|
|
Front Page  Titles (by Subject) BOOK III.: THE TANG DECADE. - The Shi King, the Old Poetry Classic of the Chinese
BOOK III.: THE “TANG” DECADE. - Misc (Confucian School), The Shi King, the Old “Poetry Classic” of the Chinese [1891]Edition used:The Shi King, the Old “Poetry Classic” of the Chinese. A Close Metrical Translation, with Annotations by William Jennings (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1891).
About Liberty Fund:Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright information:The text is in the public domain.
Fair use statement:
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
BOOK III.
THE “TANG” DECADE.
III. iii. 1.
ADMONITION OF KING LI.
[See III. ii. 9.—The poet here warns the king of the impending judgment of Heaven upon his misrule, drunkenness, and promotion of bad men to office.
In the first stanza we have the first intimation of the doctrine first instilled into all Chinese children at school at the present time and for centuries back, that man is born good, but deteriorates as life goes on.
The remaining stanzas afford an excellent instance of Chinese obliqueness in the way of putting things. King Li is warned by the warning that Wăn gave formerly to the last sovereign of the Yin-Shang dynasty. There was great boldness, however, in this, for the comparison is with one who is looked upon as China’s worst emperor, and Wăn had been put into prison for his remonstrance.]
-
- Great, great is God
- Who ruleth man below!
- Awful is He in judgment when
- The many vicious grow.
- The host of men, begotten of Heaven,
- Rest not in Heaven’s decrees;
- Not one but hath the primal [good],
- Scarce one its full degrees.
-
- Ah! cried King Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- Why these high-handed hinderers,
- These harpies, here have we?
- Why are they placed in stations high,
- And charged with cares of State?
- Vehement natures Heaven may send,
- But thou dost such inflate.
-
- Alas! said Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang for thee!
- Thy use of better men incurs
- Their frequent enmity.
- Vague tales they turn to obloquy:
- “Thieves, robbers are at Court!”
- And imprecations without end
- They use of every sort.
-
- Alas! cried Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- How thou dost rave at the kingdom’s core
- And deem’st nursed enmity
- A virtue! Virtue pales in thee;
- So hast thou none at back,
- Or either side. Thy virtue pales
- So leaders dost thou lack.
-
- Alas! cried Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- Heaven flushes not thy face; ’tis wine
- And graceless company.
- As climax to your erring ways
- You know not dark from light,
- But by the howls and yells you raise
- Turn daytime into night.
-
- Alas! cried Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- Like murmur of the insect tribes,
- Like broth ebullient, see
- Men small and great approach their fate!
- Still none his manners mends,
- And frenzy in this Central Land
- To the demon-lands extends!
-
- Alas! cried Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- Say not, God leaves us, say ’tis Yin
- Heeds not antiquity!
- For though thy veterans may fail,
- Yet thou hast rules and laws;
- Why these ignore, and thus the wreck
- Of high vocation cause!
-
- Alas! said Wăn;
- Alas, Yin-Shang, for thee!
- There is a saying among men,—
- “The o’ertoppling of a tree,
- While leaf and branch are yet intact,
- Shows ’tis a rootless thing.”
- Yin’s danger-signal is not far,—
- The time of Hià’s [last] king!
III. iii. 2.
SELF-ADMONITION.
-
- Hold, O hold to strict decorum;
- This is virtue’s vantage-coign.
- There’s a saying, “None so wise but
- Rudeness to his wit will join.”
- But the rudeness of the many
- Springs from natural defect,
- While the rudeness of the wiser
- Is the product of neglect.
-
- None is mightier than the true man;
- For of him all quarters learn:
- Let one firmly hold to virtue,
- All the States to him will turn.
- Counsels deep, commands unwavering,
- Plans far-reaching, warning due,
- Reverent care for strict decorum,—
- These must be the people’s cue!
-
- Now what have we? Error rampant,
- Chaos in our government,
- Virtue all dethroned, subverted,
- Savages on drinking bent!
- Yet, although so bent on pleasure,
- Wherefore break with all your past,
- And the wisdom of old rulers
- Care so little to hold fast?
-
- Those whom mighty Heaven abandons,
- Think! are like the fount that flows,
- Then is choked, and lost for ever!
- Up then early, late repose;
- Wash and sweep thy Court’s interior:
- —Symbol that the land well knows.
