The Study Of Mao Shi Zheng Yi

Introduction: According to weak link of current research on Mao ShiZheng Yi, this article draws up to make two parts--the document researchand the Confucian classics research. The document research is the basicpoint in which we will carry out our study from different angles -- thebackground, the author, the edition, the style and quoting books, etc. We will also rectify many mistaken areas of the research on Mao Shi Zheng Yi. Confucian classics research mainly outstands its achievement and literature thought on the theory level. Thus we can objectively evaluate the basic problems of the study of the Book of Songs involved in Mao Shi Zheng Yi and its position in the history of Confucian classics. On the other hand, we can also objectively evaluate the literature thought and the value of Mao Shi Zheng Yi embodied by interpreting the Book of Songs . In this article we will induce, compare and research each problem by placing it on the chain of history and the background of times . We have got many new ideas.Chapter one: The compiling character of Mao Shi Zheng Yi. Mao Shi Zheng Yi has a character of official learning. The Zhenguan group in Tang Dynasty chose the Confucianism as their guiding ideology during rectifying the traditional culture. For restoring Confucianism's position, they propagated public opinion of esteeming Confucius and Confucianism, initiated school, restored imperial examination system , arranged books, united teaching material. The plans of reviving Confucianism in the early days of Tang Dynasty were very thorough , from establishing the guiding ideology to carrying out the concrete measure, and Mao Shi Zheng Yi is the key part among them. It is not only the base of restoring Confucianism , but also the starting point of elucidating the argumentation of the Confucian School and carrying out the teaching of the Book of Songs. Therefore , Mao Shi Zheng Yi is loaded with official ideological need.Mao Shi Zheng Yi is inclined to the character of the north learning. The initial stage of Tang Dynasty adopted the culture policy of integrating the north learning and the south, and used the plain style of the north to correct the boastful style of the south . Mao Shi Zheng Yi has the inclination with the obvious north style among Wu Jing Zheng Yi which has a tendency of balance between the north and the south. Mao Chuan, Zheng Jian are the north learning which can be judged from Zhuan , Zhu and Yishu in Mao Shi Zheng Yi. The text of two Liu's (刘焯和刘炫)against which Mao Shi Zheng Yi was checked has the basis of the north learning. as the compilers, Kong Yingda, Qi Wei and Wang Deshao were all northmen, and studied the north learning. Therefore, Mao Shi Zheng Yi maintains more characters of the north learning . By inspecting the way that Mao Shi Zheng Yi treats with the text of two Liu' s, we think, Mao Shi Zheng Yi is not a plagiarizing work , but a new creation of classics .The authors of Mao Shi Zheng Yi have the character of dominance and group. Yan Shigu was also a great learned Confucian. According to the choosing standard of combining ability with political integrity, the chief editor of Wu Jing Zheng Yi was sure to be Kong Yingda. With the dignity of Confucian descendant and his wide reputation, the great support of TangTaizong, Kong Yingda got the leading position soon. During compiling , QiWei was the real main author and Wang Deshao was a main participator.During the entire proceeding-- from choosing the text of two Liu' s tochecking their content, Kong Yingda gathered everybody' s idea, and did not dare to make an arbitrary decision, which is a kind of rigorous and objective spirit.Chapter two: The edition and style of Mao Shi Zheng Yi. The Dan-Shu-Ben of Mao Shi Zheng Yi have not been inspected for a long time. We think theDan-Shu-Ben has two big systems--the Tang transcript and the Songblock-printed edition. The Tang transcript includes the incomplete book of DunHuang which has already been found and the incomplete book stored in Japanese. Among the Song block-printed editions, Chun Hua Ben in Northern Song Dynasties was lost long ago. The unique remaining book of the ShaoxingBen originally carved in Southern Song Dynasty is stored in Japan who still has the He-Ke-Ben. China has Jia-Ye-Dang-Ben. Furthermore, Song Dynasty still had Shu-Ben(蜀本) which was Dan-Shu-Ben(单疏本)and lost. Although there are no complete Dan-Shu-Bens(单疏本), still do they have important value of emendation, through which we can find the original appearance of Mao Shi Zheng Yi.The spread and change of Zheng Yi. Before the Tang Dynasty, The name of Zheng Yi was used to polish the Confucian classics mainly, and began to be used as the title to expound the style and the text in Wu Jing Zheng Yi. As a name of the book , Zheng Yi was affirmed by the government, which was in order to rectify the status, calm down the disputing, and consolidate the dominion of thought. After Wu Jing Zheng Yi, Zheng Yi became the common style in expounding the classics. Zheng Yi has some different names in expounding works of the Confucian