Ding Qizhen
Why didn't Confucius become a poet? This is really an interesting question. Because:
1. During the Spring and Autumn Period, reciting poems in social occasions became a common practice.
Second, Confucius attached great importance to the role of poetry;
Thirdly, Confucius is not only familiar with Three Hundred Poems (later called The Book of Songs), but also has a lot of research.
Fourth, Confucius is a poet.
Kings, nobles and even ordinary people in the Spring and Autumn Period have a characteristic: they like to quote and recite the whole works or single poems in the Book of Songs to express their thoughts and feelings directly or indirectly, whether in social occasions such as alliances, banquets or family daily life. In other words, poetry played a very important role in the social life at that time. At that time, the prevalence of quoting and reciting the Book of Songs was amazing. According to some scholars' statistics, the historical figures recorded in Zuozhuan alone quoted and recited the Book of Songs in social occasions as many as 150 times. The situation is as described in Hanshu Yiwenzhi. At that time, princes, monarchs and noble doctors received envoys from neighboring countries and met and talked. "Poetry can be said to be a metaphor of their ambition." It is said that the purpose of quoting and reciting poetry is to show one's intelligence and observe the rise and fall of the national strength of the other country. In Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu and other historical books, there are indeed many stories about Dr. Wang who achieved his expected goal by properly quoting and reciting the works in The Book of Songs. For example, when Zhong Er, the exiled prince of the State of Jin, met with Qin Mugong, he skillfully quoted several works from The Book of Songs, which made Qin Mugong send troops to help him restore the country and become the monarch of the State of Jin-known as Jin Wengong in history.
Confucius has a very famous theory about the function of poetry. Namely: "Poetry can be appreciated, considerable, gathered and resentful. Your father is far away, and you know the names of birds, animals and plants better. " (The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo). This is what literary theorists call Confucius' theory of poetry teaching. Translated into modern Chinese, this sentence means that "poetry" can stimulate people's aspirations and emotions, reflect the ups and downs of social customs, make people more gregarious and express resentment. From a close perspective, it helps to serve parents; From a distance, it helps to serve the monarch and help people know more about the names of birds, animals and plants. "Although Confucius talked about poetry in the Book of Songs, the Book of Songs is actually poetry. There are two main reasons for this: first, the works in The Book of Songs include not only carols and eulogies from court nobles, but also love songs and elegies from the bottom of society. It can be said that it is an anthology of poems created by all social strata five or six hundred years before Confucius, not an anthology of works of a certain writer or style, nor a compilation of propaganda documents used by rulers to fool the people; Second, there were no other poems except The Book of Songs. Obviously, in Confucius' view, poetry is very valuable to both society and individuals; It has both the appreciation value of artistic aesthetics and the educational value of knowledge cultivation. Confucius emphasized the role of The Book of Songs many times when educating his disciples and sons. One day, Confucius was standing alone in the yard, and Kong Li ran past him. After being stopped, ask him if he has reviewed the Book of Songs. Kong Li honestly replied that he didn't study. Confucius told him: "If you don't learn the Book of Songs well, you won't be able to speak." On another occasion, Confucius taught Kong Li: "If a person doesn't learn Nan Zhou and Zhao Nan in the Book of Songs well, it is equivalent to standing against the wall, seeing nothing and not moving a step."
According to the records in The Analects of Confucius, Confucius is quite familiar with The Book of Songs. In The Analects of Confucius, when talking with students, Confucius repeatedly quoted and recited poems from The Book of Songs. Such as: "Emperor Mu Mu" ("Bashu", the poem comes from "Poetry Zhou Song"); "If you don't ask for it, why don't you hide it" (Zi Han, the poem comes from "The Poetic Style is Great"); "Honesty is not rich, only different" ("Yan Yuan", the poem comes from "Poetry Xiaoya, I will go my own way"). In fact, The Book of Songs is probably one of the important teaching materials for Confucius to educate his disciples. The Analects of Confucius recorded many times that Confucius answered disciples' questions about the Book of Songs. For example, once in the summer, Confucius asked what it meant to "smile skillfully, look forward to it with beautiful eyes, and always think it is gorgeous", and Confucius told him that "white is the foundation, then color" ("Bashu"). Confucius also affirmed and even praised the poems in The Book of Songs because his disciples understood them correctly. For example, Confucius once said to Zigong: "Give (Zigong, surname Duanmu, name give), I can discuss this poem with you. If I tell you one truth, you will know others. " In fact, Confucius is not only familiar with the Book of Songs, but also has a lot of research. Confucius himself once said, "I will go back to Shandong, and then I will be happy. Elegance and Ode are in their proper places." It can be seen that Confucius revised the Book of Songs-correcting poetry with music. Sima Qian said that when Confucius deleted poems, he re-edited The Book of Songs. Although many scholars oppose it, they almost completely deny it. But Confucius studied the Book of Songs, which is not a problem.
