Fusheng, a famous place with the courtesy name Zigui, was born in Zouping, Jinan County, Qin Dynasty. He has been fond of learning since he was a child, and has read a lot of books. He is particularly good at studying "Shangshu" and is a doctor of Confucianism. In 215 BC, Qin Shihuang issued an order prohibiting the private collection of scriptures, and hid the Book of Documents in a wall at the risk of execution. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the army rose, and Fu Sheng went into exile. After Liu Bang brought peace to the world, Fu Sheng returned to his hometown and asked for his collection of "Shang Shu". Most of it was lost, leaving only 28 articles. They were transcribed and compiled and taught in Qi and Lu. The main disciples were Zhang Sheng and Ouyang Sheng of Jinan. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, there was no one in the world who could govern the Book of History. Later, when he heard Fu Sheng's name, he ordered to summon him. However, Fu Sheng was over ninety years old and could not go to Beijing. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty sent Chao Cuo, the Taichang envoy, to go to Zouping in person. Fusheng was old and could not speak clearly, so he asked his daughter Xi'e to speak on his behalf and teach 28 chapters of "Shangshu" and 41 chapters of "Jinwen Shangshu". Later generations called it "Jinwen Shangshu". Later, the ancient text "Shang Shu" was discovered in the wall of a cave in Qufu. There was no modern text to support it. All 16 chapters could neither be read nor understood, so they were called "Yi Shu". Therefore, people say that there was no Fusheng in the Han Dynasty, so "Shangshu" was not passed down; if there was "Shangshu" but no Fusheng, people could not understand its meaning. Scholars of the past dynasties praised Fusheng as "the reinvention of Shangshu."
For Fu Later generations spoke highly of this period of history: without Fu Sheng, "Shang Shu" would not have been passed down; if there had not been Fu Sheng's interpretation and transmission of scriptures, even if "Shang Shu" had been passed down, it would be difficult for future generations to understand its meaning. . In other words, if it is cut off, a "Book of Secrets" will be like a jade in a box, because without the key, you will no longer have the opportunity to appreciate its beauty.
What a book it is. What kind of book could make Fu Sheng risk his life to keep it secretly, and later generations would praise it highly? "Shangshu" was called "Book" during the Warring States Period, and was renamed "Shangshu" in the Han Dynasty because it was listed in the "Five Classics". According to its compilation style and content, "Shangshu" is the first history book. Therefore, it is also known as "the ancestor of political books and the source of history books", which fully shows the importance of "Shangshu" in the history of Chinese culture. Status.
From the content point of view, "Shangshu" is a history book that records words. "Hanshu Yiwenzhi" says, "The history on the left records words, the history on the right records events, and the events are called the Spring and Autumn Annals. "Shang Shu", it can be seen that it mainly records the speeches of figures, official proclamations, etc. "Shang Shu" is divided into four parts according to the era: "Yu Shu", "Xia Shu", "Shang Shu" and "Zhou Shu". This is also the first part There are historical books with clear chronological style, so they are called "the source of historical books".
The "Three Character Classic" mentioned "Shangshu", "There are canons and instructions." There are oaths and orders, the secret of "Book"", which summarizes the six main stylistic forms of "Book of Documents". Chapters named after "Dian", "Mo", "Xun", "Gao", "Oath" and "Ming" account for more than half of the chapters in "Book of Documents". For example, the first chapter is "Yao Dian".
In addition to being "the ancestor of political books and the source of historical books", "Shang Shu" also has some "earliest" chapters, such as the "Yu Gong" chapter. The earliest geographical work. The famous historian Lu Simian said in "Jingzi Jie Qi", "This chapter records Yu's flood control. First, the nine states are described in detail, then the famous mountains and rivers are summarized, and then the system of the five tribute tributes is recorded. Those who trust the geographical records should consider this as the most ancient. "
The only drawback is that "Shangshu" is extremely difficult to read. There is a sentence in Tang Hanyu's "Jinxuejie" that "Zhou Gao Yin Pan, Ji Qu Dao Ya", which describes the difficulty of reading "Shangshu" Difficult to understand. This evaluation has continued to this day. At the time of Fu Sheng, those well-educated people could no longer understand it. This shows how difficult and profound Fu Sheng was in interpreting the scriptures.