The Study On Hymns Of Emperor Cheng's Period Of Western Zhou

The Hymns of Emperor Cheng's period of Western Zhou is the main subject in this article. We will regard it as an integer so that having more scientific exploration can be made by us, so breaking its separation between “Minor” and “Major” become very necessary. Because of its forming process which was influenced by rites and music, and special character of containing rituality and secularity, the large number of information, such as history, culture, politics, etc, which were contained in Hymns, become the exploratory emphasis. In addition, the artistry of some typical compositions is also expounded in this article to illustrate the height of the earliest scholar compositions in ancient China.The article contains two different parts, the main content is like this: In the first part, the creative process of Hymns is expounded. Primarily, there are some poems, such as July as the typical georgics, The Owl as typical Fable poetry, and Eastern Mountain as typical lyric which was created in the background of Duke Zhou's eastern conquest, all of them were produced before Duke Zhou creating rites and music, and their textural and artistry style is focus discussed here. Secondly, Hymns were creating when Duke Zhou had created rites and music. The suite poem Great Martiality was the outcome of the impact of rites and music, while The Birth of People was that of this impact and assimilation of secular pomes' means of artistic expression. The institution of Hymns was established by this special poetry style which was locating in the middle position between secular world and royal court. Finally, Duck Zhou and Duke Shao presented this kind of poem, regarding as one kind of political language, to Emperor Cheng, who was going to take the rein of government. Hymns hence were injected the politics element. In a word, Hymns showed a youthful style, as well a mature tendency in this period.In the other part, we mainly discuss the status of Hymns' flourish in the powerful and prosperous period of Western Zhou. Continuing the last part, Duke Zhou and Duke Shao present Based Portsmouth and other six poems to Emperor Cheng, in order to express praise and commemorate with deceased emperors' virtue and exploit, as well as their expectation with the young Emperor Cheng. At the same time, given the important role of agriculture playing, Emperor Cheng held ceremonious ancestor-worshipping celebration to thank their ancestors in an agricultural harvest season. This important affair was truly recorded in Zuoz, Southern Mountain, Large Field, The Field and some other poems. According to established procedures, as the celebration was finished, Emperor Cheng shall give banquet to clansman, the feudal princes who assuming deacon, and the impersonator. Its routine conserved in Reed and some other banquet poems which were born in early Western Zhou. These banquet poems declare the more exploitation of Hymns' theme. We can find that the Hymns' function and content was more and more approached to realistic society during this time.Summarily, Hymns embodied the times' characteristics of Western Zhou. In the beginning of the establishment of this dynasty, many Hymns were aimed at memorizing the ancestors, as while giving admonitions to the living Emperor. When Emperor Cheng took the throne, Hymns, no matter relating ancestors worship or dining, all showed the feature of the ritual of civilization deeply and the flourishing atmosphere obviously. So, there are intimate relationship between times and literature. Exploring the noumenon mechanism of poetry through times' symptom is just the purpose of this article.