Zhu Zi Hou, what is the basis for your claim that Guan Ju is a folk song for men and women’s love affairs, or even matchmaking activities?”
At the time when Yang Guoliang was in trouble, Ma Huating once again stood out, with a black face and a stern face, loudly cross-examining Zhu Pingan, this time he adopted the method of surrounding Wei to save Zhao, attacking Zhu to save Yang.
“I thought that interpreting Guan Ju, interpreting the Book of Songs, we must first look at the background of the formation of the Book of Songs. The Zhou Dynasty ruled the country by music, specialising in poetry officials, every year in the spring, poetry officials will shake the wooden doxa in-depth folk, collecting folk songs, which respond to the people’s joys and sorrows, the people’s plight, the people’s living conditions of the ballads, collected and sorted out, handed over to the officer of the music – the tai shi, the tai shi music, sung to the Zhou Emperor to listen to the Zhou Emperor through the folk songs, understand people’s livelihoods as a reference for governance.Through these folk songs, the Zhou Emperor learnt about people’s livelihood and used them as a reference for his administration. Among them were those that glorified ancestors, those that worshipped ghosts and gods, those that the nobles feasted and drank and interacted with, and even those that reacted to folk labour, love, marriage, and social customs.”Zhu Pingan smiled faintly and said slowly.
“What thou sayest is a cliché, it has nothing to do with thy proposition, how can it be used as evidence. Thy proposition, what scriptures and canons are there to prove it? Examine why?”
Ma Huating laughed coldly, like a c*ckfighting, his eyes staring at Zhu Pingan, starting to pick bones from inside the egg.
Didn’t you just ask Dr Yang to test the evidence, did you? Can you say it out!
Humph!
This is called treating others the way they treat you!
Ma Huating stared at Zhu Pingan slyly, and as this sentence was uttered, a mouthful of bad air seemed to come out of his heart.
Destined to disappoint you.
Zhu Pingan looked at Ma Huating, slightly ticked the corner of his lips, and slowly opened his mouth just as Ma Huating’s words fell:
“Zhu Xi ‘Poetry Collection Biography’ ‘preface’ said: ‘Where the poem of the so-called wind, more out of the alley song work, the so-called men and women with each other singing, each said their feelings.’Guan Ju” from the “South Wind”, “Guan Ju” folk love ballads, Zhu Xi’s preamble, this is one of them.”
“The Zhou Li – the ground official – medium” cloud: ‘medium of the judge in charge of the people, where men and women from the name of the above, are all book years, months and days of the name. He made the men marry at thirty and the women at twenty. Anyone who married a wife and had a son was written in the book. In the month of mid-spring, the men and women were told to meet, and that was the time to do so. Those who run are not forbidden. Those who did not use the order for no reason were punished. The court would meet men and women who had no husband’s family.In the Zhou Dynasty, the matchmaker was in charge of the co-operation of all the people, and all those who took wives and had children had to be recorded as to why they reproduced the population, and in the months of February and March, the matchmaker gave a decree to make unmarried men and women to meet each other, and at this time of the year, it was not forbidden for those who were running around. If you do not obey the decree without reason, you will be punished. This is the ancient custom of meeting men and women in the month of mid-spring, and men and women were also free to engage in romantic activities during the various sacrificial ceremonies held in early February before spring ploughing. The Rites of Zhou stipulated that unmarried women were required to pick Nymphoides for rituals, so in February and March, unmarried women went to the river to pick Nymphoides. At this time, it was also the time for the government to meet men and women, and the unmarried gentlemen who “wanted to be ladies” also took the opportunity to come to the river, and then there was the “Guan Ju”. This is the second of its kind.”
“Reading through the Classic of Poetry, one can find that the background of many love poems, all of which take place in the spring, is related to this decree of the Zhou Li – Di Guan – Matchmaker, and most of them are based on the ‘comparison’ of flowers, grasses, water, and birdsong.”
“For example, Zheng Feng – There are Sprawling Grasses in the Wild: ‘There are sprawling grasses in the wild, heavy dew. There is a beautiful person, clear and graceful. A meeting that suits my wishes.The song “There are Sprawling Grasses in the Wild” tells of the countryside, where the grasses are in sheets and dew glistens on the blades. A beautiful woman passed by, with clear brows and stunning eyes. Meeting her unannounced was just as I had wished.”