classics. Academic circles also calls Zheng Yi Shu(疏) ,or ZhuShu (注疏), since they were tied together by ChaYansi in ZheJiang in the early stage of Southern Song Dynasty. The style of ZhengYi also became He-Ke-Ben(合刻本) instead of original Dan-Shu-Ben(单疏本).Separation and unity of Zhu and Shu (注疏). ZhengYi was main part in the original style of Mao Shi Zheng Yi in which only the starting point and destination were labeled Jing (经) and Zhu (注) .ZhengYi began to be put into the Jing-Zhu-Ben of MaoShi during Shao Xi era, the Southern Song Dynasty. Until later period of Southern Song Dynasty ,Mao Shi Shi Wen was added into Jian-Ben (建本), which was called Mao Shi Zhu Shu with Shi Yin and this style was just the ancestor of Zhu-Shu-Ben (注疏本). The phenomenon of combining Zhu(注) with Shu (疏) and putting Zhu(注) into Jing (经) was originally traced back to LiuXin and MaRong. And the scholars in Tang Dynasty marked pronunciation by the sides of the words, which created the beginning of adding Shi Wen (《释文》) into ZhuShu (注疏) in Song Dynasty. The combination of Zhu(注) and Shu (疏) provided great convenience for reading and also brought many disadvantages, such as breaking up the content of Shu ,making the names of ZhengYi and ZhuShu (注疏) confusion.Problems of the volume of Mao Shi Zheng Yi. Forty Volume about Mao Shi Zheng Yi actually has two categories. Forty Volume in Wen Lan Pavilion is the same as Dan-Shu-Ben(单疏本), but they are not completely consistent on the start-stop of sub-volume. And the Seventy Volume is the child of Twenty Volume. Thirty-three Volume is the remains of Forty Volume, and Twenty Four volume is only a mistaken one. Separation and unity of Zhu(注) and Shu (疏) and the difference of the edition are the only outside phenomenon of the volumes, and the basic reason is the different standard by which the sub-volume is separated. The problem of the changing volume of Mao Shi Zheng Yi is very important reference, that is to say, it is useful for us to inspect the developing trend of poetics and the laws of its rise and decline.Chapter three: The value of quotation in Mao Shi Zheng Yi .First we correct the mistakes about the knowledge in style of Mao Shi Zhu Shu Yin De and point out the problems of its mistaken increasing and missing. Mao Shi Zheng Yi preserves a large amount of works of poetry and Zheng Xue, and other works about Jing (经) , Shi (史) , Zi (子) , Ji (集) . By the examination on the quotations in Mao Shi Zheng Yi, we get three aspects of cognition as the following: The first is about the law of poetry developed in Han Wei and Six Dynasties. The other three Schools of the Book of Songs were on the wane, but Maoshi was very prosperous. The learning of Wei and Jin Dynasties with character of debating acted as a role of bridge during the developing process of poetry from zhuan (传) , zhu (注), and Xungu (训诂) in Han dynasty to Yishu(义疏)in the Southern Dynasties. The second is about the character of the formation of Mao Shi Zheng Yi. The materials in Mao Shi Zheng Yi are very extensive. The nature of Mao Shi Zheng Yi is Confucian classics, and it has the outstanding characters in its content , such as knowledge on etiquette, knowledge on interpretation and knowledge on mystical Confucian belief. The third is the relation of Mao Shi Zheng Yi and Mao Shi Shi Wen. The formation of Mao Shi Zheng Yi does not have inevitable connection with Mao Shi Shi Wen. It was very arbitrarily that the ancient academic works quoted documents. Mao Shi Zheng Yi and Mao Shi Shi wen have different academic inclinations. We can inspect the author of quotation by comparing Mao Shi Zheng Yi with Mao Shi Shi Wen.Chapter four: Achievements of Mao Shi Zheng Yi on Confucian classic. The sinology of the the Book of songs was unified by Zheng Yi. (1) The systematic construction of the study of the Book of songs. Since Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, Poetry study of the Book of songs was not paid much attention to. After establishing the contact with Yi and Li, Zheng Yi made the study of the Book of songs acquire the new growth on the methods and the materials. (2) The authority of the study of the Book of songs established. Zi Xia was entitled to be the author of The Preface of the Book of songs by Zheng Yi, so that the power of the idol was exerted, and the heterodox doctrine of Mao zhuan and zheng jian was harmonized, the traditional authority was supported. (3)The direction of study of the Book of songs confirmed .The doctrine of poet' s saving lives was put forward, the function of satire and eulogy got further exerted and poetry creation got normalized.Zheng Yi developing the Sinology of the Book of songs. (1) The view of the Preface of the Book of songs. Zheng Yi begins to have the consciousness of marking preface and continuous preface, and it takes the continuous preface for the complementarity to the preface ,which inspires the posterity to make further study on the structure of The Preface. Zheng Yi discovers the contradiction between the Preface and the poetry , which inspires the posterity to question the Preface. (2)The view of the