The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 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.

II. vi. 1.

AN OVERWORKED OFFICIAL.

• • I climbed yon northern hills;
  • Plucked medlars on the way.
  • Strong, hale must be the officer
  • Who works from dawn till end of day.
  • And the king’s service dureth long with me;
  • And sorrow-stricken must my parents be.
• • Beneath the great wide Heaven
  • The king owns every land.
  • Go round each border—everywhere
  • His servants at his bidding stand.
  • Scant justice yet to me his Chiefs* have shown;
  • For I must work as were all wit my own.
• • On, on, my four male steeds!
  • King’s service brooks no rest.
  • Well that I have not weight of years;
  • For few with strength like mine are blest.
  • While my backbone as yet its strength retains,
  • Work for my head and hands all round remains.†
• • Some live content, in tranquil ease;
  • Some for their country their full vigour spend.
  • Some rest recumbent on their beds;
  • And some have journeyings that know no end.
• • Some know not clamours and alarms;
  • And some have miserable toil and pain.
  • Some idly roost, or lie supine;
  • Some serve their king, and scarcely bear the strain.
• • Some give themselves to mirth and wine;
  • Some live in miserable fear of blame.
  • Some gad about, and criticize;
  • While some have all to do that bears a name.

II. vi. 2.

ADVICE TO THE OVERBURDENED OFFICIAL.

• • Go not near the heavy cart;
  • ’Twill but cover thee with dust.
  • Take not all thy cares to heart;
  • Mar alone thy health it must.
• • Go not near the heavy cart;
  • Else the dust will dim thy sight.
  • Take not all thy cares to heart;
  • That can lead to nought more bright.
• • Go not near the heavy cart;
  • Else the dust will cloud thee o’er.
  • Take not all thy cares to heart;
  • That will only bring thee more.

II. vi. 3.

THE REGRETS OF FOREIGN SERVICE.

• • High Heaven, bright-beaming! Earth below
  • Lies in Thy sovereign view.
  • Forth to the West had I to march,
  • Far as these wilds of K’iu.
  • ’Twas on the second month I left,—
  • The opening day. Gone now
  • Are winter and summer. Sad my heart!
  • Too keen the sting, I vow.
  • I mind me how my colleagues fare,
  • And tears in showers I shed.
  • Have I no longing to be there?
  • —The net* of guilt I dread.
• • When first I left, the sun and moon
  • Were crossing o’er the line.†
  • When turn we homewards? for the year
  • Hastes now to its decline.
  • I mind me how I stand alone,
  • How falls on me the stress
  • Of cares full many. Sad my heart!
  • Free never from distress.
  • I mind me how my colleagues fare:
  • There my fond thoughts return.
  • Have I no longing to be there?
  • —I fear rude taunts and stern.
• • Erst as I left, the sun and moon
  • Shone down with genial ray.
  • When turn we homewards? Public cares
  • Press heavier day by day.
  • Fast wanes the year; they gather in
  • The southernwood, the beans.
  • O sad my heart, for to myself
  • More misery it means.
  • I mind me how my colleagues fare:
  • I rise—spend night without.
  • Have I no longing to be there?
  • But change* I dread and doubt.
• • Ah, ye good sirs! no permanent
  • Tranquillity have you.
  • Yet quietly your places fill;
  • Mix with the good and true.
  • Then will the Spirits have regard,
  • Thence good to you accure.
• • Ah, ye good sirs! Your own repose
  • May yet belie your trust!
  • But quietly your places fill,
  • And love the true and just.
  • Then will the Spirits have regard,
  • And win great good ye must.

II. vi. 4.

THE KING LOVES PLEASURE MORE THAN VIRTUE.†

• • What noisy clangour there of bells,
  • Where the Hwai river proudly swells!
  • My sad and wounded soul (rebels).
  • With fond regret
  • On our good kings my memory dwells,
  • Nor can forget.
  • Ay, there his bells make music gay,
  • Where the proud Hwai sweeps on its way.
  • My soul is sad and grieved to-day.
  • When good men reigned,
  • Virtue did ever mark their sway,
  • Pure and unstained.
• • The bells they clang, the drums they ply,
  • There where the Hwai’s three islands lie.
  • With saddened soul I chafe and sigh.
  • When good men reign,
  • In them a virtue we descry
  • Of different strain.
• • The bells clang out, with clamorous tone,
  • And lute and harp unite their own,
  • And pipe keeps time with sounding-stone
  • To Ya or Nan,*
  • Or flute-dance;—here are flaws unknown,
  • (So skilled each man.)

