Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the states, Odes Of Shao And The South

[x_los]

Here's the second of the week's poetry discussion posts. Both are currently set to members only, and will be made public once we sort out privacy options for anyone who wants them.

Odes Of Shao And The South:

https://ctext.org/book-of-poetry/odes-of-shao-and-the-south, or http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Shijing&no=12 (On the page, this string guides you through the Shao poems: nº 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 .)

Discussion Notes:

Please drop all resources, thoughts and questions in the comment stream pertaining to the relevant poem. I'd be especially grateful for context notes on these! The general wiki entry on the Book of Odes/Classic of Poetry is a nice starting point.

General questions and fannish stuff can have their own comment threads. I'll post the next two chapters' posts next Monday, unless we end up feeling that's too soon or something. The posts will remain available to go back and comment on, if you get behind but still want to engage with them. 



Que Chao

The nest is the magpie's ;
The dove dwells in it.
This young lady is going to her future home ;
A hundred carriages are meeting her.

The nest is the magpie's ;
The dove possesses it.
This young lady is going to her future home ;
A hundred carriages are escorting her.

The nest is the magpie's ;
The dove fills it.
This young lady is going to her future home ;
These hundreds of carriages complete her array.

Cai Fan

She gathers the white southernwood,
By the ponds, on the islets.
She employs it,
In the business of our prince.

She gathers the white southernwood,
Along the streams in the valleys.
She employs it,
In the temple of our prince.

With head-dress reverently rising aloft,
Early, while yet it is night, she is in the prince's temple ;
In her dead-dress, slowly retiring,
She returns to her own apartments.

Cao Chong

Yao-yao went the grass-insects,
And the hoppers sprang about.
While I do not see my lord,
My sorrowful heart is agitated.
Let me have seen him,
Let me have met him,
And my heart will then be stilled.

I ascended that hill in the south,
And gathered the turtle-foot ferns.
While I do not see my lord,
My sorrowful heart is very sad.
Let me have seen him,
Let me have met him,
And my heart will then be pleased.

I ascended that hill in the south,
And gathered the thorn-ferns.
While I do not see my lord,
My sorrowful heart is wounded with grief.
Let me have seen him,
Let me have met him,
And my heart will then be at peace.

Cai Ping

She gathers the large duckweed,
By the banks of the stream in the southern valley.
She gathers the pondweed,
In those pools left by the floods.

She deposits what she gathers,
In her square baskets and round ones
She boils it,
In her tripods and pans.

She sets forth her preparations,
Under the window in the ancestral chamber.
Who superintends the business ?
It is [this] reverent young lady.

Gan Tang

[This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree ; –
Clip it not, hew it not down.
Under it the chief of Zhou lodged.

[This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree ; –
Clip it not, break not a twig of it.
Under it the chief of Zhou rested.

[This] umbrageous sweet pear-tree ; –
Clip it not, bend not a twig of it.
Under it the chief of Zhou halted.

Xing Lu

Wet lay the dew on the path : –
Might I not [have walked there] in the early dawn ?
But I said there was [too] much dew on the path.

Who can say the sparrow has no horn ?
How else can it bore through my house ?
Who can say that you did not get me betrothed ?
How else could you have urged on this trial ?
But though you have forced me to trial,
Your ceremonies for betrothal were not sufficient.

Who can say that the rat has no molar teeth ?
How else could it bore through my wall ?
Who can say that you did not get me betrothed ?
How else could you have urged on this trial ?
But though you have forced me to trial,
I will still not follow you.

Gao Yang

[Those] lamb-skins and sheep-skins,
With their five braidings of white silk !
They have retired from the court to take their their meal ;
Easy are they and self-possesed.

[Those] lamb-skins and sheep-skins,
With their five seams wrought with white silk !
Easy are they and self-possessed ;
They have retired from the court to take their their meal.

The seams of [those] lamb-skins and sheep-skins,
The five joinings wrought with white silk !
Easy are they and self-possessed ;
They have retired to take their their meal from the court.

Yin Qi Lei

Grandly rolls the thunder,
On the south of the southern hill !
How was it he went away from this,
Not daring to take a little rest ?
My noble lord !
May he return ! May he return !

Grandly rolls the thunder,
About the sides of the southern hill !
How was it he went away from this,
Not daring to take a little rest ?
My noble lord !
May he return ! May he return !

Grandly rolls the thunder,
At the foot of the southern hill !
How was it he went away from this,
Not remaining a little at rest ?
My noble lord !
May he return ! May he return !

Piao You Mei

Dropping are the fruits from the plum-tree ;
There are [but] seven [tenths] of them left !
For the gentlemen who seek me,
This is the fortunate time !

Dropping are the fruits from the plum-tree ;
There are [but] three [tenths] of them left !
For the gentlemen who seek me,
Now is the time.

Dropt are the fruits from the plum-tree ;
In my shallow basket I have collected them.
Would the gentlemen who seek me
[Only] speak about it !

Xiao Xing

Small are those starlets,
Three or five of them in the east,
Swiftly by night we go ;
In the early dawn we are with the prince.
Our lot is not like hers.

