在數多的文藝作品中，意象是作者經常運用手法之一，它使作品添加創造力，將讀者從消費者變成生產者。然而，意象並非無中生有，更非與生俱來，許多的意象便是語出文化典故，自是承脈絡者。本文主旨是從中國文學史上尋求走獸類動物的相關知識，特別是從《詩經》中找尋走獸類動物相關文詞，並探求其意象。為達上述目的，本文透由「文獻探討法」針對《詩經》中出現的虎、豹、象、狐、熊等走獸類相關語詞，進一步還原典故，精確地掌握、理解牠們在《詩經》中被賦予的意象。接著，再借鑒皮爾士（Charles S. Perce，1830-1914）的「記號學方法」針對上述走獸類動物相關語詞做記號式的結構分析，最後再探討這些走獸類動物語詞以及其指謂對象兩者的關係。研究結果如下：「虎」皮是當時軍隊常用的紋飾之一，主要是藉由其「兇悍」、「威嚴」的意象來壯盛軍容；再者，以「象骨」製成之珍貴飾品是當時富貴人家的珍藏；穿著稀罕之「豹紋」皮製衣著，以顯示達官貴人之威儀。值得一提的是，〈小雅‧斯干）篇所言：「吉夢維何，維熊維羆」，句中的情境：「夢熊」也沿襲到當前，成為「吉兆」的一種象徵，也是「夢熊」最早的出處。可見《詩經》對中華文化的影響極為深遠。另外，在本次藉由皮爾士記號學針對《詩經》走獸類動物的討論後發現，詩家善以觀査動物的表徵與行為特性為主要著眼點來設喻，就記號的角度而言，這傾向於「肖象性」記號手法，可見「肖象性」的喻況在早期是一個習常的創作思惟。藉此或可窥見，古聖人在創作時的心理運作模式與程序的自然反應，若能將這些走獸類名物及其意象應用於視覺藝術與視覺設計創作中或許更能增添文化意味與進發的樂趣。

In a number of literary and artistic works, the symbol is one of the author's usual practice, it makes the work more creative, and the reader will become into a producer from a consumer. However, the symbol is not out of nothing, its image is more innate, relatively more symbol is the language of cultural allusions, naturally there are context. The purpose of this paper is to find the relevant knowledge of the beasts from the history of Chinese literature, especially from the Book of Songs, and to explore the images of tigers, leopards, elephants, foxes and bears. In order to achieve the above purpose, the literary review was applied to obtain the meanings of tiger, leopard, elephant, fox and bear in the Book of Songs. Peircean Semiotics (Charles S. Peirce, 1839-1914) was adopted to obtain the major point to the symbolic structure of the above-mentioned animals, and finally, the relationships between the words of the tigers, leopards, elephants, foxes, bears were further analyzed. The following are the findings of this study. First, ＂Tiger＂ is one of the commonly used ornaments of the army at that time, mainly by its ＂dignity＂ to use as a strong military capacity; Moreover, the ＂elephant bone＂ made of precious jewelry is the collection for the rich people; wearing a rare ＂leopard＂ leather clothing to show dignitaries. It is worth mentioning that ＂Xiaoya, GanSi＂: ＂The dream bear＂ is also a symbol of ＂auspicious＂ and is the earliest source of ＂dream bear＂. It can be seen that the influence of the Book of Songs on Chinese culture is extremely far-reaching. In addition, in this time by the Peircean Semiotics for the ＂Book of Songs＂ animal race discussion found that the poet to observe the animal's characterization and behavior characteristics as the main focus to design, the mark point of view, This tends to be an icon sign. Thus, the icon sign of the metaphor in the early days is a habit of creative thinking. It is well known that the natural reaction of the ancient sage in the creative mode of operation and the natural reaction of the program, if the animals and their images applied to the visual arts and visual design creation may be more to add cultural meaning.