司马迁论孔子“删诗”之说新解

A New Interpretation of Sima Qian’s Comments on Confucius’“Deleted Poems”

汉代刘向、刘歆校书的方式,首先是搜罗异本,统计总篇数,删除重复,之后编订定本。因此可知,同是汉人的司马迁在《史记·孔子世家》中的“古者《诗》三千余篇,及至孔子,去其重,取可施于礼义……礼乐自此可得而述,以备王道,成六艺”记载,实际上是司马迁叙述孔子对《诗经》的整理工作,并不能作为孔子“删诗”的依据。孔子校订《诗经》的文字,编定次第,编纂《诗经》定本作为教材,并将《诗经》配以符合周王室的正乐,使其在“礼”的场合演唱时,皆能符合礼节的规范和仪式,以期达到振兴礼乐、实行王道政治的目的。

In the Han Dynasty,Liu Xiang and Liu Xin’s method of proofreading was to collect different versions in the first place,count the total number of papers,delete the duplicates and then compile the final version.Hence it can be seen that Sima Qian who was also a Han Chinese wrote in Historical Records:The Family of Confucius:“There are more than 3,000 poems in the ancient Poems,up to Confucius.He prepared the king’s way and completed the six arts.”The documentary records are actually Sima Qian’s description of Confucius’finishing work on The Book of Songs,and cannot be used as the basis for Confucius to“delete poems”.Confucius edited the text of The Book of Songs,compiled the sequence,compiled the final version of The Book of Songs as a teaching material,and matched The Book of Songs with the proper music of the Zhou royal family so that when it is sung on“ritual”occasions,it can be in line with etiquette norms and ceremonies in order to revitalize the ritual and music and implement kingly politics.