Most of the authors of The Book of Songs cannot be verified. But what is certain is that the area where the author lives is mainly the Yellow River Basin, that is, the ancient Central Plains area from today's eastern Gansu to the southwest Hebei to the eastern Shandong and the Jianghan Basin to the south.
There are many sayings about the compilation of The Book of Songs in past dynasties. At present, there are mainly three mainstream views:
First, the crown said. This statement was first seen in Zuo Zhuan, Confucius Cong and Inauguration, in which it said: "The history of ancient emperors collected ballads to observe the folk customs." Therefore, it is inferred that in order to understand the people's feelings, Zhou often sent special envoys to collect folk songs all over the country during the busy farming season, and then collected them by historians and presented them to the emperor. Poets were called "pedestrians" at that time. Later, Hanshu Shihuozhi also said: "In the month of Meng Chun, people who live in groups will be scattered, and pedestrians will take the road to collect poems and present them to the Taishi, which is more famous than their temperament. Therefore, you know the world without leaving home. " Liu Xin, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, also said in his book Yang Xiong: "Ask three generations, Zhou and Qin Xuan, the messenger of the car and the messenger of the people, patrol the road in August, and ask for the generation language, nursery rhymes and ballads."
Second, it is still a poem. According to this statement, in order to examine the folk customs of the vassal States and the gains and losses of the monarch's political achievements, Zhou ordered the vassal States to present poems. For example, "Guoyu Zhou Yu" says: "The emperor listens to politics and makes his ministers offer poems, songs, ... courses, poems and reciting."
Third, Confucius said that the poem was deleted. This statement can be found in Historical Records Confucius Family, which records: "There are more than 3,000 poems written by the ancients, and there are 350 poems that can be applied to etiquette and justice when it comes to Confucius." This means that when Confucius was alive, there were more than 3 thousand ancient poems popular in society at that time. Later, according to the standard of propriety and righteousness, Confucius compiled 305 of them into The Book of Songs. Confucius in the Tang Dynasty, Zhu in the Song Dynasty, Zhu Yizun in the Ming Dynasty and Wei Yuan in the Qing Dynasty were all skeptical about this statement. The reason is that Zuo Zhuan recorded that Confucius had a set of poems before he was 10. For example, in 544 BC, the "Feng" poems written by Lu musicians for the son of Wu were basically in the same order as the current Book of Songs.
Based on the above three statements, we usually think that the Book of Songs was collected and compiled by various vassal states at that time with the assistance of historians in the Zhou Dynasty, and then compiled by historians and musicians. Later, Confucius may have further arranged it.
Regarding the classification of poems in The Book of Songs, there has been a saying of "four beginnings and six meanings" since ancient times. "Four Beginnings" refers to the four poems that rank first in the Book of Songs: Elegance, Xiaoya and Ode, which can be regarded as the soul of the Book of Songs. "Six meanings" refers to six key words closely related to The Book of Songs: "Style, elegance and praise; Fu, Bi and Xing. " "Style, elegance and fu" are three distinct genres in The Book of Songs. Fu, Bi and Xing are three main rhetorical devices in The Book of Songs.
The original meaning of "wind" is "custom". Here refers to folk songs, which are relative to "Wang Ji", that is, the folk songs directly under the jurisdiction of Zhou Tianzi, including, Bi, Yan, Wei, Wang, Zheng, Qi, Wei and Tang. It can be inferred that most of these folk songs were polished when they were included in The Book of Songs.
"Ya" is the music of "Ji Wang". Zhou people called Ji Wang Xia, and "elegance" and "Xia" were very common in ancient times. So, there is yarraa. In addition, "elegance" also means "righteousness". At that time, the Zhou people regarded Wang Ji's music as a model of pronunciation, just as the Qing people called Kunqu Opera "Ya Bu", and they all had a sense of respect. For example, Zhu said in "Biography of Poetry": "Elegant people are also righteous. The size of his articles is different, but the pros and cons of Confucian scholars are different. Today's test is the joy of Xiaoya and Yan Yan; It is elegance, the joy of attending the meeting, and the words of discipline. Different words and sounds have different syllables. Therefore, the difference between size and elegance lies in its content. "
Ya can be divided into Daya and Xiaoya according to its musical form, of which Daya has 3 1 song, 74 songs and 105 songs. Of course, most of them are works of literati, but there are also many works similar to folk songs in Xiaoya, such as Yellow Birds, Going My Own Way, Gu Feng, Why the Grass is Yellow, and so on.
