepticism. The poems cited in a pre-Qin document are generally within the scope of the existing "Book of Songs". The number of so-called "yi poems" outside of this is very small. If Confucius had more than 3,000 poems before, it is logical that there would not be such poems. situation; Furthermore, in The Analects, Confucius has repeatedly mentioned "Three Hundred Poems" ("Wei Zheng", "Zi Lu" and other chapters), proving that the "Poems" that Confucius saw were already more than three hundred The book of this chapter is almost the same as what I see now. In summary, the Book of Songs was compiled before Confucius was born, around the sixth century BC. It’s just that Confucius did put a lot of effort into the Book of Songs. "The Analects of Confucius" records that Confucius said: "I defended myself and returned to Lu, and then I was happy and upright, and each elegant song was in its proper place." The text quoted from "Historical Records" earlier also said the same meaning. This shows that in Confucius' time, the music in the Book of Songs had become scattered and confused, and Confucius made changes to it to make it consistent with the original state of ancient music. He also used the Book of Songs to educate his students, often discussing issues related to the Book of Songs with them, and performing songs and dances (see The Analects of Confucius and Mozi Feiruan). All this shows that the idea that Confucius edited it is questionable, but there is no doubt that Confucius's approach played an important role in the spread of the Book of Songs.