The Online Library of Liberty

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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 IV.

THE FESTAL SONGS OF LU.*

IV. iv. 1.

A NOBLE HORSE-BREEDER.

• • Stalwart colts of sturdy breed
  • On the outer commons (feed);
  • Sturdy sort indeed!
  • Here the brindled, there the grey,
  • Here the black, and there the bay.
  • Harnessed—how they’ll dash away!
  • Boundless care and thought
  • These to such perfection brought.
• • Stalwart colts of sturdy breed
  • On the outer commons (feed);
  • Sturdy sort indeed!
  • Piebald here, and chestnut there,
  • Brown, and streaked with silver hair.
  • Bravely these the yoke will bear!
  • Endless heed gave he
  • To produce such quality.
• • Stalwart colts of sturdy breed
  • On the outer commons (feed);
  • Sturdy sort indeed!
  • Flecked, and dark-maned white and bay,
  • With the white-maned irongrey:—
  • Well will these the reins obey.
  • With unwearied mind
  • Laboured he such steeds to find.
• • Stalwart colts of sturdy breed
  • On the outer commons (feed);
  • Sturdy sort indeed!
  • Pale, and dappled, with white thighs,
  • Long-haired legs, or fish-like eyes!
  • For the yoke what strength and size!
  • With unswerving care
  • Steeds for travel trains he there.

IV. iv. 2.

FEASTING AND MIRTH AT COURT.

• • With their lusty, lusty teams,
  • Lusty teams—and each a bay—
  • Late and early at the Court,
  • At the Court, who bright as they!
  • Fluttering flock of egrets!*
  • Egrets when they light.
  • Rub-a-dub! the drums arouse
  • All to caper and carouse.
  • So do all in mirth unite.
• • With their lusty, lusty teams,
  • Lusty teams—and each a male—
  • Early, late, they are at Court,
  • There to banquet and regale.
  • Fluttering flock of egrets!
  • Egrets now in flight.
  • Rub-a-dub! the drums they bray!
  • All drink deeply, then away!
  • So do all in mirth unite.
• • With their lusty, lusty teams,
  • Lusty teams—all irongrey—*
  • Late and early at the Court,
  • At the Court to feast are they.
  • O that now, henceforward,
  • Years were all so bright!
  • May our Prince’s goodness be
  • His descendants’ legacy!
  • So may all in mirth unite!

IV. iv. 3.

IN PRAISE OF THE LORD OF LU.

• • Delightsome is the college† pool;
  • Cress-gathering there go we.
  • There he arrives, the Lord of Lu—
  • His dragon-banner see!
  • His banner flutters in the breeze,
  • His bells make music gay;
  • And come not small, and come not great
  • Behind him on his way?
• • Delightsome is the college pool;
  • Come, gather out its weeds.
  • There he arrives, the Lord of Lu—
  • With proudly prancing steeds.
  • With proudly prancing steeds he comes,
  • The man of high renown,
  • The Teacher with the smiling face,
  • That never wears a frown!
• • Delightsome is the college pool;
  • Come, pluck the mallows fine.
  • There on its marge the Lord of Lu
  • Arrives, and quaffs his wine.
  • Choice wine he quaffs; may feeble age
  • Thereby be long deferred!*
  • (Long) may he mind the ancient ways,
  • And rule the common herd!
• • Right noble is our Lord of Lu;
  • Strict virtue he displays.
  • His people’s precedent is he,
  • So guarded in his ways.
  • In peace or war he gloriously
  • Moves his illustrious sires;
  • And to their blessing,—dutiful
  • In all things,—he aspires.
• • Enlightened is our Lord of Lu;
  • In virtue he excels.
  • He made this college with its pool,
  • Whence he the Hwai tribes quells.*
  • Hither his valiant tiger-chiefs
  • Bring many a foeman’s ear;
  • And judges, wise as was Kâu-yâu,†
  • Present their prisoners here.
• • And all his countless officers
  • In breadth of honour grow.
  • Brave on the march, in South and East
  • They put to flight the foe;
  • And here in crowds, all-dignified,
  • ’Thout noise or vain conceit,
  • Or call of arbiters,‡ they lay
  • Their triumphs at his feet.
• • Their horn-tipped bows bend to the string;
  • Swift shafts in showers are shot.
  • Mighty the war-cars! Charioteers
  • And footmen weary not.
  • The Hwai are mastered, fast reform,
  • And now no more contend.
  • “Be firm in purpose, and the Hwai
  • You capture in the end.”
• • There fluttering come the owls, and light
  • Within the college wood;
  • And greet us with grand hoots, the while
  • Our mulberries are their food.
  • So are the Hwai alert, and bring
  • Their gifts, rare to behold:
  • Great tortoise-shells and ivory tusks,
  • And wealth of southern gold.

