Review Of The Study On Book Of Odes By Pre-Qin Confucians

As the first anthology of verse in China, the birth of Book of Odes marked the brilliant beginning of Chinese ancient poetry. And in the field of traditional Chinese spiritual culture, Confucianism has been occupying the orthodox position. Therefore, almost all Chinese cultural and literal thoughts, including poetry had been influenced by it. Books from Poetic Criticism by Confucius to Maos' Preface to Odes which further systemizes and theorizes the Confucian Poetic Criticism are exceedingly authoritative and have been exerting a far-reaching influence on the poetic theory, poem creation and understanding in later ages. Therefore, serious review of Confucian poetic thoughts, especially the poetic thoughts of pre-Qin period is of great importance today.On the basis of unearthed documents Bamboo Slips of Chu collected in Shanghai Museum and other documents which had been denied in the ideology trend of doubting the classics, the author rearranges and excavates the essence of Pre-Qin Confucians' study on Odes, laying emphasis on the poetic thoughts of Confucius, Mencius, Xun-zi, the master and disciple relationship between the three and their influence on poetic study in later ages. Besides, the author also discusses the study, adoption and criticism of Odes by Confucians on the basis of Book of Rites, Book of Filial Piety, K'ung Ts'ung-tzu, Kong-tza Kia-yu and other documents.The article takes the review in four chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the relationship between Confucius and Book of Odes, mentioning Confucius' deletion and criticism of Odes and other problems. This chapter emphasizes Confucius' criticism on Odes, rearranges and investigates this issue on the basis of latest unearthed documents and other documents which had been denied in the ideology trend of doubting the classics, and summarizes the characteristics of Confucius'...