Zheng Xuan "book Of Songs"

According to Zuo Zhuan, Guo Yu and and other classics, in the Spring and Autumn Period there were some high officials and noblemen composing poems to express the feelings and ideas on the occasion of diplomacy and communication, that is, showing one's idea by composing poems. During the period of the warring States, the tradition of showing one's idea by composing poems almost disappeared. During the Spring and Autumn Period and druing the period of the warring States, quatation of peoms flurished and this tradition contituned in Chinese culture. In Zuo Zhuan, Guo Yu, Strategies of the Warring States, the Analects of Confucius, Mozi and other classics, the Book of Songs was cited. During the Spring and Autumn Period and druing the period of the warring States, there was the phenomenon of commenting The Book of Songs. From Ji Zha's watching music to Confucius's discussion on The Book of Songs, to The Preface of Mao's Poems said to be written by Zi Xia and Confucian commentary on The book of songs reserved in Shanghai museum, the unearthed bamboo slips from the tombs of the period of the warring States, it is shown that there was the relatively systematic theory of the study on The book of songs no later than the period of the warring States. During the Spring and Autumn Period and druing the period of the warring States, it is shown that the study on The book of songs was getting flurishing by the quotation, composition and commentary of The book of songs. But during the period of Xian Qin, in addition to pieces of explanation of The book of songs being recorded, there was no complete work giving notes on The book of songs. During the period of Xian Qin, many academic schools contributed to the study of The Book of Songs, among which Confucian school had put the greatest emphasis on the study of The Book of Songs and contributed the most to it.In Han Dynasty, the confucianists vied to teach The Book of Songs, and form different systems of teaching The Book of Songs, among which the most important ones were four schools of Lu, Qi, Han and Mao. During the West Han Dynasty, the teaching of The Book of Songs by the three schools of Lu, Qi, and Han was flurishing, while that by the school of Mao was not been put emphasis on. During the East Han Dynasty, the teaching of The Book of Songs by the three schools of Lu, Qi, and Han gradually declined. On the contrary, the teaching of The Book of Songs by the school of Mao developed quickly. When Zheng Xuan made his annotation on The Book of Songs taught by Mao, the teaching of The Book of Songs by the school of Mao reached its top. After that, most of the scholars learned and studied The Book of Songs taught by Mao, while The Book of Songs taught by the three schools of Lu, Qi, and Han became rare to be mentioned. Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs ended the situation of the presence of four differnent The Book of Songs taught by four schools of Lu, Qi, Han and Mao and hence reached the first unity of The Book of Songs in the history.Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs was not limited by the past studies, so he was criticized by the later generations, which began from Wang Su of Wei Dynasty. Afterwards, some scholars such as Sun Yu, Kong Chao advocated Wang Su's opinion; while some others such as Wang ji, Sun Yan and so on stood by Zheng Xuan, so the two schools began a hot debate about it. Rectified Interpretation of Mao's Poems was written by Kong Yingda and other scholars according to the emperor's order. It is one work which gives a comprehensive and systemtic study of The Interpretation of Mao's poems, Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs, and Mao's poems manual, and realizes the second great unity in the history of the study on The Book of Songs. Therefore it ends the debating situation on the study of The Book of Songs on that period. In Tang Dynasty, Cheng Boyu and Han Yu first expressed their doubt on the past classics, which, however, was not attached importance to. In Song Dynasty, in the field of the study on The Book of Songs there rised a trend of thought of doubting the classics: many scholars, one after another, criticize the old theories and set up new theories. In addition, there were also some scholars supporting The Preface of Mao's Poems, The Interpretation of Mao's poems, and Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs. In Qing Dynasty, the research on Zhen Xuan's study of The Book of Songs made a great progress, and obtained spelendid achievements. Rescently the reseach on Zhen Xuan's study of The Book of Songs much differed from the past, which was shown in the extension of the studying field, the variety of the studying angles and the creation of the studying methods and so on.Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs merging his age's study on The Book of Songs with the past, gathering the achievements of the study on The Book of Songs in Xianqin and The West and East Han Dynasty together, reaches the summit of the study on The Book of Songs at that time and promotes the study on The Book of Songs. In light of Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs, we can make clear the meaning of The Book of Songs, make certain the main idea of The Book of Songs, and examine and correct the names and things, and at the same time collate the writing, so there is important academic value in the study on The Book of Songs. Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs extends the study on The Book of Songs into several cultural fields, providing rich materials for the history of culture.It can show Zhen Xuan's academic foundation by his learning experience of benefiting from many teachers and learning from various schools. The books, which are cited when Zhen Xuan made the Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs and Mao's poems manual, also reflect his academic foundation. Before making the Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs and Mao's poems manual, Zhen Xuan had made notes on Sanli, Shangshu, Lunyu and other classics, which is also the academic foundation of making them. Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs fully absorbs the past research results on the study of The Book of Songs, and draws the pith and marrow of the study on The Book of Songs by the scholars in the East Han Dynasty. Under the background of free academic study in the East Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs shows the characteristics of obtaining the merits from various schools and not being limited by one school.The well-maintained classics given notes by Zhen Xuan are the notes on Sanli and Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs, and Mao's poems manual after correction and complement. The relationship between Zhen Xuan's Annotation of San Li and MaoHeng's Poems is shown by the relationship between Zhen Xuan's Notes of San Li and Mao Heng's Poems, the preface of MaoHeng's Poems and the notes of MaoHeng's Poems.Zhen Xuan's Notes of San Li(Zhou Li, Ti Li and Li Ji) citing and interpreting The Book of Songs is mostly based on San Shi(Qi Poems, Lu Poems and Han Poems), at the same time is related to Mao Heng's Poems, the preface of MaoHeng's Poems and the notes of MaoHeng's Poems. His notes has primarily shown the style of melting ancient and his time's study on The Book of Songs.There are three editions of Zhen Xuan 's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs: writing edition in and before Tang Dynasty, editon engraved on stone tablets, and block-printed edition in and after Song Dynasty. The forms of explanations of characters in Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs are mainly to determine the meaning of a character according to the character itself, to determine the meaning of a character, which has his age's and the past meaning, according to its past meaning, to determine the meaning of the character adopted to represent homophones of a character according to its original meaning. Zheng Xuan's explanation of the characters in The Book of Songs either chooses the best explanations based on the classics or finds the meanings based on the sound, creats the new explanations or explains them in the context, In Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs, Zheng Xuan interprets the rhetorical methods and special ways of expression, analyzes the poets' ingenuity, and discusses the rhetorical effect of The Book of Songs. Therefore the artistic quality of The Book of Songs is unfolded, and makes the expressive quality of its language more clear. Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs not only interpretes the structure of the language and analyzes the order of sentences in The Book of Songs but also classifies the content words and form words exactly and interprets them correctly, which shows Zheng Xuan's conscious exploration of Chinese ancient grammar. Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs not only explains the The Book of Songs sentence by sentence, but also analyzes the structures of the poems in it. Zhen Xuan making Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs is mainly to make The Explanation of the Characters in The Book of Songs Taught by Mao public, and at the same time to revise it by adopting The Book of Songs taught by Qi, Lu and Han's schools. Zhen Xuan's Annotation on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs has also made deep exploration of the authors, chapters and explanation of the characters in The Book of Songs.The handing down of the eiditions of Mao's poems' manual is divided into two stages: the first stage of the complete handing down of the editions of Mao's poems before Song Dynasty, and the second stage of mending the lost in and after Song Dynasty. The main content of Mao's poems' manual is composed of the Preface of the Mao's poems' manual and fifteen sub-manuals, totaling sixteen sections. Mao's poems' manual is composed based on The Preface of Mao's Poems, comprehensively absorbing the researching results of Mao's poems'manual in the case of the praising and satirizing, bettering and worsening of states, and the background and gist of poems. Zheng Xuan's Mao's poems manual is valuable on the differentation of the chapters and the examination of the sources. In Mao's poems manual, there are not only the examination of the times of poems, but also of the geographical customs and of the praising and satirizing, bettering and worsening of states. It is in this way that Zheng Xuan constructs a new system of interpreting The Book of Songs. If the times of poems is regarded as the longitudinal axis and the geographical customs and the praising and satirizing, bettering and worsening of states in the poems are regarded as the lateral axis, aroung the The Book of Songs will come into being a coordinate system, in which the characteristics of each poem will be made clear before us.There are big differences between the early stage and the later one for Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs. Making notes on Weishu, on Sanli, Shangshu in Classical Literal Style, and The Analects of Confucius can be seen as the early stage, in which the notes cited The Book of Songs mainly based on The Book of Songs taught by three schools of Qi, Lu