- Order well thy steeds, thy chariots,
- Bows and arrows, spears and swords;
- Be in readiness for action,
- Keep afar the Southern hordes;
-
- Perfect all,—thy chiefs, thy people;
- Guard thy regimen as Prince;
- All emergencies prepare for;
- Care in all thy speech evince;
- Give good heed to strict decorum;
- Nought of rudeness e’er betray.
- Flaws may be in thy white sceptre,
- They may yet be ground away;
- Flaws in things that thou dost utter,—
- All intangible are they!
-
- Let not words go from thee lightly;
- Say not ever, “What care I?
- There is nought my tongue can hinder.”
- —Ah, but words can never die.
- Nought is said but finds its echo,
- Nought well done but finds reward;
- Treat thy subjects as thy children,
- Be with friends in full accord;
- So thine issue shall continue,
- And all subjects own thee lord.
-
- While thou companiest with worthies,
- Gentle calm thy brow assumes,
- All thy care is to be blameless.
- So be in thy private rooms,—
- Unabashed beneath thy skylight!
- Say not, “I am out of view:
- No one now may come upon me;”
- Ah, a Spirit may look through!
- Spirits we are never sure of,
- Less, still less, may we pooh-pooh!
-
- Prince, be thine the ways of virtue;
- Practise what is right and good;
- Hold unblemished thy behaviour,
- Failing not in rectitude,
- Nothing adding, nought detracting.
- Few have failed to serve as models
- (Who have such a course pursued).
- “Pitch to me thy peach, and I will
- Toss thee back again my plum.”
- “Seeking horns upon the hornless;”
- Ah, boy, there the troubles come!
-
- As the wood that bends yet breaks not
- With the silken string is bound,
- So the kindly and the courteous
- Furnish Virtue’s building-ground.
- Here you have the man of wisdom:
- Preach to him a homily,
- He will go where Virtue points him.
- Here the ruder man you see:
- He will tell me I’m presuming.—
- Each his idiosyncrasy!
-
- Ah, my son! the good and evil,
- Are they not to thee yet clear?
- Must I take thee by the hand yet,
- Show thee things as they appear,
- Give thee precepts in thy presence,
- Hold thee ever by the ear?
- Thou a father, too! and tell’st me
- Thou art yet to educate!
- Men have ne’er enough! Whom saw’st thou
- Taught so early, wise so late?
-
- Ah, great Heaven hath wondrous wisdom!
- Joyless yet is life to me,
- Seeing thee so dull and doltish
- Fills my heart with misery.
- Many, many times I taught thee,
- And my words were set at nought;
- Thou wouldst none of me as teacher,
- Tyrant only I was thought.
- Thou in dotage! and dost tell me
- Thou hast never yet been taught?
-
- Ah, my son! I put before thee
- Wisdom taught by men of yore;
- Hear my counsels, and obey them;
- Less there may be to deplore!
- Heaven is sending grievous trouble,
- Threatening ruin to the land.
- Think of cases not far distant,
- And of Heaven’s unerring hand!
- Sorely shalt thou vex thy people
- Virtue if thou so withstand.
III. iii. 3.
LAMENT OF THE EARL OF JUY.
-
- Ah, mulberry sapling, once in pride
- Casting thy shadows far and wide,
- Now stripped and shadowless and bare!
- So languish all our multitudes:
- Unceasing Sorrow o’er them broods,
- And lamentations fill the air.
- Great Heaven, that canst all things descry,
- Why dost thou sympathy deny!
-
- Now teams of war-steeds paw the ground,
- The figured banners wave around,
- And chaos grows, and peace is none.
- No State but feels the pressure sore;
- Where is the dark-lock’d race of yore?
- All sit in ashes, woebegone!
- Alas the sadness of it all!
- The land is doomed, and nears its fall.
-
- ’Tis doomed, ’tis without strength to stand,
- No longer Heaven befriends our land,
- And nowhere have we certain rest.
- Tell us to go! Yet where proceed?
- —A Ruler, were he such indeed,
- No strife would harbour in his breast.
- Who then hath made those perilous stairs
- That lead us to these griefs and cares?
-
- My heart with grief is overcome,
- Thinking of fatherland and home.
- Why was I born such ills to face?
- Heaven’s direst anger doomed to know?
- From East to West, where’er I go,
- I find no certain dwelling-place.
