Is The Book of Songs an ancient collection of poems and songs in China?

The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poems in the history of China. The Book of Songs was originally named "Poetry", and there were 305 * * * poems (in addition, there were 6 poems with no content, that is, no words, which were called Sheng Six. What has no content is Nan Chang, Bai Hua, Shu Hua, You Kang, Chong Wu and You Yi), so it is also called "Poetry 300" and "Articles 300". Confucianism has regarded it as a classic since the Han Dynasty, so it is called The Book of Songs. (The official use of The Book of Songs should begin in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty-Qu Wanli). Mao Heng in Han Dynasty annotated The Book of Songs, so it was also called Mao Shi. Most of the authors of the poems in The Book of Songs cannot be verified. The area involved is mainly the Yellow River Basin, starting from Shanxi and eastern Gansu in the west, southwest Hebei Province in the north, Shandong in the east and Jianghan Basin in the south. It collected 305 poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period for about 500 years, among which 6 poems only had titles. It was honored as a Confucian classic in the Western Han Dynasty, and it was one of the "Five Classics" respected by Confucianism. Originally called The Book of Songs, it has been used ever since. Music is divided into three parts: wind, elegance and ode. Among them, Wind is a local folk song with 15 national styles and 160 songs. "Elegance" is mainly court music songs, divided into elegance and vulgarity, 105; Ode is mainly ancestral temple music songs, with 40 songs. The main methods of expression are fu, bi and xing. "Fu" means paving the way, "Bi" means figuratively, and "Xing" means saying something else first to cause the words to be sung. Folk songs have the highest ideological value and artistic value in The Book of Songs. "Hungry people sing about their food, and laborers sing about their affairs." Vatan, Storytelling and Mang are Feng's representative works. The Book of Songs has a far-reaching influence on the development of poetry in later generations, and has become the source of the realistic tradition of China's classical literature. The Book of Songs handed down in the world is a collection of poems handed down by Mao Heng and Scapharca subcrenata.

Regarding the classification of poems in The Book of Songs, there is a saying of "four beginnings and six meanings". "Four Beginnings" refers to wind, elegance and smallness.

Ya and Ode are the first four songs. "Six meanings" refers to "wind, elegance, praise, fu, comparison and glory." "Ode to elegance" is the classification of the Book of Songs according to different music. Wind ",also called" national wind ",is a ballad all over the country. Fu, Bi and Xing are the expressions in The Book of Songs. The Book of Songs is dominated by four miscellaneous words. "Wind" includes,, Yi, Wei, Wang, Zheng, Qi, Wei, Tang, Qin, Chen, Gui, Cao, Yi, etc. 15 national wind, most of which are folk songs in the Yellow River valley, and a few are processed works by nobles. "Elegance" includes Xiaoya and Elegance, * *105 articles "Elegance" are basically aristocratic works, and only a part of Xiaoya comes from folk ode, including Zhou Song, truffle and Shang ode, with a total of 40 articles. Ode is a lyric used in court sacrifice.

Folding classification

The classification of style, elegance and fu in The Book of Songs is based on the difference of music, which is also the main basis for the classification of works in The Book of Songs.

The Wind has collected folk songs from fifteen places, including some places in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and Shandong (Qi, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin). Most of them are folk songs in the Yellow River valley, and most of them are polished folk songs, called "The Wind of Fifteen Countries", with 160 articles, which is the core content of the Book of Songs. "Wind" refers to rural wind and wind ballads. (Fifteen National Styles: Yan, Yan, Wei, Wang, Zheng, Qi, Wei, Tang, Qin, Chen, Kuai, Cao and Yi)

Ya is divided into (74 pieces) and Daya (3 1 piece). Daya is a court music song with *** 105 pieces. "Elegance" is formal music, that is, music songs when nobles enjoy banquets or princes meet at court. Elegance is mostly written by aristocrats, and Xiaoya expresses her personal feelings. Of course, most of them are works of literati, but there are also many words in Xiaoya that are similar to wind and ballads, such as yellow birds, going their separate ways, valley wind, why the grass is not yellow and so on.

