Anonymous (c. 840–620 B.C.E.)
1
Kuan-kuan call the ospreys
perched there on a river isle.
A pure maid, so alluring,
a mate worthy of a nobleman.
5 Long and short the water fringe;
to left and right I hunt it.
A pure maid, so alluring,
awake and asleep I seek her.
Seeking but not finding,
10 awake and asleep with her I long to lie.
I long, oh, how I long,
tossing and turning from side to side.
Long and short the water fringe;
to left and right I pick it.
15 A pure maid, so alluring,
as lute with zither, I befriend her.
Long and short the water fringe;
to left and right I cull it.
A pure maid so alluring,
20 as bell with drum, I delight her.
6
That peachtree so frail,
radiant are its blossoms.
That girl come to marry,
she is right for this house-and-home.
5 That peachtree so frail,
swollen is its fruit.
That girl come to marry,
she is right for this home-and-house.
That peachtree so frail,
10 its leaves are dense.
That girl come to marry,
she is right for this whole family.
8
So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
I pick them!
So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
I hold them!
5 So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
I squeeze them!
So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
I caress them!
So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
10 I press them to my blouse!
So plentiful, the babes-in-a-pot,
I press them to my bodice!
23
On the offering mound, a dead roe,
white floss grass wraps it up.
There is a girl who longs for spring,
an auspicious knight leads her forward.
5 In the grove, a trembling oak,
on the offering mound, a dead deer.
White floss grass binds and ties them.
The girl is like jade.
“Whoa, gently, gently.
10 Do not move my apron,
and make the shaggy dog bark.”
42
The Chaste Maiden, shining scarlet,
awaits us at Wall-Nook.
Obscure, invisible,
scratching her head, immobile.
5 The Chaste Maiden, so clever,
has given us the Vermilion Stalk.
The Vermilion Stalk glows bright red
in celebration of a maiden’s beauty.
From our shepherd we offer young floss grass,
10 sworn to be beautiful and rare.
Made not in payment for the maiden’s beauty,
but to praise the kind one’s gift.
57
The slender beauty, so tall and alluring,
wears embroidery neath a grasscloth cloak.
Child of the Marquis of Ch’i,
wife of the Marquis of Wei,
5 Sister of the Eastern Palace Heir;
The Lord of Hsing calls her sister-in-law,
she calls the Sire of T’an brother-in-law.
Hands like frail reeds,
skin like congealed fat.
10 Neck like a tree-grub,
teeth like melon seeds.
A cicada head, moth eyebrows.
Her cunning smile a pale green,
the lovely eyes so black and white.
15 The slender beauty towers proud,
offering prayers at the farmer’s altar;
The four stallions are tall,
their vermilion tassels bushy;
She rides to court screened by pheasant feathers.
20 Grand officers retire early,
lest they tire their lord.
The water of the River swells,
its northerly flow rushes.
Stretched nets still the water, gwat-gwat!
25 sturgeons beat their tails, pwat-pwat!
Rushes and sedges reach high.
Attendant ladies, hair coiffed high,
attendant knights, so forceful.
58
It takes a very stupid dolt
to bring cloth to trade for silk.
He didn’t come to trade for silk,
he came to bargain for me!
5 I’ll escort you sir across the Ch’i,
till we come to Heap Hill.
It’s not that I want to prolong the date,
but sir you have no go-between.
I beg you sir be not angry,
10 let’s make it autumn that we wed.
I climb that broken-down wall
to look for your return to the barrier;
When I do not see your approach
my tears flow unceasingly.
15 When I’ve seen your return to the barrier,
then I smile, then I chatter;
You divine with shells, divine with stalks,
the signs contain no evil words.
You come with your cart
20 to remove me and my dowry.
Before the mulberry has shed,
its leaves are so glossy!
Beware, oh dove!
eat not the fruits of the mulberry!
25 Beware, oh girl!
dally not with a knight!
A knight’s dalliances are overlooked,
but a girl’s are never forgiven.
When the mulberry sheds,
30 its leaves turn yellow and fall.
Since I went with you,
for three years I have swallowed poverty.
When the Ch’i floods,
it wets the curtains of a carriage.
35 The girl didn’t change,
though the knight was deceiving.
The knight was inconstant,
his favors cast this way and that.
For three years I was your wife,
40 without tiring of household chores.
Early to rise and late to bed,
without a morning’s leisure.
I have stayed on here
only to meet with this cruelty.
