In the late Spring and Autumn period, "Poems" was obviously very popular, but being popular for a while does not mean that it can be passed on to future generations. Regardless of whether "Three Hundred Poems" was compiled by Confucius or not, the canonization of "Poems" must be inseparable from Confucius.
How Confucius viewed the "Poems", the documents unearthed in these years are not necessarily more reliable than the "Analects", not to mention that of course, only the documents that have been handed down can have a real impact on later generations. So let's just look at the Analects for the time being.
Wax figure of Confucius. **
Thinking innocently. First of all, Confucius highly admired the Book of Songs. Confucius taught his son that "if you don't learn poetry, you can't speak", and if you don't know poetry, you won't know how to speak"People are not for "Zhou Nan" and "Zhao Nan", which are still standing on the wall"In particular, "Zhou Nan" and "Zhao Nan" are very important, and if you don't understand it, it is difficult to go to society.
Of particular importance is the following sentence.
Zi said: "Three hundred poems, in a word, say: 'Thinking is innocent'." ”
These 300 poems can be summed up in one sentence: "Pure thought." ”
This is Confucius's overall evaluation of the "Book of Songs", this tone is certain, as long as Confucius's status as a sage is not shaken, the classic status of the "Book of Songs" is stable. The poems in the "Book of Songs" are obviously about love and love, and the later Taoist gentlemen can't delete them if they don't like it. Of course, on the other hand, today's poems have also helped Confucius become a more acceptable image for modern people: you see, those poems that talk about love and love to flirt and scold, Confucius said that it is "innocent" and pure in thought, which shows that the old man is very open-minded.
Second, Confucius's method of speaking about the Book of Songs is often taken out of context.
The three-word comment of "thinking innocent" is very typical taken out of context.
This is a sentence from "Lu Song 駉 (jiōng)".
Horse, in the wilderness. Those who speak thinly, there are horses and horses, there are fish and fish, and they use cars to get rid of them. Thinking innocently, thinking about it.
This poem says that the Lu Xi stallion is well raised, and there are all kinds of good horses, so "thinking is innocent, thinking about horses".
This "thinking" is meaningless, and this "evil" is skewed. The three words "thinking without evil" mean a straight road. However, Confucius took these three words out of context, separated these three words from the whole poem, and interpreted them creatively, turning them into pure meanings.
Context. Let's look at another example of Confucius having a conversation with a student.
Zixia asked: "'Clever smile, beautiful eyes, always thought to be gorgeous', what does it mean?".Zi said: "Paint the aftermath." He said, "After the ceremony?"Zi said: "The giver is also a businessman, and the poem can be said to be complete." ”
The "poem" quoted by Zixia was originally to describe the girl's pure heart and beautiful appearance, but the main focus is actually on the appearance;Confucius said that "painting the aftermath of the matter" can be understood as "character comes first";Next, Zixia's sentence of "after the ceremony" was related to personal cultivation and national governance, and he went far off topic. And Confucius's evaluation of him is praise, thinking that this is the trick of mastering poetry.
Confucius commented on Zixia like this, it is not surprising that at that time, the aristocracy socialized, and it was popular to read and use poems in this way, called "Fu poems are broken chapters, and the rest is taken from what I want", when writing poems, I don't care about the meaning of the whole poem, just intercept the chapter I need, and extract the meaning I want to express.
Today's primary school students are trained in literature to summarize the main ideas. This way of reading poetry seems to completely disrespect the theme of the work. But the atmosphere at that time was like this, and not only these nobles were writing poems like this, in fact, some poems in the "Book of Songs" were broken in the east and a chapter in the west, and then put together to become a new poem.
As long as you really go through the 300 poems in the Book of Songs, you will find that many verses are repeated in different works. What "seeing a gentleman", what "a beautiful person", what "clear and graceful", what "the king's affairs" ......You read these sentences before, and when you turn to the back, you find that they appear again. Sometimes it's not exactly the same, but it's not much different. For example, in "Xiaoya Caiwei", the sentence "In the past, I used to do it, Yang Liu Yiyi, now I come to think, rain and snow Feifei", if the text is slightly sensitive, it will be touched, but then look down at the poem "Out of the Car", in which the epigram is "In the past, I went to the past, and I was in the past." Now I think about it, rain and snow are loaded", when the middle school teacher changed the composition, how could it be the same feeling one by one, and it immediately came out.
In recent years, with the discovery of a large number of bronzes, there are inscriptions on the bronzes, and researchers have noticed that there are many words on the inscriptions, which are also the same as the sentences in the Book of Songs. Because it's hard to determine who is older, it's not easy to determine who is quoting whom, and it's more reasonable to understand that these sentences are very popular and considered very stylish at the time, so when you need to say something, you can also use it, but it is more reasonable.
