Quick Answer: What Does Shuo Shu Mean?
Shuo Shu (碩鼠, Shuò Shǔ), usually translated as “Big Rat” or “Large Rat,” is an anonymous poem in the Book of Songs (詩經, Shījīng), within the regional Airs of Wei (魏風, Wèi Fēng).
- Protest: The consuming rat becomes a figure for a power that takes the speaker’s crops without offering care or recognition.
- Repetition: Three stanzas repeat the complaint while changing the crop, the neglected obligation and the desired destination.
- Hope: The speaker resolves to leave for a happy land (樂土, lè tǔ), where a fairer life might be possible.
The received poem contains three stanzas of eight four-character lines: 24 lines and 96 Chinese characters. Its traditional interpretation condemns oppressive exactions; it is not simply a description of an animal eating grain.[1][2]
The repeated cry addresses a creature that consumes the speaker’s livelihood and gives nothing back. Each stanza returns to that complaint, then turns toward departure. The desired destination matters because it would replace neglect with care and a place to belong.
The Complete Three Stanzas and an English Sense Translation
Each table follows one stanza, grouping four phrases per row. The English is an original sense translation of the complete received text. It follows the traditional reading of a speaker who has long sustained the addressee, as an aid to reading this received version.[1][2]
First stanza:
| Chinese text | 大意 |
|---|---|
| 碩鼠碩鼠，無食我黍！三歲貫女，莫我肯顧。 | Great rat, great rat, stop eating my millet! For three years I have sustained you, yet you will not care for me. |
| 逝將去女，適彼樂土。樂土樂土，爰得我所。 | I am leaving you for that welcoming land. That land of well-being—there I shall find a place of my own. |
Second stanza:
| Chinese text | 大意 |
|---|---|
| 碩鼠碩鼠，無食我麥！三歲貫女，莫我肯德。 | Great rat, great rat, stop eating my wheat! For three years I have sustained you, yet you show me no kindness. |
| 逝將去女，適彼樂國。樂國樂國，爰得我直。 | I am leaving you for that happy country (樂國, lè guó). That country of well-being—there I shall receive what is rightfully mine. |
Third stanza:
| Chinese text | 大意 |
|---|---|
| 碩鼠碩鼠，無食我苗！三歲貫女，莫我肯勞。 | Great rat, great rat, stop eating my young crops! For three years I have sustained you, yet you will not acknowledge my toil. |
| 逝將去女，適彼樂郊。樂郊樂郊，誰之永號？ | I am leaving you for that happy countryside (樂郊, lè jiāo). That countryside of well-being—who would keep crying out there? |
The final question follows the traditional reading of hoped-for relief from suffering. The translation keeps “young crops” broad: the line does not require identifying the shoots as modern rice or another single species.
Why the Rat Becomes a Figure of Exploitation
The ancient Mao preface (毛詩序, Máo Shī Xù) explains the poem as criticism of a ruler’s excessive demands. Calling that power a large rat reduces its apparent dignity to an appetite: it eats what others need for life while neglecting its responsibilities.[1]
The complaint depends on failed reciprocity. The speaker has provided support over time but receives neither attention, kindness nor acknowledgment of labor. The metaphor makes that imbalance concrete before the repeated vow to leave.
This is a traditional political interpretation, not a recovered name for the poem’s individual author or target. The voice can be heard as speaking for people whose work sustains someone who disregards them. The larger Book of Songs reading guide places such voices within the anthology’s varied subjects.
What Changes across the Three Repeated Stanzas
The opening crop changes from millet to wheat and then young plants. The repetition makes the loss persistent: more than one form of sustenance is being consumed.
The failure of care also changes. First the speaker receives no consideration, then no kindness, and finally no recognition of toil. The desired response is consequently larger than the return of one handful of grain.
The destination changes from land to country to countryside. The endings likewise move through finding a place, obtaining one’s due and escaping prolonged lament. These variations keep the repeated structure active: the same grievance is heard through several related needs.[1][2]
“Three years” gives the complaint a duration within the verse. Zhu Xi (朱熹, Zhū Xī) reads the phrase as emphasizing how long the condition has lasted. That literary duration does not identify a particular worker’s employment history.[2]
The Happy Land and the Decision to Leave
The vow to depart changes the speaker’s position. Rather than only asking the consuming power to behave better, the voice imagines withdrawing from that relationship. A livable alternative becomes a way to judge the present.
The poem does not describe the route, identify a particular destination or narrate an arrival. Its repeated place names carry the wish for care, fair treatment and relief. The force lies in the announced decision and the expectation of something better.[1][2]
A useful comparison is the later 桃花源 (桃花源記, Táohuāyuán Jì), which gives its alternative community a narrative setting. Here, the desired place remains concentrated in a refrain. The two works develop their imagined alternatives in different forms.
How to Read the Refrain and Its Changing Words
- Hear the direct address: Notice that the speaker confronts the consuming figure rather than describing it from a distance.
- Compare the crops: Track millet, wheat and young plants across the repeated openings.
- Compare the failed obligations: Follow the changes from care to kindness to recognition of labor.
- Read departure as a decision: Keep the hoped-for destination distinct from a narrated, completed escape.
FAQs About Shuo Shu
Who wrote Shuo Shu?
Its individual author is unknown. It is transmitted as an anonymous poem within the Book of Songs; assigning a specific farmer, official or famous editor as its author goes beyond the evidence.[1][3]
Does 女 mean a woman in this poem?
Here 女 functions as the pronoun “you,” read rǔ, like 汝. It addresses the rat figure and does not identify the addressee as a woman.[2]
Does the speaker actually arrive in the happy land?
The poem declares an intention to leave and imagines relief elsewhere. It supplies no arrival scene, so the hoped-for outcome should not be turned into a completed historical event.[1]
資料來源
[1] Chinese Wikisource. Book of Songs: Shuo Shu, with the Mao Preface
[2] Zhu Xi; Chinese Wikisource. Collected Commentaries on the Book of Songs, volume three: Shuo Shu
[3] Columbia University, Asia for Educators. Selections from the Classic of Odes: Quince and Big Rat