The meaning of the phrase "si wu xie" which appears in Jiong ® (Mao # 297) has been argued.The first character of the phrase, si, in the poem is commonly understood to be a meaninglessparticle or exclamation, but in the Analects it could be used as the original meaning of the worditself, "thought" or "to think." So Confucius’ meaning of the phrase in Analects might be"unswerving in the thoughts."
A typical example lies in his second reflection onConfucius’ conclusive remark: “In The Book of Poetry are three hundredpieces in number. They can be summed up in one sentence—‘Have nodepraved thoughts (si wu xie).’” 19 This overgeneralization is conduciveto misconception. It is often taken for a moralized summary of thegeneral theme or subject matter of the three hundred poems or so.People tend to get confused when reading the love songs that represent,implicitly or explicitly, the romantic sentiments and erotic deedsbetween young lovers. They find quite a number of the love songsfalling short of the expectation of “having no depraved thoughts” ifviewed from a moralized perspective. So they cannot help but wonder what Confucius really means by this line (‘Having no depravedthoughts’) cited from a hymn of Lu entitled the Jiong (Horses).
This passage occurs in the poem Jiong 駉 number 297 in the traditional numbering of the poems in theanthology. Writing in the early-mid nineteenth century, Chen Huan (1786 - 1863) was possibly one of the first scholars to notice that the si in this passage acted as a grammatical word, see Shi Maoshi zhuanshu, vol. 2, section7, p. 49. However Legge’s translation, completed by 1871, continues to translate si as ‘thoughts’ suggesting thatthis reading was still dominant in the later nineteenth century. See Legge Chinese Classics, vol.4, pp. 611 - 613. Both Karlgren and Waley maintain readings of si as grammatical, see, Karlgren, “Glosses on the Ta Ya and SungOdes,” p. 174. Waley, The Book of Songs, pp. 274 - 275
Birds played a prominent role in the mythology surrounding the origins of human among the ancient Chinese tribes. The legends of the Shang Dynasty (1600?-1046? BCE) associated its antecedents with a mythical bird called Xuan Niao. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Qi, the predynastic founder of the Shang lineage, was miraculously conceived when Jian Di, one of the Emperor Ku’s wives, swallowed an egg dropped by a Xuan Niao.
The first proposed meaning of this dark topos is that darkness expresses a goodomen. Can being dark be a good omen? If one observes the Shijing poem xuan niao玄鸟,it can be seen that perhaps being dark is a good omen. In the poem xuan niao玄鸟, WuDing, a king of the Shang dynasty, is mentioned. In the poem, there is emphasis that WuDing reaches the four directions. Wu Ding was also called Gao Zong (Cheng Junying).Wu Ding was a great ruler of the Shang dynasty. Given that this poem was written toeulogize Wu Ding, the twenty-second king of the Shang dynasty, who ruled from 1250 to1192 BC, one could infer that perhaps the author wanted to write it in an auspiciousmanner (Wikipedia). Perhaps, “dark bird” is a more auspicious name for the swallow. Itis perhaps a euphemism for the name of a common bird. This pattern can be seen in thenext poem, poem 304 of the Shi jing, where “dark king” is used to portray Wu Ding. Onecan infer that because the event of the swallow leaving its egg for Jian Di to swallow wasa good event, perhaps calling the swallow “dark” is a good appellation.Because Wu Dingwas an important and influential king, calling him the “dark king” is also a goodappellation.On the other hand, perhaps calling the swallow a “dark bird” is merely habit: xuan niao shi gu ren dui yan zi de cheng hu, yin yan zi tong ti hei se ‘玄鸟’是古人对燕子的称呼，因燕子通体黑色 (Baidu).
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Articles relating to Praise-Odes Of Lu & Sacrificial Odes Of Shang
Date: 2021-06-29 06:02 pm (UTC)Poems of Depravity: A Twelfth Century Dispute on the Moral Character of the "Book of Songs"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4528453
CITATIONS OF THE SHIJING IN EARLY CHINESE TEXTS:AN ANALYSIS WITH THREE EXAMPLES
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29434/1/10731590.pdf
The meaning of the phrase "si wu xie" which appears in Jiong ® (Mao # 297) has been argued.The first character of the phrase, si, in the poem is commonly understood to be a meaninglessparticle or exclamation, but in the Analects it could be used as the original meaning of the worditself, "thought" or "to think." So Confucius’ meaning of the phrase in Analects might be"unswerving in the thoughts."
Zhu Xi’s Moralistic View of Poetry
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229422091.pdf
A typical example lies in his second reflection onConfucius’ conclusive remark: “In The Book of Poetry are three hundredpieces in number. They can be summed up in one sentence—‘Have nodepraved thoughts (si wu xie).’” 19 This overgeneralization is conduciveto misconception. It is often taken for a moralized summary of thegeneral theme or subject matter of the three hundred poems or so.People tend to get confused when reading the love songs that represent,implicitly or explicitly, the romantic sentiments and erotic deedsbetween young lovers. They find quite a number of the love songsfalling short of the expectation of “having no depraved thoughts” ifviewed from a moralized perspective. So they cannot help but wonder what Confucius really means by this line (‘Having no depravedthoughts’) cited from a hymn of Lu entitled the Jiong (Horses).
