Shangshu is also called book or book classics.

Shangshu, also known as Shu or Shu Jing, is the earliest existing political document compilation history book in China. Shangshu is divided into Yu Shu, Xia Shu, Shangshu and Zhou Shu. Among them, Yu Shu is a compilation of political documents in Yu Shun, one of the five emperors in the legendary era, Xia Shu is a compilation of political documents in Xia Dynasty, Shangshu and Zhou Shu are a compilation of political documents in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. By analogy, we can roughly determine that Zhou Shu's writing time is the writing time of Zhou Dynasty, Yu Shu, Xia Shu and Shang Yang, or the historian of Western Zhou Dynasty, or the historian of Spring and Autumn Period, or the historian of Warring States Period's recollection of political events in the Five Emperors and Xia and Shang Dynasties.

There are three theories about the title of Shangshu. The first argument is that "Shang" and "Shang" are festivals, so the so-called "Shangshu" refers to the compilation of ancient royal archives documents; The second statement is that "Shang" means "advocating", so the so-called "Shangshu" is a classic that can be respected by future generations; The third way of saying it is that "Shang" is to unfold or flatten things that are rolled up, wrapped up and folded up, so the so-called "Shangshu" is a declassified royal document or an open royal archives. Combined with the contents of the book, the above three statements can be established.

According to relevant data, Shangshu has been circulated in the world, and there are three versions before and after. One is the resurrected version of Dr. Qin, called Jin Wenshu; Second, the Kong Anguo edition of the Western Han Dynasty, a descendant of Confucius, is called the History of Ancient Chinese Literature; Third, the folk history version of Zhang Yu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (now Nanchang, Jiangxi) (equivalent to the finance director of this province) is called "pseudo-ancient literature history". It is generally believed that the sixteen books in Jin Wen Shang Shu published by Dr. Sheng, from Mu Shi to Lv Xing, are the true historical materials of the Western Zhou Dynasty, while the biographies of Fei Shi and Qin Shi are the Historians' Records of the Western Zhou Dynasty and Yao Dian and Hao Tao Mo in the Spring and Autumn Period. Today, the book History of Ancient Literature is generally believed to be forged by Mei, but it is also controversial, so I won't go into details here.

There is an extremely tortuous and legendary story about the writing, appearance, gathering and dispersion, authenticity and falsehood of Shangshu. According to legend, the earliest edition of Shangshu was compiled by Confucius at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. Confucius devoted himself to sorting out ancient books in his later years in order to help the building collapse and save the day. He collected all kinds of important documents from ancient Yao, Shun and Yu to the Spring and Autumn Period. After careful selection, he selected 100 books and edited them as teaching materials for his private school to educate students.

It is said that Confucius compiled this book for two purposes: one is to let the emperor understand the truth of benevolent government and loving the people. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the holy king disappeared, tyrants appeared one after another, and the people suffered political abuse and suffered greatly. In order to save the world from danger and influence the world to be a monarch, Confucius wrote the book Classic, hoping that the monarch would carry forward the glorious traditions of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu and be kind to the people. Second, let the courtiers understand the truth that the virtuous minister assisted the king. Since Zhou moved eastward, people and ministers in local governments have been absent-minded, and many rebels and thieves have appeared, and kingslayers are common. In order to save the world from danger and influence the people to be ministers, Confucius wrote the Classic, which recorded the deeds of ancient sages assisting kings and served as an example for courtiers to learn.

In this way, the book has been spread from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, and it has been safe. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he issued a book-holding order, ordering all the poems, books and hundreds of works collected by the people to be sent to the government for centralized burning. This book burning incident brought a devastating blow to the spread of poetry and books. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Western Han Dynasty advocated "ruling the world with Confucianism", so it collected the remnants of poems and books missed by the people in a big way, but with little effect. As it happens, there is an old man named Fu Sheng in Jinan County (now Zhangqiu South, Shandong Province), who is a descendant of Confucius' disciple Mr. Zijian. After Qin Shihuang unified China, 70 doctors were appointed as "counselors" in the imperial court, and Fu Sheng was one of them. Before 2 13, Qin Shihuang issued a book burning order, and Fu Sheng retired from his home. Probably out of respect for ancient books, he risked his life and secretly hid them in the interlayer of his own wall.

Time flies for decades. Fu Sheng heard that the imperial court was searching for the missing poetry books with great fanfare, so he searched the library and found that there were only 29 classics left. At this time, Fu Sheng was over 90 years old, so the court sent Chao Cuo, a rising star and young scholar, to Jin 'an County to give Fu Sheng one-on-one oral guidance. Afterwards, Chao Cuo returned to Luoyang, the capital, with notes and manuscripts, and then sorted them out, and the court allowed them to be made public. Because Chao Cuo's annotations were written in the vernacular at that time, this version of the book and its annotations were called "Jin Wen Shang Shu" by later generations.

