The Book of Songs and Zhou Culture

The Zhou Dynasty implemented the hierarchical enfeoffment system, which reached its peak in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In order to consolidate this political system and maintain the status of kingship. The Zhou Dynasty implemented the system of rites and music, and formed a unique culture of rites and music. Therefore, during this period, many poems about the class life of the hierarchy appeared. The culture of rites and music in Zhou Dynasty had a great influence on the creation of The Book of Songs. The most prominent feature of the artistic form of The Book of Songs is realism, which simply and realistically describes real life. Describe daily life according to the true colors of life, and express real feelings according to inner feelings, thus presenting a concrete and sensible picture of life and showing the inner world of people of different classes in real life. The Book of Songs mostly expresses daily realistic feelings with fu, comparison and xing, interwoven with natural imagination and fantasy, and also shows a simple and natural realistic fashion. It has a strong flavor of Zhou culture.

Zhou people began to match nature with virtue, and the system of rites and music paid more attention to human nature. Among them, style, elegance and ode cover a wide range, forming a variety of poetry themes and types, which are briefly summarized as follows:

First, class oppression. Zhou people attached importance to the concept of "destiny" and established orthodoxy with destiny. Sacrifice ancestors in advance to strengthen clan status, and sacrifice to distinguish between nobility and inferiority. It is this strict concept of hierarchy that makes the reflection on class oppression a major theme in poetry. Excellent works include Shuo and Ge Tan.

Second, epic. In order to eulogize the concrete deeds of ancestors and show the entrepreneurial history of Zhou people, Zhou Epic was formed. Representative works include Natural Beauty and Gong Liu. ....

Third, production and life. Zhou people attached great importance to agriculture, and there were ceremonies to offer sacrifices to farmers in the form of fields and hillsides. Agricultural sacrificial poems were written by Zhou people in spring and summer to pray for the valley and autumn and winter to pray for the valley. Paintings such as Xixi, Fengnian, Zaiheng and Datian show the scene of farmers praying for a bumper harvest. In addition, there are Uncle Tian Yu and Uncle Tian Yu praising Mucuo's life, as well as agricultural poems "Worm" and "July" improvised by laborers.

Fifth, political irony. Song poetry became a specific way for officials and literati in the Zhou Dynasty to participate in the discussion of state affairs and satirize, which included both criticism and guidance. His outstanding works include Mouse and Quail Running.

Sixth, strive for the corvee. Zhou people do not advocate belligerence. In some special periods, they also experienced wars, and poems about making contributions, guarding the border, corvee and thinking about women appeared. Representative works include Yang Zhishui, Gentleman in the Middle School and There is a Fox.

Seven, marriage and love. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the system of enfeoffment and the system of rites and music collapsed, and a large number of young men and women broke through the shackles of etiquette and fell in love and got married. Such as Zi Xi, Wind and Rain, and Looking for Pink Chrysanthemum. There are even criticisms such as The Last Wind and Sun and Moon on the family changes and breakdown caused by the imbalance between men and women in patriarchal marriage.

Articles are written for time, and songs and poems are written for things. The artistic form and ideological content of The Book of Songs originated from the ritual and music culture of the Zhou Dynasty, and conformed to the real life of the Zhou Dynasty, which became a model for later generations.

Personally, Shuo gave me a special feeling at a certain stage, because in high school, a friend often liked to read this poem over and over again, which lingered in my ears. Apart from poetry itself, it brought me wonderful reading time, and it was also the enlightenment of poetry. What you can see is a wider world, a more fantastic world, and the Western Zhou Dynasty appears in front of you!