dankodes | Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Odes of the Temple&Altar, Sacrificial Odes of Zhou, Min Yu Xiao Zi

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Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Odes of the Temple&Altar, Sacrificial Odes of Zhou, Min Yu Xiao Zi

* I found the best option for the weekly reminder emails, via Gmail. The external service options are more involved than our purposes require. Does anyone know anything about how to arrange an Apps Script? Basically all it has to do is tell ten people, on Saturdays, to come and get their juice/poems.

Until someone knows what to do there, I'll send out manual messages weekly. If you'd like to receive these and are not getting them, please let me know.

* If you haven't read it yet, chapter one, on tetrasyllabic shi poetry, in How to Read Chinese Poetry is hugely useful for the Book of Odes, imo.

* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.

* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.

* Every week I search the poems' English results to see if I can find any scholarship or neat bits and pop the results in Resources. Here is this week's collection.

**NEXT BATCH JUNE 28.**

ONLY 2 SHI JING WEEKS LEFT, THIS INCLUDED!

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閔予小子、遭家不造、嬛嬛在疚。
於乎皇考、永世克孝。
念茲皇祖、陟降庭止。
維予小子、夙夜敬止。
於乎皇王、繼序思不忘。

Alas for me, who am [as] a little child,
On whom has devolved the unsettled State!
Solitary am I and full of distress.
Oh! my great Father,
All thy life long, thou wast filial.
Thou didst think of my great grandfather,
[Seeing him, as it were,] ascending and descending in the court.
I, the little child,
Day and night will be so reverent.
Oh! ye great kings,
As your successor, I will strive not to forget you.

"Alas for me, who am [as] a little child," the shi jing hitting us with the first historical instance of 'im baby'

This one giving me big History Plays vibes

'ascending and descending' like, coming into and going from?

Writing and Rewriting the Poetry
http://cccp.uchicago.edu/archive/2009BookOfOdesSymposium/2009_BookOfOdesSymposium_EdShaughnessy.pdf

Some of the Song 頌 or Hymns also seem to derive from or comment on particular events at the royal or regional courts, suggesting perhaps that they would have been composed by the contemporary secretaries of the courts. (Footnote: See, for instance, the discussion by Fu Sinian 傅斯年 associating the poems “Min yu xiaozi” 閔予小子(Mao 286), “Fang luo” 訪落 (Mao 287) and “Jing zhi” 敬之 (Mao 288) of the Zhou Song section with theinstallation of Kang Wang (r. 1005/03-978 B.C.) as the Zhou king; Fu Sinian quanji 傅斯年全集 (Taibei:Lianjing shuban shiye gongsi, 1980), Vol. 1, pp. 218-20. )

According to wikipedia, King Cheng of Zhou was pretty baby when he ascended the throne. The entry says he started ruling in his own right at 20, and he had a regent for 7 years before that.

Baike:

Probably written for Zhou Cheng wang in the third year of his reign (after the three year mourning period) by Zhou gong, as Zhou Cheng wang would be too young to understand politics at this time.

The Father is Wu wang, the great-grandfather is Wen wang; the great kings are both Wu wang and Wen wang.

訪予落止、率時昭考。
於乎悠哉、朕未有艾。
將予就之、繼猶判渙。
維予小子、未堪家多難。
紹庭上下、陟降厥家。
休矣皇考、以保明其身。

I take counsel at the beginning of my [rule],
How I can follow [the example] of my shrined father.
Ah! far-reaching [were his plans],
And I am not yet able to carry them out.
However I endeavour to reach to them,
My continuation of them will still be all-deflected.
I am [but as] a little child,
Unequal to the many difficulties of the State.
In his room, [I will look for him] to go up and come down in the court,
To ascend and descend in the house.
Admirable art thou, O great Father,
[Condescend] to preserve and enlighten me.

'shrined' maybe 'enshrined' basically?

'all-deflected' comprehensible, but awkward

'go up and come down in the court,
To ascend and descend in the house.' same unusual seeming word choice as before?

V similar to the previous 'I'm baby' poem.

Baike suggests that the bit translated as ascending/descending refers to promotions and demotions of officials.

