Who collected the Book of Songs?

Collection and Arrangement of The Book of Songs —— Collecting Poems, Offering Poems and Deleting Poems In the compilation of The Book of Songs, researchers always inevitably encounter such a problem: How did so many poets bring these poems together in such a long time and such a vast region? And who compiled them and passed them on to future generations? Therefore, in the research history of The Book of Songs, theories such as "picking poems", "offering poems" and "deleting poems" appeared, trying to give a clear answer to the above questions. The Collection of Poems says that there are many records in the books of Han Dynasty. "History of Food in Han Dynasty" records: "In Meng Chun, in March, people who lived in groups dispersed, pedestrians shook the wooden priests, leaned on the road to collect poems, and offered a stone, which was more known to the emperor than its temperament." It means that when spring comes, when people go out to farm in the fields, there are picking poets called "pedestrians" patrolling the road, knocking on wooden badminton and collecting songs they sing when they farm. Then the collected poems were dedicated to the music master, who sang them to the emperor with melody. He Xiu, the annotator of The Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram, put forward a new statement: The Biography of the Ram was published for fifteen years: "How is a line and an action sung?" Note: "Men and women have grievances, so they sing, the hungry sing about their food, and the laborers sing about their affairs. Male 60 years old, female 50 years old, childless, given food and clothing by the government, made him seek poetry among the people, moved his hometown to the city, moved the city to the country, and the country was known to the son of heaven. Therefore, the king stays at home and knows all the hardships in the world. He stays at home and knows all the places in the world. " (The Biography of the Ram, Volume 16) That is, if a man reaches the age of 60 and a woman reaches the age of 50 and has no children to take care of him, the government will provide him with food and clothing and invite him to collect poems among the people. Poetry was handed down from township, county, city and county levels, and finally played to the son of heaven. Both Ban Gu and He Xiu must have picked poems, but they just said that picking poets is different. They are so single-minded about poetry collections, which may be based on legends or ancient information. But later, people couldn't find the records of the poet's activities in the books of the pre-Qin period, so they all expressed doubts about their statements. We think there should be a collection of poems. At that time, folk songs were all oral literature, and there was no place where the works of noble literati were published. If no one collects them, they will not be collected. According to the research of ancient historians, poetry collection is the heritage of clan society. Before the formation of the state system, the leaders of clans or clans' alliances need to listen to the opinions of clans on public affairs from folk songs, and collecting folk songs is a supplementary means of democracy. Zhou rulers inherited this system, and there appeared poets or people who "collected poems and observed folk customs". The collected poems must be sung by musicians before reaching the emperor's ears, so that the poems are concentrated in the hands of musicians. "Poem Dedication" tells that in the Zhou Dynasty, officials and officials dedicated poems to praise beauty or irony. "Mandarin admonition": "Therefore, the emperor listened to politics and made officials and ministers offer poems, songs, books, teachers' words, fu and chanting". In Liu's Poems, he said: "Anyone who offers poems in the column will not take them. The wind listened to the rumors in the city and distinguished the coat from the rumors ... "It is said that the emperor listened to politics and asked the officials of the DPRK and the DPRK to offer poems and satires. In "Twelve Years of Zuo Zhuan Zhao Gong", there is also a story of a poem: Once upon a time, Zhou Muwang wanted to travel around the world and let all the places in the world have his ruts. So he wrote a poem "Pray for Call", which dissuaded Mu Wang, who accepted his advice and didn't get into trouble because of traveling, and finally died safely in the palace. Judging from the actual situation of 300 poems, the thing of "offering poems" does exist. In addition, the governors of various countries should also present their own songs to Zhou. " The Book of Rites says: "The emperor makes a patrol every five years, and ... orders the great teacher Chen Shi to observe the folk customs." (See Book of Rites, Volume XI) This kind of "Chen Shi" is actually a form of offering sacrifices to poems. The poems presented by officials are both created by themselves and collected. According to the theory of "deleting poems", many poems are collected and presented. Who chose 300 poems from many works to compile a book? This question was first put forward by Sima Qian in the Han Dynasty. In Historical Records Confucius Family, he said: "There are more than 3,000 ancient poems, Confucius, which can be used for etiquette. ..... 