- Many the miseries I have met:
- Full sore our borders are beset.
-
- Although you may have cared and planned,
- Disorder grows, and spoils the land.
- These woes before you once I set,
- Thus counselling, “Rank has its degrees;
- What man a heated thing will seize,
- But first his fingers he must wet?
- And who shall rectify a State
- When all is plunging to its fate?”
-
- As when men go against a gale,
- And hardly can the wind inhale,
- So once were men on office bent,
- But, beaten back, they cried, “’Tis vain:
- Better be farmers—working men—
- Than live on such emolument.”
- And farming now they highly prize;
- ’Tis more than office, in their eyes!
-
- With wreck and ruin, Heaven now brings
- Extinction to our line of Kings;
- These insect-pests it sends besides,
- The very bane of husbandry.
- Alas, O mother land, for thee!
- All, all in turn to ruin slides.
- And strength but little left have we:
- Abyss of blue, we turn to thee!
-
- See this benignant ruler here,
- Whom high and low alike revere:—
- He guards his heart, matures his plans,
- And seeks his helpers out with care.
- His opposite behold you there:—
- His deeds are right, no other man’s!
- Self-willed and arrogant is he:
- Distracted must his country be.
-
- One sees within the wildwood deep
- How roaming deer in herds will keep:
- Friendship with us has learnt deceit,
- ’Tis not for mutual good men meet.
- And so folks have the saying still,—
- “Onwards or backwards, both uphill.”
-
- Here are these sages—men who see
- And speak for far futurity.
- There are those dull and witless wights
- Who find in crazes their delights.
- —I cannot but speak out thus plain;
- And why should fear my tongue restrain?
-
- Here are these worthies, set at nought,
- Never promoted, never sought;
- There are the men with hearts of flint,
- Respected, honoured without stint.
- And does the land crave anarchy?
- Ah, fain would these its “smartweed” be!
-
- Great winds in vacant valleys deep
- Find the direction they will keep;
- So here are worthy men whose deeds
- Would aye take shape as virtue leads.
- And there those others who desert
- Right ways, to wallow in the dirt!
-
- Great winds their own directions find.
- Rapacious men prey on their kind.—
- If heard, I might speak out, but here
- Must sotlike croon, while none is near:
- “Good men he will not have, and thus
- Brings this bewilderment on us.”
-
- Ah, friends, ’tis not unwittingly
- These verses are composed by me.
- Perchance, as in a flock of birds
- A shaft hits one, so with these words.
- —I come to you to do you good;
- Must I be met in angry mood?
-
- The people go beyond all bounds?
- Their faith in clever cheats redounds
- But to their loss and detriment;
- Their rulers seem incompetent.
- And grow they still from bad to worse?
- Blame your high-handed use of force.
-
- And are they ill at ease? ’Tis you
- That cheat and rob them of their due.
- Truly you say, “’Tis wrong,”—the while
- You cheat adroitly, and revile.
- E’en though you disavow the wrong,
- I dedicate to you this song!
III. iii. 4.
KING SWÂN’S LAMENTATION IN A TIME OF DROUGHT AND FAMINE.
-
- Brightly in the firmament
- Shone the circling Milky Way.
- [Gazing on it] quoth the king,
- Ah, what sin sin we to-day?
- Wreck and ruin Heaven sends down;
- Dearth and famine still hold sway.
- Not a god hath lacked his gift,
- Not a victim was too dear,
- Not a valued thing is left,
- Yet I reach no willing ear.
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate;
- Still intenser glow the fires.
- Ceaseless gifts and prayers are made
- Both to Heaven and to my sires.
- Powers above and powers below
- All are given the gifts they need:
- Not a god unhonoured; yet
- How-tsih fails—God doth not heed.
- Wasted, ruined land! ah me!
- Would ’twere I instead of thee!
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate:
- Ah, I may not cloke [my sin];
- And appalled I shrink aghast
- As from thunder’s crash and din.
- Dark-locked residue of Chow,
- Decimation threatens you.
- God in Heaven! and be it so,
- Let myself be taken too.
- One and all shall we not dread
- Tombs unwept, unvisited!
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate:
- Still it holds resistless sway;
- Nowhere from the angry heat
- Have we refuge night or day.
- The great doom comes on amain;
- Everywhere I turn in vain.
