Confession of Love, but restraint！（update Fishhawk）

The poem "Fishhawk" has a very special position in Chinese literature. It is the first poem of the "Classic of Poetry" which is the first literary work in Chinese civilization. I choose to analyze this short poem, because it is considered as the foundation of Chinese literature. It also influences the history, philosophy, literary, society, and culture of early Chinese.

The ancient Chinese attached importance to the Doctrine of the Mean(a text rich with symbolism and guidance to perfecting oneself). The guiding principle of the mean being that one should never act in excess. "Fishhawk" reveal this thought perfectly. First, the love between male and female is natural and normal. The repetition of "gental maiden, pure and fair" throughout the poem creates a feeling that the maiden is indeed yearned for by the prince. The words "waking and sleeping" shows prince deeply loves the maiden and wanted to be alongside her. In the Mao Commentary(The annotation by Han Dynasty scholar Mao Heng and his nephew Mao Chang), they considered the family as a basic unit of the society, and the harmony of the family is so important to the harmony of the society. So the pure love which like the love between those two fishhawks is praised highly by the ancient Chinese. Secondly, even though the prince love the maiden deeply, he did not touch the maiden directly throughout the poem. The prince cannot fall a asleep, but he did not talk to the maiden directly, he plays "bells and drums, do her delight." In the Analects of Confucius, he thought desire between male and female may make people to act unreasonable. It has the risk to make the society chaos, so he encourage people to act abstemiously. This poem commend people to restrain their emotions, act carefully, and enjoy a love which has a purpose of marriage.

"Fishhawk" was arranged at the beginning of Chinese literature, the thought of the Doctrine of the Mean in this poem influenced the Chinese people for thousand of years!