The Philosophical Implication Of The Book Of Songs

Poems can express the ambitions and aspirations of people, reflecting thoughtson natural phenomena and social life. The Book of Songs, as one of the Six Classics,records people’s state of mind of the time andis seen to have nourished the Chinesephilosophy. However, according to the modern discipline, scholars regard it as a pieceof literary work and study it within the range of poetry history. Although few scholarshave published articles on the Book of Songs from the philosophical perspective, it isobviously far from enough and requires more attention and deeper research. Thisthesis aims to reveal the philosophical implication of the Book of Songs and analyzethe destiny views, virtuous administration views, ethics and thinking patterns of theancestors.The Book of Songs illustrates the relationship of human beings with the universeand has great influence on China’s ancient philosophy and culture. The destiny viewis its most important philosophical idea. The Book of Songs shows the development ofthe destiny view in China. It was blindly followed until the thoughts of “matchingone’s virtue with the god” emerged. Then the function of human was magnified sothat higher requirements to rule the Zhou Dynasty were satisfied.Virtuousadministration comes into being with the development of the destiny view. Sinceone’s fate unconstant, the ruler should respect the god in order to live up to his or herdestiny and should love those who are low in social position. So as to achieve goals ofvirtue administration, the ruler should also educate the masses with “music andliterature” contain ethnic element in education. Virtue ethics are defined in The Bookof Songs, in which a gentleman is thought to have all the qualities of good characterand behavior in an ideal personality. The Book of Songs also reveals the social normsof the interpersonal relationship in daily life systematically. In its description of therelationship among human, nature and god, the book uses a metaphor to associatenatural phenomena with social phenomena. The Book of Songs plays a significant rolein the development of China’s ancient philosophy and has laid the foundation for laterphilosophical thoughts.