and Han, occasionaly on The Book of Songs taught by Mao. This is the stage of Zheng Xuan's preliminarily integrating his age's language with the past one when studying The Book of Songs. In the later stage Zheng Xuan carefully studied Mao's poems or The Book of Songs taught by Mao, and made annotations and manuals on Mao's poems, with The Book of Songs taught by three schools of Qi, Lu and Han as references. This is the stage of Zheng Xuan's maturely integrating his age's language with the past one when studying The Book of Songs. On the studying of The Book of Songs, Zheng Xuan gradually integrated his age's language with the past one, which reached a relatively mature and perfect degree.Zheng Xuan's making annotations on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs and making manuals on Mao's poems show academic characteristics such as not limited by the past studies, presents many creative opinions and so on. Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs is not limited by the past studies and chooses the best reseach results of other researcher's to follow. Zheng Xuan's annotations on Mao Heng's Commtaries on The Book of Songs integrates The Book of Songs taught by three schools of Qi, Lu and Han with The Book of Songs taught by Mao, absorbing all schools' advantages. When making notes on The Book of Songs, Zheng Xuan presents many creative opinions. Zheng Xuan's interpretation of The Book of Songs pays more attention to the combination of making notes of The Book of Songs and discussing it, and constructs a system of interpreting the The Book of Songs with the times of The Book of Songs as the longitudinal axis and the geographical course of change and development as the lateral axis. According to the annotations and manuals made by Zheng Xuan, it can be seen that there are three scientific methods in the case of his interpretating The Book of Songs: the interpretation of The Book of Songs by Li, the interpretation of The Book of Songs by history, and the interpretation of The Book of Songs by geographical features, customs and peoples of certain places. These three characteristics form independent systems of their own and at the same time supplement and complement each other. Zheng Xuan's interpretating The Book of Songs by Li involves the time of marriage in Zhou Dynasty deffering from the The Interpretation of Mao's poems in which autumn and winter are regarded as the right time to be married. In Zheng Xuan's annotation on Mao Heng 's Commtaries on The Book of Songs and his notes on Sanli, he thinks that it is reasonable for the bachelors and common people to regard the mid-spring of February as the right time of marriage. In The Interpretation of Mao's poems, it is believed to be reasonable for the strata of senior officials and above them to regard autumn and winter as the right time of marriage. If we lead The Interpretation of Mao's poems's and Zheng Xuan's opinions to different strata, the problem of the marriage time will be solved easily. Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs has profound influence on the later academic research. Zheng Xuan's disciples inherited his research results of studying The Book of Songs, trying their best to maintain and spread his theory. As for Wang Su's blame on Zhen Xuan, Zhen Xuan's disciples such as Wang Ji, Sun Yan, Ma Zhao and so on supported Zhen's theory and opposed Wang Su's changing Zheng's theory, maintaining Zheng's doctrine. Zhen Xuan's creation in the way of studying The Book of Songs and the expansion of the field of studying The Book of Songs greatly influenced later people's research methods and research fields. Therefore, there is important academic research value for Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs. At the same time, there are some shortcomings for Zheng Xuan's study on The Book of Songs, even some opinions are very absurd. So we should be conscious of it and treat it objectively.The research purpose of this thesis lies in the systematic and comprehensive research on the academic foundation, background, characteristic, and methods, and its influence and shortcomings etc. in terms of Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs. Therefore we can make a complete conclusion on the research achievements of Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs.This thesis comprehensively uses the inductive and deductive methods. It effectively takes advantage of the original documental materials, especially the first-hand materials, and at the same time effectively makes use of the textual research materials to find suitable examples, then to draw the conclusion by inductive method, which produces adequate arguments and undeniable evidence. This thesis makes use of deductive method to analyze the materials, then, as a result, to draw the conclusion.This thesis not only makes study of the features and background of Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs by case study, but makes comprehensive examination of the history of culture and the history of the study of Confucian classics from the macroscopic angle. This thesis not merely studies the history of Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs and the background of Zheng Xuan's studying The Book of Songs from the historic clue, but also examines the relationship between Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs and The Book of Songs taught by the three schools of Qi, Lu and Han and The Book of Songs taught by Mao, and the characteristics and influence of Zheng Xuan's study of The Book of Songs from the logical clue, which reaches the interlaced use of the historic clue and logical one.