Research On The Pre-Qin Confucian Poetics Thought

The Spring and Autumn Period was a time when Chinese civilization was flourishing and transforming,and when Chinese philosophy originated.In the education and teaching system of Zhou people,“poetry” is an important content of “the study of royal officials”.In various major political activities of Zhou people,a large number of poems were cited and composed,and“poetry” gradually became a discourse form alongside “Li” and “Yue”,and there were interpretation methods such as “composing poems and breaking chapters”,“songs and poems must be categorized” and “poetry plays a small sense of significance”,which together formed the poetic tradition of the Spring and Autumn Period.The pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition is not only the inheritance of the poetic tradition of the Spring and Autumn Period,but also the“philosophical breakthrough” of the poetic tradition of the Spring and Autumn Period.The poetics thought of Confucius,Mencius,Xunzi,including Confucius’ later study of silk documents was produced in the process of this “philosophical breakthrough”.Judging from the poetic literature in the Analects of Confucius,“poetry” has been completely separated from the “integration of poetry and music” in the Spring and Autumn Period,and has become a complete independent form.More importantly,Confucius’ poetics thought was a “philosophical breakthrough” to the poetics tradition of the Spring and Autumn Period.First,Confucius invented the poetic purpose of “thinking without evil”,and “poetry”obtained the essence of “benevolence”.It has established the ideological structure of“Xing”“Guan”“Qun”“Yuan”,which covers the whole meaning of life.“Poetry” is interlinked with “Li” and “Yue”,which jointly start,promote and realize the course of moral life.Second,Confucius opened up two main lines of the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition.One main line of thought was the connection between the discussion of poetry,the interpretation of poetry and the quotation of poetry and the study of the Pre-Qin Confucian mind.For example,“Xing” built the ideological channel of “poetry” and “benevolence”.Another main line of thought is the relationship between the discussion of poetry,the interpretation of poetry and the quotation of poetry and the pre-Qin Confucian political philosophy,the way of human ethics,and the cultivation of “Li” and “Yue”,such as the way of human ethics of “serving the father and serving the king”.Third,Confucius created a unique interpretation method of “Xing”,which was widely used in the process of Confucius and his disciples discussing and quoting poetry.This interpretation method of “xing” became the most important interpretation method in the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition.A large number of literature on poetry argumentation and quotation have been found in the unearthed documents of “The Bamboo Slips from Guodian Chu Tombs” and “the Bamboo Book of Shangbo Chu”,which are regarded as the later study of Confucius.“The Bamboo Slips from Guodian Chu Tombs” in the poetics focus on “Nature comes from the destiny”,“Six virtues”,“Language Series One” and “Language Series Three”,and the cited poems are focused on “Five Elements” and “Zi yi”.“Zi yi” is a typical cited poetry literature.The formation of a fixed pattern prefixed with “Confucius once said” and “poetry once said”.The topic is “Codes of Conduct for the Monarchs” and “gentleman’s way”.The Five Elements of bamboo slips and silk book are similar,which reinterprets the “Slef-restraint” from the perspective of poetry citation and interpretation,and adds a poetical dimension to understanding the concept of “Slef-restraint” in Pre-Qin Confucianism.In the Bamboo Book of Shangbo Chu,“Theory of Poetry” is a specialized poetic literature,inheriting the form of “in a word”,with the first-level interpretation,the second-level interpretation,and the third-level interpretation progressive interpretation mode,innovating the interpretation method of the pre-Qin Confucian poetic tradition.“Theory of Poetry” explains the theme of the “Ya” and“Song” parts of the poem and the related poems in the way of “morality”,and advocates the adjustment and guiding of various natural emotions with “rites”,and highlights the internal connection between “poetry” and “folk nature” with “civil nature of course”.“Parents of Citizens” is also a poem citation document,which discusses the problem of “the origin of Li and Yue” with the theries of “Wu zhi”,“San wu” and “Wu qi”.From the perspective of poetics,Mencius consciously put forward two methods of poetics:the attitude of “poetry records the works of sages”,and the attitude of “the reader’s ideas to consider the poet’s will”,and “know this person’s life to evaluate his poems”,which formed a relatively systematic theory of poetics in the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition.This kind of systematic thinking on poetry does not stay in the objective historical facts and surface texts of“poetry”,but the “poetic meaning” is becoming more and more important.“Poetic meaning”and “poetic records” have entered the vision of pre-Qin Confucian poetic thought.From the point of view of Mencius’ poetry,there are two important characteristics.One feature is that most of the quoted poems have a part of “interpretation”.Almost all quoted poems have connective words and core words derived from poems and texts,which connect and integrate the quoted poems and texts with the thought world of Mencius.Thus,the poems cited by Mencius are integrated into the thought world of Mencius and constitute the unique thinking logic of the literature cited by Mencius.Another characteristic is that the quotation of poems almost involves all the core propositions of Mencius’ thought world,which became the generation and construction methods of such important thoughts as “the theory of good nature”,“the theory of benevolence and justice”,“the theory of benevolent government” and “the theory of People”,and also became the classical basis for Mencius to debate with other non-Confucian schools.From the point of view of poetics interpretation methods,Mencius widely used“Xing“ and “Bi” two interpretation methods,formed the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition of interpretation methods.From the perspective of the whole Pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition,Xunzi first elevated “poetry” to the status of “Jing”,and since then “poetry” as a Confucian classic“consistent with the name and reality”.Xunzi inherited the poetic tradition since Confucius and Zi Xia,occupying an important position in the inheritance of Confucian poetics from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty.Xunzi for the first time with “the way of the world” and“the way of Kings of all dynasties” to explain the “poetry annals”,the “poetry annals” tradition to an unprecedented height;At the same time,it also explains the theme of “Feng”,“Ya” and“Song” with “the Way of the world” and “the way of Kings of all dynasties”.Xunzi not only associated “poetry” with “Li”,but also aligned it with “important etiquette”.He took“important etiquette” as the fundamental criterion to distinguish “great Confucianism”,“elegant Confucianism”,“vulgar Confucianism” and “humble Confucianism”,making “poetry”a Confucian classic corresponding to the class,order and norm.Xunzi has the largest number of quoted poems among all the sons,reaching more than 80.As a way of thinking in Xunzi’s thought world,quoting poetry has two important characteristics: first,quoting poetry means a rational attitude.Xunzi derives his product not by chance,but with a kind of rational choice,the product derives from quoting different poems,or quoting the same poem in different chapters,or the same poem in different chapters.Secondly,quoting poems and prose and Xunzi’s thought world can refer to each other.More than 90% of Xunzi’s quoted poems end with “this is called”.In addition,Xunzi’s poems also have the universal structure of “seeing meaning in poetry”,“neutral principle of things”,and the generative logic of “analogical reasoning”,“horizontal reasoning” and “self-circulation”.In the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition,Xunzi’s poetics played a connecting role.Xunzi was the last thinker in the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition and also the thinker who started the Han Dynasty Confucian poetics tradition.Just as the pre-Qin Confucian poetics tradition is an integral part of the pre-Qin Confucian tradition,so is the pre-Qin Confucian poetics.Digging,sorting out and studying the pre-Qin Confucian poetics is not only beneficial for us to see the more complete ideological features of the pre-Qin Confucianism and highlight the Chinese philosophical characteristics of the poetic wisdom of the pre-Qin Confucianism,but also provides a solid and reliable foundation for sorting out and constructing the history of the pre-Qin Confucian poetics.