《曹风·候人》正解

Interpretation of“The Cao Air Hou Ren”

《候人》是《诗经》中的一篇具有丰富民俗文化内涵的诗,无论其艺术价值还是史料价值,在《国风》中都是拔乎其萃的。然而遗憾的是,它的主旨从古至今还没有人能真正理解。因为隔阂于古人的思维和情感表达方式,并昧于诗人的心机与笔法,自汉朝以来的各种释读与诗之本意都相去甚远。该诗是一群为贵族守门和迎送宾客的底层武士,看到美貌的贵族少女时想入非非的戏谑调笑之辞,它以“维鹈在梁,不濡其翼”与“荟兮蔚兮,南山朝(?)”两个带有浓厚性暗示色彩的意象兴起巫山云雨之思,以“彼其之子,不称其服”这种故意客观化的立场自我解嘲,出庄入谐,活现了无所事事的男人之间拿异性过口瘾时那种油滑醋酸的诨闹场景,使整首诗具有了新鲜灵动的生活情趣和深厚浓郁的民俗色彩。

“Hou Ren”is one of the poems in“The Book of Songs”with rich connotation of folk culture.It is outstanding among the poems in“National Style”in terms of its artistic value or historical value.Unfortunately,its essence has never been understood by anyone since ancient times.Because of not understanding the thinking and emotional expression of the ancient people,and the mind and writing technique of the poet,various interpretations from the Han Dynasty(202 BC~220 AD)are far from the original meaning of the poem.The poem describes that a group of guards who are the door keepers and do guests reception for the nobles speak flirting words when seeing a young noble lady.“Pelican stands on the beam without wings getting wet”and“The clouds and mist are heavy.Rainbow comes out of Nanshan mountain in the morning”.These two sentences contain strong sex implication,meaning they are hungry for sex.The sentence of“Those new nobles in the dynasty do not deserve for aristocratic clothes”means to get away from the ridicule from the intentional objective stance.From seriousness to humor,it presents a flattering scene of the idle men making sexual jokes on the female,so that the whole poem reflects a vivid life and rich folklore.