Chinese poem illustration: 齐风 鸡鸣/ Qi Wind – Cock Crow by Anonymous
Full video also available at Bilibili: 齐风 鸡鸣
Poem illustration starts at 7:20 after a short introduction to Qi State(齐国). As the most close partner state to Zhou states and people, Qi state keeps strong and powerful since its founder, the legendary Jiang Ziya(姜子牙) or taken as Grand Duke of Jiang(姜太公), while enfeoffed to the most east frontier land from the capital. All these might contribute to the flavors and aspects of Qi Wind.
The Cock Crow described a vivid and funny moment in a senior officer, or the state lord’s sleeping room, which is a bit weird and unique in Shijing. Cock Crow(鸡鸣) is also one of the twelve chinese hours(十二时辰), or now mostly called as Choushi(丑时) which is 1:00AM-3:00AM, it is the time to get up in ancient China.
One more year after this video, I have a new interpretation for this poem: The whole poem is about a ancestor ceremony held in the night. When the cock crows, the ritual is coming to the end. This ceremony could be a combination of ancestor worship and statesman meeting, the character 盈 is ritual of pouring wine as sacrifice, 昌 equals 唱 which is the song used in ceremony. 苍蝇 is one kind of the frog rather than a fly. 甘与子同梦 expressed the poet, the state lord most probably, would like to stay with the ritual, which is like a dream, a dream in which he rejoin with his ancestors, very likely his father, the founder of the Qi state , Duke Jiang the Grand(姜太公). 虫飞薨薨=虫非薨薨=非虫薨薨 which means I blame those barking frog, they wake me up from my sweet dream.
齐风 鸡鸣
佚名
鸡既鸣矣，朝既盈矣。
匪鸡则鸣，苍蝇之声。
东方明矣，朝既昌矣。
匪东方则明，月出之光。
虫飞薨薨，甘与子同梦。
会且归矣，无庶予子憎。
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