II. vi. 5.

AT THE GREAT SACRIFICE IN THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLE.

• • Where once were tangled thickets,
  • Now gone is every thorn.
  • Thanks to our father’s labours,
  • We grow our rice and corn,—
  • Our rice in crops abundant,
  • Our corn on every hand.
  • Thus filled are all our garners,
  • And stacks unnumbered stand.
  • For meat and drink they serve us,
  • For sacrificial food,
  • For comfort, for refreshment,*
  • For pledge of higher good.
• • With solemn grave demeanour
  • Thy bulls and rams prepare;†
  • So come we to the altars.—‡
  • Here flaying, seething there,
  • Here dressing, there presenting,
  • Priests offering by the gate,—§
  • So speed the rites sublimely;
  • The Sires∥ are there in state.
  • Good Spirits¶ love the offerings,
  • Good sons** win good success,
  • Rewarded with great blessing
  • To æons limitless.
• • Gravely the fires are tended;
  • The stands are made full large;
  • Some broil the flesh, some roast it;
  • Hushed are the Wives in charge
  • Who fill the numerous trenchers.
  • Guests, visitors,—each one*
  • In turn presents the pledge-cup,
  • And all is duly done,
  • With smile and word befitting.
  • So come the Spirits down,†
  • Responding with great blessing,
  • Long life thereof the crown.
• • Now, all our powers exhausted,
  • All rites exactly done,
  • Through the skilled Priest a message
  • Comes to the pious son:
  • “Thy fragrant filial offerings
  • “And feast the Spirits please;
  • “Who grant thee hundred blessings,
  • “As full, as true as these.‡
  • “Order and zeal thou showest,
  • “Rightmindedness and care.
  • “Of myriad—tens of myriads—
  • “Best gifts long be thou heir.”
• • Ended is now the ritual;
  • Warning give bells and drums;
  • The pious son then seats him;
  • The good priest’s message comes,
  • Saying, “Well have drunk the Spirits”;
  • Then the dread Proxies§ rise,
  • And drum and bell escort them;
  • And back each Spirit hies.∥
  • The servants and the matrons
  • Clear promptly all away,
  • And kith and kin get ready:
  • “To our feast now,” say they.
• • Musicians enter playing,
  • This after-grace to cheer.
  • With thy good things before them
  • Peace reigns unruffled here.
  • With food and drink then sated,
  • Bow heads both small and great:
  • “The Shades, pleased with thy feast, Sir,
  • “Thy life perpetuate.
  • “Right willingly and promptly
  • “This service hast thou done;
  • “And may each generation*
  • “Fail not to hand it on.”

II. vi. 6.

HUSBANDRY AND ANCESTOR-WORSHIP.

• • Ay, this South Hill assuredly
  • Did Yü (in time of old) reclaim;
  • So hill and dale were cleared,—and he,
  • The Latest Heir,† allots the same,—
  • Manor and farm, with varying bound,
  • Where South and Eastward lies the ground.
• • And when the heaven is clouded o’er,
  • And snow descends in heavy flakes,
  • And drizzling rain comes furthermore,
  • (The fields) it feeds, their thirst it slakes;
  • And thus the glad and sated earth
  • Brings all our sorts of grain to birth.
• • Manor and farm have every care;
  • And millets flourish, full and fine,
  • The harvest of the Latest Heir,
  • Whereof to make the food and wine
  • Our Proxies and our guests to give,
  • So he the myriad years may live.
• • And cots within the fields one sees;
  • For all the plots are lined with gourds,
  • And peeled and pickled all are these
  • To offer to the ancient lords,
  • That long the Latest Heir may live,
  • And Heaven’s full benison receive.
• • Oblations of pure wine he pours;
  • And then the dark-roan ox (he fells)
  • And offers to his ancestors;
  • Takes next the knife with tinkling bells,*
  • Lays bare the hair, and (tested that),†
  • Takes portions of the blood and fat;
• • These doth he offer and present,
  • And fragrant perfume fills the air;
  • And to the rites all-reverent
  • The ancient Sires in state repair,
  • And with great blessing these requite—
  • With life enduring, infinite!