arrangement. Zheng Yi reveals deeply the essence of the text arrangement of the Book of Songs, and rescues the authority of the study of the Book of songs. Zheng yi emphasizes repeatedly the sequence of the text arrangement of the Book of Songs, develops the connotation of Confucian classic, thus, a new realm of poetry study was got. (3)The view of "Santi" and "Sanyong" . Basing on six-Dynasty literary theory and its philosophical dialectics, Zheng Yi puts forward "Santi" and "Sanyong" , which solves a series of suspense of "Liuyi" appearing in the traditional study of the Book of Songs .Zheng Yi' s criticism to the Sinology of the Book of Songs, (1)the criticism to Mao Zhuan and Zheng Jian ,which includes the documents, literature and Confucian classic and so on, even doubts the preface and the content of the Book of Songs. All these illustrate Zheng yi has the plural principles of explaining and practical spirit. (2)The doubt to the doctrine of" Confucius' deleting the Book of Songs ". Kong Yingda still insists on the doctrine of "deleting the poems", Qiwei most probably puts forward anti-proposition. The statement about the relation between Confucian and the formation of the Book of Songs in Mao Shi Zheng Yi basically points to the anti-proposition of doctrine of deleting the poems. Its occurrence mainly lies in, since Six Dynasties, that the thought of academic creation hasn't been broken off and the school of ancient prose has practical spirit.Chapter five: The literature thought appearing in the course of explaining the Book of Songs in Mao Shi Zheng Yi .The views of feelings and ambitions. Zheng Yi leads" feeling" into " ambition" in the frame of Confucian classics, and also leads" ambition" into "feeling" in the frame of the poetic theory in Six Dynasties , which makes it return to the theory of "speech and ambition* of Han Dynasties. Although what ZhengYi does is aimed at embodying the political function of the Book of Songs, it also concerns many characters of the formal level of the Book of Songs and uncovers some content which belongs to the literary. Its emphasis is not on publicizing the literature, but on advocating the view of unity of *the feelings and ambition ". Here feeling from general persons is changed into the common " feelings" to meet the political request. According to this piont, we know that the process of his behavior is not completely the same as his terminal point of theories. Zheng Yi is the book that scholars and the bookmen must read at that time, so it should be affected by the views of feelings and ambitions.The view of bi (比) and xing(兴) . We find that before Chen Zi-ang Zheng yi had already developed the relatively integral theories of bi(比) and xing(兴). It inherits the leading thought of the Confucius and Maoheng who insisted that xing(兴) had the role of political education ,accepts twocharacters of bi (比) and xing(兴)——" metaphor" and" initiation ", revisesthe stalemate between ZhengZHong and ZhengXuan on the different explanation of bi(比) and xing(兴), and thinks that bi(比) and xing(兴) are the integral one. Basing on the the sensitive recognition of Liuxie' s using Yi Xiang(象) to explain xing(兴), Zheng Yi consciously links up The Book of Songs and Yi from the aspect of the theory, puts forward the view definitely that xing(兴) must take xiang(象). But on the method of taking xiang(象), it goes deep into the context and imagoes of the poem. The thought that "stating directly is positive" in Zheng Yi becomes the basic principle that fu(赋),bi(比) and xing(兴) must follow , Zhengyi lays claim to succeed and foster the spirit of satire and eulogy in Mao Zhuan and Zheng Jian , and to expose the deep meanings in the poem. The view of bi (比) and xing(兴) in Zheng Yi not only expands the scope of xing(兴), but also has latent or direct influence on the poetic theories and composition in the Tang Dynasty.The view of the realm of the language . The authors of Zheng Yi explain the Confucian classics on standpoint of the text and the context of the poem , which assists us in understanding the original meanings of The Book of Songs and judge the right and wrong in the tradition study of The Book of Songs .Though some of them even distort its original meanings , in any case explanation in ZhengYi belongs to the scope of " literature" to a certain extent. In the process of seeking for the original meanings and solving contradictions, Zheng Yi realizes deeply the structural characteristics of The Book of Songs, so it further enriches the context theories of Poetry study and produces the important influence on the posterity in explaining The Book of Poetry, such as ZHU XI and so on .Conclusion: According to the research on the documents, the achievements of Confucian classics and literary thoughts mentioned above, we discover that the thought of Confucian classics publicizes the rational spirit in Mao Shi Zheng Yi, and shows up the boldness of vision of comprehensiveness. Its cognitive ability of literary character of The Book of Songs have got greatly improved, and its literary thought ultimately points at Confucian classics .