The Analysis Of Ideologies Of Marriage Ethics In The Book Of Songs

The book of songs is the first comprehensive anthology of poems in China, whichcontains305poems written during500years from early stage of Western Zhou Dynastyto middle period in the Spring and Autumn Period in total. The range of topics coversmany aspects, including farming, war, worship, feast, marriage and funeral rites etc, ofwhich can reflect every aspect of Chinese society from early stage of Western ZhouDynasty to middle period in the Spring and Autumn Period. Among those collectedpoems, the poems depicting life of marriage and love account for a large proportion inThe book of songs. Marriage ethics in The book of songs plays a very important role inthe traditional Confucian ethics.Since ancient times, there are lots of research data about The book of songs, relatedto literature, linguistics, history, ethnology, sociology and so on. However, the analysisof the works from the angle of ethics is relatively scarce, directly to study the marriageethics works even less. This thesis will analyze and discuss marriage ethics appearing inThe book of songs, it will then do a research on the background, contents, characters andvalues of marriage ethics in The book of songs. Except chapters of Introduction andConclusion, this thesis can be separated into three chapters:The first chapter will focus on the background of marriage ethics in The book ofsongs. Birth time of marriage ethics in The book of songs could be very special duringwhich was transition period between ancient times and times of ritual-musicalcivilization. Marriage ethics in The book of songs is not only affected by socialbackground like political model advocating united construction of family and country,small scale peasant economy of men tilling the farm and women weaving, but it’s alsoinfluenced by internal factors like civilization in Zhou Dynasty based on rites, naturaldemands of human-beings and anything else.The second chapter will focus on the basic contents of marriage ethics in The bookof songs. Contents of marriage ethics in The book of songs are not single ones, theyhave very complex features that were affected by time, territory and social development.In general, the contents contains ideas of affirming free love, admitting natural emotion;paying attention to a specification and marriage ceremony; advocating virtuous husbandand wife, aspire to fertility and so on.The third chapter will focus on the unique value and contemporary implication ofmarriage ethics in The book of songs. The time before birth of The book of songs was uncivilized ancient times that was wild and free, after the era of The book of songs wasthe feudal age controlled by feudal ethics. The special time of The book of songs gavemarriage ethics some different characters and unique values that approving andstandardizing the humanity, beginning to end, grasp the golden mean. This unique valueis not lost due to modernization, but has a timeless modern meaning.In conclusion, this thesis will make comprehensive research on marriage ethics inThe book of songs based on the perspective of ethics. This thesis hopes that on the onehand it can make a contribution to cultural heritage of The book of songs, on the otherhand it can put forward some solutions for the complex marriage problems in today’sChinese society.