BOOK II. DECADE OF SHANG MIN. I. Shăng min. 育。震歆無克姜 時載攸子。禋嫄 稷。生 民民。 生止。武以如時 1 The first birth of [our] people. Was from Keang Yuen. How did she give birth to [our] people? She had presented a pure offering and sacrificed, That her childlessness might be taken away. 生民 民之什三之二 She then trod on a toe-print made by God, and was moved, In the large place where she rested. She became pregnant; she dwelt retired; She gave birth to, and nourished [a son], Who was How-tseih. TITLE OF THE BOOK 生民之什 一生民之什三|Preface saya, the piece was designed to do 之二,The Decade of Shang-min; Book II. of Part III.' Ode 1. Narrative. THE LEGEND OF How TSEIH:-HIS CONCEPTION; HIS BIRTH; THE PERILS OF HIS INFANCY; HIS BOYISH HABITS OF AGRICULTURE; HIS SUBSEQUENT METHODS OF AGRICULTURE, AND HIS FOUNDING OF SACRIFICES; THE HONOURS OF SACRIFICE PAID TO HIM BY THE HOUSE OF CHOw. Choo says he does not know on what occasion this ode was intended to be sung, but thinks it may have been used after the great border sacrifice, when the flesh of the victims was distributed among the high officers who had taken part in it. Evidently, as the VOL. IV. | honour to How-tseih as the founder to whom the princes of the House of Chow traced their lineage. After they obtained the sovereignty of the kingdom, he was made ‘the assessor of Heaven (配天)' at the border sacrifice;–the one man by whom the benevolent intention of the supreme Power for the nourishment of the people by means of the fruits of the earth had been realized. Keang Ping-chang, trying to exhaust the idea of the author in the composition, makes out that his final aim was to impress on king Ching the truth that the prosperity of the dynasty was only to be secured by its promotion of husbandry.–As to the division of the stanzas, Maou made the 3d to consist of 8 lines, ty of the kingdom. In 1. 2, (and in 1. 10) , 'to be;' or the demonstrative pronoun. We can hardly be said to know anything more about Keang Yuen, the mother of How-tseih, than what we are told in the She. It is assumed that she was a daughter of the House of Tae (有氏女), which traced its lineage up to Shin-nung in præhistoric times, and that her name was Yuen. That she was married, and had been so for some time without any child, we infer from 1.5; but who her husband was, it is impossible to say. As the Chow surname was Ke(), he must have been one of the descendants of Hwang-te. Indeed, Maou makes him to have been the emperor K'uh, the commencement of whose rule is placed in B.C. 2,431, so that Tseih or K'e (that was his name, and Tseih was only a title of office; see on 1.10) must have been a brother of Yaou. This view has the attended by his wife, and all the ladies of the harem. At the altar honours were paid to those of the ladies who were in a state of pregnancy, and a bow and arrows were presented to them, as a sort of auspice that they would give birth to sons. Choo accepts this account; but Kêang Ping-chang has shown that such a ceremony was never heard of till Leu Puhwei (; Tsin dynasty) invented it; and it would not answer, moreover, the exigency of the stanza, for Keang here sacrifices to have impression we receive from the text is that she her childlessness taken away (-). The offered-to God, we may presume-a sacrifice, all alone, by herself, for that object. Ll. 6, 7 have occasioned, and still occasion, infinite perplexity to the Chinese critics. Fierce , waris waged on the meaning of 帝 of敏 and of 歆 1st. Does belong to 1.6 or to 1.7? One of these lines must have 5 characters, whereas all the others in the stanza have only 4. 敏 rhyming with 祀子, and 止 we might conclude that it terminates 1.6; but we have often found the rhyme resting in these odes on the penultimate term. And the analo gy of, in II. vi. VII. 1, where those 4 characters form a line, is in favour of their doing the same here. I make 1.6 therefore, terminate with 歆. 2d. To whom is帝 to sanction of Sze-ma Ts'ëen, Lew Hin, Pan Koo, be referred? The term, acc. to Choo, who folKëa Kwei, Ma Yung, Fuh Keen, Wang Suh, lows Ching,, 'God.' Maou on the Hwang-foo Meih, and others. But on this view, contrary held that here meant ‘emperor,' it is strange that we should have nothing in and that Keang's husband, the emperor K'uh, the Shoo about the relation between Yaou and is intended by it. But there is not another inK'e; and more strange, that we should find K'e, stance in the classic of having this meanafter the death of Yaou, when he must have ing, whereas its occurrence in the sense of 'God' been considerably over 100 years old, still in acis very frequent. 3d. How are we to undertive employment under Shun. Choo follows stand and? Maou takes the former the view of Ch'ing K'ang-shing, that Këang Yuen was not the wife of K'uh, but only of one term in the sense of, 'to be rapid,' or of his descendants in the time of Yaou, between 'active,' and understands it of Keang Yuen, whom and K'uh Ch'ing believed there had been who followed the emperor to the altar, and was no fewer than nine reigns very alert in assisting him at the sacrifice. Then he defines by, to enjoy the offering,' so that the meaning is that God, or some other Spirit who was sacrificed to, accepted the lady's sacrifice, and blessed her. on to say that in 1.7, 'great,' or 'to (爲高莘之 The truth is that we must be content to be ignorant as to who the lady's husband was, and put the question on one side, according to the Chinese canon, as 'a doubtful matter M. L. 4,-see II.vi.VIII. 4. We need not translate the, but had better take it as giving emphasis to the verbs. To whom it was that Keang offered sacrifice we are not told. He goes make great,' and 止=福祿所止,the place (or the individual) on whom blessing and dignity rested.' As Ying-tah expands Maou's Maou says it was a custom in ancient times, | view:一禋爬郊禖之時其夫高 when the swallow made its appearance, to offer 辛氏帝率與俱行姜嫄隨帝 a great border sacrifice, with the first Match maker as the assessor of Heaven in it, and 之後踐履帝迹行事敬而敏 that the son of Heaven went himself to it,疾故為神歆饗神旣饗其祭, 生子 不上以無不先誕 康 上帝不 2 When she had fulfilled her months, Her first-born son [came forth] like a lamb. There was no bursting, nor rending, No injury, no hurt; Showing how wonderful he would be. Did not God give her the comfort? Had He not accepted her pure offering and sacrifice, So that thus easily she brought forth her son? 