Analects of Confucius

The fish-hawk song is the first of three hundred songs, or lyric poems, that makes up the Classic of Poetry, which is taken to be one of the first literary works to come out of Chinese civilization. The Classic of Poetry was read and studied by all traditional Chinese scholars and appears in Book Three of the Analects: “He said: The fish-hawk song [the first of the folk-songs in the anthology] is pleasant without being licentious, its melancholy does not hurt (does not wound)” (21). While Confucius references Classic of Poetry throughout, in Book 3 where he singles out a specific lyric poem, which is simply titled “fish-hawk.” The poem itself narrates the relationship between King Wen and his wife, the Queen Consort, and depicts an image of the good or virtuous wife as one who is not jealous of King Wen’s extramarital affairs. Moreover, and in the face of this fact, the queen reaffirms her commitment to King Wen by actively endorsing the king’s search for another woman. Ultimately, and according to the traditional Confucian interpretation of this poem, “fish-hawk” serves as an image of domestic harmony and as a model of action for every married couple.