The Shih King, or, Book of Poetry Part 25

Heaven is letting down its net, And many (are the calamities in it).

(Good) men are going away, And my heart is sorrowful. Heaven is letting down

[1. By 'the net of crime' we are to understand the mult.i.tude of penal laws, to whose doom people were exposed. In stanza 6, Heaven is represented as letting it down.

2. Compare ode 9 of the fourth decade in the former Part.]

its net, And soon (all will be caught in it). (Good) men are going away, And my heart is sad.

Right from the spring comes the water bubbling, Revealing its depth. The sorrow of my heart,--Is it (only) of to-day? Why were these things not, before me? Or why were they not after me? But mysteriously great Heaven Is able to strengthen anything. Do not disgrace your great ancestors This will save your posterity[1].

ODE 11, STANZAS 1 AND 2. THE SHaO MIN.

THE WRITER APPEALS TO HEAVEN, BEMOANING THE MISERY AND RUIN WHICH WERE GOING ON, AND SHOWING HOW THEY WERE DUE TO THE KING'S EMPLOYMENT OF MEAN AND WORTHLESS CREATURES.

Compa.s.sionate Heaven is arrayed in angry terrors. Heaven is indeed sending down ruin, Afflicting us with famine, So that the people are all wandering fugitives. In the settled regions, and on the borders, all is desolation.

Heaven sends down its net of crime;--Devouring insects, who weary and confuse men's minds, Ignorant, oppressive, negligent, Breeders of confusion, utterly perverse:--These are the men employed.

[1. The writer in these concluding lines ventures to summon the king to repentance, and to hold out a hope that there might come a change in their state. He does this, believing that all things are possible with Heaven.]

IV. LESSONS FROM THE STATES.

ODES AND STANZAS ILl.u.s.tRATING THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS AND PRACTICES OF THE WRITERS AND THEIR TIMES.

IT has been stated in the Introduction, p. 276, that the first Part of the Shih, called the Kwo Fang, or 'Lessons from the States,' consists of 160 pieces, descriptive of manners and events in several of the feudal states into which the kingdom of Kau was divided. Nearly all of them are short; and the pa.s.sages ill.u.s.trating the religious views and practices of their times are comparatively few. What pa.s.sages there are, however, of this nature will all be found below. The pieces are not arranged in decades, as in the Odes of the Kingdom, but in Books, under the names of the states in which they were produced.

Although the Kwo Fang form, as usually published, the first Part of the Shih, nearly all of them are more recent in their origin than the pieces of the other Parts. They bring us face to face with the states of the kingdom, and the ways of their officers and people for several centuries of the dynasty of Kau.

BOOK II. THE ODES OF SHaO AND THE SOUTH.

THE Shu and previous portions of the Shih have made us familiar with Shao, the name of the appanage of Shih, one of the princ.i.p.al ministers at the court of Kau in the first two reigns of the dynasty. The site of the city of Shao was in the present department of Fang-khiang, Shen-hsi.

The first possessor of it, along with the still more famous duke of Kau, remained at court, to watch over the fortunes of the new dynasty. They were known as 'the highest dukes' and 'the two great chiefs,' the duke of Kau having charge of the eastern portions of the kingdom, and the other of the western. The pieces in this Book are supposed to have been produced in Shao, and the princ.i.p.alities south of it within his jurisdiction, by the duke.

ODE 2. THE ZHaI FAN.

CELEBRATING THE INDUSTRY AND REVERENCE OF A PRINCE'S WIFE, a.s.sISTING HIM IN SACRIFICING.

We must suppose the ladies of a harem, in one Of the states of the south, admiring and praising in these simple stanzas the way in which their mistress discharged her duties. A view of the ode maintained by many is that the lady gathered the southernwood, not to use it in sacrificing, but in the nurture, of the silkworms under her care; but the evidence of the characters in the text is, on the whole, in favour of the more common view. Constant reference is made to the piece by Chinese moralists, to show that the most trivial things are accepted in sacrifice, when there are reverence and sincerity in the presenting of them.

