Deserializing arbitrary object json arrays in inner classes with Gson or nested inner class

I am having troubles when I try to deserialize one Json string with Gson. The string goes something like this (Note: I just simplified it, but leaving the part I am having troubles with and because of that, there might be Json syntaxis errors, but I have checked with an online validator that the string I am working with is OK):

// let's call this "container" json element
{
"context": "context", 
"cpuUsage": cpuUsageValue,  
"name": "thename",
"rates": {
    "definition": [
        {
        "key": "name",
        "type": "string"
        },
        {
        "key": "rate",
        "type": "double"
        }       
    ]
    "rows": [
        {
        "name": "thename1",
        "rate": therate
        },
        {
        "name": "thename2",
        "rate": therate2
        }
    ]
}

Now, the problem I get is when I try to deserialize the json arrays ("definition" and "rows"). Rest of fields get proper values in deserialization. The class definition I am using is the following (no getters/setters for simplicity):

public class Container
{
   private String context;
   private Double cpuUsage;
   private String name;   
   private RateContainer rates;

   public Container()
   {

   }
}

RateContainer (inner static class to class Container, according to Gson specs):

public static class RateContainer
{
    private List<DefinitionContainer> definition;
    private List<RowsContainer> rows;

    public static class DefinitionContainer
    {
        String key;
        String type;

        public DefinitionContainer()
        {
        }
    }

    public static class RowsContainer
    {
        String name;
        Double rate; 

        public RowsContainer()
        {
        }
    }

    public RateContainer()
    {
    }
}

To parse the Json string, I use:

Container container = gson.fromJson(containerString, Container.class);

and I get the following exception:

Expecting object found: [{"key":"name","type":"string"},{"key":"rate","type":"double"}]

Looks like there has to be something in the class definition that does not work well. I have checked the Gson API and I know that, in order to deserialize lists, the usual thing to do is:

Type collectionType = new TypeToken<Collection<Integer>>(){}.getType();
Collection<Integer> ints2 = gson.fromJson(json, collectionType);

so I thought that maybe I could get these arrays first, using something like:

JsonElement element = contain开发者_运维技巧erJsonElement.getAsJsonObject().get("rates");

and then get "definition" and "rows", but I would prefer to keep everything in the Container object. Is there a way to deserialize these lists in such a way? Is there something wrong in the class definition?

Thank you all in advance!

In response to a few things in the original question, note the following three things:

1. Gson does not require deserialization to static inner classes.
2. It's only necessary to use a generified TypeToken if the type to be deserialized to is a generified collection. If the type to be deserialized to only contains such a collection, then use of a generified TypeToken is not necessary.
3. A major benefit of using an API like Gson or Jackson is for simple mapping and serialization/deserialization of Java data structures to/from JSON. So, explicite use of components like JsonElement can be avoided.

With the example JSON corrected as

{
    "context": "context", 
    "cpuUsage": "cpuUsageValue",  
    "name": "thename",
    "rates": {
        "definition": [
            {
                "key": "name",
                "type": "string"
            },
            {
                "key": "rate",
                "type": "double"
            }       
        ],
        "rows": [
            {
                "name": "thename1",
                "rate": "therate"
            },
            {
                "name": "thename2",
                "rate": "therate2"
            }
        ]
    }
}

...then the following deserializes (and serializes) simply and as expected.

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.util.List;

import com.google.gson.Gson;

public class Foo
{
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
  {
    Gson gson = new Gson();
    Container container = gson.fromJson(new FileReader("input.json"), Container.class);
    System.out.println(gson.toJson(container));
  }
}

class Container
{
  private String context;
  private String cpuUsage;
  private String name;
  private Rates rates;
}

class Rates
{
  private List<Definition> definition;
  private List<Row> rows;
}

class Definition
{
  private String key;
  private String type;
}

class Row
{
  private String name;
  private String rate;
}