Abstract: Shi Jing, also known as The Book of Poetry, embraces three sections namely Feng, Ya and Song, telling the author's clear consciousness of literary genre classification. Based on the definition and interpretation of Feng from Mao Shi Da Xu, the preface to Shi Jing, a study on its character form and literal meaning as well as its cultural significance in early society concludes that the literal sense of Feng draws from a local music with sexual and reproductive cultural implications that rest on Pan, a ritual food vessel. Its interpretations in later dynasties such as satire, Feng Jiao, tone, etc., are all derived from here. The literal sense of feng does shapes the style of Feng poetry in Shi Jing: firstly, through poetry collection, Feng transforms from “sexual relations and reproduction” to Feng Jiao, or moral enlightenment, thus shaping the style of Feng poetry; secondly, the literal sense of Feng determines the significant stylistic differences in content, function, and rhetorical structure between Feng poetry and Ya and Song.

Key words: Shi Jing, literal meaning of “Feng”, Feng Jiao, style