Shijing and the Expostulation Culture of Pre-Qin and Han Dynasty

In the earlier ancient times of China, the consanguineous bond was very important in the political structure.When the ministers wanted to expostulate to the ruler, they always admonished frankly.In Shijing, there are a lot of verse written by the ministers.As immediate household of the sovereign, they admonished the sovereign with these poems."Dedicating the poems" and "Collecting the poems" are two modes of Shijing's intervening in politics.As the social structure changed, the consanguineous bond loosed, and the autocratic monarchy was strengthened, so admonishing frankly became more and more dangerous.Meanwhile, euphemistical expostulation was getting more and more encouraged.The Shijing study of Han dynasty came into being against this historical background, and formed the theory of"the expostulation of eulogizing and satirizing".This theory said that every poem must have something to do with certain historical and political background.Even those poems which had no intention of expostulating, were all explicated as expostulation as well.The theory of"the expostulation of eulogizing and satirizing" have a great effect upon the the subsequent practice of writing poetry and the poetic criticism.Probing the process of how this theory came into being from a political historical standpoint, will be of positive significance to us to understand the Chinese ancient poetry better.