45 My brothers ignore me,
if they knew they’d jeer at me.
When I calmly ponder it,
I see I have hurt myself.
We were to grow old together as one
50 but growing old has made me an object of scorn.
The Ch’i has its banks,
the marsh has its sides.
During the gay times of hair tied in girlish horns,
the chatter and laughter were so pleasant.
55 The promises and oaths were so earnest,
I never thought it’d change.
That it would change was unthinkable to me
and now all is ended.
64
Throw me a quince
and I’ll repay you with carnelian.
Though not a worthy repayment,
long may you find pleasure in it.
5 Throw me a peach,
and I’ll repay you with turquoise.
Though not a worthy repayment,
long may you find pleasure in it.
Throw me a plum
10 and I’ll repay you with obsidian.
Though not a worthy repayment,
long may you find pleasure in it.
76
Please, Sir Second-born,
don’t jump our village wall,
don’t break our planted willows.
Would I dare begrudge them?
5 I simply fear my parents.
Though you, Sir, I cherish,
I also fear my parents’ words.
Please, Sir Second-born,
don’t jump our outer wall,
10 don’t break our planted mulberries.
Would I dare begrudge them?
I simply fear my elder brothers.
Though you, Sir, I cherish
I also fear my brothers’ words.
15 Please, Sir Second-born,
don’t jump our garden wall,
don’t break our planted spindletrees.
Would I dare begrudge them?
I simply fear the gossip of other people.
20 Though you, Sir, I cherish,
I also fear the gossip of other people.
113
Big rats! Big rats!
Don’t eat our millet!
For three years we’ve spoiled you,
but none of you has requited us.
5 It’s got to the point where we’ll leave you
and go to that happy land.
Happy land! Happy land!
There we’ll find a place.
Big rats! Big rats!
10 Don’t eat our wheat!
For three years we’ve spoiled you,
but none of you has rewarded us.
It’s got to the point where we’ll leave you
and go to that happy state.
15 Happy state! Happy state!
There we’ll find a proper place.
Big rats! Big rats!
Don’t eat our sprouting grain!
For three years we’ve spoiled you,
10 but none of you has thanked us.
It’s got to the point where we’ll leave you
and go to that happy frontier.
Happy frontier! Happy frontier!
Who moans and groans there?
154
In the seventh month, declining is the Fire Star;
in the ninth month, you must distribute clothes.
If not, in the days of the first month, when the cold wind blows,
in the days of the second month, when the chill air stirs,
5 Noblemen will lack their robes, the poor will lack their flannels.
How then will they end the year?
In the days of the third month, attend to the plow;
in the days of the fourth month, raise high your heel.
Our assembled wives and children
10 bring food offerings to those southern fields;
The Chief of the Fields comes and enjoys the banquet.
In the seventh month, declining is the Fire Star;
in the ninth month, you must distribute clothes.
When the spring days become warm
15 and singing is the oriole,
The women grasp their deep baskets
and follow along tiny paths,
There to seek tender mulberry leaves.
“As the spring days lengthen
20 we gather in crowds to pick the multiflora.”
The girl’s heart is deeply pained,
but she’ll meet a young nobleman and join him in marriage.
In the seventh month, declining is the Fire Star;
in the eighth month, the rushes and sedges are prepared.
25 In the silkworm month, separate the branches of the mulberry;
take those axes and hatchets,
Use them to cut the branches that extend far and reach high,
and bundle those mulberry shoots.
In the seventh month, singing is the shrike;
30 when it is the eighth month, then spin,
spin both black and yellow.
My vermilion dye is very bright,
I make a skirt for a young nobleman.
In the fourth month, seeding is the yao grass;
35 in the fifth month, singing is the cicada.
In the eighth month you should harvest;
in the tenth month, the trees shed and leaves fall.
In the days of the first month, go and hunt badgers;
catch those foxes and raccoon-dogs
40 and make fur garments for a young nobleman.
In the days of the second month, you should go on the joint hunt
and thus augment your military prowess;
Keep for yourselves the year-old boars
but present to your sire the three-year-old boars.
45 In the fifth month, the locusts shake their legs;
in the sixth month, the grasshoppers flutter their wings.
In the seventh month, it is in the barrens;
and in the eighth month, under the eaves.
In the ninth month, it is at the doorway;
50 and in the tenth month, the cricket enters and stays beneath the bed.
Stop up the holes and smoke out the rats;
block the northern window and plaster the door.