It's mildly annoying that Baike is very inconsistent in their glosses -- like that's not in the gloss for the previous poem, which just says 上下，升降, while this one is the much more useful one of 提升和贬谪

you know what it's also slightly like is 'in the room women come and go/talking of Michelangelo'

Baike points out that one of the problems with changing kings is that the feudal princes may not acknowledge the new king. Therefore the political situation is not as stable. There is also controversy over when this poem was written: either after Cheng wang becomes king or after Zhou gong's regency is over.

敬之敬之、天維顯思、命不易哉。
無曰高高在上、陟降厥士、日監在茲。
維予小子、不聰敬止。
日就月將、學有緝熙于光明。
佛時仔肩、示我顯德行。

Let me be reverent, let me be reverent, [in attending to my duties];
[The way of] Heaven is evident,
And its appointment is not easily [preserved].
Let me not say that It is high aloft above me.
It ascends and descends about our doings;
It daily inspects us wherever we are.
I am [but as] a little child,
Without intelligence to be reverently [attentive to my duties];
But by daily progress and monthly advance,
I will learn to hold fast the gleams [of knowledge], till I arrive at bright intelligence.
Assist me to bear the burden [of my position],
And show me how to display a virtuous conduct.

"Let me not say that It is high aloft above me.
It ascends and descends about our doings;" so--let me not think it's remote and doesn't notice or care what I do, then the weird 'ascends and descends' again

Is this for a literal child-ruler, or is it a pose?

Baike says the poems 286-289 are regarded as a group-- 286 as Cheng wang has first ascended, 289 after Zhou gong returned to politics, so this should take place between the two. Cheng wang has been in power with the help of Zhou gong for a bit, and is in the transition from impulsive to mature. Baike points out that while the poems would not have been pre-planned to come as a set, it must have been arranged deliberately like so in this collection.

予其懲。
而毖後患。
莫予荓蜂。
自求辛螫。
肇允彼桃蟲。
拚飛維鳥。
未堪家多難。
予又集于蓼。

I condemn myself [for the past], and will be on my guard against future calamity.
I will have nothing to do with a wasp,
To seek for myself its painful sting.
At first, indeed, the thing seemed but a wren,
But it took wing and became a [large] bird.
I am unequal to the many difficulties of the kingdom;
And I am placed in the midst of bitter experiences.

what wasp, and why would you think a wasp was a wren and then a giant bird? this metaphor is really Going Places

Rhetoric in Ancient China, Fifth to Third Century, B.C.E
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=72QURrAppzkC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Xiao+Bi+poem+shi+jing&source=bl&ots=lOdODwmTq9&sig=ACfU3U1C36BoXwAi8plq1qStLzDecgbttg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtwdKu2KjxAhUGDWMBHRcbCe8Q6AEwEXoECB4QAw#v=onepage&q=Xiao%20Bi%20poem%20shi%20jing&f=false

Mentions that this and songs like it are about "portraying the king as a noble, virtuous and moral ruler, were sung by the king himself expressing his determination to ward off evil and self-corruption as well as his sincerity in seeking wise counsel from his ministers and officials."

I don’t think it should be interpreted that he thinks the wasp is a wren. I read it that he doesn’t want to grasp the nettle (so to speak) which is the wasp thing.
Then he says that the challenges he faced seemed small ( wren) at first but then proved to be a large bird when it took off.

Baike:

I cannot quite parse the gloss for 'wasp': a tiny grass bee; there is disagreement about the explanation, some say it has the meaning of shi [to make; to cause]?????

The 'sting' is glossed as a loan character for 'imperial orders', hardworking/industrious

The wren (a small bird) -> large bird metaphor is for Wu Geng, who started out weak but colluded with Guanshu and Caishu to rebel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_of_the_Three_Guards)

The bitter experiences uses a bitter plant to carry the meaning; it was commonly used by the ancients as a metaphor for hardships.

So this is now Zhou Cheng wang as a mature adult, having passed the rebellion.

