"Gathering the Duckweed Where can I gather the duckweed? 2 On the banks of the southern dale. Where can I gather the water grasses? 4 In those rainwater pools along the paths. Where can I deposit them? 6 In baskets square and round, In cauldrons and pans. 8 And sing in a chorus of warbling. Where can I o er them? 10 Beneath the window of the ancestral shrine? Who will represent the spirits? 12 There is a reverent, unmarried maid.
This poem is also tied to the ritual of marriage (according to the “Hun yi” [Mean- ing of Marriage] chapter of the Li ji [Record of Rituals]). Three months before the marriage is to take place, the prospective bride is instructed at the family’s ances- tral shrine in how she is expected to speak and act in her new setting as a wife. At the culmination of her lessons, sacri ces of sh, duckweed, and water grasses are o ered. The question-and-answer form of the poem re ects that of the more formal catechism the girl has underdone at the ancestral shrine (perhaps re ected in the balanced rhyme scheme aabb / xcxc / xdxd). The rst stanza depicts where the bride-to-be should search for the sacri cial plants; the second, how to prepare them; and the third, where to position them. The shi referred to in the penultimate line is the person who impersonates the ancestors in sacri ces: here the young woman who is to be married. The poem seems not to be sung by her, but about her, perhaps by the women who picked duckweed or other plants regularly."
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Re: Cai Ping
Date: 2020-10-21 02:42 pm (UTC)"Gathering the Duckweed
Where can I gather the duckweed? 2
On the banks of the southern dale.
Where can I gather the water grasses?
4 In those rainwater pools along the paths.
Where can I deposit them?
6 In baskets square and round,
In cauldrons and pans.
8 And sing in a chorus of warbling.
Where can I o er them?
10 Beneath the window of the ancestral shrine?
Who will represent the spirits?
12 There is a reverent, unmarried maid.
This poem is also tied to the ritual of marriage (according to the “Hun yi” [Mean- ing of Marriage] chapter of the Li ji [Record of Rituals]). Three months before the marriage is to take place, the prospective bride is instructed at the family’s ances- tral shrine in how she is expected to speak and act in her new setting as a wife. At the culmination of her lessons, sacri ces of sh, duckweed, and water grasses are o ered. The question-and-answer form of the poem re ects that of the more formal catechism the girl has underdone at the ancestral shrine (perhaps re ected in the balanced rhyme scheme aabb / xcxc / xdxd). The rst stanza depicts where the bride-to-be should search for the sacri cial plants; the second, how to prepare them; and the third, where to position them. The shi referred to in the penultimate line is the person who impersonates the ancestors in sacri ces: here the young woman who is to be married. The poem seems not to be sung by her, but about her, perhaps by the women who picked duckweed or other plants regularly."