Study On The Literary Explanation Of The Book Of Songs In Song Dynasty

It is a significant research topic and realm to study the literary thought in the works which gave explanation to the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty. This dissertation attempted to reveal the characteristics and meanings of the explanation on the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty through collecting and analyzing the materials scattered in the works on the Book of Songs in Song DynastyThis dissertation, with more than 160,000 characters, consists of three parts, including introduction, text and conclusion.The introduction summarized the present research situation of the explanation on the Book of Songs from May 4th. Then the paper illustrated briefly the main reason why the explanation on the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty would be chosen to be the research target, and the goal the paper would achieve.After reading the materials scattered in the works on the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty carefully, the author summed up five explaining methods which should be discussed and analyzed in the text in detail. The main body of the paper has the following six chapters.Chapter 1 pointed out that scholars in Song Dynasty were not satisfied with the explanation of "the original meaning of poetry" in the past. They employed more rich and effective methods to obtain some new meaning so that the meaning of their age emptied into the explanation of "the original meaning of poetry". The meaning of "the original meaning of poetry" would be changed in different age because of the different society, politics and systematic learning, which would gave the age, just like Song Dynasty, poetics some new elements or dynamic atmosphere. The literary intension of the Book of Songs would be developed and noticed for the new methods and viewpoints were adopted. In this chapter, "poetic meaning" and "poetic sense" were distinguished, and the paper believed that scholars in Song Dynasty emphasized on "poetic meaning" reflected the aim hidden in the explanation on the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty.Chapter 2 expounded the meaning of "understanding the Book of Songs' through emotion and reason" in Song Dynasty. That is, with the common viewpoints, the experience, natural observation and the accumulation of knowledge in daily life, the interpreters tried their best to make the poets' meaning accord with the present human feelings, reasons and innate laws of things when they did textual research and probed into the laws and explained the meaning of the Book of Songs. They divided reason into two parts which were emotion and intellect. Emotion was human feelings, including happiness, anger, grief and joy. Intellect was principle, including the laws of the nature, the living things' nature or the common sense of the nature. The poets praised the faithful representation highly when they created their works in Song Dynasty. So they loved participating the real scene as they reading poems. All of these embodied the spirit of "understanding the Book of Songs with emotion and reason".Chapter 3 discussed the principle of "understanding the Book of Songs' with simple and easy method" in Song Dynasty. That is, the interpreters used simple and brief text or forms to explain the Book of Song. This method may have the explanation easy and direct, left some imaging room for the learners of the Book of Songs, at the same time "the original meaning of poetry" could be pushed forward. "Understanding the Book of Songs' with simple and easy method" pursued implied meaning and was against distinguishing names, which gave explanation of the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty more literary implications. In chapter 4, the author put forward "understanding the Book of Songs' according to the text" in the explanation of the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty. That is, the scholars made the text itself of the Book of Songs as the better basis to understand the Book of Songs, which embodied the literary viewpoint of the explanation of the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty. "Understanding the Book of Songs' according to the text" looked on unity and coherence, reason and good sense, momentum and grammar as the important basis to explain the Book of Songs in order to make the explanation accord to the text's logical and coherence. This method showed that the scholars chanted or satirized the poetry text, appreciated the poetry implication. "Understanding the Book of Songs according to the text" was the most literary method and viewpoint in Song Dynasty or the other dynasty, for this method needed readers to understand the whole text with their hearts.In chapter 5, the author discussed "concluding the idea through the meaning" which was the important method of Chinese ancient literary criticism or study of explanation. With Song Dynasty's academic background and the field of academic vision, the author analyzed carefully the following key words of "concluding the idea through the meaning", which are literary grace, ornate phrase, meaning and idea. The author distinguished these key words' relationship according to the grade. The author pointed out there was a certain relationship between "concluding the idea through the meaning" and "Mencius' upgrading movement". The scholars' understanding of literary grace and ornate phrase, meaning and idea during the course of explaining the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty would enrich the explanation of "concluding the idea through the meaning".In chapter 6, the author put emphasis on distinguishing the different meaning of "Bi" and "Xing". Since the meaning of "Bi" and "Xing" has been discussed for a long time, this chapter stressed on the deeply thought of "Xing" in Song Dynasty, and how the scholars in that age dealt with the difference between "Bi" and "Xing". In this chapter, during the course of explaining the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty, the author thought that the meaning of "Xing" had some other meanings which were different from its preceding meanings. Then this chapter probed into the advantages and disadvantages of "understanding poetry with 'Bi' and 'Xing'" from the academic background in Song Dynasty.In the part of conclusion, the author listed some examples to summarize the relationship between the explanation of the Book of Songs in Song Dynasty and poetics, and the literary bias of the explanation of the Book of Songs affected the poetics in Song Dynasty.