Or to use such an analogy, these sentences in the "Book of Songs" are like Lego accessories one by one, and 300 poems are 300 classic Lego models. At that time, aristocratic education required learning poetry, not that all of these 300 models were regarded as sacred, but as a child of the nobility, if you want to be able to learn how to build Lego by studying these models, you need to build it yourself, and you can quickly build a decent thing.
Watching the grievances and beyond.
Therefore, the value of taking words out of context is that it is conducive to improvising and solving various problems. In the words of Confucius, it is-
Zi said: "Reciting the "poem" for three hundred, giving it to the government, but not reaching it;It can be used in all directions, and cannot be specialized;Although there are many, I also think that it is ?”
I read the 300 articles of the "Book of Songs" and handed it to him for government affairs, but he couldn't understand it;He was sent as an envoy to the countries of the Quad, but he could not deal with diplomacy on his own. Even if you read a lot, what's the use?”
Reading "Poems" is for application. In all kinds of ceremonial activities and political activities, this place needs to have a poem, and you can come up with a suitable sentence to cushion.
Judging from the "Zuo Biography", Confucius's emphasis on reading poetry and using poetry in this way is not his originality, and the aristocrats in the late Spring and Autumn Period all did this. And you pay attention, Confucius is teaching the children of relatively ordinary families, so in fact, what the nobles will teach you now, it just so happens that many children of the nobles are not promising, but he will not, you will, so your opportunity is in**, do you know?Of course, Confucius would not say such things directly, but the effect of his teaching is actually like this.
Let's take a more specific look at what fields Confucius talked about the application of "Poems".
Zi said: "Boy, why don't you learn poetry!."Poetry can be exciting, can be observed, can be grouped, can be complained;The father of the far things, the king of the distant things, know more about the names of birds, beasts, plants and trees. ”
Confucius said, "Students, why doesn't anyone learn poetry?"After asking this question, Confucius analyzed the six major meanings of studying poetry:
The first is "Xing", poetry can stimulate the mind. In today's terms, downward freedom is not freedom, and the depraved choice is not choice, but this freedom that is not freedom, the choice that is not choice, is like a drug, but it is so fascinating. Poetry is used to confront these people, moving verses, which can stimulate the hidden positive pursuit in your heart, which is called poetry "can be Xing".
The second is "view", here the view mainly refers to the observation of folk customs, the poetry of a place will have a local temperament, and the poetry of an era will have the temperament of an era, so through reading poetry, you will understand this place and understand this era, so poetry opens a window of knowledge for you, which is called poetry "can be observed".
The third is "group", which allows isolated individuals to become groups, that is, poetry can be used to meet the needs of interpersonal communication. The poems on important occasions mentioned above are a kind of aristocratic socialization;Of course, there are more simple ones, you recite a poem, which just speaks my heart, so I naturally treat you as a friend. There are a large number of banquet poems in the Book of Songs, not banquet poems, which are just as suitable for elegant, vulgar, sincere, and hypocritical social interactions.
The fourth is "resentment", which has two levels: one is to spit out the resentment in your heart through reciting poetry, and then feel better;The second is to use poetry to give opinions on the phenomenon of one's dissatisfaction. There is also an example in this "Analects": the three nobles of the Lu State worshiped their ancestors, and when they removed the sacrifices, they sang the poem "Yong" in the "Song of Zhou". Confucius said: "'Xiangwei Pigong, the Son of Heaven Mumu', ridiculed in the hall of the three familiesThere are two sentences in "Yong": "The princes all come to help the sacrifice, and the Son of Heaven respectfully worships the lord", just this sentence, do you think you can get along with the three of you?Don't you think it's ridiculous yourself?
The above four points are connected and called "Xingguan group grievances".
The fifth is "the father of the long things, the king of the far things", serving the parents at home and serving the monarch in the last dynasty, all use poetry. First, there are many principles for being a loyal minister and filial son in "Poems", and secondly, many political tasks need to be completed by understanding poetry.
The sixth is "more familiar with the names of birds, beasts, plants and trees", this is very simple, that is, there are too many animals and plants in the Book of Songs. This is not only the knowledge of naturalism, for example, the plants in the Book of Songs, many shrubs and herbaceous plants, and few trees and large trees, you can know that there were no forests in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at that time, so it was easier to develop, and it was natural that civilization started earlier.
Look at these six functions, how valuable it is to learn "Poetry", pragmatism and transcendence, there are all there. Confucius understands admissions. (ENDS).
Written by Liu Bo.