"the Book Of Songs" And The Birth Of The Persons Spirit

"The Book of Songs" is the first literary text in China. Its existence and long duration in study gives it unparalleled significance in literature, politics and culture. For thousands of years,scholars have made untiring efforts to study "The Book of Songs", which have formed a close tie between Confucianism and"Book of Songs". "Book of Songs" contains many original elements of Confucian thought, and is one of the origins of later Confucianism. This thesis attempts to focus on the "shi" in "Book of Songs" as the study object, and by outlining the living state of "shi" in different historical background, deeply touches the spirit of original "shi",and a historical connection between later "shi" and the "shi" groups in "The Book of Songs".Hence, the paper comes to the conclussion that the later "shi" spirit should stem from the "Book of Songs".This paper contains three parts.The first chapter defines the identity of the "shi" in the "Book of Songs"in order to make clear the scope of the study and demonstrate the reasonability of the "shi" as the object of this study.The thesis first combs basic consensus of the academic research made related to the "shi" and then clarifies the meaning of the "shi" in broad and narrow sense based on the meaning of the "shi" in the Zhou Dynasty and the specific use of the word "shi"in "Book of Songs". Based on this, the paper gives an explanation about the reasons for choosing the meaning in broad sense as the study suject.Accordingly, the the general scope of this study in this thesis has been listed.Based on the specific text of "Book of Songs", chapter two reviews the living state of the "shi" group from the peirod of authentic "feng" and "ya" to the period of transformed "feng" and "ya". In reading the text, you can see the evolvement of the "shi" group in their living state.That is, with the change of social backgrounds their living state changes from observing their duty to observing the truth. At the very beginning of Zhou dynasty, the king of Zhou valued ritual and culture. He intended to educate his people with ritual and culture in order to achieve the dreamed peace in politics. In such a comparatably peaceful and stable period, the "shi"group played a role in the setup of the political policy, formation of political pattern and the popularization of ritual and culture. In other words, the beginning period of Zhou Dynasty made it possible for "shi" to take part in governing the social matters.Therefore, the "shi"realized their social value on their social posts. The ones who worked in court devoted themselves to managing the social matters and the ones who worked as diplomats was faithful to their duties.All of this proved that "shi" can be trusted with important matters. At the end of Zhou Dynasty, the society was in chaos,which made"shi" lose their posts and social status. In such circumstance, their devotion to the country and their care for the people lost support.But they did not lost their faith, instead, they shouldered the responsibilty of saving their country out of danger;they went everywhere to appeal for aid; they sticked to the truth and made every effort to pull their country out of the chaos.But whether it is observing the duty to rule, or observing the truth to overthrow, what is consistent in "shi" is that they shoulder the responsibility for their country and pass down ritual and cultural heritage. The only difference is their different performance in ruling and overthrowing. However, in the midst of chaos, the "shi" group can venture their life to save their country out of danger, but their effort is helpless in the disordered reality.They need to find a strong support to the conceptual level.Chapter three sums up the connotations of the "shi" spirit and cultural qulity in the "Book of Songs".including the fearless spirit to shoulder the responsibility,the conscious awareness to pass down cultural heritage, and the effort to establish literature. The paper also points out the important role Confucius played in the process when spiritual connotation and cultural quality of "shi" tansformed from the original emotional existence to the later rational existence."Book of Songs" was first used by Confucius as the teaching content,and later in the Han Dynasty,a title "doctor" was set up for those who have the best command of "Five Classics".From then on, scholars study ancient poetry, practice poetry becomes a permanent way to pass down the cultural heritage.The spirit of "shi" in "Book of Songs" was gradually rooted in the soul of Chinese intellectuals in a vivid and sensational way, and it either explicitly or implicitly influenced the development of China for several thousand years.