Odes are music songs and epics of ancestral temples, mostly praising the achievements of ancestors. "Preface to Mao Poetry" said: "The description of the beauty and virtue of the eulogists tells the gods of their merits. "This is the meaning and use of ode. Wang Guowei said: "Praise is slower than elegance. "This is the characteristic of his music. Zhou Song has 365,438+0 pieces, 4 pieces, 5 pieces of loose top and 40 pieces of * *. Originally, it was a musical song to praise the gods or ancestors when offering sacrifices, but all four poems of Truffle are to praise the living and beautiful Lu Xigong, and there are also flattering poems in Shang songs.

technique of expression

Fu, Bi and Xing are the expressions of The Book of Songs, which are now called rhetoric.

According to Zhu's Biography of Poetry, "Fu" means "Fu, Fu, Fu, Fu, Fu, Fu, Fu, Fu, Zhu". In other words, Fu is directly narrated. Is the most basic expression. Such as "life and death are generous, Zicheng said. Holding your hand and growing old with your son is to express your feelings directly.

Zhu's interpretation of "comparison" is "comparing one thing with another", which is metaphor. Similes and metaphors fall into this category. Metaphors are used in many places and in various ways in The Book of Songs. For example, Dream uses the change of mulberry trees from lush to withered to compare the rise and fall of love; "heming" uses the metaphor that "stones from other mountains can attack jade" to govern the country with sages; In Shuo Ren, the metaphor of beauty's hand, beauty's skin, beauty's teeth and so on are all good examples of using "Bi" in The Book of Songs. The Book of Songs

"Fu" and "Bi" are the most basic means of expression in all poems, while "Xing" is the unique means in The Book of Songs and even China's poems. The original meaning of the word "Xing" is "Qi", so it is often called "Qi Xing", which plays a role in rendering atmosphere and creating artistic conception in poetry. The word "xing" in The Book of Songs is interpreted by Zhu as "talking about other things first, so as to stimulate what is sung", that is, paving the way for what is sung by other things. It is often used at the beginning of a poem or a chapter. Sometimes when a sentence in a poem looks interesting, whether it is interesting can be judged by whether it is used at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph. For example, in Feng Wei's self-protection, "Mulberry leaves are flourishing before they fall" means prosperity. . About the most primitive "xing" is just a beginning, which has nothing to do with the following, but shows drift and association for no reason. Just like Qin Feng's Morning Wind, it is difficult to find a meaningful connection between the "Morning Wind" at the beginning and the "Seeing a gentleman, worrying" at the back. Although in this case, it may be incomprehensible because of the time gap, this situation definitely exists. Even in modern folk songs, we can still see such "xing".

Besides, there are many meaningful uses of "Xing", such as metaphor, symbol and contrast. But it is precisely because "Xing" is originally produced by the drifting and association of ideas without reason, so even if it has a more real meaning, it is not so rigid, but subtle. For example, Guan Guan's novel begins with "Guan Guan's dove is in the river continent", which was originally used by the poet to lead to the following "My Fair Lady, Gentleman is Nice", but the harmony of Guan Guan can also be used to describe the courtship between men and women, or the harmonious love between men and women, but its metaphorical meaning is not clear. Another example is the poem "Peach Blossom", which begins with "Peach Blossom Blossom Blossom Blossom Blossom" and describes the beautiful atmosphere of peach blossom in spring. It can be said to be a realistic pen, but it can also be understood as a metaphor for the bride's beauty, and it can also be said to set off the warm atmosphere of the wedding. Because "Xing" is such an implicit and freely used technique, poets who like the implicit and euphemistic charm of poetry in later generations are particularly interested in it. Their own clever tricks and innovations are numerous, which constitute the special taste of China's classical poetry.