Throughout Confucius' life and his behavior, we can often see that he has a poetic temperament and poetic language cultivation: Confucius runs a school, and the place of class is often not the classroom, but the mountains, the water's edge and the trees; Originally, I went to Qi to seek career advancement, but as soon as I heard that I was less happy, I immediately devoted myself to learning playing skills. He became acting prime minister, but because the king of Lu accepted the Qi women's band, he left Lu angrily and embarked on the road of traveling around the world. In the process of traveling around the world, despite many difficulties and dangers, he was laughed at as a lost dog. However, he still enjoyed it for more than ten years ... Of course, what best embodies Confucius' poetic temperament is his lyric remarks. On one occasion, I don't know what triggered him. Confucius sent out such a feeling: "Eating food and drinking water, bending your arms and resting on your pillow, is also fun." Unjust wealth is like a cloud to me. "("Uncle ") once stood by the river, Confucius said this sentence:" The deceased is like a husband! Don't give up day and night "(Zi Han) These words are really very authentic poetic language. Another time, the disciples sat down, and Confucius asked them to tell their life ideals. When he once said that his ideal life was "late spring, achievements in spring clothes, no.56 scholar, no.67 boy, bathing in interpretation, dancing in the wind and singing on the back", Confucius immediately agreed ("advanced"). It can also be seen that Confucius, like ordinary poets, likes to climb mountains and face water and yearns for a free life. This is similar to Tao Yuanming, the founder of the pastoral poetry school.
All of the above shows that Confucius and the poet are separated only by a thin layer of paper. But Confucius didn't pierce this thin paper in the end and became a poet. What is the reason for it? I don't speculate. Let's speculate as follows:
First, in the era of Confucius, writing poetry has not yet become a life career of literati. Although China's poems have a long history, many excellent poems have been handed down to the world long before Confucius-The Book of Songs is the best example. However, the close relationship between the poet's name and his poetry works began with Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), nearly 200 years later than Confucius (55 1-479 BC). Moreover, Qu Yuan became the earliest contracted poet probably because of the word of mouth of Chu people who loved him, but Qu Yuan himself had no intention of becoming a poet. For the first time, poetry was consciously regarded as an eternal career, which began with Cao Cao and his son at the end of Han Dynasty. Cao Pi said in "Dian Lun Thesis": "Building the great cause of the country is an immortal event."
Secondly, Confucius has no ambition to be a poet. The greatest ideal of Confucius' life is to restore and put into practice the ideological system of governing the country with rites and music founded by ancient sages such as Duke Zhou. In other words, in Confucius' view, political ideals are always higher than academic ideals and literary creation ideals.
Third, Confucius' writing view is biased. Confucius was obviously not interested in creative writing. He once said that he is a man who "keeps his word but doesn't do it, and is loyal and good at the past" (Shu Er). After returning to Shandong in his later years, he studied and sorted out the ancient documents such as Yi and Shi, and followed the principle of "words don't mean everything".
Fourth, in the era of Confucius, writing poetry was still a thing without any reward, and it could not be used as a means of making a living or as a great cause of famous mountains. Confucius was not a figure in the system for most of his life. He is a freelancer. The problem of eating a full stomach and making a living is always in front of him, and he can't be allowed to scrutinize poetry all day. Of course, Confucius also had the idea of making a name for himself, but his method was to recruit disciples and write academic works such as Spring and Autumn Annals. Literary creation, especially poetry creation, is out of his consideration, or it can't enter his eyes.
Suppose history is useless but interesting: if Confucius becomes a poet on a whim, he may not be a saint worshipped through the ages in the future. Because, the freedom and temperament in the poet's thoughts are things that the rulers of past dynasties did not like very much.