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• Introduction to the Shi King. *
• Part I.: Characteristics of the States.
• Book I.: The Odes of Chow and the South. *
• Book II.: The Odes of ShÂu and the South. *
• Book III.: The Odes of P‘ei.
• Book IV.: The Odes of Yung. *
• Book V.: The Odes of Wei.
• Book VI.: The Odes of the Royal Domain. *
• Book VII.: The Odes of Ch‘ing. *
• Book VIII.: The Odes of Ts‘i. *
• Book IX.: The Odes of Wei. *
• Book X.: The Odes of T‘ang. *
• Book XI.: The Odes of Ts‘in. *
• Book XII.: The Odes of Ch‘in. *
• Book XIII.: The Odes of Kwai. *
• Book XIV.: The Odes of Ts‘Âu. *
• Book XV.: The Odes of Pin. *
• Part II.: The Minor Festal Odes.
• Book I.
• Book II.
• Book III.
• Book IV.
• Book V.
• Book VI.
• Book VII.
• Book VIII.
• Part III.: The Greater Festal Odes.
• Book I.: The “wĂn Wong” Decade. *
• Book II.: The “shang Min” Decade.
• Book III.: The “tang” Decade.
• Part IV.: Festal Hymns and Songs.
• Book I.: The Hymns of Chow. * First Section.
• Book II.: The Hymns of Chow. Second Section.
• Book III.: The Hymns of Chow. Third Section.
• Book IV.: The Festal Songs of Lu. *
• Book V.: The Festal Odes of Shang.

BOOK VI.

THE ODES OF THE ROYAL DOMAIN.*

I. vi. 1.

THE DESOLATED CAPITALS: LAMENT OF A STATESMAN.†

• • Rice here drooping lowly,
  • Millet there in blade;
  • Wandering through them slowly,
  • I was sore dismayed.
  • Said the folks who knew me,
  • I with sorrow fought;
  • Folks who did not know me
  • Asked if aught I sought.
  • Powers of azure Heaven’s abyss!
  • Who, alas! was cause of this?
• • Rice here drooping lowly,
  • Millet there in ear;*
  • Wandering through them slowly,
  • Drunk I might appear.
  • Said the folks who knew me,
  • I with sorrow fought;
  • Folks who did not know me
  • Asked if aught I sought.
  • Powers of azure Heaven’s abyss!
  • Who, alas! was cause of this?
• • Rice here drooping lowly,
  • Millet there in grain;
  • Still I wandered slowly,
  • As in stifling pain.
  • Said the folks who knew me,
  • I with sorrow fought;
  • Folks who did not know me
  • Asked me what I sought.
  • Powers of azure Heaven’s abyss!
  • Who, alas! was cause of this?

I. vi. 2.

THE HUSBAND ABROAD.

• • My good man is a-marching gone:
  • No knowing when his term expires.
  • Ah! whither wends he now?
  • The rooster to his ledge retires
  • As day draws on to its decline,
  • And from the hill come goats and kine.
  • My goodman is a-marching gone:
  • How should I cease these musings then of mine?
• • My goodman is a-marching gone:
  • Not days, not months—no certain time.
  • When shall we meet again?
  • The roosters to their perches climb,
  • As days their lengthening shadows throw
  • And goats and kine are housed below.
  • My goodman is a-marching gone;
  • O could he never thirst nor hunger know!

I. vi. 3.

THE HUSBAND RETURNED.

• • The goodman is now at his ease, content!
  • His left hand holding an instrument,*
  • He beckons me forward with his right
  • To the (music) room. And O the delight!
• • The goodman is happy: no happier man!
  • His left hand holding the feathered fan,†
  • He beckons me forward with his right
  • To the (dancing) stage. And O the delight!

I. vi. 4.

HOME-LONGINGS OF THE FRONTIER-GUARDSMEN.

• • The pent-up waters‡
  • Float not away the faggots placed therein.
  • And yonder dear ones!
  • We miss them keeping watch and ward in Shin.
  • How long! how long! so do we yearn
  • To know the month of our return.
• • Ye pent-up waters!
  • Bundles of thorns rest motionless on you.
  • And yonder dear ones!
  • We miss them keeping watch and ward in Fu.
  • How long! how long! so do we yearn
  • To know the month of our return.
• • Ye pent-up waters!
  • Bundles of rushes idly rest on you.
  • And yonder dear ones!
  • We miss them keeping watch and ward in Hiu.
  • How long! how long! so do we yearn
  • To know the month of our return.

I. vi. 5.

THE WIFE DIVORCED BY FAMINE*

• • In the midst of the vale the motherwort grows;
  • All parched on the waterless ground.
  • There a woman away from her husband goes;
  • Ah, hear her sighs!
  • Ah, hear her sighs!
  • Hard times with her man she has found.
• • In the midst of the vale the motherwort grows;
  • All parched where it grew so tall.
  • There a woman away from her husband goes,
  • With long, loud moans,
  • With long, loud moans!
  • Upon her his misfortunes fall.
• • In the midst of the vale the motherwort grows;
  • All parched in the spots once wet.
  • There a woman away from her husband goes,—
  • Tears rolling down,
  • Tears rolling down!
  • And, alas! what awaits her yet!

