Why read the Book of Songs: In Guan Ju lies the spiritual tradition of the nation

Because this poem can be taken as a model for expressing the virtues of husband and wife

The short poem Guofeng-Zhounan-Guan Ju is the first in the Book of Songs, which is the oldest canon of Chinese literature. Turning to the history of Chinese literature, the first thing you encounter is Guan Ju.

The Analects mentions the Poetry (i.e., the Classic of Poetry) many times, but the only work that is specifically evaluated is the Guan Ju, which is described as "joyful, but not obscene, and sorrowful, but not hurtful". In his view, Guan Ju is an example of the virtue of the "middle ground".

In the view of the ancients, husband and wife are the beginning of human relationships, and the perfection of all morality in the world must be based on the virtue of husband and wife. The author of the Preface to Mao Poetry believed that Guan Ju was exemplary in this regard, which is why it was listed as "the beginning of the winds". It can be used to moralize the whole world, applying to both the "townspeople," i.e., the common people, and the "state," i.e., the ruling class.

The Guan Ju celebrates a kind of love that is restrained in its feelings, prudent in its behavior, and aims at marital harmony, so the Confucians thought it was a good model, a teaching material for "correcting the couple" and leading to a wide range of virtues.