- All the lords and chiefs of yore,
- Give no succour, no relief;
- Parents, ancestors, can you
- Look unmoved upon my grief?
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate:
- Waterless are hills and streams;
- Ruthless is the god of drought,
- Scattering fire and flame, meseems.
- From the heat my soul recoils
- Smarting as with fiery pain.
- All the lords and chiefs of yore
- Deaf to my appeal remain.
- God in Heaven! O that Thou
- Refuge couldst for me allow!
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate:
- Sore I chafe, yet fear to go.
- Why thus madden me with drought,
- While I fail its cause to know?
- For good years full soon I prayed,
- Nor was late at any shrine
- With my first-fruits. God in Heaven!
- Heed’st thou never prayer of mine?
- Ah, from Spirits so revered
- Rightly were not anger feared.
-
- ’Tis a drought inordinate:
- Order fails, and all control;
- All my chiefs are sorely tried,
- He, my chiefest, vexed in soul;
- Masters of my Horse and Guards,
- Kitchen-squire, and Servants all,—
- Not a man but lends his aid,
- None cries “cannot” [at my call].
- To high Heaven I look, and cry,
- “O the endless agony!”
-
- To high Heaven I look, and there
- Clear the stars gleam out and glint.
- Chiefs and nobles, ye who gave
- Glorious worship without stint,
- Though my doom be hastening on,
- Set not past good quests aside:
- What you sought for me, seek still
- As the peace of all who guide.
- To high Heaven I look, and yearn:
- When will Heaven in pity turn?
III. iii. 5.
EULOGY OF THE LORD OF SHIN.
-
- Where mountains huge and high
- Their peaks rear to the sky,
- A god descended from the height,
- And Fu and Shin first saw the light.
- And Shin and Fu are now
- The buttresses of Chow.
- Of every State are they the shield;
- On every hand great power they wield.
-
- Shin’s chief was so robust,
- The king could re-intrust
- A seat in Sié into his hand,
- Whence he should guide that southern land.
- Shau’s earl by royal decree
- Fixed where this seat should be;
- And thus that southern State had birth
- Where still Shin’s line uphold his worth.
-
- The king gave Shin command:
- “Guide thou that southern land,
- And use its people in such way
- As thine own merit to display.”
- He bade Shau’s earl assign
- Shin’s lands, their bounds define.
- He bade again Shin’s chamberlain
- Take thither his domestic train.
-
- Thus Shau the ground prepared,
- And Shin’s great merit shared;
- He built him first his city wall,
- His dwelling, his ancestral hall,
- Works all of great extent.
- Then did the king present
- To Shin four steeds superb, bedight
- With harness gleaming in the light.
-
- To a car of state attached
- Were these, and Shin despatched.
- Quoth then the king, “Thy home I’ve planned:
- None fitter than that southern land.
- Take thou this sceptre great
- To mark thine high estate.
- Mine uncle—well-nigh king—away!
- Be thou the South’s defence and stay.”
-
- By stages Shin progressed;
- The king a parting feast
- Gave him in Mai. Then south he passed
- To Sié, his proper home at last.
- Shau by the king’s commands
- Had meted out his lands,
- And thence provision had supplied
- To speed him on his rapid ride.
-
- With soldierly display
- He entered into Sié,
- ’Mid crowds of vehicles and men.
- Rejoiced the entire empire then:
- “A good support you win:
- Illustrious is not Shin,
- The king’s grand-uncle? Yea, shall he
- In peace, in war, the pattern be!”
-
- Shin’s character displays
- Mild grace, with sterling ways.
- Those regions all his orders wait;
- His fame extends to every State.
- —Kih-fu composed this song,
- Of vigorous verse and strong,
- Of cadence graceful, as was meet
- To lay as tribute at his feet.
III. iii. 6.
EULOGY OF CHUNG SHAN-FU.
-
- Heaven gave the hosts of men their being,
- And all things their appointed groove;
- And what men hold as varying never,
- ’Tis virtue’s highest art to love.
- Heaven cast its glance on Chow’s great ruler,
- Saw what great worth below could do,
- And to uphold this Son of Heaven
- Called into being Chung Shan-fu.
-
- And Chung Shan-fu evinces virtue—
- Ideal virtue, gentle, good;
- Has noble mien, has noble manners,
- Shows care and wise solicitude.
