The Shih King, or, Book of Poetry Part 7

The critics agree in holding that this piece was made on occasion of the duke of Kau's completing his instruments of music for the ancestral, temple, and announcing the fact at a grand performance in the temple of king Wan. It cam hardly be regarded as a sacrificial ode.

There are the blind musicians; there are the blind musicians; In the court of (the temple of) Kau.[1]

[1. The blind musicians at the court of Kau were numerous. The blindness of the eyes was supposed to make the ears more acute in hearing, and to be favourable to the powers of the voice. In the Official Book of Kau, III, i, par. 22, the enumeration of these blind musicians gives 2 directors of the first rank, and 4 of the second; 40 performers of the first grade, 100 of the second, and 160 of the third; with 300 a.s.sistants who were possessed of vision. But it is difficult not to be somewhat incredulous as to this great collection of blind musicians about the court of Kau.]

There are (the music-frames with their) face-boards and posts, The high toothed-edge (of the former), and the feathers stuck (in the latter); With the drums, large and small, suspended from them; And the hand-drums and sounding-stones, the instrument to give the signal for commencing, and the stopper. These being all complete, the music is struck up. The pan-pipe and the double flute begin at the same time [1].

Harmoniously blend their sounds; In solemn unison they give forth their notes. Our ancestors will give ear. Our visitors will be there;--Long to witness the complete performance.

ODE 6. THE KHIEN.

SUNG IN THE LAST MONTH OF WINTER, AND IN SPRING, WHEN THE KING PRESENTED A FISH IN THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLE.

Such is the argument of this piece given in the Preface, and in which the critics generally concur. In the Li Ki, IV, vi, 49, it is recorded that the king, in the third Month of winter, gave orders to his chief fisher to commence his duties, and went himself to see his operations.

He partook of the fish first captured, but previously presented some as an offering in the back apartment of the ancestral temple. In the third month of spring, again, when the sturgeons began to make their appearance (Li Ki, IV, i, 25), the king presented one in the same place. On

[1. All the instruments here enumerated were performed on in the open court below the hall. Nothing is said of the stringed instruments which were used in the hall itself; nor is the enumeration of the instruments in the courtyard complete.]

these pa.s.sages, the prefatory notice was, no doubt, constructed. Choice specimens of the earliest-caught fish were presented by the sovereign to his ancestors, as an act of duty, and an acknowledgment that it was to their favour that he and the people were indebted for the supplies of food, which they received from the waters.

Oh! in the Khi and the Khu, There are many fish in the warrens;--Sturgeons, large and snouted, Thryssas, yellow-jaws, mud-fish, and carp;--For offerings, for sacrifice, That our bright happiness may be increased.

ODE 7. THE YUNG.

APPROPRIATE, PROBABLY, AT A SACRIFICE BY KING Wu TO HIS FATHER WAN.

From a reference in the a.n.a.lects, III, ii, to an abuse of this ode in the time of Confucius, We learn that it was sung When the sacrificial vessels and their contents were being removed.

They come full of harmony; They are here in all gravity;--The princes a.s.sisting, While the Son of Heaven looks profound.

(He says), 'While I present (this) n.o.ble bull, And they a.s.sist me in setting forth the sacrifice, O great and august Father, Comfort me, your filial son.

With penetrating wisdom thou didst play the man. A sovereign with the gifts both of peace and war, Giving rest even to great Heaven[1], And ensuring prosperity to thy descendants.

[1. To explain this line one commentator refers to the seventh stanza of the first piece in the Major Odes of the Kingdom, where it is said, 'G.o.d surveyed the four quarters of the kingdom, seeking for some one to give settlement and rest to the people;' and adds, 'Thus what Heaven has at heart is the settlement of the people, When the), have rest given to them, then Heaven is at rest.']

'Thou comfortest me with the eyebrows of longevity; Thou makest me great with manifold blessings, I offer this sacrifice to my meritorious father, And to my accomplished mother[1].'

ODE 8. THE ZaI HSIEN.

APPROPRIATE TO AN OCCASION WHEN THE FEUDAL PRINCES HAD BEEN a.s.sISTING KING KHANG AT A SACRIFICE TO HIS FATHER.

