A Comparative Study Of Love Songs In Pre-qin Dynasty And Ancient Greece

Pre-Qin dynasty and Ancient Greece are both cultural origins of China and the West respectively. Thus the comparative study of love, marriage, and culture has been a great concern in the process of culture communication between China and the west. As an important carrier of love and marriage in Pre-Qin and Ancient Greece, love poems in both Pre-Qin period and ancient Greece are the research subject of the paper. Based on this, efforts will be made to provide some comparative analyses of these ancient poems with new approaches and from fresh perspectives, with the purpose of finding new conclusions of academic value.In the paper, differences between"love poems"and"love songs"are defined and then love poems from Book of Poetry and those written by Sappho, both of which are typical in Pre-Qin and Ancient Greece, are selected as the research subject. These love poems are expounded from a comparative perspective. First, the paper is focused on the way the erotic desires are represented in the love poems. It is found that in Pre-Qin poems these desires are mainly released indirectly with evocative mental activities. In addition, the desires and daily life are combined rationally. In ancient Greece poems, however, these desires are mainly released directly with seductive mental activities and erotic desires are combined with divinity. Second, these poems are studied from the perspective of customs and rituals, with the purpose of retrieving the live field in which these poems are produced, to illustrate that different love poems represent different ritual functions. Last but not the least, importance is attached to the pursuit of love with freedom and equality by both ancient Chinese people and western people. It is concluded that such pursuit is longed by Pre-Qin people for heterosexuality, especially men's loyalty and kindness in the imagination of women. In the west, however, such pursuit is cherished by homosexuality.All in all, ancient people share their profound love experience in their poems, not only making their lives rich and colorful, but laying a benchmark for their successors to pursue their love and marriage with freedom and equality.