“Another example is ‘Zheng Feng – Qin and洧’：’the Qin and the洧, Fang lax. Shi and female, Fang Bing Jianxi. The female said ‘view?’Shi said ‘both and.”And go to see!Beyond the river, Xun great and happy. The gentleman and the lady, they bantered with each other, and presented them with peonies.’This song tells of the time in March when the waters of Qin and Wei in the state of Zheng flowed far away. Unmarried young men and women came to the countryside to play, holding orchids in their hands. Men and women with Euphorbia grass in their hands came to swim by the river outside the city. The woman says Let’s go over there?The male said I have already made a trip there. The woman said to him, “The other side of the river is a good place, and it’s very lively, so there’s no harm in going there again!So the man and the woman went together to the other side of the river, teased each other, and gave a peony at parting, promising not to forget each other.”
“Another example is “Zheng Feng – There is a Dead Quail in the Wild” There is a dead quail in the wild, wrapped up in white weeds. There is a woman who is in lust, and Jishi lures her ……”
“And then there’s Zhou Nan – Tao Yao ……”
“Then there’s “Wang Feng – Jun Zi Yang Yang”, “Wei Feng – Mu Gua”, “Chen Feng – Dong Men Zhi Yi” ……”
Zhu Pingan listed dozens of poems and scriptures in one breath to support the custom of the Zhou Dynasty that “in the third month of spring, men and women would meet”, proving that “Guan Ju” was a folk ballad for men and women to fall in love, and that what was depicted was probably this custom.
Ma Huating froze, originally thought in his cross-examination, Zhu Pingan will be asked stammers.
However, he never expected.
Zhu Pingan was not only not stumped by the question, but instead, he was eloquent, and was eloquent in quoting the classics just after his words fell.
This is greatly out of Ma Huating’s expectations, so dumbfounded frozen in that.
Under Zhu Pingan’s mouth, the muscles on Yang Guoliang’s face became more and more slack and sagging, and his face became more and more unsightly.
After Zhu Pingan’s words trailed off, the lecture theatre all fell silent.
For a long time.
“If Guan Ju is a folk song for male and female romance, so vulgar, why did Kong Sheng list this as the first piece of the Poetry Classic.”Yang Guoliang raised his head and looked at Zhu Pingan with blood-filled eyes, asking in a mute voice.
“Great vulgarity means great elegance.”Zhu Pingan returned.
“Not enough to be listed as the first piece.”Yang Guoliang continued to stare at Zhu Pingan.
“The listing of Guan Ju as the first piece is the embodiment of Kong Sheng’s ‘people-oriented’ approach. The Analects recorded that when the stables caught fire, Kong Sheng asked if anyone was hurt. Do not ask the horse, this is the Kong Sheng ‘people-oriented’ embodiment. Guan Guan Ju, in the river’s continent, My Fair Lady, Gentleman Marty ……A gentleman pursues a lady, and when he succeeds, he performs the virtue of husband and wife by drumming and blowing the sheng with rituals, forming a marriage, forming a family, and reproducing offspring, which is fundamental to the nation’s livelihood. When the family is stable, the society is stable, and the world is peaceful.”Zhu Pingan slowly said.
People-oriented?
This word that Zhu Pingan had carried over from modern times instantly subdued the crowd.
People-centred ……The more the crowd studied this word, the more they felt that it was not simple. This word could not only cover the truths that the people are noble and the ruler is light, and that water can carry a boat as well as overturn it, but it was even broader.
Of course it’s not simple, it’s a national policy! It’s a national policy that’s hundreds of years ahead of you! It would be strange if you can’t be subdued.
Zhu Pingan slightly pulled the corner of his mouth, ”In fact, not only is this the case with the Poetry Classic, but when Confucius was abridging the Six Classics, he emphasised the human-centred approach in the opening chapter of each one of them. The Book of Changes opens with ‘Shun marries without telling’, Yao marries his two daughters in order to test Shun’s talent, those who can unify the family will be able to rule the country and pacify the world, people-oriented; the first chapter of the Book of Changes talks about the two hexagrams of Qian and Kun, the yin and yang merge in virtue, and the birth of a new generation, people-oriented; the Rites of passage, the first of the Shi’s coronation rite, the second of the Shi’s fainting rite, becoming an adult and starting a family, people-oriented;The Spring and Autumn Anniversary of the opening of the ‘Zheng Bo Ke Duan in the Visayas’, talking about the way of parents and children, is also people-oriented ……With this in mind, the poem ‘Guan Ju’, which is joyful but not lustful, mournful but not sad, is more than appropriate as the opening chapter of the Book of Songs.”
The connotation of being people-oriented was too broad, so broad that Zhu Ping’an had made up his mind to bring the opening chapter of the Six Classics to be people-oriented, and the crowd still felt that they thought so.
“A thousand Guan Ju in the eyes of a thousand people, this is just my Guan Ju, the fallacy, let everyone laugh.”
Zhu Pingan said, arched his hand to the crowd and walked off the podium in a graceful manner.
Snap.
Snap.
……
Only the sound of Zhu Pingan’s footsteps echoed in the lecture theatre.