載芟載柞、其耕澤澤。
千耦其耘、徂隰徂畛。
侯主侯伯、侯亞侯旅、侯彊侯以。
有嗿其饁、思媚其婦、有依其士。
有略其耜、俶載南畝。
播厥百殼、實函斯活。
驛驛其達、有厭其傑。
厭厭其苗、綿綿其麃。
載穫濟濟、有實其積、萬億及秭。
為酒為醴、烝畀祖妣、以洽百禮。
有飶其香、邦家之光。
有椒其馨、胡考之寧。
匪且有且、匪今斯今、振古如茲。

They clear away the grass and the bushes;
And the ground is laid open by their ploughs.
In thousands of pairs they remove the roots,
Some in the low wet lands, some along the dykes.
There are the master and his eldest son;
His younger sons, and all their children;
Their strong helpers, and their hired servants.
How the noise of their eating the viands brought to them resounds!
[The husbands] think lovingly of their wives;
[The wives] keep close to their husbands.
[Then] with their sharp plough-shares,
They set to work on the south-lying acres.
They sow their different kinds of grain,
Each seed containing in it a germ of life.
In unbroken lines rises the blade,
And well-nourished the stalks grow long.
Luxuriant looks the young grain,
And the weeders go among it in multitudes.
Then come the reapers in crowds,
And the grain is piled up the fields,
Myriads, and hundreds of thousands, and millions [of stacks];
For spirits and for sweet spirits,
To offer to our ancestors, male and female,
And to provide for all ceremonies.
Fragrant is their aroma,
Enhancing the glory of the State.
Like pepper is their smell,
To give comfort to the aged.
It is not here only that there is this [abundance];
It is not now only that there is such a time:
From of old it has been thus.

The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mkern/files/the_formation_of_the_classic_of_poetry_0.pdf

Third, some “Eulogies of Zhou” are closely interrelated: they share entire lines or even couplets with one another but not with other poems, marking them as a single larger unit of text. Thus, of the thirty components of characters of “Year ofAbundance” (Mao 279 “Feng nian”), sixteen are verbatim identical to verses in “Clear Away the Grass” (Mao 290 “Zai shan”). At the same time, “Clear Away the Grass” also shares three more lines with “Good Ploughs” (Mao 291 “Liang si”), and additional individual lines with four other neighboring texts.20 One may, thus, think of the texts of the“Eulogies of Zhou” not as individually authored texts but as variations of material taken from a shared poetic repertoire.

"In thousands of pairs they remove the roots," so a poem about large-scale efforts to bring land under cultivation

does the gender of the ancestors and spirits matter much? maybe there are ceremonial differences

'Like pepper is their smell,
To give comfort to the aged.' if you say so

the last three lines are nice

It really presents a golden age doesnt it,

畟畟良耜、俶載南畝。
播厥百殼、實函斯活。
或來瞻女、載筐及筥、其饟伊黍。
其笠伊糾、其鎛斯趙、以薅荼蓼。
荼蓼朽止、黍稷茂止。
穫之挃挃、積之栗栗。
其崇如墉、其比如櫛。
以開百室。
百室盈止、婦子寧止。
殺時犉牡、有捄其角。
以似以續、續古之人。

Very sharp are the excellent shares,
With which they set to work on the south-lying acres.
They sow their different kinds of grain,
Each seed containing a germ of life.
There are those who come to see them,
With their baskets round and square,
Containing the provision of millet.
With their light splint hats on their heads,
They ply their hoes on the ground,
Clearing away the smart-weed on the dry land and wet.
These weeds being decayed,
The millets grow luxuriantly.
They fall rustling before the reapers.
And [the sheaves] are set up solidly,
High as a wall,
United together like the teeth of a comb;
And the hundred houses are opened [to receive the grain].
Those hundred houses being full,
The wives and children have a feeling of repose.
[Now] we kill this black-muzzled tawny bull,
With his crooked horns,
To imitate and hand down,
To hand down [the observances of] our ancestors.

'Very sharp are the excellent shares,' sharecroppers? shears?

Come to see them at work, or to visit them?

"splint hats" ?

"They ply their hoes on the ground," don't we all

"smart-weed" ?

'decayed' feels like an odd word choice

"United together like the teeth of a comb;" nice image

I think the smart weed may be used as a green manure. Hence decayed.

'Shares' is 耜 which is some sort of soil-tilling implement, supposedly invented by Farmer God/Emperor guy.

瞻 seems to me more like 'see/look/gawk' than 'visit'. Although Baike seems to gloss it as 'materially support'.

笠 is those bamboo hats.

Not sure about the 'smart-weed'. 以薅荼蓼 seems to just mean 'to clear away Weed Type A and Weed Type B'?

'Decayed' is 朽, so probably a literal translation.

