The Book of Songs,which formerly known as Poems or Three Hundred Poems,was regarded as Shi Jing,a part of the Five Classics in the Han Dynasty.From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty,The Book of Songs was learned and interpreted as an important component of Confucian classics.However,people were inevitably influenced by social,historical and cultural conditions,so their interpretation and comprehension on The Book of Songs varied in different times.

In the long history of the study on The Book of Songs,the study on The Book of Songs in the middle ancient times was a very important stage.At that time,the cultural pattern of the overwhelming Confucianism was replaced by the cultural plurality.The Confucianism was not only influenced by the turbulent political situation then,but also impacted by Metaphysics and Buddhism.So the study on The Book of Songs in the middle ancient times experienced a development history from differentiation to integration.

During the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods,the classic study on The Book of Songs declined for the crisis of Confucian belief and the decay of the status of Confucian classics.This trend embodied in some indications:firstly,in the inner field of the classic study on The Book of Songs,the classical learning based on the cur-rent script declined quickly.The classical learning based on earlier,that is Mao Shi School,became the main object of study and annotation.In the study field of Mao Shi，an intense debate arose between Wang Su School and Zheng Xuan School.The essence of debate was explaining their respective comprehension on The Book of Songs by criticizing each other.In other words,they based their study on their own understanding.Al-though this debate was overheated,both sides did not adopt a new theory to endow The Book of Songs with a new interpretation.So this debate did not promote the development of the study on The Book of Songs in a new philosophical perspective.However,the interpretive method of Mao Shi School actually influenced the interpretive method of Metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties,which interpreted Confucian classics by respective opinions instead of previous conclusions.Therefore,the interpretive method of Mao Shi School accelerated the emergence of Metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties which interpreted Confucian classics by the profound theory of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.Another indication for the decline of the classic study on The Book of Songs was the tendency of non-classic study in the interior of this field.For example,Wang Su＇s Shi Jing Zhu usually studied and interpreted The Book of Songs from a literary perspective.It was an essential way to object to Zheng Xuan＇s theory and also an inevitable outcome of the rapid development of literature concept in Jian＇an Period.It was undoubtedly a great impact on the classic study on The Book of Songs for the new tendency of literary interpretation in this field.The third indication for the decline of the classic study on The Book of Songs was the emergence of another non-classic study-the study of things and their names in The Book of Songs.Mao Shi Cao Mu Niao Shou Chong Yu Shu,a book written by Lu Ji during the Three Kingdoms Period,was a typical example for such kind of study.The fourth indication for the decline of the classic study on The Book of Songs was the lack of great masters in this field.Although there were hundreds of books about the study on The Book of Songs during the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods,it was still lack of great masters.Even Wang Su＇s Mao Shi Zhu,a famous book at that time,had not adopted new theory to reinterpret The Book of Songs,but developed from the classical learning based on earlier.The lack of great masters was also an important reason for the decline of the classic study on The Book of Songs at that time.The last one,the Metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the prevalence of Buddhism made a great influence on the interpretation on The Book of Songs then.The concrete manifestation was the emergence of the annotation on The Book of Songs.This kind of documents usually elucidated argumentation in the course of interpretation.The elucidatory style and content also had many differences in South and North.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties,the formation and development of the imperial examination system raised a claim about uniting text and annotation to Confucian classics.Kong Yingda and other scholars wrote Wu Jing Zheng Yi,changing the conflict situation of Confucian classics to a unified thought.Mao Shi Zheng Yi summarized the study achievement on The Book of Songs since the Han Dynasty.This book relied on the theory of Mao Shi School in the Han Dynasty,skillfully bringing the essence of the study on The Book of Songs during the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods into the system of the classical learning based on earlier in the Han Dynasty.Mao Shi Zheng Yi was designated as standard materials of imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty.It also absorbed the essence of the annotation on The Book of Songs during the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods.So the scholars of the Tang Dynasty mostly studied Mao Shi Zheng Yi and neglected the documents of The Book of Songs during the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods.Consequently,the documents of The Book of Songs during the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties Periods gradually decreased and disappeared in the Song Dynasty.Because Mao Shi Zheng Yi had been designated as standard materials of imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty,the learning of Mao Shi Zheng Yi became a universal phenomenon.This fact was also an obstacle to the development of the interpretation of The Book of Songs.Some scholars with insight in the Tang Dynasty broke the shackles of former theories and invented a new way of study.They revisited and reinterpreted The Book of Songs and firstly raised suspicion on the Han School of The Book of Songs,pioneering the speculative study style in the Song Dynasty.

Keywords:the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties; the Sui and Tang Dynasties;the documents of The Book of Songs;study