IX. P'aou-yew-koo-yeh. 其軌濟有有則深濟匏 鷹瀰揭則有有 牡。雉 孽 鳴 不雉濟 厲深苦 1 The gourd has [still] its bitter leaves, And the crossing at the ford is deep. If deep, I will go through with my clothes on; If shallow, I will do so, holding them up. 2 The ford is full to overflowing; There is the note of the female pheasant. The full ford will not wet the axle of my carriage; in st.4 must be taken as addressed to the brother officers of the husband, who is described, though he is not named explicitly, in the 3d and 4th lines. The 2d line is taken interro but on her arrival in Wei, moved by her youth and beauty, he took her himself, and by her he had two sons,-Show() and Soh (). E Keang hanged herself in vexation, and the duke was prevailed on, in course of time, by the intrigues of Seuen Keang and Soh, to consent to gatively. The last 2 lines are quoted by Confucius (Ana. IX. xxvi), as illustrated in the character of Tsze-loo. Le Hung-tsoo (the death of Keih-tsze, Show peristing in a noble, H; Sung dyn.) distinguishes the force of and ingeniously-indicates hatred of men because of what they have;, shame, because of what we ourselves have not.' Ode 9. Allusive and narrative. AGAINST THE LICENTIOUS MANNERS OF WEI. According to the 'Little Preface,' the piece was directed against duke Seuen, who was distinguished for his licentiousness, and his wife also. Choo demurs to its having this particular reference, which, however, the imperial editors are inclined to admit. Duke Seuen was certainly a monster of wickedness. According to Tso-she (on p. 5 of the 16th year of duke Hwan), his first wife was a lady of his father's harem, called E Keang (), by an incestuous connection with but fruitless, attempt to preserve his life. In the next year, the duke died, and was succeeded by Soh, when the court of Ts'e insisted on Ch'aou-peh (1), another son of Seuen, marrying Seuen Keang. From this connection sprang two sons, who both became marquises of Wei, and two daughters, who married the rulers of other States;-see Tso-she on p.7 of the 2d year of duke Min. When such was the history of the court of prevailed widely through the State. The particuWei, we can well conceive that licentiousness lar reference of the ode to duke Seuen must remain, however, an unsettled question. The explanation of the different stanzas is, indeed, difficult and vexatious on any hypothesis about the ode that can be formed. St.1. The p'aou is no doubt, the bottle gourd, called also, 壺蘆. When the fruit or has became thoroughly hard and ripe, the shell, emptied of its contents, can be used as a bladder. We often see one or more tied to boatchildren on the Chinese rivers, to keep them afloat, should they fall into the water, till they can be picked up. The gourd in the text had still its leaves on it; the fruit was not yet hard enough to serve the purpose of a bladder in whom he had a son called Keih-tsze (急子), crossing a stream. =渡處 濟=渡處, ‘a ford or who became his heir-apparent. By and by he contracted a marriage for this son with a daughter of Ts'e, known as Seuen Keang (); ferry. So, both Maou and Choo. Le Kwang-te takes the character as the name of the river Tse. means 'to wade,' to cross the ford on foot. 111 印人人擺迨士旭雝 須涉涉招冰如 日雝 我印 舟未歸始鳴 友否。否。子。泮。妻。且。應。 3 The wild goose, with its harmonious notes, At sunrise, with the earliest dawn, By the gentleman, who wishes to bring home his bride, [Is presented] before the ice is melted." 4 The boatman keeps beckoning; And others cross with him, but I do not. Others cross with him, but I do not ; I am waiting for my friend. In st.4, however, we must take it differently. 厲 means to go through the water, without St. 2. denotes the full or swollen appearance of the water.' is used as in , in VI. 2. It gives a vivid or descriptive force to the character that follows it, as in the reduplication of adjectives which is so common. To suppose that the female pheasant is here calling to her a male quadruped is too extravagant. The explanation of the stanza is substantially the same as that of the preceding. St, 3. This stanza is of a different character, and indicates the deliberate formal way in which marriages ought to be contracted,-in contrast with the haste and indecencies of the parties in the poet's mind. When the bridegroom wanted to have the day fixed for him to meet his bride and conduct her to his house, he sent a live wild goose, at early dawn, to her family. Why that bird was employed, and why that early hour was selected for the ceremony, are points on which we need not here enter. This was done, it is said, before the ice was melted' implying that the concluding ceremony would take place later. The meaning is that no forms should be omitted, and no haste shown in such an important thing as marriage. 6 According to this view, the stanza is parenthetical and explanatory. denotes the harmony of the goose's notes,' which may be doubted., from the pictures of it, should be the Bean goose, Anser segetum. is ‘the appearance of sunrise.' —‘if,' almost—our in the same way denotes the note of when.''to bring his wife home.' the female pheasant.軌 is here the axle of (使之來歸於已)迨−as in ii. IX. the carriage; not as Choo says, the rut or trace of the wheel. The character should be 軏. Both Maou and Choo take 牡 as 'a male quadruped,' saying that the male and St. 4. is 'to beckon,' 'to call with the hand.' The repetition of it vividly represents the calling., boat-son, the master of the ferry boat. is here to cross the ferry in female of birds are expressed by Z and, the boat, and not to wade through it on foot. while for quadrupeds we have and Yen Ts'an keeps here, indeed, the latter meaning but this distinction is not always observed. We of the term, which is the only one given in the dict.; but to do so, he is obliged to construe the first line, I keep beckoning to the boatman,' in which it is impossible to agree with him. X. Kuh fung. 