"Ode" is a kind of music song and epic sacrificed in ancestral temple, and its content is mostly to praise the great achievements of ancestors. "Preface to Mao Poems" says: "The eulogists describe beauty and virtue, and tell the gods of their success." Wang Guowei said: "Praise is slower than elegance." That's all I said. It is the rhythmic feature of sacrificial music. Odes can be divided into Zhou Song, Truffle and Shang Ode. Among them, "Zhou Song" has 365,438+0, "Truffle" 4 and "Shangsong" 5, with 40 articles each. Although carols are music songs that praise God or ancestors during sacrifices, there are exceptions. For example, four poems of truffles are all about the beautiful living Lu Xigong, and there are flattering poems in Shang Song.
"Fu", according to Zhu's Biography of Poetry, "Fu is also used, and outspoken people also use it". In other words, Fu is an elaborate narrative and the most basic expression. Such as "life and death are generous, Zicheng said. Holding your hand and growing old with your son is to express your feelings directly.
"Bi", according to Zhu's explanation, is "comparing one thing with another", which means metaphor. Similes and metaphors fall into this category. Metaphors are used in many places and in various ways in The Book of Songs. For example, Dream uses the change of mulberry trees from lush to withered to compare the rise and fall of love; "heming" uses the metaphor that "stones from other mountains can attack jade" to govern the country with sages; In Shuo Ren, the metaphor of beauty's hand, beauty's skin, beauty's teeth and so on are all good examples of using "Bi" in The Book of Songs.
"Xing", in Zhu's explanation, means "talking about other things first to arouse what is sung", that is, using other things to pave the way for what is sung. It is often used at the beginning of a poem or a chapter. Sometimes when a sentence in a poem looks interesting, whether it is interesting can be judged by whether it is used at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph. For example, in Feng Wei's self-protection, "Mulberry leaves were flourishing before they fell" means "Xing". About the most primitive "xing" is just a beginning, which has nothing to do with the following, but shows drift and association for no reason. Just like Qin Feng's Morning Wind, it is difficult to find a meaningful connection between the "Morning Wind" at the beginning and the "Seeing a gentleman and worrying about Qin Qin" at the back. Although in this case, it may be incomprehensible because of the time gap, this situation definitely exists. Even in modern folk songs, we can still see such "xing". Because "Xing" is such an implicit and freely used technique, later poets who like the implicit and euphemistic charm of poetry are particularly interested in it, and all of them are ingenious and innovative, which constitutes a special charm of China's classical poetry.
The Book of Songs comprehensively shows the social life from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, and truly reflects the historical panorama of the slave society in China from prosperity to decline: it not only shows the tragic fate and resistance struggle of the ancient working people who were exploited and oppressed, but also reflects the profound disaster brought to the working people by heavy military service and corvee; It faithfully reflects not only the love and marriage of ordinary people, but also many important events in history. This is undoubtedly of great value for us to study the history, religion and cultural customs of the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the Book of Songs is actually a mirror of social life from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period.
Confucius once summed up the characteristics of the Book of Songs and said, "There are 300 poems. In short, thinking is innocent. " And educate disciples to read the Book of Songs as the standard for making statements and actions. Among the pre-Qin philosophers, many people quoted the Book of Songs, such as Mencius, Xunzi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi and others, often quoted sentences in the Book of Songs to enhance their persuasiveness. So what is "naive thinking"? Later generations commented: "There are 300 poems about changing words, no matter they are dutiful sons, loyal ministers, resentful men and worried women, they are all out of their deepest feelings, and they are straightforward and have no hypocrisy." Here, "thinking innocently" means "showing your true feelings without affectation". This is undoubtedly the most pertinent judgment on the Book of Songs, and it is also the key entry point for future generations to understand the Book of Songs.