350 songs, all sung by Confucius, in order to combine martial arts and elegant sounds. "On the Balance of Truth by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty": "There were thousands of books of songs in the old days, but Confucius deleted them, but there were 350 volumes". This means that Confucius selected 305 ancient poems from more than 3,000 poems on the basis of propriety and righteousness, while others that were repetitive and did not conform to propriety and righteousness were deleted. This is the famous Confucius theory of "deleting poems" that influenced later generations. Although many scholars respect and believe this statement, many scholars doubt it. Among them, Zhu, Ye Shi, Zhu Yizun, Fang Yurun and Wei Yuan are the most famous. They put forward many reasons against the theory of "deleting poems", among which the following points are more convincing: First, Confucius himself and his disciples never said anything about "deleting poems". A poem quoted in pre-Qin literature is generally within the scope of the existing Book of Songs, and there are few so-called "escape poems" beyond it. If Confucius had more than 3,000 poems before, this would not have happened. Moreover, in The Analects of Confucius, he only talked about righteousness and happiness, and Confucius also mentioned "three hundred poems" many times (Kevin·Z, Lutz, etc. ), which proves that Confucius has read more than 300 poems, which is almost the same as what he sees now. Second, in the twenty-ninth year of Zuo Zhuan's Xiang Gong, when Ji Zha, the prince of Wu, went to see Lu, fifteen pieces of Guo Feng, Ya and Ode sung by Lu musicians were exactly the same as the Book of Songs now. At this time, Confucius was less than ten years old (about eight years old), so it was impossible to delete the Book of Songs. It can be seen that before Confucius, 300 poems had been finalized. Thirdly, according to the records in The Analects of Confucius and other books, Confucius strictly abides by the principle of "propriety and righteousness" and has repeatedly expressed disgust at Zheng and Wei, and wants to abolish these two kinds of music songs. Confucius once criticized "sexual immorality" and "chaos of elegant music" and advocated "letting go", but the style of Zheng and Wei is still preserved in the 300 volumes of The Book of Songs. When Confucius deletes poems, he will definitely delete them. It can be seen that it is not credible to say that the Book of Songs was edited by him. Most importantly, The Book of Songs should have been compiled before Confucius was born, about the sixth century BC. It's just that Confucius did put a lot of effort into the Book of Songs. Confucius said in the Analects of Confucius: "I went back to Shandong, and then I was happy and elegant." "The words in the historical records quoted above also say so. This shows that in the era of Confucius, the music of The Book of Songs has been lost and disordered, and Confucius revised it to make it conform to the original state of ancient music. He also used the Book of Songs to educate students, often discussing the Book of Songs with them and playing songs and dances (see The Analects of Confucius and Mo Zi Fei Ru). Confucius also put forward three principles: "poetry should not be divorced from ambition", "happiness should not be divorced from emotion" and "writing should not be divorced from words". All these have played an important role in the dissemination, study and research of The Book of Songs. Confucius' deletion of poems is not credible, but Confucius' "positive joy" is true. The purpose of Yue Zheng is to maintain the ritual and music system of Zhou Dynasty, which is conservative, but its contribution to the preservation of this poetry collection should be affirmed. Fourth, at that time, only Master Zhou was able to master so many poems in the whole country. On the one hand, Master Zhou used poetry to teach aristocratic children to learn; On the one hand, a certain number of poems are selected and published for the rulers to learn, ready to be used in diplomatic occasions to "express their aspirations." Confucius was very depressed at that time. " If you are a stray dog, can he master so many poems? Even if you can master and delete that poem, can you make all scholars in the world believe in it? The above four points are powerful reasons, so many people believe them. Modern people who don't believe in "deleting poems" have accounted for the majority. However, after all, The Book of Songs has become what it is now after some editing and processing. Music songs collected from various periods and regions are generally considered to be preserved in the music officer of the Zhou royal family-Taishi. They obviously processed, eliminated and modified those works with different faces, and finally got the approval of the king and distributed them nationwide. Therefore, the existing language forms of The Book of Songs are basically four-character, and the rhyme system and rhyme rules are basically the same. Some sets of sentences (such as Son of Another Family and Wang Shimi) have appeared in works of different times and places. In ancient times, the transportation was inconvenient and the language was different. The ballads of various times and regions could not have happened if they were not processed. It can be considered that the official production of music songs and the collection and arrangement of folk music songs are one of the cultural undertakings of the Zhou Dynasty, and they were continuously carried out in the era of The Book of Songs. But who is the editor? According to the available data, at present, scholars speculate that musicians compose music, which we think is more likely. Because the vassal states at that time and the imperial court's teachers and musicians were the preservers of poems, they had the conditions to compile and select them. At the same time, they are composers and singers of poetry. Poems collected or presented from different places are often different in form, writing and sound, and it is difficult for people who don't understand the rules of music to be processed and arranged by musicians. Before Confucius, there was no private school, which is the so-called "learning in the official" era. Teachers are often musicians. It is natural for them to edit an anthology for the needs of teaching. Noble children learn about 300 poems, which is probably enough after becoming an official. At the same time, because the banquet Faust was ordered by officials to be sung by musicians, musicians also need a relatively fixed script to sing well, so that they can sing to the right point. Therefore, it can be said that Poetry is not only a textbook compiled by music officials, but also a program and music book for personal use.