The Book of Songs has a lofty position and far-reaching influence in the history of China literature, which has laid a fine tradition of China's poetry and thus formed the national characteristics of China's poetry art.
First, realism and traditional spirit.
The Book of Songs is based on real social life, and there are no false, grotesque and supernatural myths. Sacrifice, feasting and farming described in it are the products of social economy, ritual and music culture in Zhou Dynasty, and it describes the political situation, war corvee, marriage and love at that time.
It shows the political situation, social life, customs and people's feelings of the Zhou Dynasty. This spiritual tradition of "hungry people sing about their food, and laborers sing about their affairs" has been inherited and carried forward by future generations.
Second, the tradition of lyric poetry
Since the Book of Songs, lyric poetry has become one of the main forms of poetry.
Thirdly, elegance and literary innovation.
The enthusiasm for reality, strong political and moral consciousness and sincere and positive attitude towards life in The Book of Songs were inherited and carried forward by Qu Yuan, and were summarized as the spirit of elegance by later generations.
Later poets often advocate the spirit of elegance to carry out literary innovation. Chen Ziang lamented Qi Liang's "elegance", while Li Bai lamented that "elegance is not long enough, who can fail me?" Du Fu is "unconventional and elegant", Bai Juyi called Zhang Ji "elegance is better than fashion and never tasted empty talk", and many outstanding poets in the Tang Dynasty inherited the spirit of elegance.
Moreover, this spirit extended from Lu You in the Song Dynasty to Huang Zunxian in the late Qing Dynasty.
Extended data
The compilation of The Book of Songs in the Spring and Autumn Period was mainly for application:
First, as a teaching material for learning music and reciting poems; Secondly, as a ritual song for feasting and offering sacrifices; Thirdly, it can be used as a tool to express one's feelings in diplomatic occasions or speech responses. ?
The diplomatic communication through poetry in the Spring and Autumn Period was very extensive, which made The Book of Songs a very important tool at that time. There are many records about this in Zuo Zhuan, such as poems satirizing the other side (twenty-seven years as "xianggong"), poems being laughed at because they didn't understand the other side's meaning (twenty years as Zhao Gong), poems in which a small country turned to a big country for help (thirteen years as Wen Gong) and so on.
These quotations from The Book of Songs, or exhortations, or comments, or analysis, or expressions, have their own functions, but they have one thing in common, that is, all the quoted poems are "taken out of context"-take one or two of them, regardless of the meaning of the whole article. This phenomenon was called "commonplace" in the Spring and Autumn Period. In other words, at that time, the function of The Book of Songs was not in itself, but in "expressing ambition through poetry".
If you want to express your ambition, you can quote a poem. Poetry serves the ambition, not what the original intention of the poem is, but whether the quoted content can explain the ambition. This is a true application of The Book of Songs in the Spring and Autumn Period, but its literary function has been misinterpreted.
On the other hand, the expression of the function of giving poems to express aspirations conforms to the literary function of The Book of Songs, and it is a real "poem to express aspirations"-it reflects and shows the understanding of literary function and social significance, and it is the embryonic form of China's early literary criticism. For example, Xiaoya Knots Nanshan: "My father recited it to study Wang Yi". Elegance for the elderly: "Wang wants beauty, but uses big hints" and so on.
Poets are aware of their purpose and attitude in writing poems, and use poems to express their thoughts and feelings and attitudes towards society and life, so as to achieve the purpose of praising, praising, persuading and satirizing. This is the true meaning of poetry, and it really fits the literary function and literary criticism of The Book of Songs.
On the other hand, the social function of The Book of Songs is that the society (including scholar-officials and court rulers) uses it to publicize and practice self-cultivation in governing the country. This is one of the purposes of compiling the Book of Songs, and it is also the content that some scholars strongly advocated and promoted when the Book of Songs came into being.
Baidu Encyclopedia-The Book of Songs