II. vi. 7.

THRIFT AND GOOD YEARS.

• • O fair are those far-stretching fields!
  • Take yearly out the one in ten,*
  • Yet can we take of former yields
  • And feed therewith our husbandmen;
  • Long have the years been good. And now
  • We come where southward slopes the land.
  • And here they weed, and here they hoe,†
  • And rich and rank the millets stand.
  • And where the servants take their rest
  • I cheer the foremost and the best.
• • ’Tis by our gifts of millets fine,
  • And rams as victims blemishless,—
  • By sacrifice at every shrine,—‡
  • Our fields such goodly wealth possess.
  • Thus is the farmers’ joy complete:
  • And lutes they play, and drums they beat,
  • The Father of the Fields§ to greet,
  • To speed the prayer for showers sweet,
  • To make our millets thrive yet more,
  • To give our men and maids good store.
• • Now comes the Latest of his Line!
  • While wives and children bring the food
  • Here where to south the fields incline.
  • The Steward, too, in cheery mood
  • Arrives, and, fingering here and there,
  • Tastes whether all be good or no.
  • The crops look perfect everywhere:
  • Well and abundantly they grow.
  • Our lord can no displeasure feel;
  • The husbandmen are stirred to zeal.
• • Thy crops, O long-descended lord,
  • Roof-high will grow, and thick as thatch;
  • Thy stacks, O long-descended lord,
  • Islands and mounds anon will match.
  • Seek must we for a thousand floors,
  • Seek must we for a myriad carts!
  • Millets and maize and rice—what stores!
  • What pleasure to the farmers’ hearts!
  • May greatest blessings thee repay:
  • Live thou for ever and for aye!

II. vi. 8.

THE SAME.

• • Large are the fields, and much there is to sow,
  • The seed is chosen, all is done with care,
  • And all being ready, to the work we go;
  • And here beginning, each with sharpened share,
  • We break into the southward-sloping land,
  • And scatter there of every sort of grain;
  • Anon erect and stately shall it stand.
  • And thus the Latest Heir his wish obtain.
• • Anon the ear, and then the full soft seed,
  • Anon more firm, and fine as it is firm,—
  • No darnel shall be there, nor noxious weed;
  • The caterpillar and the cankerworm
  • And grub and weevil shall be cleared away:
  • To the young crop shall none bring damage dire.
  • O ghostly Father of the Fields, we pray,
  • Take them, and give them to the flames of fire.
• • The clouds are gathering now, an inky pall,
  • The rains begin, in mild and gentle showers;
  • First on the public fields then let them fall,
  • And after the descend on these of ours!
  • And yonder will be young ungathered grain,
  • And here be sheaves we trouble not to bind,
  • And yonder handfuls suffered to remain,
  • And here the straggling heads we leave behind;—
  • These the lone widows for their portion gain.*
• • And now he comes, the Latest of his Line,
  • Whileas the wives and children fetch the food,—
  • Here where the acres to the south incline.
  • The Steward, too, arrives, in cheery mood.
  • He† comes, and the pure sacrifice sets forth
  • Of victims red and black, and gifts of grain,
  • To Spirits of the air—of South and North;‡
  • And by these gifts and offerings he shall gain
  • To blessings great still more of greater worth.

II. vi. 9.

WELCOME TO THE SOVEREIGN AT THE EASTERN CAPITAL, BY THE FEUDAL PRINCES.

