The Book of Songs generally reflects the political outlook, social life and people's thoughts and feelings of the Zhou Dynasty. Reading it is like reading the development history of the Zhou Dynasty from its establishment, growth and development to its decline in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period.
It is China's first collection of poems, the earliest record is the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the latest works have been produced in the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, the era of the complete Book of Songs, which spans about five or six hundred years.
The region is centered on the Yellow River Basin, south to the north bank of the Yangtze River, and distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Hubei and other places.
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The Book of Songs came into being in the middle and late slave society. Our ancestors lived in the Yellow River valley where natural conditions were quite difficult, and established an agricultural society with the patriarchal clan system as the core.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the rulers made great efforts to govern and a prosperous and stable situation emerged. After the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, especially at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal family declined, the ceremony collapsed, the music was bad, the society was turbulent, and the politics was dark, which led to a large number of bitter and happy poems that reflected chaos and criticized the shortcomings of the times.
Zhou people perfected the patriarchal clan system in social structure, and constructed a set of basic concepts based on "ceremony", based on morality, and paying equal attention to "respect" and "pro", which was more suitable for the social stability and development at that time.
The deepening and extension of these concepts has contributed to a kind of social consciousness, showing its ideological strength as a long-term stability measure.
Zhou people pay attention to morality, emphasize "innovation for the people", and govern the world with the ruling thought of observing people's feelings, weathering the world and judging the world carefully. This has become the conscious consciousness of the society and the main trend of the ideological development movement in the Zhou Dynasty.
Poetry is the direct product of the combination of the mainstream in the Spring and Autumn Period and the consciousness of the times. It is not only the vivid embodiment of Zhou rulers' political thoughts, but also the inevitable result of the transformation of ruling thoughts into social consciousness. At the same time, it also embodies the spirit of the times in the Spring and Autumn Period, which respects the king and despises foreigners and advocates unity.
When the Western Zhou Dynasty spread to Li Wang, it was cruel and heartless, controlling people's speech with witchcraft, brutally exploiting people, intensifying social contradictions and arousing the resistance of Chinese people. Li Wang escaped and died.
Wang Xuan ascended the throne, repaired the internal affairs, and set the frontier, which is called Zhongxing in history.
Wang You ascended the throne, increased taxes, prized and praised him, and acted as a villain. He was also a tyrannical and fatuous ruler, and was finally killed by the dog Rong.
During the period of Li and You Wang, due to social unrest, the people had a great dislike for the rulers, and at the same time, some poems and satirical poems reflecting the contradictions within the ruling class were produced.
However, from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the eastward movement of Pingdong, due to the intrusion of Rong nationality, the annexation of governors and the destruction of the ruling order, the society was violently turbulent.
During this period, social relations are undergoing drastic changes, some people rise and fall, others sink; Some people work hard for the "kingly business" but get nothing, while others do nothing but enjoy the honor.
Therefore, during this period, many critical political works were produced, and most of these poems were written by literati.
In this kind of poems, some authors criticized the chaos and injustice of the internal order of the ruling class.
Poets, on the other hand, stand on the old position of "justice" and hope to correct this inevitable confusion, while more political critical poems express the author's extreme anxiety about difficult current affairs and strong dissatisfaction with his ruling group, including the supreme ruler.
For example, at the turn of October, according to the preface to Mao Shi, the poet gave a serious warning to the ruler from the bad weather, which was considered very serious at that time.