《詩經》'東門'詩考

Abstract

≪The Book of Songs≫ is regarded as both the starting point and the essence of ancient Chinese literature. It describes the lifestyles of Chinese people for 500 years from the early years of the Xi zhou(西周) to middle years of the Chun Qiu(春秋). ≪The Book of Songs≫ consists of 15 Guo Feng(國風). Under the influence of confucianism, the poems of Zheng Feng(鄭風) and Chen Feng(陳風) out of 15 Guo Feng(國風) were considered of lesser important, as the poems were mainly about romantic love. This paper focuses on the meaning of poem about ‘The East Gate(東門)’ in Zheng Feng(鄭風) and Chen Feng(陳風), rather than a more comprehensive study of ≪The Book of Songs≫. Underlying theme of ‘The East Gate(東門)’ is spring, the source of all creation and love. ‘The East Gate(東門)’ is symbol of offering the place of the unification between nation and people rather than the physical place. Over the explanation of ‘The East Gate(東門)’, this paper is trying to find out the right location and the importance of ‘The East Gate(東門)’. It is found that ‘The East Gate(東門)’ appears in Zheng Feng(鄭風) is same as ‘Zhuan Gate(鄟門)’ inside of castle or ‘Qu Gate(渠門)’ outside of castle and ‘The East Gate(東門)’ is in Chen Feng(陳風) is same as ‘Li Gate(栗門)’. This paper focuses on the symbolistic meaning and physical location of ‘The East Gate(東門)’. The study is just beginning step and not completed yet, however this attempt can be the starting point for the study of the original meaning of the ‘Zheng Feng(鄭風)’ and ‘Chen Feng(陳風)’ in ≪The Book of Songs≫