Text / Zhuang Sheng Xiaomeng
As the earliest collection of poetry in China's history, the Book of Poetry has always been given a high degree of attention, especially the Confucians listed it as the first of the "Five Classics", which made the Book of Poetry famous all over the world, famous throughout the ages.
Originally, I thought that such a valued classic work should begin with a sermon such as "the way of the university, in Mingmingde, in the people, in the end of the good", or in the famous quotations such as "Zi Yue, Zi Yue", or the mysterious and mysterious principles of "The Dragon has regrets, and the benefits of the adults". However, when we opened the book in awe, we found that the first part of this collection of poems was like a love poem.
This one is the famous "Guan Ju".
To this day, although people rarely study this book carefully, they are familiar with the two sentences in the "Guan Ju" chapter, which are "a lady, a gentleman is a good gentleman". Such sentences, in fact, seem slightly frivolous, especially in front of ancient golden laws such as the "Four Books and Five Classics", which is a bit out of place.
Confucius, however, did not think so. He felt, "Three hundred poems, in a word, are innocent thoughts." "What do you mean?" Everyone has their own opinions, I think, to the effect that the feelings are pure. As we all know, Confucius was born in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of "Li Collapse and Happiness", and he devoted his life to "re-cultivating Li Le", hoping that the country could live back to the simple and beautiful era of the rule of the three kings in ancient times. As a result, he naturally has an indescribable good feeling for the long-standing poetry classics. It is understandable that he attached so much importance to the Book of Verses.
After evaluating the "Book of Poetry", Old Master Kong made a special comment on the "Guan Ju" article, that is, the eight words of "happy but not obscene, mournful and not hurt" mentioned in the title.
"Guan Ju" as a typical love poem, the whole text seems to describe the man's desire for women, where is the "happiness"? And where is the "mourning"?
When a gentleman sees a beautiful woman, he is a little fascinated and wants to talk, and after a simple conversation or a conversation that has not been successful, he can't help but reminisce endlessly when he returns home, and the "Guan Ju" article briefly describes such a thing. Then the "pleasure without lasciviousness, mourning without hurt" is also obvious.
The "happy" place is to see a beautiful woman, the mood is happy, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened, so it is "happy but not obscene"; where is the "mourning" embodied? Buddhism says that there are "three difficulties and eight sufferings" in life, and one of the "eight sufferings" is "not to seek suffering", and here the gentleman pursues the lady and does not get it, which is the suffering of "not being able to ask for it", in other words, "mourning". But such a kind of sadness is also forgotten after "tossing and turning, it is difficult to sleep" a few times, so it is said to be "mourning without hurting".
Confucius's eight-character evaluation should be for this purpose. So, does he have any meaning in saying this?
In the Analects, Confucius mentioned the Book of Poetry several times, and from Confucius's words, we can see his respect for this ancient book, so why should he evaluate the Guan Ju alone?
The author believes that the reason why Confucius mentioned the "Guan Ju" of "Lady And Lady, Gentleman is Good" is to publicize the beautiful scene of the rule of the Three Kings in the ancient period when there was no fear of self-deception and less war and strife, and the other is to use this to guide and educate the people. And this guidance, combined with the proposition of "eating color" (put forward by the informant), and then put forward the sentence "good virtue is like lust", which he really wants to say.
In the Analects, Confucius mentioned this view twice. One is in the "Zihan" section, it is mentioned that "I have not seen good virtue as lustful people also", and once in the "Wei Linggong" section, it is mentioned that "it has been done!" I have not seen good virtue like lustful people also." The two mentions are given in a negative and comparative way, so what did Confucius really want to express?
"Lustful", sex, although people are always secretive, but have to admit it, is an emotion that people will inadvertently show. And what about the "virtuous" ones? But there are fewer who know more and few who become successful. Confucius repeatedly mentioned such a contrast between the two here, in fact, its original intention should be to remind people that we must always put "entering the moral cultivation" in the first place, and we must be "virtuous" like "lustful". Only with such "sincerity" can we enter the door of the avenue.
Confucius is truly well-intentioned.
Reference books: "I Read < Analects >" by Li Zero;
"Fu Peirong's Detailed Explanation of the Analects".