The Image Of Gentleman And The Concept Of Gentleman In The Book Of Songs

The Book of Songs covers the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of Chuen-Qiou Period.The concept of the gentleman appeared and developed at this period.After that,Confucius and other Confucians still explored the concept of the gentleman of the Book of Songs,and make it more complete.My thesis mainly talks about the concept of the gentleman of the Book of Songs and how Confucianism inherited it.Except the introduction and the epilogue,my thesis consists of three parts,and the second part is the most important in this thesis.The first chapter How the concept of the gentleman arose and the image of the gentleman in the Book of Songs.The superior shows the respect.The meaning of gentleman changed with the development of society.At first,the gentleman belongs to the neutral,and points to the superior people,such as the emperor and the general.The opposite meaning is the common people.It points to the interior people,such as the civilian and rank-and-file soldiers.Later,the gentleman had the moral connotation,and the proportion of it was higher.At last,it pasted the classes of the society.The variety that the gentleman refers to changed from the particular to the general.The reason why the concept of the gentleman was produced is that Zhou had to consolidate its power and humanistic spirit awakened at that time.Chapter two How the image of gentleman shows the concept of the gentleman of the Book of Songs.This chapter consists of three parts.The first part is about the conditions about to be the gentleman.Generally speaking,gentlemen in the Book of Songs are all elites.It needs much time to train the eligible gentleman,and the education of Western Zhou Dynasty was monopolized by government,so just noble class can be the gentleman.The essential aim of training gentleman is to consolidate the power,the gentleman needs to give counsel for the country and become the model in the society.Therefore,the requirements to the gentleman are quite strict.The gentleman needs to obey the etiquette outside and comply with the virtue.It shows as the impressive and dignified manner,extraordinary ability to manage state affairs,military ability,writing ability and the ability of playing and enjoying music.The second part is about the jade.The jade of the Book of Songs shows the class,virtue and dignity of the gentleman.And the jade also shows the great wish from the gentleman.The third part takes two gentlemen from Weifeng Qiyu and Daya Siqi as examples to know about the ideal figure of the gentleman in the Book of Songs.The third chapter How Confucianism inherited the concept of the gentleman of the Books of Songs.The figures of the gentleman in The Book of Songs are all concrete till the end of the Chuen-Qiou Period,Confucius abstracted some concepts from them.The other Confucians continued to explore and explicate,and make the concept of the gentleman more and more abundant.This chapter has two parts.The first part is the principles that thegentleman should allow,the first one is the doctrine of the mean,the second one is virtue.The second part is about the necessary qualifications that the gentleman should have,include studious,speaking and acting cautiously,the ornamental and the combined plain properties,and restraining in privacy.