The Value Influence of The Book of Songs

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.

Confucius attached great importance to The Book of Songs, and he admonished his disciples and sons to learn it many times. Confucius said, "Poetry can be appreciated, considerable, shared and resentful." (Yang Huo) This is Confucius' highly generalized theory of "prosperity, management, group and resentment" in The Book of Songs, and it is also the reason why he believes that The Book of Songs will have great social functions. Confucius' theory of "Xing, Guan, Qun and Resentment" clarified the social function of The Book of Songs, which not only pointed out the literary characteristics of The Book of Songs that infected people with images and aroused readers' imagination and association, but also conformed to social life and achieved practical results.

On the basis of inheriting Confucius and Mencius, Preface to Mao's Poems particularly emphasizes the top-down educational function of poetry, especially "filial piety to couples, respect for others, beautiful education and changing customs", and emphasizes that rulers should subtly educate people on ethics through poetry, making it a social fashion, which is conducive to the establishment of social order and the consolidation of rule. Xu's theory on the education of The Book of Songs undoubtedly greatly strengthened the social function of The Book of Songs, and also greatly improved its status, making it an essential tool for rulers to exercise their rule, which had a great influence on later generations.

Second, the historical and folk values.

Judging from the value of historical materials, The Book of Songs actually comprehensively reflects the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, and records the historical development and realistic situation from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period in all directions, covering almost all aspects of society-politics, economy, military, folk customs, culture, literature, art and so on. When describing this historical stage, a considerable part of the history books of later historians are based on the records of the Book of Songs. Epic such as Daya People's Life is an ancestor's ode, which records the history of Zhou people from the late matriarchal society to the demise of Shang Dynasty and the founding of the People's Republic of China, and praises the brilliant achievements of Hou Ji, Gong Liu, Wang Ji and others. The historical value of these poems is obvious. They recorded the historical process of the emergence and development of Zhou nationality, the demise of commerce, the establishment of Zhou and the unification of the world, as well as the great migration and great war in this historical development process, reflecting the political, economic, folk and military aspects of Zhou nationality and leaving valuable historical materials for future generations. Although these historical materials are mixed with myths, there are undeniable historical facts that can be trusted.

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 he worships heaven and earth in the suburbs. 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 extremely precious folk materials.

Three. Ritual culture and other values

One of the remarkable features of Zhou culture has produced a culture of rites and music different from the previous generation, which has had a far-reaching impact on later generations. Among them, the ceremony integrated the thoughts and systems of the Zhou Dynasty, while the music had the function of education. The Book of Songs reflects and shows the culture of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty to a certain extent, and has become one of the precious documents for the preservation of Zhou Li.

For example, Xiaoya's "There is a Jiayu in the South" and "There is a Taiwan in the South Mountain" are all the movements of Yan Yan, or the guests of Yan Le, or the ministers who wish the son of heaven; Liao Xiao is the music song of Yan Guoyuan. It can be seen that the Zhou Dynasty adopted a good-neighborly and friendly etiquette policy towards neighboring countries, which reflected the wide application of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty. Another example is "Xiaoya Tong Gong", which describes that Zhou Tianzi bowed to a vassal who made meritorious deeds, indicating that from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Tianzi bowed to a vassal who made meritorious deeds for his country, even in the form of a grand ceremony. In contrast, Xiaoya Luming Literature is more representative. This poem is the work of guests at the king's banquet. "Duke Zhou made a ceremony, and Luming Literature was listed in the singing poem." Zhu even thought it was written in the poem "Music Songs for Yan", which not only entertained guests, but also involved Tao ("Teach me how to travel around") and virtue ("Sound with virtue, Confucius, Zhao"), thus it can be seen that "Duke Zhou sang in Wang Zhidao, which is a method for future generations".

