A Study On The Time Consciousness Of The Book Of Songs

Hamlet says: "To be,or not to be: that is the question. " Whether it is alive or dead, time as an eternal topic is the concerned question. "Book of Songs",as the first book of poetry collection, doesn’t have a meaning without time certainly. Although the life consciousness of ancestors was still hazy in the age of "Book of Songs",they have already realized the importance of timing in their lives. This paper is divided into five parts:First,in the introduction, in which the research status about the timing of "The Book of Songs" and the purpose of paper are introduced. In addition, the word "timing" is defined conceptually.Second,following the principle of tracing to the source, it is analyzed that why the timing consciousness of "Book of Songs" was generated in Charter 1. As a country having attached great importance to the agriculture since antiquity,the agriculture-based social structure must be the uppermost reason for the generation of the timing consciousness. The germination of life awareness made our ancestors realize the limitation of life, so the limitation nature of life is the second reason for the production of the timing consciousness. Finally, it can not be ignored that the impact of "Book of Changes" on ancestors in the Zhou Period, and the concept of time of "Book of Changes" also contributed to the generation of the timing consciousness in "Book of Songs".Third analyzes the connotation of timing consciousness. Time has finiteness and infiniteness. The finiteness makes people generate feelings of time flowing, so people generate sadness unconsciously facing the flowing time, which is for Vicissitudes of people and worldly concerns. However the infiniteness makes people generate feelings of transmigration, such as the cycle of the four seasons and the cycle of day and night. Although these are not the proper representation, they are the repeats of some trend, tendencies, destiny and other subtle factors. People, though do not pursue longevity, began to pursue a permanent rule for generations.The fourth part tells the imagery of timing consciousness of "Book of Songs". The word "imagery" carries the accumulation of history. This part selected two typical images-- the moon and the evening. The moon played a role of recording time in ancient times, which is thought to be mysterious, then people worship and sacrifice it. There is a deep bond between moon and women which has but a feminine aesthetic style. In addition, as important objects, moon and sun have a high status in the view of our ancestors, and they are compared to the king and the husband. Evening is bleak in time sense, which symbolizes impending death. However the way that people work from sunrise to sunset decides the evening to be a reunion moment, which opened a model that people come back at nightfall.The last part analyzes the impact of timing consciousness of "Book of Songs". Although timing consciousness of ancestors in the age of "Book of Songs" is still in an embryonic stage, it has a very far-reaching impact on future generations. Although the life awareness has been already awakened showed in the poems of "Nineteen Ancient poems" and Cao Cao, Cao Zhi, and Cao Pi, the anxiety of life finiteness is the same as that of "Book of Songs". Although it is anxiety, influenced by the simple view of life of "Book of Songs", both of them concern more about world life and pursuing to realize their own values.