「鹿」的意象，在臺灣漢族民間信仰中被視作「利祿」的象徵，也普遍運用在各色器物的紋飾上。然而，臺灣原住民亦以「鹿」為生計，關係匪淺，經讚明鄭以降傳統漢誠的傳頌謳歌，將臺灣「鹿」的意象深刻紀實，躍然紙端。 近歲，筆者戮力檢索海內外公私典藏單位及個人蒐集的故紙殘書，爬梳其間珍藏的臺灣傳統漢詩資料。同時，鎖定相關命題進行考稽古史文獻，留心搜羅圖繪影像。今草撰本文，嘗試將寓目所及，詳加臚列成：遇見臺灣鹿、臺灣鹿的傳說、民俗象徵、養殖、捕獵與應用，以及臺灣鹿與「草地人」語彙的沿草，條陳分析，將臺灣鹿的意象與傳統詩文相互比對，添加臺灣原住民口傳文學從旁佐證，希冀提供臺灣常民文化與傳統文學彼此呼應相承的具體視角。 The image of the deer has been widely used in Taiwan’s cultural products. According to the Taiwan Han ethnic local belief, it symbolizes the fortune of “wealth and position.” In the mean time, the deer was also an important animal in the aboriginal Taiwanese’s culture and life. In Taiwan’s traditional Han poetry since the Ming dynasty, the deer stands out as a conspicuous image. In the recent years, I have put my hands on all kinds of documents and materials, institutional as well as personal collections, verbal or pictorial representations, to examine the deer image. This article tries to uncover how traditional Taiwanese hunts and raises the deer and how the deer image appears in different cultural representations: in local beliefs, legends and languages (how the deer was related to the Taiwanese word “grassland people.” In particular, I compare the above-mentioned folk representations with the Han writings (poetry in the main) as well as the aboriginal oral literature. The intertextual analysis here provides a useful perspective to the study of both the folk and the traditional Han elite cultures.