In addition to the ceremony, the cultural contents of ceremony and music reflected in the Book of Songs include: describing the "ceremony of spring" in Spring Hunting; Xiaoya Chegongan and Xiaoya Jiri describe Zhou Xuanwang's hunting with the princes. Chutz, Xiaoya, Futian, Xiaoya, Datian, Xiaoya, etc. Describe and write about ancestor worship, god worship and other gods such as Sifang, Houtu and Xiannong; There are many articles in Zhou Song that offer sacrifices to King Wen and heaven and earth, from which we can learn about the sacrificial ceremony. "Xiaoya Yuanyang Pu" eulogizes the marriage of nobles and gentlemen, and "Xiaoya vs. Piluo Clothes" shows the governors of the Zhou Dynasty inspecting the six armies, from which we can learn about weddings and military ceremonies respectively. 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, without fantasy and grotesque, and there are few supernatural myths. Sacrifice, feasting and farming described are the products of social economy, etiquette and music culture in Zhou Dynasty. The description of the current situation, war corvee, marriage and love shows the political situation, social life, customs and people's feelings of the Zhou Dynasty. This "hungry people sing about their food, and laborers sing about their affairs."

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.

Fourth, Fu Bixing's example.

The expression of "Fu, Bi and Xing" in The Book of Songs has been inherited and developed in the creation of ancient poetry, which has become an important feature of China's ancient poetry. The Book of Songs also proves the artistic creativity of working people with vivid facts. The overlapping forms and accurate, vivid and beautiful language of folk songs in The Book of Songs have been widely absorbed and used by later poets and writers. The Book of Songs, with its profound social content and beautiful artistic form, attracts the attention and reference of later scholars to folk songs. The flexible and diverse poetic forms and vivid and rich language of The Book of Songs have also had an important influence on various genres of literature in later generations. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Cao Cao, Ji Kang and others all studied the Book of Songs and wrote four-character poems. The rhymes of Fu, Fu, Prose and Ming in the history of literature are also related to The Book of Songs.

The birth of The Book of Songs (including its generation, collection and compilation) first created a new style in the history of China's poetry-four-character style. Before the Book of Songs, although poetry was born, it did not have its own fixed style, and it was still in oral form, generally dominated by two words; It was in The Book of Songs era that China's poetry really laid its own creative pattern and formed a relatively stable style. That is to say, the real start of China's poetry began in The Book of Songs era.

The Book of Songs not only created the first tangible historical stage in the history of China's poetry-four-character poems, but also influenced the poetry creation of later generations: First, the five-character poems, seven-character poems, especially five-character poems, were breakthroughs and expansions based on them; Second, even in the era of May 7th, there are still many four-character poems written by authors, which follow the form of The Book of Songs.

In terms of the rhythm of poetry, The Book of Songs has also set a precedent for later poetry, especially in the rhyming form and voice of poetry, which provides a paradigm and model for later poetry and has important value and significance in the history of poetry creation.

More importantly, The Book of Songs created the artistic style of portrait in its creation-it vividly portrayed and expressed the characteristics of things, people and society with its simple, true and vivid language, artistically reproduced the essence of society, and provided a model and reference paradigm for later literary creation (especially poetry creation). Specifically, The Book of Songs painted a vivid picture of social history for that time and later generations, truly reflected the face of ancient society, eulogized the industriousness and courage of ancient people, lashed the meanness of the ruling class, and left a three-dimensional and figurative picture of history for later generations. It is a rich and vivid ancient encyclopedia. Hanshu records that during the Western Han Dynasty, many aristocratic children from western countries came to Chang 'an to study China culture. Among the documents unearthed in Turpan in Xinjiang 1959- 1979, there is a relic of Shi Mao Jian Zheng Xiaoya, which proved to be a relic of the fifth century ... The old and new books of the Tang Dynasty also recorded that many Persians learned Chinese through economic and cultural exchanges between China, West Asia and Rome along the Silk Road. Jing Jing, the author of "Chinese Monument" established in the second year of Tang Jianzhong (78 1), is Syrian. He quoted twenty or thirty places in the inscription, which proves that the Book of Songs has a long history from the Silk Road.