- The ancient teachings are his models,
- Decorum strict his strenuous care;
- True follower of the Son of Heaven,
- He spreads his wise laws everywhere.
-
- The King gave Chung Shan-fu commandment:
- “Be thou a guide to every Prince;
- Continue thou as thy forefathers,
- The King’s own mainstay and defence.
- Deliver thou the royal mandates,
- Be thou thy Master’s throat and tongue;
- And promulgate abroad his measures,
- So to strike root all lands among.”
-
- Grave was indeed the King’s commandment;
- But [well] he took the task in hand;
- Domain or State, true or disloyal,
- Well did he each one understand.
- Clear intellect he had, and wisdom,
- And thus himself from ill preserved;
- Early and late, no moment idle,—
- Thus, too, the Man of men he served.
-
- “A tender morsel one may swallow,
- A tough one will the stomach rue:”
- So runs indeed the common adage,
- But so ’tis not with Chung Shan-fu.
- He does not swallow up the tender,
- His stomach does not spurn the tough:
- He hectors not the lone and widowed,
- Nor cowers before the strong and rough.
-
- Men have again the common adage:
- “Light though be virtue, as a hair,
- Yet few are strong enough to lift it.”
- Yet, when I measure and compare,
- One Chung Shan-fu aloft can lift it,
- Nor cares that others help should lend.
- When royal robes have rents appearing,
- ’Tis Chung Shan-fu the faults can mend.
-
- His worship of the road-gods ended,
- Now starts he with his strong four steeds;
- His men-at-arms all full of ardour,
- Each anxious to fulfil his needs.
- The team of four dash onward bravely,
- The eight bells making music grand;—
- The King has given to him commandment:
- “Go, fortify that Eastern land.”
-
- The team of four are full of mettle,
- The eight bells tinkling in their train,
- And Chung Shan-fu to Ts‘i now journeys,
- Quick, haste him home to us again!
- —Kih-fu hath made for him this ditty,
- To greet him like a pure fresh breeze;
- For Chung Shan-fu is anxious ever:—
- His mind perchance ’twill soothe and please.
III. iii. 7.
EULOGY OF THE PRINCE OF HAN.
-
- Majestic is Mount Liáng, whose acres
- [Old] Yü gave to the husbandman;
- Fine are its roads, [whereon late travelled],
- To take his charge, the Prince of Han.
- The King in person thus installed him:—
- “Succeed thou to thy Sires’ estate;
- Bear not in vain the charge I give thee;
- Be not remiss, or soon or late;
- Give reverent heed to thy vocation,
- So to this charge no change I bring;
- Reform the lands that hold back homage,
- So be the Servant of thy King.”
-
- Thence, with his team accoutred proudly,
- —Full tall and stately all the four,—
- Han’s Prince to Court came, craving audience,
- And his great sceptre forward bore,
- Advancing to the royal presence.
- The King then gave the Prince of Han
- The dragon-flag, all gaily mounted,
- A checkered screen, an ornate span,
- The sable robe, the yellow slippers,
- Breast-buckles, fillets all inlaid.
- Cross-rest of hide, with skin of tiger,
- Ringed ends of reins, with gold arrayed.
-
- He paid his worship to the road-gods,
- And left, and lodged at T‘u that night.
- HÎn-fu a farewell feast prepared him,
- Where hundred wine-jars sparkled bright.
- What dainty viands graced the table?
- Roast turtle, and fresh fish to boot.
- And what the vegetable dishes?
- Sprouts of bamboo, and sweet-flag root.
- And what again the parting present?
- A car of state and team of four.
- And round the frequent festal trenchers
- His brother chiefs him company bore.
-
- The Prince of Han, a wife he took him,
- Niece of the king who rules beside
- The Fen’s broad current—Kwai-fu’s daughter;—
- And when he went to bring his bride
- From the paternal home, in person,
- A hundred chariots lined the way,
- With bells in octaves making music,
- Ah, was it not a grand display!
- And as her maids came forth behind her,
- Softly, all softly, like a cloud,
- The Prince of Han looked round to see them;
- Such brilliance did the gateway crowd.
-
- Kwai-fu, he was a mighty warrior;
- No State which had not seen the man.
- And for his child a home selecting,
- None so delightsome seemed as Han.
