Research On Xunzi's Thoughts On Poetr

Xunzi is an important representative of the Confucian school in the pre-Qin period.His thirty-two chapters of Xunzi record rich contents such as etiquette,music,self-cultivation,and governance.The Book of Songs,as the representative of the classics,has a high value of literary and artistic research,and is endowed with new connotations in the inheritance of Confucianism.In the book Xunzi,there are 82 quotations from the Book of Songs,which is the most popular among the scholars in the pre-Qin period.It can be seen that Xunzi attaches great importance to and loves the Book of Songs.Therefore,the study of Xunzi’s Book of Songs provides another perspective and dimension for the interpretation of Xunzi,and is of great significance for the understanding of Xunzi’s thoughts.This paper will study Xunzi’s thought of "Poetry" from four aspects.The first chapter uses the idea of "knowing people and discussing the world" to investigate and sort out the origin of Xunzi’s thoughts from the era background and personal experience of his life.And through the careful collation of the whole book of "Xunzi",the specific number of Xunzi’s quotations and comments on "Poems" is calculated.In the original text of the poem cited by Xunzi,the number of Da Ya and Xiao Ya cited by Xunzi accounts for a large proportion.The second chapter focuses on the study of Xunzi’s thoughts on Poetry from four aspects: in the essence of Poetry,from the point of view of "poetry expresses ambition",how Xunzi expresses "sage’s ambition" and "personal sentiment" by quoting and commenting on Poetry;In the aspect of the characteristics of Poetry,from the Angle of "the beauty of harmony",the common relationship between poetry and music is discussed,and the educational function of poetry is highlighted.In the aspect of the function of the Poem,this paper discusses how Xunzi highlights the importance of the thought of "propriety and righteousness" by quoting and commenting on the Poem,and how he cultivates virtue and pursues self-cultivation through the Poem,and finally achieves the "complete" and "quintessence" gentleman personality.In the aspect of criticism of Poems,this paper probes into the reason why Xunzi "is good for poems and does not say anything",and reveals his stance and attitude in interpreting poems by analyzing the characteristics of Xunzi’s quoting Poems.The third chapter is a comparative study of Xunzi,Confucius,and Mencius’ thoughts on the study of the Book of Songs.Emphasis is placed on interpreting the similarities and differences between Xunzi’s thought on the study of the Book of Songs and Confucius’ poetic views on "thinking without evil," "the beauty of harmony," and "appreciating the grievances of the masses," as well as Mencius’ poetic criticism concepts on "using ideas against will," "understanding people to discuss the world," and "the history of the Book of Songs," and analyzing Xunzi’s inheritance and development of Confucius and Mencius’ thought on the study of the Book of Songs.The fourth chapter focuses on the profound influence of Xunzi on the study of the Book of Songs in later generations,especially during the Han,Wei,and Six Dynasties periods.Firstly,analyze Xunzi’s influence on "Lu Shi","Han Shi","Qi Shi",and "Mao Shi" from the perspective of the correlation between word and sentence citations;Secondly,by comparing and analyzing the core viewpoints in "Preface to Mao’s Poetry" with Xunzi’s thoughts on "Poetry",it is believed that there is a close theoretical connection between the two;Finally,starting from Xunzi’s literary concepts of "understanding the Tao,conquering the sages,and worshipping the scriptures",this paper explores the inheritance and development of Xunzi’s "Poetry" learning ideas in Liu Xie’s "Wen Xin Diao Long".