The Book of Songs, formerly known as Poems or 300 Poems, is the earliest collection of poems in ancient China. The book was written in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the works were basically produced from the early Western Zhou Dynasty (1 1 century BC) to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period (7th century BC). Most of these works are folk songs, and a few are created by nobles. They reflect the history and reality of Zhou society extensively and profoundly, and have high literary and historical value.
According to a large number of historical records in the pre-Qin period, all the poems quoted in Zuo Zhuan and Guoyu are generally called "Poetry Yue" and "Poetry Cloud". In the Analects of Confucius, Confucius called it "Poetry" or "Poetry 300". It is also called this in the works of the warring States philosophers. It can be seen that "Shi Pin" or "Shi Pin San Bai" is the original name of this collection of poems, which was originally a literary work. But why is it called "Jing" and even revered as a sacred classic?
The name "Jing" was not sacred at first. Ancient cultural classics are written on bamboo slips two feet four inches long. These bamboo slips are called "classics" when worn with ropes. This initial origin is very different from that of the later feudal ruling class, which turned it into a "biography of the Bible" and regarded ruling the people as the highest ideological and moral standard. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius used several books as teaching materials to teach his disciples, such as Poetry, Shangshu, Zhouyi, Book of Rites, Yueji and Chunqiu. With the development of feudal society, especially the policy of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" in Han Dynasty, Confucianism became "Confucianism" and "state religion", and Confucius was regarded as a sacred idol. Several of his books, which were used as students' textbooks, were also covered with a sacred coat, and they were all called Confucian classics, which were used as national textbooks in feudal society and important tools for feudal enlightenment. The Book of Songs plays a particularly prominent role in this respect. For example, the Preface to Mao Poetry, which was produced in the Han Dynasty, closely linked poetry with social politics, declaring that "positive gains and losses, moving heaven and earth, feeling ghosts and gods, are not close to poetry. The former king regarded the couple as filial piety, good ethics, beautiful education and changing customs, which completely became a tool to serve the ruling class politics and took it as the standard of poetry creation and criticism. At the same time, according to the requirements of feudal politics, Han Confucianism interpreted 300 poems. In order to turn 300 poems into textbooks of feudal politics, they did not hesitate to make things up and even fabricate stories, distorting the original intention of many poems, so that each poem was related to Taoist Wang Gong. For example, Guan Ju in Three Hundred Poems is a beautiful love poem, which describes the pain of a young man's lovesickness and the joy of getting love. However, Preface to Mao Poetry is interpreted as "the virtue of empresses", which was used by Duke Zhou to educate the world and correct the ethical relationship between husband and wife. Its central idea is to recruit talents, not to pursue love fanatically. In the feudal society of China, The Book of Songs has existed for a long time as a compulsory textbook for feudal ethical and political education. In this way, the status of The Book of Songs has been promoted to the supreme realm, but its true meaning as a literary work has disappeared, and vivid, sincere and lively feelings have been removed, leaving only a dull and lifeless body, which is a great tragedy of poetry. There are few poems in the Han dynasty for hundreds of years, which is closely related to the extremely utilitarian poetic theory of Han and Confucianism. Literature is literature, not the mouthpiece of politics. What comes out of the mouthpiece can only be empty preaching, which can only hinder the prosperity of literature.