I. vi. 6.

A WEARIED STATESMAN.*

• • Wily were the hares;
  • Pheasants came to net.†
  • In my early days
  • Cares I never met;
  • While my later life
  • Meets with all these ills.
  • Welcome were that sleep
  • That all trouble kills!
• • Wily were the hares;
  • Pheasants took the bait.
  • In my early days
  • Calm was every State;
  • On my later life
  • Come these hundred woes.
  • Welcome were that sleep
  • That no waking knows!
• • Wily were the hares;
  • Pheasants were decoyed.
  • All my early days
  • Lived I unemployed;
  • On my later life
  • Fall these hundred cares.
  • Welcome were that sleep
  • That the senses spares!

I. vi. 7.

THE EMIGRANT.

• • There intertwine the creepers fine
  • Beside the Ho luxuriantly.*
  • Through life I roam far from my home,†
  • And call a stranger father,
  • And call a stranger father,
  • Yet none will turn to look on me.
• • There intertwine the creepers fine,
  • And the Ho’s banks they overrun.
  • Through life I roam far from my home,
  • And call a stranger mother,
  • And call a stranger mother,
  • Yet none will take me for a son.
• • There intertwine the creepers fine,
  • And o’er the Ho’s steep bank they crawl.
  • Through life I roam, far from my home,
  • And call a stranger brother,
  • And call a stranger brother,
  • Yet none will listen to my call.

I. vi. 8.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER.

• • Ha, there he crops the creepers,* see!
  • One only day, with him away,
  • Is aye three months to me!
• • Ha, there he crops the fragrant grass!†
  • Be he away one only day,
  • Three autumns seem to pass!
• • Ha, there the mugwort now he clears!
  • One only day, with him away,
  • Is aye to me three years!

I. vi. 9.

WHY SHE CAME NOT.‡

• • His grand carriage—hark, how it is rumbling!
  • The furred robes, green-emblazoned,§ are there!
  • Are my thoughts, then, to thee never turning?
  • But I fear him, and nothing must dare.
• • Slowly, pond’rously moves his grand carriage,—
  • His furred robes as with garnets bedight.
  • Are my thoughts, then, to thee never turning?
  • Fear of him makes me halt in my flight.
• • Though in life we have separate dwellings,
  • Yet in death in one grave may we lie.
  • Call me faithless, yet still am I faithful,
  • While* the sun yonder shines in the sky!

I. vi. 10.

THE LOITERING LOVERS.

• • Amid the hemp along the hill,
  • Tse-tsië must there be loitering still,
  • Tse-tsië must there be loitering still:
  • Would he but come, my heart with joy to thrill!
• • Along the hill amid the wheat—
  • Tse-kwŏ is there, why lag his feet?
  • Tse-kwŏ is there, why lag his feet?
  • Would he but come to me and sit and eat!
• • Where on the hill the plum-trees grow
  • My swains are loitering, why so slow?
  • My swains are loitering, why so slow?
  • And each has girdle-trinkets to bestow!

[* ]This is the expansion of the single title “Wang” (royal). The royal domain or State was in Eastern Chow. Fung and Hâu were two successive capitals (see III. i. 10). On the accession of King P‘ing, there was a removal still further East (bc 769), and from this time the dynasty began to wane.

[† ]The old Preface says: “A great officer of Chow, travelling on the public service, came to the old capital, and, as he passed by, found the places of the ancestral temple, palaces, and other public buildings, all overgrown with millet. Struck with sorrow for the downfall of the House of Chow, he moved about the place in an undecided way, as if he could not bear to leave it, and made this piece.”

[* ]The slight variations in the second and third stanzas seem to point to his lingering some months in the neighbourhood.

[* ]Properly, the mouth-piece of the reed-organ.

[† ]A dancer’s fan or screen, Both of these meanings are, how ever, attempted to be brought out by the bracketed words in the fourth lines.

[‡ ]The explanation of the metaphorical allusion to the water and faggots seems to be that as the course of a stream is choked, and the water deepens till it finds some way of proceeding, so the thought of home-ties was growing upon the soldiers till it threatened some ebullition.

[* ]The old Chinese interpreters here put the blame for the separation on the government. “When the government is good, husbands and wives support each other; when the State is disordered they separate.”

[* ]Referred to the time of King Hwan (bc 719-696), when the States revolted from him, and his army was defeated, and calamity followed calamity.

[† ]By the wily hares are meant those statesmen who had been the cause of these disorders, and sought to escape the consequence of their own acts; by the pheasants, those who acted straightforwardly, and suffered.

[* ]i.e., flourishing on their native soil.

[† ]Lit., far from my brothers, i.e., clansmen or kin. The old interpreters give a historical significance to this Ode. “King P‘ing’s relatives find fault with him for slighting ‘the nine classes of his kindred.’ ”

[* ]The Kŏ, as in I. i. 2 et al.

[† ]A kind of southernwood. The plants named seem only to have been chosen for the sake of the rhymes in the original.

[‡ ]In the decline of Chow there was much licentiousness between the sexes, but here and there it was curbed by stringent officers. Here is an instance of fear to elope under such an officer’s rule.

[§ ]Lit., like the young sedge—one of the five colours on the robes of great officials. Dark red, another of these colours, is referred to in the second stanza.

[* ]Lit., as; but here the phrase has the appearance of an oath.