How was the Book of Poetry collected?

Regarding the collection and compilation of the "Book of Songs", there are three theories: "Wang Guancai poems", "Confucius deleted poems", and "dedicated poems".

Wang Guancai's poems: "Confucius Congzi Patrol Hunting Chapter" contains: "The ancients collected songs and ballads from the history of the Son of Heaven to observe the people's customs.

According to the Hanshu Food and Goods Chronicle, the court of the Zhou Dynasty sent special envoys to collect folk songs from all over the country during the busy farming period, which were collected and sorted out by the historians of the Zhou Dynasty and shown to the Son of Heaven, with the purpose of understanding the people's feelings[6]. Liu Xin's "Book with Yangxiong" is also called: "The edict asks the three generations, the envoys of Zhou and Qin Xuanche, and the envoys of the people, patrolling the road in August of the year, seeking pronouns, nursery rhymes, and operas.

Confucius's deletion of poems: This statement is found in the "Records of the Historians", where it is said that there were 3,000 ancient poems, and Confucius compiled 300 of them according to the standards of etiquette and righteousness, and sorted out the "Book of Songs" [7]. Kong Yingda [8] in the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty, Zhu Yizun in the Ming Dynasty, and Wei Yuan in the Qing Dynasty were all skeptical of this theory.

According to the Zuo Chuan, Confucius had a stereotyped "Book of Songs" when he was less than 10 years old, and in 544 BC Lu Legong played the order of the wind poems for Wu Gongzi Ji Zha, which is basically the same as the present "Book of Songs"[9]. It is now generally believed that the Book of Songs was collected by the vassal states with the assistance of the Zhou court, and then compiled by historians and musicians. Confucius was also involved in this process [10].

The poem said: At that time, in order to "examine the beauty and evil of its customs", the Son of Heaven ordered the princes to dedicate poems. "Chinese Zhou Yu" contains: "The Son of Heaven listens to the government, so that the ministers will dedicate poems to the lieges, and ,...... songs."Teacher's proverbs, retribution, recitation. ”

You can check "left pass"."Warring States Policy" and other books. Check the "34 original meanings of the Book of Poetry" to know that there are people with hearts.

There are three sayings for the collection of the Book of Songs:

1. Poetry collection;

Poetry collection is that the ancient agency in charge of ** was ordered to collect folk songs from the people, and then compiled them into a book, of which most of the "National Style" came from this.

2. Offering poems;

Offering poems is said to be the small princes in various places offering poems to praise the merits of the Son of Heaven, and writing poems to dedicate to the Son of Heaven.

3. Delete the poem.

Deleting poems is said to be the revision of the "Book of Songs" after Confucius, and finally became the current "Book of Songs".

Background of the creation of the Book of Songs:

The ancestral home of the Zhou Dynasty was originally suitable for agriculture"Daya"Poems such as "Shengmin", "Gongliu", and "Mianmian Gulu" all show that Zhou prospered by relying on agriculture, and the development of agriculture promoted the progress of Zizhiheng society. The Zhou people became the co-masters of the world after King Wu's war, and the patriarchal system of the family, land, private ownership of slaves, and the rule of aristocratic lords became the social and political characteristics of this historical period.

The Western Zhou Dynasty replaced the Yin Shang, except for the tyranny and unreasonableness of the Duan Shang, which was mainly related to its implementation of the slave economic system. After the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to alleviate the sharp contradiction between the relations of production and the productive forces, and to ease the class struggle, slavery was changed to serfdom.

Compared with the Yin Shang Dynasty in the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to the great changes in the economic system, the society made leaps and bounds in spiritual civilization, and the emergence of the Book of Songs as a literary representative was the inevitable product of the progress of the times, which in turn promoted the progress of social civilization.