• • See there adown the Loh,
  • How its proud waters flow;
  • There comes our king!
  • Fortune’s full gifts he bears,
  • Apron of scarlet wears,
  • Six hosts,* whene’er it flares,
  • Round him to bring.
• • See there adown the Loh,
  • How its proud waters flow;
  • There comes our king!
  • Gems flashing on his sword!
  • Long may he live our lord,
  • Forth from his House to ward
  • Each evil thing!
• • See there adown the Loh,
  • How its proud waters flow;
  • There comes our king!
  • Fortune’s full gifts hath he;
  • Long may he live to see
  • Kingdom and family
  • Safe ’neath his wing!

II. vi. 10.

THE KING’S RESPONSE (TO THE LAST).

• • Brightly the flower-buds blow,
  • Richly their leaves do grow.—
  • Meeting my lords
  • Light beats my heart again,
  • Light beats my heart again;
  • Peace and the praise of men
  • Be your rewards!
• • Brightly the buds unfold,
  • Rich are the hues of gold.—
  • You, Sirs, I see
  • With every grace endued,
  • With every grace endued;
  • May all beatitude
  • Yours ever be!
• • Bright are the buds, and fair,
  • White here, and golden there:—
  • You, Sirs, I see.
  • White teams, with dusky manes,
  • White teams, with dusky manes.
  • Drove ye, with glossy reins
  • Six, as should be.
• • Left of me, left of me,
  • Deftly, becomingly
  • Me do ye serve.
  • Right of me, right of me,
  • All do ye mightfully,
  • So take ye rightfully
  • That ye deserve!

[* ]The king’s chief ministers.

[† ]Lit., plan and labour (must I) everywhere.

[* ]See III. iii. 10, v. 1, and III. iii. 11, v. 1.

[† ]So fang-ch‘ü, may, I think, be interpreted in modern language.

[* ]The next two stanzas explain this expression.

[† ]The Ode is referred to the time of King Yiu, though with some uncertainty. The royal barge is on the river Hwai, and the king is entertained with music;—this at a time when the country was in great disorder and unsettlement. The poet laments that he has not the virtue of former sovereigns.

[* ]These are names for (it is thought) some early collection of songs, afterwards incorporated in the Shi King. The Ya is the name still of the Second and Third Parts of the Shi; and the Nan comprises the first two books of Part I.

[* ]This line is explained in the Chinese commentaries as referring to the victims given to the Representors or Personators of the dead. See III. ii. 4.

[† ]I take kiéh as if combined with toh, to adjust, to bind.

[‡ ]Lit., to the autumn and winter sacrifices.

[§ ]“By the gate,” as if to welcome the approach of the Spirits.

[∥ ]The spirits of ancestors.

[¶ ]Lit., “Spirit-guardians.” Chu-Hi thinks this refers to the Personators of the dead.

[** ]“Sons” and “son” throughout the piece are a free translation of sun, a descendant.

[* ]Lit., crosswise and diagonally, perhaps simply our “all round” (Legge).

[† ]The “Spirit-guardians,”—see note on p. 243.

[‡ ]I think this is the meaning of ju ki ju shih, as many, &c., as thy rites and offerings.

[§ ]The Personators of the Dead.

[∥ ]Each Spirit-guardian returns (to his place).

[* ](May thy) sons’ sons (and) grandsons’ grandsons, &c.

[† ]This may refer to the king; literally, the words mean the great-grandson, or remote descendant.

[* ]Small bells were attached to the handle of the knife, and tinkled during the performance.

[† ]See the Book of Rites. The hair of the victim must first be proved to be of the right colour.

[* ]There is a difference of opinion about shih ts‘ien; it would seem to refer to the tenths levied for the king.

[† ]Root-dressing, banking up with earth.

[‡ ]The meaning is, sacrifice to the Spirits of the Earth, and to the four quarters of the sky.

[§ ]A title of Shin-Nung, the Father of Husbandry.

[* ]Compare Deuteronomy, xxiv. 19-22.

[† ]The “he” refers to the personage of the first line.

[‡ ]The red bull was offered to the Spirits of the South; the black one to those of the North.

[* ]The six armies of the Royal Domain, each consisting of 12,500 men.