Top 4 Rules When Reading Confucian Poetry

Confucian poetry has been very prominent in the culture and religion since the very inception. Here are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind when reading some poems.

1. Xing is greater than Fu
These two terms, as well as bi, are paramount in Confucian poetry and describe three complementary approaches to reading poems.

Fu - basic level meaning of a word. Literal
      Ex. leave falling from blossom tree

Bi - situation referred to in a round-about way through the poetic image. Metaphor
      Ex. a friend whom you have lost. You are the tree. Your friend is the leaves.

Xing - affection and realization that is stirred when the fu sheds light on bi
      Ex. the unmentioned sadness of losing a friend

Generally, Fu is presented to help the reader understand the meaning, Bi is a little more interesting, and Xing is the overall goal of reading poetry by connecting Fu and Bi together.

2. The reader is greater than the author 

Confucian poetry began with a concern about the authorial intent. What was most important to the author was to work out what the author was trying to convey at the level of Xing.

Mencius, a significant figure in Confucianism wrote that, "When one reads the poems and writings of the ancients, can it be right not to know something about them as men? Hence one tries to understand the age in which they lived. This can be described as 'looking for friends in history'". In order to make sense of a piece of writing the reader had to previously understand the history of the author.

However, the scholar Wang Fuzhi, a neo-confucianist in the seventeenth century, turned this idea around and claimed that the author may have intended certain things, but what was important was for the reader to derive meaning according to how he/she felt.

3. The Scholar who can quote poetry is greater than the pleb who can't
The ability to recite and interpret poetry is highly praised in Confucianism. It marks one as a distinguished and learned person, therefore a knowledge of the Book of Odes, one of the five classics in Confucian literature, was essential in becoming part of that elite society.

"Draw inspiration from the Poems; steady your course with the ritual; find your fulfillment in music."
                                                                                                    - Confucius, The Analects
"Have you worked through the first and the second part of the Poems? Whoever goes into life without having worked through the first and second part of the Poems will remain stuck, as if facing a wall."
                                                                                                    - Confucius, The Analects

This ability involved more than just the reading of poetry. One had to also interpret and use poetry in conversation. This is because the solemn quoting of a poem can sometimes be enough to settle an argument or make a point. Great difference is then shown to scholars who can exert the Odes in such a knowledgable and authoritative manner. And on the other hand, regular people would feel a great uncertainty in putting forward their own views over against that of a learned scholar.

4. Interpretation 
Throughout history there has been a definite movement away from the text itself and an emphasis on the ability to interpret poems through techniques like Xing. This attention to interpretation over literal text shows the attention of the shift from the author to the reader. In Confucian tradition, it is not about what the author was trying to say, it is what the reader learns from it. In addition, it helps to separate the scholars from the common people who are not as capable of interpreting poems as the scholars who have studied this art for years.