Not Straying: Mao tradition interpretations of Shijing love poems.
https://mbchinese.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Michael-Broughton-Chinese-Honours-Thesis.pdf
This passage occurs in the poem Jiong 駉 number 297 in the traditional numbering of the poems in theanthology. Writing in the early-mid nineteenth century, Chen Huan (1786 - 1863) was possibly one of the first scholars to notice that the si in this passage acted as a grammatical word, see Shi Maoshi zhuanshu, vol. 2, section7, p. 49. However Legge’s translation, completed by 1871, continues to translate si as ‘thoughts’ suggesting thatthis reading was still dominant in the later nineteenth century. See Legge Chinese Classics, vol.4, pp. 611 - 613. Both Karlgren and Waley maintain readings of si as grammatical, see, Karlgren, “Glosses on the Ta Ya and SungOdes,” p. 174. Waley, The Book of Songs, pp. 274 - 275
You Bi:
Nothing useful.
Pan Shui:
Words Well Put: Visions of Poetic Competence in the Chinese Tradition
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v_YFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA311&lpg=PA311&dq=Pan+Shui+poem&source=bl&ots=4umPw5HmvC&sig=ACfU3U2QN6qQrlMizNtjn7clcMWH1py3Lw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1-v_Usb3xAhULgVwKHUFnA58Q6AEwEnoECCEQAw#v=onepage&q=Pan%20Shui%20poem&f=false
Bi Gong:
The Beginning of Literati Poetry: Four Poems from First-century BCE China
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41354685
The Sinitic Civilization Book I: A Factual History Through the Lens of
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m5F2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT711&lpg=PT711&dq=Bi+Gong+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=yjIs9GlCXt&sig=ACfU3U1oqmUKdESJTeJFgRdcSYNyQKAivg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidwuWgsr3xAhWRunEKHfy4CUoQ6AEwEXoECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=Bi%20Gong%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false
The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs: Foundational Texts Compared
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GlWCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=Bi+Gong+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=bUbM_68u4s&sig=ACfU3U0cQJJc0Ln4C-3FOZcLCOcU1d3VIA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidwuWgsr3xAhWRunEKHfy4CUoQ6AEwEnoECAQQAw#v=onepage&q=Bi%20Gong%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false
Na:
Nothing useful.
Lie Zu:
The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Early Chinese Ethics and Political
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nxGEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=Lie+Zu+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=rPhsHoPRDy&sig=ACfU3U21y6wssKCikOYfu_PzdIfuRphdpg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqquOks73xAhXoQUEAHbLFCl4Q6AEwEXoECCAQAw#v=onepage&q=Lie%20Zu%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false
Xuan Niao:
The Beginning of Literati Poetry: Four Poems from First-century BCE China
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41354685
Love and War in Ancient China: Voices from the Shijing
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4_T9TsrjXU4C&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=Xuan+Niao+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=6uTNGi8h4a&sig=ACfU3U2bymcQgVPpaLvE7naJpLzhq87WVQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTm-3Fs73xAhWPN8AKHXY0AvgQ6AEwEXoECA4QAw#v=onepage&q=Xuan%20Niao%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false
Ancient History of the Manchuria: Redefining the past
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LaMwAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT239&lpg=PT239&dq=Xuan+Niao+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=UUT0UdBNKN&sig=ACfU3U19nUCQ7jGZfUs6quzQjGeA6I2IEA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTm-3Fs73xAhWPN8AKHXY0AvgQ6AEwEnoECA8QAw#v=onepage&q=Xuan%20Niao%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false
Birds in Chinese mythology, art and life
http://www.csstoday.com/Item/5781.aspx
Birds played a prominent role in the mythology surrounding the origins of human among the ancient Chinese tribes. The legends of the Shang Dynasty (1600?-1046? BCE) associated its antecedents with a mythical bird called Xuan Niao. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Qi, the predynastic founder of the Shang lineage, was miraculously conceived when Jian Di, one of the Emperor Ku’s wives, swallowed an egg dropped by a Xuan Niao.
NATURE AND RELIGION IN ANCIENT CHINESE POETRY
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41933321
The meaning of the topos of being dark
https://www.academia.edu/37997463/chi122essay_3.docx
The first proposed meaning of this dark topos is that darkness expresses a goodomen. Can being dark be a good omen? If one observes the Shijing poem xuan niao玄鸟,it can be seen that perhaps being dark is a good omen. In the poem xuan niao玄鸟, WuDing, a king of the Shang dynasty, is mentioned. In the poem, there is emphasis that WuDing reaches the four directions. Wu Ding was also called Gao Zong (Cheng Junying).Wu Ding was a great ruler of the Shang dynasty. Given that this poem was written toeulogize Wu Ding, the twenty-second king of the Shang dynasty, who ruled from 1250 to1192 BC, one could infer that perhaps the author wanted to write it in an auspiciousmanner (Wikipedia). Perhaps, “dark bird” is a more auspicious name for the swallow. Itis perhaps a euphemism for the name of a common bird. This pattern can be seen in thenext poem, poem 304 of the Shi jing, where “dark king” is used to portray Wu Ding. Onecan infer that because the event of the swallow leaving its egg for Jian Di to swallow wasa good event, perhaps calling the swallow “dark” is a good appellation.Because Wu Dingwas an important and influential king, calling him the “dark king” is also a goodappellation.On the other hand, perhaps calling the swallow a “dark bird” is merely habit: xuan niao shi gu ren dui yan zi de cheng hu, yin yan zi tong ti hei se ‘玄鸟’是古人对燕子的称呼，因燕子通体黑色 (Baidu).
Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RkOJ_3tjp8IC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=Xuan+Niao+poem&source=bl&ots=MFw4Bybi9O&sig=ACfU3U3gqf6gh0RmU8dV-Dn70swKDHCR4g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhuYDWs73xAhUiQUEAHSHoDGIQ6AEwEXoECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=Xuan%20Niao%20poem&f=false
Chang Fa:
Nothing useful.
Yin Wu:
Nothing useful.