IV. iv. 4.

IN PRAISE OF PRINCE HI OF LU.*

• • There silent stands the solemn fane,
  • Well-built, and nobly garnished.
  • Exalted, honoured was Kiang Yün,
  • Her virtue all untarnished.
  • For she it was, God helping her,
  • That, when her months had run,
  • At once, without a pang or pain,
  • Brought forth How-tsih, her son.†
  • With him a hundred blessings came—
  • The millets, the early and the late,
  • And late and early pulse and wheat.
  • Anon a Master in the State,
  • He set his folk to till the fields,
  • So had they grain for sacrifice,
  • The millets black and white, and rice.
  • Anon the world’s Great Husbandman,
  • Where Yü’s work ended, he began.
• • ’Twas of the lineage of How-tsih
  • That T‘âi the kingly sprang,
  • Who dwelt on K‘i’s south slope when first
  • Began the fall of Shang.
  • Still later, T‘âi’s unfinished work
  • Was done by Wăn and Wu;
  • When Heaven’s full purpose was achieved
  • Upon the wilds of Muh.
  • “God now is with you!” (then cried Wu),
  • “Doubt not, nor be dismayed.”
  • So tackled they the troops of Shang,
  • And each his part well played.
  • Then quoth the king,* “Now, uncle mine,
  • Will I promote thy first-born son,
  • And make him Lord of Lu.
  • “And I will add to your domain,
  • That Chow may find its help in you.”
• • He made him Duke of Lu, and gave
  • The East into his hand.
  • And to himself gave hill and stream,
  • Tilled plain, and neighb’ring land.
  • A scion of the Duke of Chow,
  • Son of Duke Chwang, remains,
  • Who with the dragon-flag appears,
  • And six long pliant reins,
  • In Spring, in Autumn, ne’er remiss,
  • And sacrifices faultlessly
  • To the Great Sovereign Lord of all;
  • And to his own great sire How-tsih
  • Offers the red unblemished bulls.
  • These they accept, these they approve,
  • And blessings rich flow down.
  • Chow’s Duke, and all the sires august,—
  • These also thee with blessing crown.
• • Comes Autumn, comes the autumnal rite.
  • In Summer bulls are sought,—
  • The white, the roan, with shackled horns,—
  • The ox-vase* finely wrought,
  • The roasts, the mincemeats, and the soups,
  • Trenchers, and mighty trays,—
  • Dancers and posturers, too, in troops.
  • Good son, bright be thy days!
  • Thou shalt win glory and success,
  • Long life and happiness,
  • And o’er the East keep watch and ward,
  • And long the land of Lu possess,
  • Unlessened, unsubvertible,
  • Unshaken, and unmoved;
  • The Veterans Three† befriending thee,
  • Firm as the hills and mountains proved.
• • A thousand cars of war are thine,
  • And in them all are seen
  • The pairs of spears, the pairs of bows,
  • Red-tasselled, bound with green;
  • Three myriad footmen too, whose helms
  • Red strings with cowries grace.
  • How swarm they forth, when the wild hordes
  • In South or North they face,
  • Or punish those of King or Shu!‡
  • None dares but give us place.
• • Success and glory shall be thine,
  • Long life and wealth in store,
  • With veterans for thy ministers,
  • The wrinkled and the hoar!
  • Thou shalt be great and prosperous,
  • Live long, yet still be hale.
  • Ten thousand thousand years be thine,
  • Nor ought thy whitened hairs assail!
• • There frowns aloft the hill of T‘ai
  • Whence all of Lu may be descried;
  • And thine shall be both Mung and Kwai;*
  • Anon the utmost East beside,
  • To countries bordering on the main.
  • The Hwai for peace shall sue;
  • None but shall follow in thy train:—
  • This shall achieve the Lord of Lu!
• • And Fuh and Yih† shalt thou maintain;
  • Soon Siu-land thine shall be,
  • And countries bordering on the main;
  • And barbarous Hwai and Mân and Mi
  • And yonder hordes in Southern lands
  • Shall follow in thy train;
  • And none shall dare to say thee nay:—
  • Lu’s lord from all shall homage gain.
• • Heaven send true blessing on our lord;
  • Long life to watch o’er Lu!
  • With Chow’s Duke’s wide domains restored,‡
  • He shall hold court in Ch‘ang and Hu.
  • Then shall Lu’s lord feast and rejoice,
  • With worthy wife, and mother old,
  • With noble Chiefs and Servants all.
  • May he the State and princedom hold,
  • And this be his beatitude—
  • Hoar hair, with teeth of youth renewed!
• • Sin-fu* produced the cypress-trees,
  • Tsu-lai* produced the pines;
  • Hewed down and measured out were these
  • With foot and fathom lines.
  • The pine-beams were of mighty size,
  • Thus noble halls there be,
  • And proudly the new temple stands,
  • Erected by Hi-sze,—†
  • A noble building, high and wide,
  • Which all men’s hopes hath satisfied.

[* ]Lu was one of the Eastern States,—that of which Confucius was a native.

[* ]The meaning may be “like a flock of egrets,” or, since the egret-plumes were flourished by the dancers, the reference may be simply to these.

[* ]The variations in colour &c., seem only to be made for the sake of the rhyme, as often.

[† ]A school or gymnasium at the courts of princes. The royal college (see III. i. 8) was entirely surrounded by water; those of the princes only half-surrounded; and this is indeed expressed in the original—“the half-encircling water.”

[* ]Lit., “may it long give him difficult old age!”—i.e., may old age long find him hard and hale.

[* ]i.e., by virtue of the training there received. All that follows hinges upon this.

[† ]The Minister of Crime under the Emperor Shun (bc 2255-2205).

[‡ ]Appeal to men who were appointed to settle disputes in the army.

[* ]He began his rule in 659 bc Being of the family of the Chow Princes, he could also, like them, trace his lineage back to How-tsih. He repaired or built anew the ancestral temple, and this seems to have been the occasion of the writing of this Ode.

[† ]See III. ii. 1.

[* ]This was King Ch‘ing, and the “uncle” is the Duke of Chow.

[* ]A vase shaped like an ox.

[† ]The three chief ministers.

[‡ ]King, a state in the East; Shu, another in the South; neither of which was yet brought fully into subjection.

[* ]Also hills in Lu.

[† ]Names of other hills.

[‡ ]In the course of time certain tracts had been parted with.

[* ]Mountains in Lu. This stanza brings us back to the first, and to the object of the whole piece.

[† ]Hi-sze, otherwise known as Prince Yü, was a brother of Prince Hi of Lu, and under his superintendence the work had been completed.