- Han’s country is indeed delightsome,
- A wonderland of stream and fen;
- The bream and carp swarm in its waters,
- Great herds of deer roam through the fen;
- There also bears—the brown, the grisly,—
- Wild-cats and tigers, all abound.
- So fair a home rejoiced the father,
- His child* there peace and pleasure found.
-
- Stout were the ramparts of Han’s city,
- Raised by the multitudes of Yen
- For his forefather, when appointed
- To quell the wild tribes, numerous then.
- Now to Han’s Prince the King delivered
- The tribe of Chui, the tribe of Mih,
- And soon he brought them in, those Northmen,
- That he their overlord might be.
- Thereon,—ditch-delving, rampart-rearing,
- Land-leasing, rent-rolls, flourished there;
- And thence came gifts of skins—of leopard,
- Red panther, tawny grisly bear.
III. iii. 8.
HU OF SHAU’S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SOUTHERN TRIBES OF HWAI, AND HIS REWARD.
-
- Full flowed the Kiang and Han:—
- Stream-like the warriors onward pressed;
- No aimless wandering, no rest,—
- The Hwai barbarians were their quest.
- Our chariots were abroad;
- Our falcon-banners were displayed;
- No rest,—no idle halt was made;
- Against the Hwai were all arrayed.
-
- Swoln are the Kiang and Han;
- So swell our warriors now with pride,
- For order reigns on every side
- At Court their deeds are notified.
- On every side is peace:
- The Royal State is settling fast,
- The strife and turmoil now is past,
- The royal heart beats calm at last.
-
- There by the Kiang and Han
- Had Hu of Shau the King’s commands:
- “Ope up the country on all hands,
- And make the assignment of my lands;
- This, without harm or haste;
- The Royal State thy standard be
- For large and lesser boundary
- Right onward to the Southern Sea.”
-
- Came the King’s message now:
- “Widely my will hast thou made known.
- When Wăn and Wu came to the throne
- A lord of Shau they rested on:—
- Say not, ‘I am a child;’
- Like him—that lord of Shau—thou art;
- Show’st zeal and merit at the start;
- Now let me gratify thy heart;
-
- Receive this jadestone cup,
- This vaseful of black-millet wine,
- Know the great Founder of our line,
- Hill, plain, and field henceforth are thine.
- Take thou a seat in Chow:
- A seat in thy forefather’s stead.”
- Hu made obeisance low, and said:
- “Prince, be thy years unlimited.”
-
- Hu made obeisance low;
- Then answered in the King’s loud praise,—
- Adopting Shau-kung’s perfect (phrase):
- “Heaven’s Son, unending be thy days!
- Heaven’s Son, illustrious One!
- Ne’er may thy fame for goodness fade!
- Thy civic virtues be displayed
- Till the whole empire they pervade!”
III. iii. 9.
KING SWÂN’S EXPEDITION IN PERSON AGAINST THE NORTHERN HWAI TRIBES.
-
- In majesty, resplendent,
- The royal mandates go
- To the lord Hwang-fu,—Nan Chung’s descendant,—
- His generalissimo:
- Equip me my six legions,
- My weapons of war prepare;
- We go to befriend those southern regions,
- Yet first need utmost care.
-
- Next bade he his Recorder:
- Charge the Earl of Ch‘ing, Hiu-fu,
- Put right and left in marching order;
- My soldiers bid pursue
- The course of Hwai’s broad waters
- Till Siu-land they shall see,
- Then loiter not, nor there seek quarters,
- But back to the duties three.
-
- Majestic, awe-inspiring,
- Heaven’s Son, the great and dread,
- His troops with slow, calm step, untiring,
- In open order led.
- All Siu-land paled with wonder,
- All Siu-land shrank dismayed;
- As with the crash and din of thunder
- It trembled sore afraid.
-
- The King—his brave soul swelling—
- With anger seemed inflamed.
- His tiger-leaders forth-compelling,
- Tigers he truly named.
- Troops o’er Hwai’s banks disposing,
- They crowds of the foe ensnare;
- Roads to the river all were closing,—
- The royal troops were there!
-
- Great was his army’s strength;—
- Like birds on the wing for speed,
- Like the Han and Kiang for breadth and length,
- Like a mountain thickly treed.
- Like a great rolling river
- Continuous, uniform,
- Unfathomed, unimpeded ever;—
- Siu-land it took by storm.