薄有行同德采不以習 傳送我畿 誰謂, 1 Gently blows the east wind, With cloudy skies and with rain. [Husband and wife] should strive to be of the same mind, And not let angry feelings arise, When we gather the mustard plant and earth melons, We do not reject them because of their roots. While I do nothing contrary to my good name, I should live with you till our death. 2 I go along the road slowly, slowly, In my inmost heart reluctant. Not far, only a little way, Did he accompany me to the threshold. 一我, ‘I. The meaning of the stanza is, that people should wait for a proper match, and not hurry on to form licentious connections. The rhymes are–in st. 1, 葉 * 涉, cat. 8, t. 3; 厲揭cat. 15, t. 3: 11; (prop. t, cat. 7), 11;軌(prop.軏, 3. 雁·旦,泮 cat. 1, t. 2. cat. 14: in 4, in 2, 盈鳴 cat. ·谷風 two lines either as metaphorical or allusive, referring to what the harmony and happiness of the family should be. Yen Ts'an explains them very differently, as referring to the angry demonstrations of the husband, like gusts of wind coming constantly (習習-連續不 . cat. 3, t. 2: in), from great valleys, and bringing with them | * ... 子否否* , Bloom and rain. Who shall decide on the com黾勉勉勉, to exert one's self.' Maou 澠 with at the side, which is also found parative merits of the two views thus conflicting? Ode 10. Metaphorical, allusive, and narrative. THE PLAINT OF A WIFE REJECTED AND SUPPLANT ED BY ANOTHER. Thus much we learn from the ode itself. There can be no doubt that the manners of the court of Wei injuriously affected the households of the State; but this does not appear in the piece, though Maou seems to say that it does. St. 1. Maou and Choo take 習習 as describing the‘gentle breath' of the wind. 谷風 is taken by them, after the Urh-ya, as meaning 'the east wind.' This brings clouds and rain, and all genial influences. Ying-tah explains 谷as if it were 穀, living'We may take these gives in the same sense. 葑 and are, probably, two species of Brassica; Williams calls 葑, ‘vege tables resembling mustard.' Maou says it is the seu (須) and Choo the man-tsing (蔓菁); others make it the woo-tsing (蕪菁); and others again the keae (芥), or mustard plant. These are but different names for varieties of the same plant. In the Japanese plates, the figure of the fung is that of a sorrel or dock,一 rumex persicariodes; and the author says he does 我躬母 以新提涇如薺。 後。不 閱。 世發我 不 其 以 兄 宴 昏。如 我我宴濁。弟 新 血我梁爾湜 Who says that the sowthistle is bitter? It is as sweet as the shepherd's purse. You feast with your new wife, [Loving] as brothers. 3 The muddiness of the King appears from the Wei, And think me not worth being with. Do not approach my dam, Do not move my basket. My person is rejected; What avails it to care for what may come after? not know the fei. After the Urh-ya, Maou calls fei the wuh a sort of turnip, the flower of which is purple.' The root is red. It is, no doubt, a kind of radish; but Kwoh Poh calls it 'the earth melon (+); and so I have translated it. The leaves, stalk, and root of the fung and fei are all edible; and if sometimes the root or lower part--be bad, yet the whole plant is not on that account thrown away. From this the wife argues that though her beauty might in some degree have decayed, she should not on that account have been cast off. 德音 is explained by Choo by 美譽, ‘ad mirable praise,' good character or name. K'angshing and Yen Ts'an, however, take the phrase here as in IV.3;-Husband and wife should speak kindly to each other.' Choo's view suits the connection best. St. 2. The first 4 lines describe the cold manner in which the wife was sent away, and her reluctance to go. The 2d line says that while her feet went slowly on the way, her heart was all the while rebelling, and wished to turn back. -, almost-only.' Both Maou and Choo explain by, 'the inside of the door.' The word is used in the sense of B, a limit or boundary, which, from the 3d line, we infer would here be the threshold. a The last 4 lines describe the bitterness of the wife's feelings at seeing herself supplanted. Medhurst is probably correct in calling the too the sowthistle. I was inclined, from the descriptions of it, to call it a sort of lettuce. Its leaf exudes white juice, which is bitter. Its flowers are like those of an aster. It is edible but bitter.' The pictures of the tse are those of the shepherd's purse. They say that the seeds of it are sweet. 昏 is used for a marriage, because it was in 'the dark,' at night, that the wife was brought home. Here it, 'wife.' St.3. The King and the Wei;-see the Shoo, on III. Pt.i.73, Pt.ii.12.='clear-looking.' The Shwoh-wăn defines the term as 'clear water, where the bottom can be seen.' The waters of the King,' says Choo, are muddy, and those of the Wei are clear, and the muddiness of the King appears more clearly after its junction with the Wei; yet where its channel is interrupted by islets, and the stream flows more gently, it is not so muddy but that the bottom may be seen. So, with the rejected and the new wife. The former was thrown into the shade by the latter. Yet if the husband would only think, he might know that she still had her good qualities.' Yen Ts'an here again construes differently. With him the new wife is the King, well known for its muddiness, representing her, the clear Wei, to be muddy;-a misrepresentation which inspection or reflection would readily refute. In 1.4you |