則愛而祐之於是為天神所 can make no meaning out of, understood in 美大,為福祿所依止 All this | its usual signification of 早, ‘early in the morn ing,' 'early;' to which Maou here adheres. Choo, after Ch'ing, explains it here by the meaning of which must be what I have given in the translation. In 1.10,- -see on the Shoo, II. i. 18. The two characters are evidently used here as equivalent to a name. They did not belong to the child, until he had grown up, and was appointed minister of Agriculture, and lord of T'ae. His proper name, it has been mentioned, was K'e (H). St. 2 is occupied with the birth of the præternaturally conceived child without any trouble or pain to the mother. here and in stt. 3—7 below, is simply an initial particle.-, 'to finish,' or 'to be finished.' confusion and perplexity of exegesis I must reject. It has been mentioned above that 1.4 occurs previously in II. vi. VII. 1, and I do not see how any other meaning can be got out of the words than what I have given to them both there and here. Coming now to the interpretation adopted by K'ang-shing and Choo, it is certainly much simpler, and there is really nothing to say against it but the marvellousness of the circumstance. is taken in the sense of, 'the great toe;' which rests on the authority of the Urh-ya. is in the sense of 'to be moved.' Kang-shing says the print of the foot was so large that Këang Yuen merely trod upon the toe; but Yen Ts'an, adopting his view of joins with bringing, first born;' is the name for 'a lamb' out the meaning, and was immediately moved.' (the Shwoh-wăn calls it). Ll. 3 and 4 Evidently, this statement is not history, but legend. The wrath of Keang Ping-chang at it make it plain that the point of the comparison need only provoke a smile, nor need we have in 1. 2 is the ease of the birth. and are recourse to Yen Ts'an's doctrine of anthropomorphism. When we read,' he says 'that Heaven sees, or that God hears, we are not to infer that Heaven has eyes, or that God has ears.' Still the instance in the text is different from such expressions. The writer would convey by it the ideas that the conception of How tseih was præternatural, and that it took place in the manner described. There is an analogous legend about the birth of the ancestor of the House of Shang, and Sze-ma Ts'ëen gives to a dragon the paternity of the first emperor of the Han dynasty. synonyms, -, 'to tear,'' to be torn.' is pronounced like, and with the meaning of that term. 赫 - 顯, to manifest.'厥 is to be referred to the child. Ll. 6,7 may be translated interrogatively, and are equivalent to strong affirmations. We must understand that Këang Yuen is the object of, 'to give repose, or comfort to.' L1.8–10.載 is the particle. 震=有 joy tranquilly' ‘to accept.’居然 'to be pregnant.' The character occurs repeatedly in the Tso-chuen in this sense. 'to en with ease;'-compare the use of in II. I vii.X. 3. 荏 嶷誕載 矣鳥之林腓誕 菽以實路。實乃 就匍 之寒冰 之 菽万匐。實矣 矣鳥平 誕隘 覆林眞巷。 旆食•克 旆。蓺岐 禾之克 厥 稷 翼 誕之 之牛 聲呱之眞平羊 3 He was placed in a narrow lane, But the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care. He was placed in a wide forest, Where he was met with by the wood-cutters. He was placed on the cold ice, And a bird screened and supported him with its wings. When the bird went away, How-tseih began to wail. His cry was long and loud, So that his voice filled the whole way. 4 When he was able to crawl, He looked majestic and intelligent. St. 3,–the dangers of How-tseih's infancy. It does not appear from the ode who it was that exposed the child to the various perils here mentioned. Maou supposed that it was the father, the emperor K'uh. Ch'ing, on the contrary, not holding that Keang Yuen was the wife of K'uh, makes her to have been the party, and assumes that her object was not to get rid of the child, but to show still moreclearly what a marvellous gift from heaven he was. Ihave purposely translated 眞之by ‘he was placed,’ so as to leave the matter in the uncertainty in which we find it. Choo takes 腓一芘 (to protect;’ as in II. i. VII. 5; and it is as well to follow here | happened that.. It is implied, though not expressed, that the wood-cutters took the child up, and preserved it. may be either singular or plural; but the critics all say it was 'a large bird (),' who covered the child above with one wing, and supported it beneath with theother(翼-藉)呱啼聲,the sound of wailing. 一長,long; 訏一大,‘great." 載路滿路, as in the translation. Com pare the same phrase in i. VII. 2. St. 4,–the marvellous development of the agricultural faculty in him when he was a mere boy. -as in I. iii. X. 4. The 實一 -, 'to avoid,' would suit the line quite as-, 'to be;' but we can hardly translate well., 'to love,' 'to care for.' it. Choo makes 岐嶷=峻茂之狀 林一林之在平地者, 'a forest on majestic-looking;' Maou, intelligent,口 level ground.’會一值, he met with,' or 'it食, both by Maou and Choo, is taken as= 自 |