One critic asked Ku Hsi whether it was conceivable that the wife of a prince did herself what is here related, and he replied that the poet said so. Another has observed that if the lady ordered and employed others, it was still her own doing. But that the lady did it herself is not incredible, when we consider the simplicity of those early times, in the twelfth century B.C.

She gathers the white southernwood, By the ponds, on the islets. She employs it, In the business of our prince.

She gathers the white southernwood, Along the streams in the valleys.

She employs it, In the temple [1] of our prince.

[1. If the character here translated 'temple' had no other signification but that, there would-be an end of the dispute about the meaning of the piece. But while we find it often used- of the ancestral temple, it may also mean any building, especially one of a large and public character, such as a palace or. mansion; and hence some contend that it should be interpreted here of 'the silkworm house.' We are to conceive of the lady, after, having gathered the materials for sacrificial use, then preparing them according to rule, and while it is yet dark on the morning of the -sacrificial day, going with them into the temple, and setting them forth in their proper vessels and places.]

With head-dress reverently rising aloft, Early, while yet it is night, she is in the prince's (temple). In her head-dress, slowly retiring, She returns (to her own apartments).

ODE 4. THE ZHaI PIN.

CELEBRATING THE DILIGENCE AND REVERENCE OF THE YOUNG WIFE OF AN OFFICER, DOING HER PART IN SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS.

She gathers the large duckweed, By the banks of the stream in the southern valley. She gathers the pondweed, In those pools left by the floods.

She deposits what she gathers, In her square baskets and round ones. She boils it, In her tripods and pans.

She sets forth her preparations, Under the window in the ancestral chamber[1]. Who superintends the business? It is (this) reverent young lady.

[1. 'The ancestral chamber' was a room behind the temple of the family, dedicated specially to the ancestor of the officer whose wife is the subject of the piece. The princes of states were succeeded, as a rule, by the eldest son of the wife proper. Their sons by other wives were called 'other sons.' The eldest son by the wife proper of one of them became the 'great ancestor' of the clan descended from him, and 'the ancestral chamber' was an apartment dedicated to him. Mao and other interpreters, going on certain statements as to the training of daughters in the business of sacrificing in this apartment for three months previous to their marriage, contend that the lady spoken of here was not yet married, but was only undergoing this preparatory education.

It is not necessary, however, to adopt this interpretation. The lady appears doing the same duties as the wife in the former piece.]

BOOK III. THE ODES OF PHEI.

WHEN king Wu overthrew the dynasty of Shang, the domain of its kings was divided into three portions, the northern portion being called Phei, the southern Yung, and the eastern Wei, the rulers of which last in course of time absorbed the other two. It is impossible to say why the old names were retained in the arrangement of the odes in this Part of the Shih, for it is acknowledged on all hands that the pieces in Books iii and iv, as well as those of Book v, are all odes of Wei.

ODE 4. THE ZAH YuEH.

SUPPOSED TO BE THE COMPLAINT AND APPEAL OF Kw.a.n.g KIANG, A MARCHIONESS OF WEI, AGAINST THE BAD TREATMENT SHE RECEIVED FROM HER HUSBAND.

All the Chinese critics give this interpretation of the piece. Kw.a.n.g Kiang was a daughter of the house of Khi, about the middle of the eighth century B.C., and was married to the marquis Yang, known in history as 'duke Kw.a.n.g,' of Wei. She was a lady of admirable character, and beautiful; but her husband proved faithless and unkind. In this ode she makes her subdued moan, appealing to the sun and moon, as if they could take cognizance of the way in which she was treated. Possibly, however, the addressing those bodies may simply be an instance of prosopopoeia.

O sun, O moon, Which enlighten this lower earth! Here is this man, Who treats me not according to the ancient rule. How can he get his mind settled? Would he then not regard me?

O sun, O moon, Which overshadow this lower earth! Here is this man, Who will not be friendly with me. How can he get his mind settled? Would he then not respond to me?

O sun, O moon, Which come forth from the east! Here is this man, With virtuous words, but really not good. How can he get his mind settled?

Would he then allow me to be forgotten?

O sun, O moon, From the east that come forth! O father, O mother, There is no sequel to your nourishing of me. How can he get his mind settled?

Would he then respond tome contrary to all reason?

ODE 15, STANZA 1. THE PEI MAN.