Research On The Spreading Of The Pre-Qin Lost Poetry

The introductionary part summarizes the research achievements and research significance of the pre-Qin lost poetry.The body of the thesis mainly discusses from the following aspects.First,it defines the concept of the lost poetry and analyzes the spreading forms of the lost poetry.The lost poetry could not be found in today's Book of Songs but scattered among the bibliographical pre-Qin poetry with a total number of 90 poems.The spreading forms of the lost poetry could be divided into existence form and quotation form.The existence form could be further divided into four categories including poetry with title and verses both remaining,poetry with only verses remaining,poetry with title and verses both lost and poetry with only title remaining,while the quotation form could be divided into those quoted as poetry and those not quoted as poetry.Second,the paper discusses the quotation and preservation of the lost poetry.To begin with,it classifies the lost poetry.According to the earliest literature source of the lost poetry,it is classified as classics,history and philosophy.It is found that the lost poetry first had the most appearance in the literature of classics,which is believed to be related to the “classical” nature of the lost poetry and this thesis also illustrates this point.Then,this thesis also doubts part of the lost poetry.It raises doubts about 5 lost poems including Shou Li and No Invasion into Countries in Distant Lands and discusses them.It analyzes Shou Li in terms of its verses,the meaning of its title and the causes of its composition and the reasons for its losing and draws conclusions about it.It also holds that although the other 4 poems including No Invasion into Countries in Distant Lands is classified into the lost poetry by some scholars,they actually do not belong to the lost poetry,so they are not included into the collection of 90 lost poems.Third,the quotation and preservation of the lost poetry are mainly reflected in the application scope of the lost poetry and specifically reflected in the aspects of politics,military affairs,indoctrination,sacrifice,love and marriage,resentment and sting,livelihood and familyaffection.It also detects the evolution of some functions of the lost poetry.Finally,it analyzes in detail the spreading and changes of the pre-Qin lost poetry.The spreading and changes of the lost poetry in the pre-Qin period are mainly reflected in the variants of the lost poetry,which can be explained from two aspects including the types of variants and the causes of variants.Variants of the lost poetry could be classified into 7 types including missing words,unwanted words,reversal words,wrong words,variant words,interchangeable words and the changes of function words.As for the causes of the variants of the lost poetry,they could be classified into 8 categories: records by different scholars,proximate meanings of words,the expanded and narrowed meanings of words,the variant forms of words,the interchangeability of words,mistakes due to proximate forms,unified sentence patterns and wrong inclusion into the poetry.