Oh, wife and children!
Because we are passing into a new year,
55 enter this shelter and stay here.
In the sixth month, eat wild plums and cherries;
in the seventh month, boil the mallows and pulse.
In the eighth month, harvest the dates;
in the tenth month, reap the rice.
60 Make this spring wine
with which to increase vigorous old age.
In the seventh month, eat melons;
in the eighth month, cut gourds.
In the ninth month, gather hemp seeds,
65 pick bitter herbs, chop ailanto into firewood,
thus help nourish our chief husbandman.
In the ninth month, ram the earth of the threshing floor;
and in the tenth month, bring in the harvest:
The glutinous millet and the panicled millet,
70 the late-ripening grains and those that ripen early,
the hemp, the pulse, and the wheat.
Oh, chief husbandman!
Our harvest is gathered together;
enter and manage the tasks of the palace.
75 If at dawn you attend to the floss grass,
at dusk you weave the ropes.
Quickly mend the thatch on the roof
and start to scatter the myriad grains.
In the days of the second month,
80 cut chunks of ice, dong-dong!
In the days of the third month,
store them in the ice house.
In the days of the fourth month,
rise early to present lamb and offer onions.
85 In the ninth month, things shrivel with the frost;
in the tenth month, clean the threshing floor.
Twin wine vessels are offered as a feast
and then slaughter lambs and sheep.
Enter that Noble Hall
90 and lift in a toast the rhino cup:
May you live forever and without end!
158
How do you cut an ax-handle?
Only an ax can do it!
How do you take a bride?
Only a go-between can succeed!
5 In cutting an ax-handle, in cutting an ax-handle,
the model is near at hand.
I have joined with that girl;
basket and platter are aligned.
245
The one who first gave birth to our people,
this was Chiang Yüan.
How did she give birth to our people?
She knew to make the Yin and Ssu offerings,
5 Thereby to eliminate her barrenness.
She trod on the toe-print made by God.
She was the one enriched, the one on whom the blessing rested.
She became pregnant, she refrained from sex;
She gave birth to him, she nurtured him—
10 He was Lord Millet.
Truly she went her full term;
her first-born came forth easily like a lamb.
He did not tear, he did not rend;
there was no injury, no harm.
15 Thus, He made evident his magic power.
Did not God-on-High give her comfort?
Did He not enjoy her Yin and Ssu offerings?
For tranquilly she gave birth to the child.
Truly she placed him in a narrow lane
20 where oxen and sheep protected and cherished him;
Truly she placed him in a forested plain
where he was met with by woodcutters;
Truly she placed him on cold ice
where birds covered him with their wings—
25 When the birds left,
Lord Millet bawled!
He sat up, he cried out,
and his voice was already strong;
Truly he crawled about,
30 able to raise himself up expectantly and stand resolutely erect.
And when he sought to feed himself
he planted giant beans.
The giant beans grew tall,
the ears of grain grew luxuriantly;
35 The hemp and wheat grew thick,
the gourds were abundant.
Truly Lord Millet’s husbandry
was a divinely aided method.
He cleared the thick grasses,
40 and planted the fields with the yellow crop.
It grew evenly, it became luxuriant,
it grew singly, it grew tall;
It flowered, it eared,
it was firm, it was fine;
45 Its ears ripened, its kernels hardened.
Accordingly he took T’ai for his house-and-home.
Truly God sent down the blessed grains:
the black millet, the double-kerneled;
the millet vermilion-sprouted and white.
50 He spread the black millet and the double-kerneled,
these he reaped and gathered by the acre;
He spread the vermilion and white millet,
these he carried on his shoulder and on his back.
He brought them home and made an offering.
55 Truly, how do we make our offerings?
Some pound the grain, others bale it out;
Some sift, some tread;
We wash it—sop sop,
and boil it till it’s steamy.
60 We plan and we ponder;
We pick southern wood and offer fat,
take a ram to offer to the spirit of the road;
Then we roast and we broil,
to initiate the new year.
65 High we load the footed vessels;
we place it on the footed vessels and stands.
Its aroma starts to ascend
and God-on-High, well pleased, savors it:
“What smell is this, so pure and good?”
Lord Millet inaugurated the offerings,
and without our suffering any blame or regret,
they have continued till now.
253
The common people are very weary
and now might be allowed a little repose;
Be kind to this Central Kingdom
and thereby comfort the four quarters.
