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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 II.

THE HYMNS OF CHOW.

SECOND SECTION.

IV. ii. 1.

AN ADMONITION ADDRESSED IN THE SPRING TO THE OFFICERS WHO PRESIDED OVER AGRICULTURE.

• • Ho there, ye ministers and officers!
  • With reverent care attend ye to your tasks.
  • Ye have your full directions from the king;
  • These ponder well and inwardly digest.
• • Ho there, ye stays and props (of husbandry)!
  • Now are we in the waning days of Spring:
  • What want we more, than how to put to use
  • The fallows of the second and third year?
  • How grand a show have we of wheat and barley:
  • Soon shall we have bright (waving fields) of these.
  • The bright and glorious God, in giving them,
  • Doth give us promise of a prosperous year.
  • Call out our husbandmen, bid one and all
  • Be ready with the mattock and the hoe.
  • Anon we’ll see the sickle in the grain.

IV. ii. 2.

SPRING SONG (IN CONNECTION WITH A SACRIFICE TO KING CH‘ING).

• ’Tis well, ’tis well! King Ch‘ing*
• In brightness hath approached you.
• Lead forth these husbandmen
• To sow their various seeds.
• Grandly begin the work
• All o’er your own broad† acres;
• And set behind your ploughs
• Your myriad men in pairs.

IV. ii. 3.

GREETING OF GUESTS REPRESENTING AT COURT THE TWO FORMER DYNASTIES.‡

• • Like spreading egrets flying
  • To yonder western mere,
  • Here in such (stately) fashion
  • My visitors appear.
• • There§ —never in disfavour,
  • Here—never wished away,—
  • Sure, night and day, their praises
  • Shall they retain for aye.

IV. ii. 4.

HARVEST HOME.

• Exuberant is the year!
• Of millet and rice what store!
• And the corn-lofts high are filled
• With million* loads and more,
• For brewing sweet drinks and strong,†
• For offerings to our sires
• And granddames gone before,‡
• And for all each rite requires.
• Ay blessings without end
• Of every sort descend.

IV. ii. 5.

THE BLIND MUSICIANS.§

• • Lo, the blind players, the sightless band,
  • There in Chow’s palace-precincts stand!
• • There are the music-stands arrayed:
  • Plumes on the high tooth’d beam displayed;
  • Drums small and large from the same depend.
  • Hand-drums too, and the sounding-stones;
  • Instruments∥ signalling start and end.
  • Ready! now all strike up the air;
  • Pipe and flute in the concert share.
  • Loud are the melodies and refrains,
  • Solemn, harmonious, tuneful strains.
  • These will the shades of our fathers hear!
  • So shall our visitors, when they come,
  • Long to their perfect (art) give ear.

IV. ii. 6.

AT THE OFFERING OF THE FIRST FISH TAKEN IN THE SPRING.

• O, in the streams of Ts‘iü and Ts‘ih*
• Numbers of fish in the pools there be!
• Sturgeon are there, the large, the small,
• Salmon and smelt, and carp, and all;—†
• Offerings meet for altar and shrine,
• That for still greater blessings call.

IV. ii. 7.

KING WU’S SACRIFICE TO HIS DECEASED FATHER, ASSISTED BY THE FEUDAL PRINCES.

• Harmoniously the princes
• Draw near with reverent tread,
• Assisting in his worship
• Heaven’s Son the great and dread.

[The king’s address to the dead]:—

• • “This noble bull I bring thee;
  • My sacrifice behold;
  • O Sire august, be near me,
  • Thy faithful child (of old).
• • “A man,* thou,—in deep wisdom;
  • A prince,—in arms, in lore;
  • Peace wrought’st thou in great Heaven,†
  • Here, greatness evermore.‡
• • “For comfort, as old age comes,
  • For blessings, never few,§
  • I honour thee, great father,
  • Thee, gifted mother, too.”

IV. ii. 8.

THE FEUDAL PRINCES COME TO ASSIST KING CH‘ING IN HIS OFFERINGS TO HIS FATHER WU.

• • They come unto their lord the king,
  • His mandates high soliciting.
  • Their dragon-banners gleam; the bells
  • On chariot-fronts and banners ring!
  • How glitter, too, each trace and rein!
  • Yea, striking splendour they maintain.
• • He leads them where his Sire is shrined,
  • And offers with true filial mind.

[The king’s address to the dead]:—

• “May it avail when I am old;
• Yea, long thy son in life uphold,
• With blessing great and manifold!
• These princes, talented and true,
• Cheer me with favours not a few:
• May truest blessedness their lasting fame pursue!”

IV. ii. 9.

WELCOME TO THE DUKE OF SUNG* AT THE COURT OF CHOW.

• • Our guest, our guest arrives,
  • With steeds of milky hue.†
  • See how attent, how proud,
  • His chosen retinue!
• • Two nights to be our guest!
  • Two more when these are past!
  • Aha! take out the ropes
  • And bind his horses fast!
• • Then, following him forth,
  • Give him God-speed all round.
  • Most meet it is such worth
  • With blessing should be crowned.

IV. ii. 10.

IN HONOUR OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF KING WU.*

• O, great was Wu the king,
• For mightiest deeds renowned!
• Gifted indeed was Wăn,
• Who paved his followers’ way;
• Thou, Wu, took’st up his work,
• Didst vanquish Yin, and stay
• Its deeds of cruelty;
• Performing to the full
• Thy task of high emprise.

[* ]i.e., the spirit of the deceased king.

[† ]Lit., your private (fields), the 30 li. There were public fields, and private: see II. vi. 8, verse 3.

[‡ ]Men who belonged to the line of the Hià and Shang kings came to Court with their retinue, and assisted the King of Chow in his sacrifices.

[§ ]“There,”—in their own land; “here,”—at my Court.

[* ]The numerals are strictly “10,000,—100,000,—to millions.”

[† ]Lit., (ordinary) spirits and sweet spirits.

[‡ ]Lit., ancestral sires and dames.

[§ ]An Ode celebrating the completion, by the Duke of Chow, of his instruments of music, and the first grand performance on the same in the temple of King Wăn. The performers were all blind, as see also III. i. 8.

[∥ ]A wooden instrument like a tub with a handle in the middle started the band. Another, carved like a tiger, having twenty-seven notches on the back, over which a rod was drawn with a grating sound, stopped the music.

[* ]See III. i. 3.

[† ]Approximate names.

[* ]i.e., a man indeed.

[† ]Heaven willed the peace of the people (see III. i. 7, v. 1), and was satisfied when this was wrought by Wăn.

[‡ ]Lit., “was able to make prosperous his (or, thy) after-comers (or, the ages after him).”

[§ ]These two lines might be taken as independent sentences,—“thou comfortest me,” &c., but as they contain the reasons for the “honour” they may also be translated as above.

[* ]A prince of the House of Shang. See Note 1 on IV. ii. 3, which explains the placing of such a piece here.

[† ]White was the colour of the Shang dynasty.

[* ]Said to have been written to accompany the music of a dance ordained by the Duke of Chow to be performed in the ancestral temple.