Characteristics of Language in The Book of Songs

The reason why The Book of Songs was identified by Confucius as a teaching material for language learning and has been handed down to this day is that The Book of Songs is a typical Chinese work in the pre-Qin period, with very remarkable language characteristics.

The rich monosyllabic words that can accurately reflect poetry are different from the language situation in Oracle Bone Inscriptions era. The language development of Zhou Dynasty is relatively perfect, and the words used to express rich thoughts have basically taken shape, and The Book of Songs is a typical representative. According to Mr. Yang's statistics, there are 2,949 words of * * * in The Book of Songs, and about 3,900 monosyllabic words according to their meanings (China Literature, 258 pages, Jilin People's Publishing House, 1980). These words comprehensively reflect the social life of the Zhou Dynasty, from astronomical phenomena, animals and plants to food, clothing, housing and transportation, as well as verbs and adjectives expressing thoughts and feelings. Therefore, later scholars mostly studied ancient famous things based on the Book of Songs, and the so-called Book of Songs and Natural History appeared. The study of the animals and plants in The Book of Songs was completed by Wu Renlu Ji during the Three Kingdoms period. His Shi Mao, Grass, Birds, Animals, Insects and Fish Sparse is a book specially annotated for the animals and plants mentioned in The Book of Songs. Since then, more and more scholars have studied this. According to Hu Pu 'an's textual research, The Book of Songs includes 105 grass names, 75 wood names, 39 bird names, 67 animal names, 29 insect names, 20 fish names and more than 300 names of various things (The Book of Songs, Commercial Press, 1929).

For example, in the Zhou Dynasty, ancient astronomical phenomena and stars gradually formed a set of systems, including fire (heart), dustpan, bucket, stability (house and wall), banners, bi, Shen, Petunia and Weaver Girl, all of which can be found in the Book of Songs. In addition, there is a record about the Milky Way in the Book of Songs: "Wei Tian has Han (Mao Chuan: Han, Tianhe also), and there is light in the mirror." (Xiaoya Dadong) The names of crops in the Zhou Dynasty are relatively complete, which is also reflected in the Book of Songs. For example, "He, Ci, Ci, Ci, Mai, Mi, Zi, Gua, Ci" can be found in Daya. "Melon, roast" and so on can be seen in the elegant noodles; Other poems include "Mi, Liang, Su, Su, Mi, Mi, Huo, Mi, Lai, Mo, Hu, Mi and Guo".

In order to express the modality of people's various behaviors, the Book of Songs describes people's behaviors in detail. For example, there are words such as "flow, pick, squat, lift, hug, take, throw, carry, hug, pull, pull and pound" to express different movements of the hand.

Some modal particles in The Book of Songs are often used at the beginning, middle and end of sentences, such as "Zhi, Hu, Zhe, Ye, Er, Yan, Zai, Zhi, Die, Die". The use of these modal particles imitates the poet's tone of speech and strengthens the semantic expression of poetry, and some of them form syllables, which makes poetry neat and rhythmic. For example, the third chapter of Daya uses two "Yi" words, the last few sentences of Daya Mian use four "Yi" words, and the fourth chapter of Daya Daming uses three "Zhi" words, which is quite attractive to read. These modal particles used in The Book of Songs have been used in poetry creation ever since. As Mai said: "The auxiliary words used in Mao's poems are regarded as single sentences, such as Hu, Yan, Ye, Zhe, Yun, Yi, Er, Ya, so far." It can be said that the most basic monosyllabic words used in ancient literature are basically complete in the Book of Songs.

Characteristic disyllabic words In the era of The Book of Songs, Chinese disyllabic words were not very developed, and monosyllabic words were still dominant in this period. However, from the vocabulary usage of The Book of Songs, disyllabic words have occupied a certain proportion. According to the dictionary of The Book of Songs, there are about 1000 disyllabic words. Most of these disyllabic words are formed on the basis of monosyllabic words, including various disyllabic words in Chinese: compound words, simple disyllabic words and repetitive words. There are compound words such as nouns, verbs and adjectives in The Book of Songs, which account for a considerable part of disyllabic words, and these words are mostly inherited by later documents. Such as "son of heaven, gentleman, farmer, warrior, first king, first king, ancestor, son, slave, guest, family, lover, wife, beauty, conquest, escape, repetition, rest, engagement, sadness, sorrow, toil, light" and so on. Among the disyllabic words in The Book of Songs, the disyllabic words and simple phonetic words that read smoothly and have a sense of rhythm are most praised by people and have the greatest influence on later literati's creation. According to Xia Chuancai's research statistics, two-thirds of the chapters in The Book of Songs used reduplicated words, totaling 646 times, involving 198 (The Book of Songs, a New Edition of Language and Art, 56 pages, Language Publishing House, 1998). A prominent feature of the language art of The Book of Songs is the extensive use of words to enhance the imagery and musicality of poetry, better describe scenery and convey feelings. Another prominent feature of disyllabic words in The Book of Songs is the extensive use of disyllabic words. Lian Mian's Ci is a word composed of two syllables, which can't be explained separately. These words often have a disyllabic or rhyming relationship in pronunciation. The use of a certain number of Lian Mian words in poetry can enhance the musicality and appeal of poetry. Lian Mian's words in The Book of Songs can be divided into: (1) disyllabic words. Love without seeing, scratching your head ("Jingnv at the Peak"). Shepherd's shepherd's purse is uneven and flows from side to side (Nan Zhou Guanluo). It suits me as soon as we meet (Zheng Feng has a creeping weed). Jiaxu is ash, and a thousand years is frost (Jian Qin). (2) rhyme. There is a reward for the slightest bit, and Samsung is in the sky ("Tang style saves for a rainy day"). After Qi Huangong II, he died (Xiaoya Baiju). Refusing to eat for the public, pretending to be a snake ("called Nan Lamb"). The son of Zi Zhong, dancing under it (East Gate of Morning Wind). In spring, the sun shines, and Amin is ploughing (July in Qi Feng). (3) Double-tone rhyme. I toss and turn in my spare time (Nan Zhou Bureau). Yi Wei is in the room and he is at home (Dongshan). There is no vertical paradox, so I would like to be gentle ("Daya Min Lao"). Rest after a good trip (Daya Juan A). The book of songs, a unique language, has a great influence on the creation of poetry and fu in later generations. As Hong Qing Ji Liang said:

None of the 300 articles is non-disyllabic. From Chu Ci to Yuan, Yun, Mei and Ma's works, the three capitals and two capitals are all like this. Poets in the Tang Dynasty took Du Zimei as their ancestor, and the five or seven words were similar, both of which were double-voiced. Occasionally, there are two-tone rhyming sentences or no sentences, but only one tenth. After the Middle Tang Dynasty, so did Han, Li and Wen. (2 pages of Beishan Poetry Talk, People's Publishing House, 1983) These words are rhymed and repeated, and a large number of repeated sentences make the Book of Songs catchy to read and have a long lasting charm, which has been emitting language charm for thousands of years.