5 Indulge not the wily and obsequious
and so instill care in the wicked;
Crush the robbers and tyrants
for they have not respected your brightness.
Be gentle to those far off, be good to those nearby,
and so make our king secure.
The common people are very weary
and now might be allowed a little rest;
Be kind to this Central Kingdom
so that the people will gather here.
15 Indulge not the wily and obsequious
and so instill care in the catcallers;
Crush the robbers and tyrants
so the people will not be made to suffer.
Neglect not your labors
20 so our king will enjoy rest.
The common people are very weary
and now might be allowed a little respite;
Be kind to this Capital City
and thereby comfort the four states
25 Indulge not the wily and obsequious
and so instill care in the excessive;
Crush the robbers and tyrants,
prevent them from doing evil.
Be mindful of your awesome bearing
30 and so bring near the virtuous.
The common people are very weary
and now might be allowed a little relief;
Be kind to this Central Kingdom
so that the people’s cares will drain away.
35 Indulge not the wily and obsequious
and so instill care in the evil;
Crush the robbers and tyrants,
let them not ruin the upright.
Although you are but as small children
40 your effect is vast and great.
The common people are very weary
and now might be allowed a little peace;
Be kind to this Central Kingdom
so that it will suffer no injury.
45 Indulge not the wily and obsequious
and so instill care in the parasites;
Crush the robbers and tyrants,
let them not overturn the upright.
Oh, king, I wish to make you like jade,
50 and so have resorted to this great remonstrance.
Translated by Jeffrey Riegel
The Shih ching (the Classic of Odes, Book of Songs, or Poetry Classic) is the most ancient anthology of Chinese poetry. The 305 poems—more properly, songs, since they were lyrics accompanied by tunes now lost—date approximately from the late Western Chou to the middle of the Spring and Autumn period (c. 840–620 B.C.E.), although they appear to have undergone substantial editing and regularization in the following centuries. They are divided into four parts: 160 Kuo feng (“Airs of the States”), 74 Hsiao ya (“Lesser Ya”), 31 Ta ya (“Greater Ya”), and 40 Sung (“Temple Hymns”). Of these, the oldest are the Greater and Lesser Ya, and the youngest are the Airs of the States.
The “Airs of the States” preserve an array of folk images and themes. Included in this selection are: 1, an account of the frustrated pursuit of a desirable and mysterious woman; 6, a celebration of the virtues of a new bride; 8, a brief lesson on gathering a fertility herb, punningly named “babes-in-a-pot”; 23, a glimpse at a seduction; 42, an evocation of a woman, or perhaps a goddess, of great beauty; 57, another celebration of feminine beauty; 58, a wife’s bitter complaints about her husband’s mistreatment of her; 64, a sketch of a courtship ritual in which fruit is exchanged for girdle pendants; 76, a girl’s plea that her ardent lover restrain himself; 113, a complaint about greedy landowners; 154, a poetical almanac outlining court rituals and agrarian activities; and 158, a miniature lesson on how a marriage should be conducted.
The “Lesser Ya” and “Greater Ya”—which perhaps take their name from the ya or “elegant pronunciation” used in chanting them—seem more concerned with life at the royal court. Selected from the “Greater Ya” are: 245, an account of the miraculous birth and accomplishments of “Lord Millet,” mythical founder of the Chou house; and 253, a plea that the king and officials be more mindful of their suffering population.
The “Temple Hymns” are represented by one poem: 280, a description of a Chou musical performance presented both to celebrate and please the royal ancestors.
Traditionally, the Shih ching has been regarded as a canonical collection of important moral truths and lessons. Confucius saw in its content and language a guide for moderation in speech and action. Later followers of Confucius’s teachings read the poems as if they were a detailed chronicle of praise of the heroes and heroines or blame of the villains of early Chinese history. Such interpretations are codified in the official prefaces, glosses, and commentaries written during the late Chou and the Han dynasties. Much later, during the Sung dynasty, there was a reaction against such historical and political explications, especially of the “Airs of the States.” There thus emerged the view that most of the pieces are folk songs devoid of political intent and historical judgment—a view of the text that remains prominent today.
The Shih ching established the basis for the long and glorious tradition of Chinese classical poetry (shih), which was practiced continuously as the preferred form of literati verse until this century. Other genres of verse (tz’u, ch’ü, yüeh-fu, and so on, for which see the following sections) competed with it in succeeding centuries, but shih always reigned supreme.