云梦问题的新认识

A New Understanding of the Problem of Yunmeng

自唐以来,学者虽然对先秦楚地云梦的位置、范围颇有争议,但一直都以"云梦"作为湖泊水体专名或游猎区专名。由于先秦迄汉晋时代在江汉—洞庭平原长江南北、峡江地区、黄淮平原淮河以北分布有七处以上的云梦,而汉代的"云梦官"不止一处,楚国(地)人也有"薮曰云"、"梦,泽中"、"梦,草中"之类的解释,因此早期"云梦"应不是专名,而是古夏(汉)语楚地方言对具有游赏意义的水体不大但植被繁茂之区的通称,其本来含义即为草泽或泽草。云梦分布的广泛性和云梦含义的揭破,不但可以较好解决学界关于云梦与云梦泽问题的长期争论,也使我们能够正确认识历史早期江汉—洞庭平原、华北平原、峡江等地的自然环境面貌。

Since the Tang dynasty,scholars have generally taken Yunmeng(云梦) in the pre-Qin state of Chu to be the name of a specific lake or hunting zone,although they have had different views on its exact location and area.But the author believes that originally,yǘnmèng was not a proper name but a general term in the Chu dialect of the ancient Xia(夏) or Chinese language;it referred to a body of water used for pleasure outings that was not large but had rich vegetation,and its original meaning was 'grassy marsh' or 'swamp grass.' This view is based on the fact that there were more than seven yǘnmèngs from the pre-Qin period to the Han and Jin dynasties,located in the Jianghan-Dongting Lake plain region north and south of the Yangtze River,the Three Gorges region and the Huang-Huai plain region north of the Huai River.In the Han dynasty,more than one region had a 'yǘnmèng official.' Besides,in the state(region) of Chu,people had explanations like 'a weedy lake is called yǘn(薮曰云 sǒu yǜe yǘn),''mèng(梦) means 'in the marsh'' and 'mèng means 'in the grass.'' The broad distribution of yǘnmèng and the deciphering of its true meaning not only enable us to better address the long-standing controversy over yǘnmèng,but also give us a better understanding of the natural environment of these regions in China's early history.