Sima Qian was the first to suggest that Confucius delete poems. According to the Family History of Confucius, there are more than 3,000 poems written by the ancients. When talking about Confucius, the focus was removed, and what was available was applied to etiquette ... including Ban Gu and Zheng Xuan at that time, all agreed with this view that Confucius thought repetition was too right, so he took its essence and discarded its dross. This statement has a great influence on the editors of The Book of Songs.
However, there are also many people who oppose this view, such as Zhu and Ye Shi, and later Liang Qichao and Hu Shi. Now more and more arguments prove that it is impossible for Confucius to delete poems: in 544 BC, Ji Zha watched music, and the overall appearance of Poetry was similar to today, while Confucius was only eight or nine years old at that time, so it was impossible to "delete poems"; Confucius said that his handling of "poetry" was after "returning to Shandong in self-defense", and when Confucius used to talk about "poetry", it was also called "poetry 300"; Many poems in The Book of Songs do not conform to Confucius' moral thought. The most crucial point is, how could Confucius cut the Book of Songs from more than 3,000 to more than 300 by himself?
The editors of The Book of Songs, including Confucius, passed through many hands from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty. Confucius is just one of the most important representatives. After editing by musicians or officials at that time, there were only more than 300 poems left, so it was called "Three Hundred Poems".