A Discussion of The Poetics on The Origin of the Book of Songs by Fang Yurun

This paper summarizes and analyzes Fang Yurun's poetics based on his commentary about works of art in The Origin of the Book of Songs.His viewpoint includes,firstly,he rebelled against the traditional viewpoint of poems conveying ambition in Shang shu,enabling his understanding of The Book of Songs to go back to literary aesthetics;secondly,he stubbornly defended the traditional Confucianism viewpoint upholding the practice of gentleness and generosity,making him a real defendant of The book of Songs;thirdly,he strongly put forward the view of poet's original meaning,actually understood and interpreted The Book of Songs from literature,but not history and poetry,making his interpretation returning form poetry back to literature,form moral instruction to emotion cultivation.Thus,Fang Yurun's poetics bears a unique and valuable guidance to the understanding of The Book of Songs not only in the Qing Dynasty but nowadays.