The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poems, about 2000 years ago. It collected 305 poems from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to about 500 years before and after the Spring and Autumn Pages. According to the musical nature, the works in The Book of Songs are divided into three categories: style, elegance and fu. The Book of Songs is not only rich in content, but also has its unique artistic expression. Its language is simple and natural, colorful and flexible.
"Wind" belongs to local music, that is, the music songs of various vassal States at that time. * * * contains 15 national styles, most of which are folk songs. Elegant Music is the music of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is divided into two parts: Elegant Music and Xiaoya. Ode is the dance music of ancestral temple, which is basically a eulogy.
The Literary Value of The Book of Songs
The folk value of The Book of Songs is also obvious, including love, marriage, sacrifice and many other aspects. For example, "the peak girl" is about the mutual love of young men and women in the nobility; The Last Wind is a ballad of flirting between men and women. Zheng Feng outside the East Gate shows a man's single-mindedness for love.
These poems reflect all kinds of marital status from different sides and angles, and comprehensively reflect the folk customs of various places in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. They are good materials for understanding the history of ancient marriage in China, from which we can also understand the different attitudes and views of ancient men and women towards marriage.
Many poems describing sacrificial scenes or scenes in The Book of Songs, as well as hymns directly describing sacrificial ceremonies in ancestral temples, have left folk information about sacrificial ceremonies for later generations. For example, "Wan Dance" written in "Li", as well as the movements and dance methods of the performers who danced "Wan Dance", tell people the specific situation of this kind of dance similar to witch dance, which is used for ancestral temple sacrifice or court dance. More and more official poems recording the contents of sacrifices are mainly concentrated in ode poems.
For example, "Tianzuo" records a king's sacrifice to Qishan, and "Hao Tian You Cheng Zi" is sung when the suburbs worship heaven and earth. These poems fully show Zhou people's reverence and piety for ancestors, ancestors, God, heaven and earth, eulogize and pray in the form of sacrifice and praise, reflect people's good wishes for emperors and ancestors at that time and fear for life, and reflect ancient people's mentality and folk customs. They are precious folk materials.
The above contents refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-The Book of Songs.