Chapter 12 The third section "Shangshu" style and language

The style of "Shangshu" is also relatively rich.Kong Yingda's "Shangshu Zhengyi" is divided into 10 categories: "One is Dian, the other is Mo, the third is Gong, the fourth is Song, the fifth is Oath, the sixth is Patent, the seventh is Xun, the eighth is Destiny, the ninth is Zheng, and the tenth is Fan. .” The concept of such a division is not very clear.Now it is generally summarized into six types.The six types are based on the words of Cao Wei Confucianist Wang Su: "Gai's master is based on orders, so he proclaims the justice of the king's way and speaks to his subordinates. Therefore, all the records in it are codes, mos, trainings, edicts, oaths, and orders." The text." (See Liu Zhiji's "Shi Tong") This kind of classification is actually not all about the style of writing in the strict sense, but still focuses on the content.Explained below:

Codex: The most noble books. Writing of the word "Dian" in ancient characters Mo: means "planning".It is called "Mo" when the subordinates give advice and suggestions to the emperor, or discuss issues between the emperor and the ministers. "Gao Tao Mo" records the discussion between Gao Tao and the monarch. Training: It is training. According to legend, "Yi Xun" records the words of Yi Yin, a minister of the Shang Dynasty, who admonished Shang Wang Taijia. Gao: The monarch's speech to his subjects is the meaning of an edict. Oath: It is an oath or mobilization order.Mostly used in military operations.

Order: It is easier to understand, it is an order, including a reward order.Although this classification is not very scientific, as a traditional saying, it is also necessary to understand. "Shangshu" is the oldest book in the "Five Classics".Reading it requires a lot of knowledge of ancient Chinese and ancient history.If you just want to have a general understanding, you can find relevant books in the library, just choose one that suits your needs and read it carefully.If you want to study in depth, you need to study the annotations of the original work carefully and have someone guide you.The old commentaries reflect the understanding of the ancients, and the study of any classic text must start from this.But be aware that the old commentaries are not easy to understand, and not all of them are correct.For example, in the "Tang Oath" quoted above, "There are people today, you said: I will not sympathize with us in the future, and I will cut off Zhengxia without my business." It is: "You, you have many people. My queen is also Jie. Righteousness is government. It is a policy of expropriation that takes away the people's agricultural achievements." Kong Yingda's "Justice" further dredged up and colluded with this commentary: "You, etc. He said: "My lord Xia Jie does not worry about us and the others. He abandons my harvesting and deprives me of my agricultural achievements, and instead governs Xia Yi for expropriation." They all regard "cutting" as a word. , interpreted as "policy of expropriation" (that is, extortionate extortion from the common people).So I had to interpret the subject "my queen" as "Xia Jie".But in this way, the logic is messed up.According to the idiomatic usage of "zheng" in oracle bone inscriptions, "zheng" means "conquer". "Zhengxia" means "Zhengxia" (conquering Xia Jie). "Cutting" should be a typo of "harm". According to the idiomatic usage of ancient Chinese, "harm" is a borrowed word for "曷".So "cut" means "harm" and "he", which means "why".Therefore, this sentence is actually a complaint from the merchants to King Tang (my empress), which means: "Our king doesn't sympathize with us, why did we waste our crops and attack Xia Jie?" A great discourse of the king.

There are quite a lot of questions like this in "Shangshu".When we look through the old annotations, new annotations, old translations, and new translations, we will find many inconsistencies. The fundamental reason is that we have different understandings of the meaning of the original words, which affects the understanding of syntax, so some of the sentences have different punctuation.Therefore, the original features of this ancient document still need to be continuously studied and explored, especially in the future, it needs to be analyzed and understood by using relevant materials unearthed underground, so as to be clear.