"The Jiang and Han” (Mao 262 “Jiang Han”), at 193 characters a “Major Court Hymn” of average length, reveals how this composite nature could cross over into other, non-poetic genres: The Jiang and the Han were surging, surging, / the warriors were streaming, streaming. / Not resting, not at leisure, / the Huai barbarians, these they assaulted. / Now they moved our chariots, / now they planted our banners. / Not resting, not at ease, / the Huai barbarians, these they harassed. The Jiang and the Han were swelling, swelling, / the warriors were rushing, rushing. / They ordered and organized the four quarters, / reported the accomplishment to the King. / The four quarters were now pacified, / the royal state, it was settled. / And thus, there was no strife, / the King’s heart, it was at peace. The first two stanzas offer a typical narrative, in this case, of how the Zhou vanquished the southern barbarians. The diction shifts fundamentally beginning in stanza three:
On the banks of the Jiang and the Han, / the King commanded Hu of Shao: / “Ah! Open up the four quarters! / Clear our border lands! / Not causing anguish, not pressing, / let [the people] be drawn to the royal state. / Go to draw borders, go to draw divisions, / reach as far as the southern sea.” The King commanded Hu of Shao: / “There you go around, / there you make announcements. / When Kings Wen and Wu received the mandate, / the Duke of Shao, he was their pillar. / Do not say: ‘I am but the small child.’ / The Duke of Shao, him you succeed. / You commenced and pursued great achievement, / for this, I bestow blessings on you.” The final two stanzas provide an account of the gifts the King gives to Hu of Shao, followed by Hu thanking the King: “I give you a jaden libation ladle, / one [bronze] vessel for flavored black-millet ale. / Announce this to your accomplished ancestors: / I bestow on you hills, land, and fields. / In Zhou you receive the command, / to continue the ancestral command of Shao.” / Hu made obeisance with his head to the ground: / “To the Son of Heaven, a myriad years!” Hu made obeisance with his head to the ground: / “May I requite by extolling the royal blessings; / may I rise to my ancestral Duke of Shao! / To the Son of Heaven, a myriad years! / Bright, bright is the Son of Heaven, / his illustrious fame will not cease. / He spreads his civil virtue, / harmonizing this state throughout its four quarters!” This poem, traditionally dated into the reign of King Xuan, is typical in its narrative voice devoid of any particular identity; even its two speaking voices show numerous parallels elsewhere. Eleven out of the sixteen lines of the first two stanzas are shared with ritual poems from the “Eulogies,” “Major,” and “Minor Court Hymns,” 40 revealing “The Jiang and the Han” as a modular text from the linguistic repertoire of court ritual. Of the related poems, none is identical to any other, but most are alike, together constituting a single totalizing narrative of Zhou, and circumscribed by a limited lexicon and tight formal structure: tetrasyllabic lines, extensive use of end-rhyme, frequent reduplicative binomes, and a small set of syntactic patterns. These features embody the ideology of Zhou ritual especially in its orientation toward the ancestral past: the old is always the model of the new, and the new never fully its own but shared with other ritual expressions."
Re: 262. 江漢 - Jiang Han
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mkern/files/the_formation_of_the_classic_of_poetry_0.pdf
"The Jiang and Han” (Mao 262 “Jiang Han”), at 193 characters a
“Major Court Hymn” of average length, reveals how this composite
nature could cross over into other, non-poetic genres:
The Jiang and the Han were surging, surging, / the warriors were
streaming, streaming. / Not resting, not at leisure, / the Huai barbarians,
these they assaulted. / Now they moved our chariots, / now they planted our banners. / Not resting, not at ease, / the Huai barbarians, these
they harassed.
The Jiang and the Han were swelling, swelling, / the warriors were
rushing, rushing. / They ordered and organized the four quarters, / reported the accomplishment to the King. / The four quarters were now
pacified, / the royal state, it was settled. / And thus, there was no strife,
/ the King’s heart, it was at peace.
The first two stanzas offer a typical narrative, in this case, of how the
Zhou vanquished the southern barbarians. The diction shifts fundamentally beginning in stanza three:
On the banks of the Jiang and the Han, / the King commanded Hu of
Shao: / “Ah! Open up the four quarters! / Clear our border lands! / Not
causing anguish, not pressing, / let [the people] be drawn to the royal
state. / Go to draw borders, go to draw divisions, / reach as far as the
southern sea.”
The King commanded Hu of Shao: / “There you go around, / there you
make announcements. / When Kings Wen and Wu received the mandate, / the Duke of Shao, he was their pillar. / Do not say: ‘I am but the
small child.’ / The Duke of Shao, him you succeed. / You commenced
and pursued great achievement, / for this, I bestow blessings on you.”
The final two stanzas provide an account of the gifts the King gives to
Hu of Shao, followed by Hu thanking the King:
“I give you a jaden libation ladle, / one [bronze] vessel for flavored
black-millet ale. / Announce this to your accomplished ancestors: / I
bestow on you hills, land, and fields. / In Zhou you receive the command, / to continue the ancestral command of Shao.” / Hu made obeisance with his head to the ground: / “To the Son of Heaven, a myriad
years!”
Hu made obeisance with his head to the ground: / “May I requite by
extolling the royal blessings; / may I rise to my ancestral Duke of Shao!
/ To the Son of Heaven, a myriad years! / Bright, bright is the Son of
Heaven, / his illustrious fame will not cease. / He spreads his civil virtue, / harmonizing this state throughout its four quarters!”
This poem, traditionally dated into the reign of King Xuan, is typical in
its narrative voice devoid of any particular identity; even its two speaking voices show numerous parallels elsewhere. Eleven out of the sixteen lines of the first two stanzas are shared with ritual poems from the
“Eulogies,” “Major,” and “Minor Court Hymns,” 40 revealing “The
Jiang and the Han” as a modular text from the linguistic repertoire of
court ritual. Of the related poems, none is identical to any other, but
most are alike, together constituting a single totalizing narrative of
Zhou, and circumscribed by a limited lexicon and tight formal structure: tetrasyllabic lines, extensive use of end-rhyme, frequent reduplicative binomes, and a small set of syntactic patterns. These features
embody the ideology of Zhou ritual especially in its orientation toward the ancestral past: the old is always the model of the new, and the new
never fully its own but shared with other ritual expressions."
Also a long treatment here:
Writing and Rewriting the Poetry
http://cccp.uchicago.edu/archive/2009BookOfOdesSymposium/2009_BookOfOdesSymposium_EdShaughnessy.pdf