However, after the prosperity of Confucian culture, the social status of The Book of Songs became very respected, which did some damage to its own literary attributes. After The Book of Songs was listed as the Five Classics, some articles were over-interpreted and given too much political significance. Among them, which love poems reflect the simple feelings of our ancestors were even proposed by some Confucian students to be kicked out of the scope of the Book of Songs.
However, with the gradual decline of the study of chapters and sentences, people began to re-examine this enlightening work of China literature with a peaceful eye. Those articles that have nothing to do with politics have also received renewed attention, which is of great significance to the development of China literature and the progress of literary criticism.
The book shadow of the book of songs
The creation and politicization of The Book of Songs is the earliest folk genre in the history of China literature, which includes the works of professional poets and folk songs. These works were widely circulated in the Zhou Dynasty, but no one collected them. It was not until the Spring and Autumn Period that Confucius systematically sorted out these folk poems, and the Book of Songs that we see now came into being.
Confucius who sorted out the Book of Songs
At that time, there were folk poems, and some carols and sacrificial poems assumed political functions above the imperial court. These works are divided into three categories according to different genres: style, elegance and ode. There are two main views on the division of these three schools. One is that they come from different sources, that is, the wind is a poem drawn from the people, elegance is a poem discussing the politics of various countries, and ode is a work praising the good virtues of rulers to comfort heaven.
However, this classification is problematic, because there are also articles describing people's lives in the categories of elegance and ode, which shows that this interpretation is not comprehensive. Recently, some scholars have pointed out that the classification of wind, elegance and ode is probably based on the different types of music they match, which has not been confirmed by more theories.
Reading Mao Heng and Scapharca subcrenata in The Book of Songs
After the Book of Songs was written, it was regarded as a classic by many Confucian students, and its content was also regarded as a chapter with political metaphor. Even the national style, which is dominated by folk works, has been labeled as "upper weathering, lower wind stabbing". The explanation of "the text is admonition, the speaker is innocent, and the listener is warned, so it is called the wind", which is obviously far from the original intention of these poems.
However, with the Confucian culture becoming a political program, The Book of Songs has even become a reference for politicians to govern the country, and its literary value has been artificially ignored. Although Zhu, a philosopher in the Southern Song Dynasty, advocated restoring the original meaning of some articles in the Book of Songs, he proposed:
The so-called "wind" in all "poems" is mostly based on the works of alley ballads. The so-called men and women express their opinions on songs.
Zhuxi statue
He pointed out that many chapters in The Book of Songs originated from folk songs, which praised people's simplest feelings and did not need to be over-interpreted. Although Zhu's theory did not occupy the mainstream in the cultural circle, and even many people suggested that the articles in the Book of Songs that did not have strong political significance should be excluded from the Book of Songs, it did make some scholars look at some works in the Book of Songs with a more pure eye and find their value.
Literary Value and Historical Value of Love Poems in The Book of Songs After Zhu proposed to appreciate the Book of Songs from a non-political perspective, some love poems describing the sincere feelings between young men and women gradually entered people's field of vision.
Among many works in The Book of Songs, political satires such as Shuo have great historical value, but which love songs are used to describe love seems to be able to better enter the life of the ancients in the Zhou Dynasty and produce a stronger * * * sound with them. In The Book of Songs, love poems or love songs mostly exist in national style, and the works of different vassal countries also have certain differences.
In Storytelling, corrupt officials are compared to mice.
In The Book of Songs, Zheng Feng has the largest number of love songs, and the poem East Gate is a classic title, which accurately expresses that girls are ashamed to express their thoughts, but they can only complain that men don't take the initiative to pursue them. This shows us that in the Zhou Dynasty, when the ethical code system was the strictest, there were still sincere and warm feelings among teenagers.
"East Gate" Calligraphy Works
Martin's love poems are obviously different from Zheng Feng's. They are better at setting off their lovers' emotions by describing the environment, and they have a kind of artistic beauty pursued by China traditional literature. Compared with the enthusiastic Zheng Feng, the scenes they described are undoubtedly more meaningful, and the titles such as Moonrise are even more classic:
The moon is bright. Beautiful and crowded.
Shu Yao corrected Xi. I'm worried.
The moon rises brightly. Beautiful people.
Relax, worry. Worried.
The moon is shining. Radiant.
Shu Yao Shao Xi. I am in pain.
The appearance of these love poems in The Book of Songs makes us see the simple feelings of the people in the pre-Qin era, and makes The Book of Songs break the shackles of Confucianism and regain its charm as a literary work. These vivid works also provide the source power for the development of China literature.
The moonrise depicts a distant scene.
In the eyes of western literary critics, most of the works in China's classical literature serve politics, so they often think that China's traditional literature is not artistic. But in fact, when we can jump out of the traditional Confucian way of thinking and re-examine the classic works such as The Book of Songs, we can easily find the humanistic care contained in them.
Just like these love poems in The Book of Songs, they directly describe the love of young men and women at that time. This direct description of life reflects the author's emotional appeal, which is the so-called enlightenment of literary consciousness. At that time, the different perspectives of different vassal States on feelings made us see the unique culture of each region, which was very helpful for us to understand that history from other aspects.
More importantly, most of these love poems in The Book of Songs are collected from the people. They were all popular folk songs at that time, so they contained unique rhythmic beauty, which was of great significance to the development of China's poetry and prose. The hazy aesthetic feeling in these love poems has created unique charm for the development of China traditional literature.