-
- Strict terms the King directed,
- And Siu-land’s chiefs obeyed;
- And Siu-land thus became connected,—
- Heaven’s Son such art displayed.
- On every side was order;
- Siu’s chiefs their homage bring;
- Now, no revolt within each border,
- “Back, homewards,” cried the King.
III. iii. 10.
PAU-SZE IN POWER.
-
- I look upwards to great Heaven;
- Heaven no clemency extends;
- To unrest, long long protracted,
- Now these heavy woes it sends.
- With the country still unsettled,
- High and low are all distressed;
- With those pests devouring, blighting,
- Never have we peace or rest.
- With the penal net undrawn yet,
- Peace and health elude our quest.
-
- Men had properties—broad acres,—
- You have got them back again;
- Men had bodies of retainers,
- You must these perforce obtain.
- Some men, clearly not offenders,
- You will yet receive in charge;
- Others, clearly the offenders,
- You will set again at large.
-
- Clever men build up a city,
- Clever women cause its fall.
- Clever women may have charms, yet
- Owls and vampires are they (all).
- Women with long tongues but lead you
- Step by step to harm and woe.
- Not from Heaven come such disorders,
- ’Tis from women that they grow.
- It is only wives and eunuchs
- Nothing learn and nothing know.
-
- Wearying, worrying, capricious,
- Slandering first, then turning round;
- Say they not, “’Tis nothing serious:
- Pray what harm in it is found?”
- Like the merchant gaining threefold,
- ’Tis the husband has the brains;
- How should wives, inapt at ruling,
- Leave their looms (to take the reins)?
-
- Wherefore now is Heaven rebuking?
- Gods no longer prospering thee?
- Ah,—thy bold barbarians sparing,—
- All thy hatred falls on me.
- Heedless of all evil omens,
- Grave demeanour show’st thou none;
- And thy men are disappearing,
- And thy land is all undone.
-
- O the nets that Heaven is lowering,
- Intricate and manifold!
- O thy men so disappearing,—
- It is grievous to behold.
- O the net that Heaven is lowering;
- Now in close proximity!
- O thy men so disappearing,—
- Pitiful it is to see.
-
- Wells, confined and boiling over,
- Their profundity display,—
- Picture of a soul grief-laden!
- —Why is it so willed to-day?
- Why not in the days before me,
- Or when I have passed away?
- Yet hath high mysterious Heaven
- Fullest power to heal and bind:—
- Shame not thine august forefathers,
- Save, thus, those thou leav’st behind!
III. iii. 11.
THE COUNTRY IN COLLAPSE.
-
- Bounteous Heaven, with awful frown,
- Sends perpetual havoc down,
- Plaguing us with dearth of food.
- Sink and die the multitude;
- Through our land, and all around
- Nought but desert wastes are found.
-
- Heaven lets down the penal net.
- Blighting pests, that inly fret,
- Dullards, tyrants, void of care,
- Working havoc everywhere,
- All-perverse;—behold the band
- Who shall tranquillize our land!
-
- Brazen sland’rers though they be,
- Yet he fails their faults to see.
- Us,—so watchful, so afraid
- (Lest we aught should do of wrong),—
- Us, deprived of peace so long,
- He must evermore degrade.
-
- Like as when in years of drouth
- Plants are stunted in their growth,—
- Or as drift-grass that one sees
- Hanging withered from the trees,—
- So this land appears to me—
- Wasted all with anarchy.
-
- Olden times were not as this,
- In (the mode of winning) wealth;
- Modern times show none like this,
- For decay of (moral) health.
- Tares are those, and wheat are these;—
- Why not take themselves away?
- Why prolong our miseries,
- Adding to them day by day?
-
- Ah, when reservoirs are dried,
- ’Tis from failure at the side;
- And when fountains cease to flow,
- ’Tis from failure down below.
- Wide and deep this injury;
- More and more of it I see;
- May it not alight on me!
-
- Formerly, when kings were crowned,
- Men like dukes of Shau were found,
- Who could to the kingdom lay
- A new dozen leagues each day;
- Now ’tis all the other way!
- O the pity of it all!
- Are there men then now no more
- Gifted like the men of yore?
PART IV.
FESTAL HYMNS AND SONGS.
|
sin mai. I take sin as the adverb, expressive of putting up for the nights.
, Home Secretary, or Recorder of the Interior.