Small are those starlets,
And there are Orion and the Pleiades.
Swiftly by night we go,
Carrying our coverlets and sheets.
Our lot is not like hers.

Jiang You Si

The Jiang has its branches, led from it and returning to it.
Our lady, when she was married,
Would not employ us.
She would not employ us ;
But afterwards she repented.

The Jiang has its islets.
Our lady, when she was married,
Would not let us be with her.
She would not let us be with her ;
But afterwards she repressed [such feelings].

The Jiang has the Tuo.
Our lady, when she was married,
Would not come near us
She would not come near us ;
But she blew that feeling away, and sang.

Ye You Si Jun

In the wild there is a dead antelope,
And it is wrapped up with the white grass.
There is a young lady with thoughts natural to the spring,
And a fine gentleman would lead her astray.

In the forest there are the scrubby oaks ;
In the wild there is a dead deer,
And it is bound round with the white grass.
There is a young lady like a gem.

[She says], Slowly ; gently, gently ;
Do not move my handkerchief ;
Do not make my dog bark.

He Bi Nong Yi

How great is that luxuriance,
Those flowers of the sparrow-plum !
Are they not expressive of reverence and harmony, –
The carriages of the king's daughter ?

How great is that luxuriance,
The flowers like those of the peach-tree or the plum !
[See] the grand-daughter of the tranquillizing king,
And the son of the reverent marquis !

What are used in angling ?
Silk threads formed into lines.
The son of the reverent marquis,
And the grand-daughter of the tranquillizing king !

Zou Yu

Strong and abundant grow the rushes ;
He discharges [but] one arrow at five wild boars.
Ah ! he is the Zou-yu !

Strong and abundant grow the artemisia ;
He discharges [but] one arrow at five wild boars.
Ah ! he is the Zou-yu !

Comments

Re: Jiang You Si

[x_los]

How to Read offers a wildly different interpretation:

The River Has Branches
The River has branches that leave and return— 2
When this person returned home,
He did not take me, 4
He did not take me,
And afterward he will regret it!

6 The River has channels ’tween its islets—
When this person returned home,
8 He would not be close to me,
He would not be close to me,
10 And afterward he will be troubled by it!

The River has the Tuo tributary— 12
When this person returned home,
He did not stop by to see me,
He did not stop by to see me,
His wailing will become my song.

Line 1 of this poem, along with its variants (lines 6 and 11), has been identi ed as a xing. It also functions as a comparison (bi), linking the lover, who is often absent, to the River (the ancient name of the Yangtze River), which has branches that wan- der o from the main channel. Perhaps the wayward lover is a merchant. Each stanza of the poem is in trimeter until the nal line, which reverts to tetrameter. Yet even these nal lines break on the particle ye, yielding a 3:1 rhythm, the nal syllable constituting a kind of exclamation: “And afterward . . . regret!” and so on. If the nal lines are scanned so, in performing the poem there seems to be great potential for controlling the audience. The listeners would have empathized with the persona and hoped that her unfaithful mate would somehow be punished. If the singer stressed the ye (which, as a particle, would normally be unstressed), if he or she held this word longer before revealing to the audience the negative e ects on the unfaithful lover, the power of the poetic justice would have increased with this suspense. The nal line of the third stanza would thereby reveal the ultimate surprise: that the errant lover’s anguish would become the plot for a song—this song. Although the emotions weigh down the reader, the e ect of rhyming nearly every line (axaaa, bxbbb, cxccc) lightens the mood and prepares for the almost mocking closing line.

Structurally, there is here, too, a kind of incremental repetition. In the rst stanza, although branches of the river depart from the main channel, they return. In contrast, the lover seems to have left for good. His initial emotion will be merely regret. In the second stanza, the many channels between the islets may suggest the lover’s coursing between more than one love interest. Because of this, he did not even try to soften his departure with a nal rendezvous. This, the persona tells us, will cause him more anguish even than leaving her. Finally, in the last stanza, there is a suggestion that the river has joined with someone else (as the Tuo joins the River) and that he did not even stop by to see his former lover before leaving. As a result, his anguish will someday cause him to wail, a sorrow that the persona promises to put to song. The more he demonstrates his coldness toward her, the more she wants to believe he will eventually su er. The force of this reading lies in the contrast between the reality of the rst four lines of each stanza and the singer’s fantasy in the nal lines.

This poem has also been interpreted as the lament of a young female relative of a bride who has left the relative behind as the bride headed o to be married (line 2 of each stanza could also be read, “She has gone to be married,” as in “Tao yao”). It was a common practice for a bride to take along several young women of her family, who became the husband’s secondary wives or concubines.

Re: Jiang You Si

[superborb]

Baidu seems to agree with this interpretation: that it's an abandoned wife (potentially of a traveling businessman). It also offers a bunch of other historical interpretations, but says that this one is the accepted one now.

Baidu is kind of mean, and says that the wife is just imagining that the husband will regret leaving, but this is wishful thinking