They appeared before their sovereign king, To seek from him the rules (they were to observe). With their dragon-emblazoned banners, flying bright, The bells on them and their front-boards tinkling, And with the rings on the ends of the reins glittering, Admirable was their majesty and splendour.

He led them to appear before his father shrined on the left [2], Where he discharged his filial duty, and presented his offerings;--That he might have granted to him long life, And ever preserve (his dignity).

Great and many are his blessings. They are the brilliant and accomplished princes, Who cheer him with his many sources of happiness,

[1. At sacrifices to ancestors, the spirit tablets of wives were placed along with those of their husbands in their shrines, so that both shared in the honours of the service. So it is now in the imperial ancestral temple in Peking. The 'accomplished mother' here would be Thai Sze, celebrated often in the pieces of the first Book of Part I, and elsewhere.

2 Among the uses of the services of the ancestral temple, specified by Confucius and quoted on p. 302, was the distinguishing the order of descent in the royal House. According to the rules for that purpose, the characters here used enable us to determine the subject of this line as king Wu, in opposition to his father Wan.]

Enabling him to perpetuate them in their brightness as pure blessing.

ODE 9. THE Yu KHO.

CELEBRATING THE DUKE OF SUNG ON ONE OF HIS APPEARANCES AT THE CAPITAL TO a.s.sIST AT THE SACRIFICE IN THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLE OF KaU;--SHOWING HOW HE WAS ESTEEMED AND CHERISHED BY THE KING.

The mention of the white horses here in the chariot of the visitor sufficiently substantiates the account in the Preface that he was the famous count of Wei, mentioned in the Shu, IV, xi, and whose subsequent invest.i.ture with the duchy of Sung, as the representative of the line of the Shang kings, is also related in the Shu, V, viii. With the dynasty of Shang white had been the esteemed and sacred colour, as red was with Kau, and hence the duke had his carriage drawn by white horses. 'The language,' says one critic, 'is all in praise of the visitor, but it was sung in the temple, and is rightly placed therefore among the Sung.'

There is, in the last line, an indication of the temple in it.

The n.o.ble visitor! The n.o.ble visitor! Drawn, like his ancestors, by white horses! The reverent and dignified, Polished members of his suite!

The n.o.ble guest will stay (but) a night or two! The n.o.ble guest will stay (but) two nights or four! Give him ropes, To bind his horses [1].

I will convoy him (with a parting feast); I will comfort him in every possible way. Adorned with such great dignity, It is very natural that he should be blessed.

[1. These four lines simply express the wish of the king, to detain his visitor, from the delight that his presence gave him. Compare the similar language in the second ode of the fourth decade of Part II.]

ODE 10. THE Wu.

SUNG IN THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLE TO THE MUSIC REGULATING THE DANCE IN HONOUR OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF KING Wu.

This account of the piece, given in the Preface, is variously corroborated, and has not been called in question by any critic. Perhaps this brief ode was sung as a prelude to the dance, or it may be that the seven lines are only a fragment. This, indeed, is most likely, as we have several odes in the next decade, all said to have been used at the same occasion.

Oh! great wast thou, O king Wu, Displaying the utmost strength in thy work. Truly accomplished was king Wan, Opening the path for his successors. Thou didst receive the inheritance from him. Thou didst vanquish Yin, and put a stop to its cruelties;--Effecting the firm establishment of thy merit.

The Third Decade, or that of Min Yu Hsiao Dze.

ODE 1. THE MIN Yu.

APPROPRIATE TO THE YOUNG KING KHANG, DECLARING HIS SENTIMENTS IN THE TEMPLE OF HIS FATHER.

The speaker in this piece is, by common consent, king Khang. The only question is as to the date of its composition, whether it was made for him, in his minority, on his repairing to the temple when the mourning for his father was completed, or after the expiration of the regency of the duke of Kau. The words 'little child,' according to their usage, are expressive of humility and not of age. They do not enable us to determine the above point.

Alas for me, who am a little child, On whom has devolved the unsettled state! Solitary am I and full of distress. Oh! my great Father, All thy life long, thou wast filial.