Northern Song's Political Reform And The Development Of The Study On The Book Of Songs

In relation to The Book of Songs, Northern Song dynasty is a watershed between Sinological poetry and poetry study in Song dynasty. It is also a transitional period. In this period, the scholars further strengthened the grasp and explanation of The book of Songs' theme. It stressed the application of The Book of Songs to the society. At the same time, it attached importance to the doubt and confusion on classics and poetry, and meanings and arguments. On the basis of the prior research foundings, the present paper attempts to explore the intension of The Book of Songs in Northern Song dynasty with the political and academic development as the background. The main points are as follows:The development of The Book of Songs was affected by continuous political reform in Northern Song and the classics reform since middle Tang. Han Yu, Cheng Boyu, Qiu Guangting's criticism of The Preface to Poetry and Mao Biology began the doubt and confusion on classic and poetry. At the same time, the study on The Book of Songs had displayed a certain trend of innovation before Qing Li. What is said above paved the way for the development of the Book of Songs.The ruling period of Emperor Ren is a critical stage in The Book of Song's change in Northern Song. During this time, Ouyang Xiu' Poetic Originality and Liu Chang's Poetic Biography were completed. The transformation is closely related to the admiration of Emperor Ren to The Book of Songs and the maturity of the scholars' poetic thought. Ouyang Xiu's study on The Book of Songs was divided into two parts with Zheng Shi Poetic Register as a dividing line. He arranged The Book of Songs as the top of all classics and therefore gave a practical meaning to the traditional classics. He claimed that the final aim of studying poetry is to seek the poet's intention. Meanwhile, he criticized The Preface to Mao Poetry, Mao Biology, and Zheng Jian in his works. Liu Chang explained the theory in The Preface to Poetry. He changed the research style with emphasis on the annotation by the scholars in Han and Tang dynasty and brought new thought and appearance to the poetic study in Northern Song.In the study on The Book of Songs by Wang Anshi, he developed the poem's political function fully through the political interpretation toThe Book of Songs. We may divide the development of poetic thought into four stages. In the XiNing political reform, Wang Anshi dominated the writing of The Book of Songs' New Meaning, explained Poetry with Etiquette and strengthened the political understanding to The Preface to Mao Poetry. Meanwhile, in the New Meaning, it put forward the concrete requirements to the ruler and scholars, and laid down a series of rules that should be followed by the society in the hope of leading the society thought and creating a good foundation for political reform. Afterwards, Cai Dian employed 'Bi' 'Fu' to prove the so-called meanings and arguments by the lines in The Book of Songs. He discussed the meaning and arguments such as etiquettes, Yin and Yang, and the ruler and official etc. by the explanation of the objects' names. In addition, he made the footnotes for the Wang Anshi's research on The Book of Songs through the study on the objects' names.Su Zhe devoted his lifetime to the study on The book of songs. In his early years, his poetic thought was greatly influenced by his father and brother. Furthermore, under the great influence of JingGong's new study, Su Zhe's poetic thought gradually matured. Su Zhe's explanation of the poetic study also included human feelings discussion, The preface to Poetry, Wei Hong's works collection. Su Zhe kept close contact with Buddhist. For this reason he was deeply influenced by Buddhist thought. Therefore he interpreted 'Si Wu Xie' by the use of Buddhist thought and it reflected some new trend in the Song dynasty's classics study.. These two Cheng's study on The Book of Songs also had a strong value orientation on its application to the society. They inherited and collected the Han Confucian's achievement of the study on The Book of Songs. Moreover, it affirmed the thought of Han Confucian's poetry teaching and the deletion and change to The Book of Songs by Confucius. They held a respectful attitude toward The Preface to Mao Poetry. In addition, they attached importance to the individual's moral cultivation and had a tendency to explore the intension of meanings and argument in the interpretation of The Book of Songs. This started a trend for the study on The Book of Songs by some scholars, like ZhuXi, in Southern Song dynasty.In short, the Northern Song's political reform continuously stimulated the development of question consciousness in the study on The Book of Songs, which in turn renewed itself in response to the political requirement in reality. In the end, it achieved the revival of the study on The Book of Songs after Qing Li and made full preparation for the coming of the peak of the study on The Book of Songs in Southern Song dynasty.