Cultural exchanges between China and Indo-China Peninsula and India-Pakistan subcontinent also began in the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu conquered South Vietnam and divided it into nine counties, which promoted the enlightenment of the Han Dynasty. As the first of the Five Classics, The Book of Songs is bound to enter. During the long exchanges in ancient times, countries in these areas all had people familiar with Sinology. In Viet Nam, according to historical records, The Book of Songs was taken as the test content in the 10th Li Dynasty, and Xiaoya Qing Fei was taken as the topic in the 12th Li Dynasty. All scholars are familiar with The Book of Songs. Since 12 century, many versions of ancient Vietnamese documents have appeared. Poems and allusions in The Book of Songs are widely quoted in Vietnamese poems and literary stories, which has influenced the development of Vietnamese literature. Some idioms are preserved in modern Vietnamese.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, China's Five Classics were introduced into Korea. At that time, Baekje, Silla and Koryo on the Korean peninsula were separated. According to Nan Shi, in 54 1 year, Baekje sent envoys to ask Liang Chao to send doctors to teach, and Liang Wudi sent scholars to visit. In 765, Silla Dynasty stipulated that Shi Mao was one of the required books for officials. In 958, the Korean dynasty implemented the imperial examination system, and The Book of Songs was designated as an examination subject for scholars. Teaching The Book of Songs has been a trend in North Korea for centuries. By the 6th century A.D./KLOC-,Xu Mu, a North Korean scholar, had made an in-depth study of China's Confucian classics, still retaining his theory of "poetry" and fully implementing Confucius' thought of teaching poetry. /kloc-The compilation and publication of the first Korean book "Yan Yong in the Clear Autumn" in the early 8th century opened up a broad road for the creation of modern Korean poetry, and its preface clearly stated that its compilation was based on Confucius' thoughts and experience in compiling the Book of Songs. The Book of Songs is taught by the Chinese Department of 67 universities in South Korea, among which 34 universities offer the required or optional course "The Book of Songs".

During the Tang Dynasty, Japan sent envoys of the Tang Dynasty to study in Chang 'an. Later, China scholars gave lectures in Japan, which promoted the development of Japanese feudal culture. The first Japanese translation appeared in the 9th century. Since then, selection, complete translation and censorship have never stopped. The annotation, interpretation and translation of China's classics have become the academic atmosphere for centuries, which has made the Book of Songs widely circulated. The development of Japanese poetry is closely related to the Book of Songs, and the poetic style, content and style of the harmony songs are deeply influenced by the Book of Songs. The preface of ~946)' s Collection of Ancient and Modern Harmony Songs is almost a copy of Preface to Mao Poetry, and Tiancheng's translation is evaluated as faithful, vivid and elegant, which is welcomed by researchers and literary lovers. Japanese contemporary scholars established the Japanese Book of Songs Society in 1970s, and published The Book of Songs Research magazine.

The spread of The Book of Songs in Europe began in16th century, and was translated and introduced to European readers by missionaries in China. /kloc-Since the beginning of the 9th century, sinology in Europe with France as the center has been heating up, and the translation of The Book of Songs has shown a prosperous scene. All major European languages have been completely translated, and they tend to be elegant and accurate. There has always been a debate between prosody school and prosody school about prosody translation or prosody translation. Wei Li's translation can be regarded as a typical example of the pursuit of elegance in western translation, and the original can be translated into beautiful lyrics. In order to reflect the ideology and artistry of the original, disrupt the system of the original and the order of the works, the book of songs, as a representative of China's poetry, is reclassified according to the content, and the appendix also compares it with European poetry. Gao Benhan's translation can be regarded as a typical pursuit of "faithfulness". He is a linguist, devoted to exegetics, dialects, ancient rhymes and textual research of ancient documents. These two versions have been influenced in the West for decades.

The translation of The Book of Songs began in North America in the early 20th century. A large number of single translations are scattered in periodicals and various anthologies. Important translations include Selected Works of Pound (e Pound, 1885~ 1972), Selected Works of Confucius (1954), and the full translation of J.R. Hightower. Pound's English translation has aroused heated discussion, and he especially praised China's classical poems based on The Book of Songs to American readers.

There were 15 versions (selected translation and full translation) of The Book of Songs in Russia. Since 1950s, due to the great development of Sino-Soviet relations and cultural exchanges, all translators are Russian ancient literature experts and academicians of the Academy of Sciences, among which Wang Xili, Shtukin and Federlin Tongxun have the greatest influence.

Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary also have translations of The Book of Songs. With the change of the world political structure, some countries and regions with slow economic and cultural development have developed rapidly since independence, and Singapore, Malaysia and India and Pakistan are all spreading the Book of Songs. The Vietnamese version of The Book of Songs listed by Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences has been translated into a national project, and the Mongolian translation is about to be completed. The Book of Songs is being circulated around the world in dozens of languages, and there are chapters commenting on the Book of Songs in textbooks of world literature history in various countries. The study of The Book of Songs is a hot spot of Sinology in the world.