Preface to Shi Mao
Mao's Preface to Poetry is a theoretical work of ancient Chinese poetry. In the Han Dynasty, there were four schools that taught the Book of Songs: Qi, Lu, Han and Mao. There are 305 Prefaces to Mao's Poems, among which the first preface to Guan Ju is followed by a long article, which is later called Preface to Mao's Poems or Preface to Poetry.
There are always different opinions about its author, among which there are two most influential ones: one is written by Xia Zi, a disciple of Confucius, and the other is written by Wei Hong, a Han Chinese. It is generally believed that the writing of Preface, a collection of poems by Mao Zedong, lasted from pre-Qin to Han Dynasty.
Preface to Mao Shi comprehensively discusses the theoretical problems of The Book of Songs, involving the nature, content, genre classification, artistic expression and social function of poetry. His poetics mainly expounds the lyric characteristics of poetry, which is based on emotion and ambition, and the two are unified.
Emphasize the social function of "beauty thorn" and "satire" of poetry, and then put forward the personality and social problems of poetry; It emphasizes the relationship between poetry and politics and times, shows that there are different works in different times, and reveals the principle that politics, morality and customs are closely related to poetry creation.
This paper puts forward the theory of "six meanings" on the classification and expression of poetry, in which style, elegance and ode are three poetic styles, and fu, comparison and xing are three techniques.
Knowledge expansion:
Preface to Mao Shi occupies an important position in the history of China's literary criticism. Poetry emphasizes that poetry is not only about writing about one's own poverty, but also about the joys and sorrows of the world. Mao's Preface to Poetry is the beginning of this thought.
Fu, Bi and Xing are the basic techniques and features of China's literature. In the later poetry creation, the connotations of these three writing methods constantly developed and changed, becoming important concepts in the history of poetics. Mao's Preface to Poetry inherited Confucius' thoughts of "thinking innocently" and "appealing to the masses and complaining", and made a systematic summary of Confucian poetics in the pre-Qin period, which had a great and far-reaching impact on later generations.
Mao's Preface to Poetry is the first monograph on poetry theory in ancient China. It puts forward many important opinions on the basic characteristics, content classification, creative principles, expression techniques and social functions of poetry, and is a programmatic document of orthodox literary thought in feudal times.