While speaking, it has been three years since Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty, that is, 154 years ago. This year, Wang, who was far away in Qufu, Shandong Province, wanted to expand his residence, because Wang Lu's residence was next to Confucius, so he discussed with Kong Anguo, the current master of Confucius, to make room for him. It doesn't matter if it is torn down. It is said that a book was found, which was written in six pre-Qin languages. Confucius must have built a house and hid it, just in case something happened.

When the court learned of this, it ordered Kong Anguo to translate, proofread and sort out this book, and named it "History of Ancient Chinese Literature". This edition contains 29 pieces of Jin Wen Shang Shu, including 16 pieces. Just when Mr. Kong Anguo compiled The History of Ancient Chinese Literature and respectfully presented it to the court, he met a common big event in the harem of the Han Dynasty-witchcraft incident. Somehow, Kong Anguo was implicated. As a result, his old gentleman and this imperial giant book were also hung aside. This "History of Ancient Literature" has never turned positive, and it has only been circulated among the people of Xialiba.

While speaking, it was the Yongjia period of the Western Jin Dynasty, and a five-Luan flower opening ceremony was held. In the war, both Jin Wen Shang Shu and Gu Wen Shang Shu were lost and disappeared. Time flies, it's been 200 years. In the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shi Meiluan got an ancient Chinese history from a certain place and presented it to the court. Mr. Mei's version of History of Ancient Prose not only contains 29 pieces of History of Modern Prose published by Mr. Fu Sheng, but also has 14 and ***58 pieces more than the History of Modern Prose published by Mr. Kong Anguo. In this way, Mei's version of China's Ancient Classics has been very paradoxically circulated in the world, and it has been used for more than 1000 years. It is said that the version of Shangshu that people see now was compiled by later scholars according to Mr. Mei's version and referring to other documents.

Of course, since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, many scholars have questioned the Mei version of Shangshu, but there is no evidence to prove that it is verbatim and can't beat others. However, some scholars firmly believe that the ancient history since the Eastern Jin Dynasty largely retains the context of the two versions of the history books of the Han Dynasty. The reason is that Mei's version of The History of Ancient Chinese Literature may be supplemented by fragmentary bamboo slips he got from other ancient books after Qin and Han Dynasties.

Since the Western Han Dynasty, Shangshu has been regarded as a philosophical classic by emperors of all dynasties. It is not only a pillow book for emperors, but also a compulsory course for aristocratic children and literati. As far as literature is concerned, the appearance of Shangshu indicates that China's ancient prose has sprouted. According to Zuo Zhuan and other books, before Shangshu, there were ancient political prose classics such as Sanfen, Wudian, Basso and Jiuqiu, but for various reasons, these books have not been handed down, so Shangshu is the only source when we talk about pre-Qin prose.

Generally speaking, the article structure of Shangshu is relatively complete, and there are many remarkable points in the layout of the article. Later, the prosperity of prose in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can be regarded as the inheritance and development of the prose skills of Shangshu. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the imperial edicts, imperial edicts and Zhanghui dramas of various dynasties were obviously influenced by the style and characters of Shangshu. For example, in his masterpiece Wen Xin Diao Long, Mr. Liu Xie, a scholar of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, traces back to Shangshu when discussing the styles of imperial edict, decree, chapter presentation, dialogue and secretary, which is the charm of the book.

Time has entered 2 1 century. In July 2008, Tsinghua University collected a number of bamboo slips of the Warring States Period. It is said that these bamboo slips have long been scattered abroad, and later they were bought by overseas Tsinghua alumni and donated to their alma mater. Subsequently, after more than two years of protective cleaning and research, the number of bamboo slips was finally determined to be 2388, among which the warring States version of Shangshu, which was lost for more than 2000 years, was found.

According to experts, this edition of Shangshu has compiled more than 60 documents, including, Yingu, Chenggu, Baoxun, Zhu Ye, Jin Yi, Huangmen, Jigong, etc. For example, Baoxun tells the legacy left at the end of his life, including the legend of Yaoshun and Shangjiawei, the ancestor of Shang Dynasty. After Qin Shihuang burned the book, this document was forgotten, and it contained the idea of the Holy Way, which was largely the intention of Confucius' Book of History. In addition, experts compared the bamboo slips version of Xianyou Yide with Shangshu handed down from generation to generation, and found that they had nothing in common. It can be seen that the "Fairy Journey and Virtue" in Shangshu handed down from generation to generation was forged by Hu Mei.

The same example can also be found in the article "Telling Life". The "numerology" in Shangshu, a book handed down from ancient times, consists of three chapters, which records the related deeds of Wu Ding and Minister Fu Shuo. There is also a chapter "Life of Fu Shuo" in the bamboo slips of Shangshu, which is also three chapters. Part of the content is completely consistent with the quotations in Guoyu Chu Yu, which proves to be the original appearance of the pre-Qin period. This shows that the article "Telling Life" handed down from ancient times in Shangshu was forged by Mei Meng.