蓼 is smartweed. I guess Legge just drops the other weed type

絲衣其紑、載弁俅俅。
自堂徂基、自羊徂牛。
鼐鼎及鼒、兕觥其觩。
旨酒思柔。
不吳不敖、胡考之休。

In his silken robes, clear and bright,
With his cap on his head, looking so respectful,
From the hall he goes to the foot of the stairs,
And from the sheep to the oxen.
[He inspects] the tripods, large and small,
And the curved goblet of rhinoceros horn.
The good spirits are mild;
There is no noise, no insolence:
An auspice, [all this], of great longevity.

"clear" clean?

"And from the sheep to the oxen." sacrifice animals?

So just--yep, the ritual is looking good, and will probably do what it's supposed to?

Baike glosses the 'clear and bright' as spotlessly white and bright

Yep sacrifice animals

Baike has... so many words about rituals @.@

於鑠王師、遵養時晦。
時純熙矣、是用大介。
我龍受之、蹻蹻王之造。
載用有嗣、實維爾公允師。

Oh! powerful was the king's army;
But he nursed it in obedience to circumstances while the time was yet dark.
When the time was clearly bright,
He thereupon donned his grand armour.
We have been favoured to receive,
What the martial king accomplished.
To deal aright with what we have inherited,
We have to be sincere imitators of thy course, [O king].

"nursed it in obedience to circumstances while the time was yet dark." so what's the story?

Baike's vernacular tl of that line is taking some huge liberties "commanding soldiers in a campaign to the east to extinguish the Yin Shang dynasty"

I guess a more literal tl, relying on Baike's gloss is like, "commanding to attack and seize in the darkness [of the end of a lunar month]"

Baike says this is about Zhou Wu wang's victory over the Yin Shang (previous dynasty), possibly by Zhou gong after he died. One of the Da Wu poems.

綏萬邦、婁豐年。
天命匪解。
桓桓武王、保有厥士。
于以四方、克定厥家。
於昭于天。
皇以閒之。

There is peace throughout our myriad regions;
There has been a succession of plentiful years:
Heaven does not weary in its favour.
The martial king Wu,
Maintained [the confidence of] his officers,
And employed them all over the kingdom,
So securing the establishment of his Family.
Oh! glorious was he in the sight of Heaven,
Which kinged him in the room [of Shang].

"Which kinged him in the room [of Shang]." instead of? in place of?

Legge has chosen a diff interpretation than the Baike gloss-- instead of 'room' (literal modern meaning), Baike glosses as to supervise / control.

But that line basically means he replaced the Shang.

文王既勤止、我應受之。
敷時繹思、我徂維求定。
時周之命、於繹思。

King Wen laboured earnestly; -
Right is it we should have received [the kingdom].
We will diffuse [his virtue], ever cherishing the thought of him;
Henceforth we will seek only the settlement [of the kingdom].
It was he through whom came the appointment of Zhou;
Oh! let us ever cherish the thought of him.

"Right is it we should have received [the kingdom]." who's 'we', and are you his descendants, that his actions earned your inheritance?

'settlement' in what sense?

"the appointment of Zhou;" so is this like--a belief in the 'appointment' as the SAME mandate, passed around like an unwanted fruitcake? or is this talking about his lineage legitimising the power transfer?

Baike says that this is Wu wang warning the feudal princes who are under his rule at the end of the Da Wu performance (i.e. after he succeeds in conquering the Shang)

Settlement in the sense of stability / settling the country I think??

Appointment in the sense of the mandate of heaven now upon the Zhou

於皇時周。
陟其高山、嶞山喬嶽、允猶翕河。
敷天之下、裒時之對、時周之命。

Oh! great now is Zhou.
We ascend the high hills,
Both those that are long and narrow, and the lofty mountains;
Yes, and [we travel] along the regulated He,
All under the sky,
Assembling those who now respond to me.
Thus it is that the appointment belongs to Zhou.

"We ascend the high hills,
Both those that are long and narrow, and the lofty mountains;" via... roadworks? and the river is subject to some engineering works too? to prevent endemic flooding and facilitate transportation?

"Thus it is that the appointment belongs to Zhou." so the appointment is yours because you're doing the work, or like: 'thus, we execute the task'?

Baike's description makes it seem more like-- the mountains and rivers show the vastness of the Zhou.

Baike's vernacular tl for the last line is "May the fate of Zhou last forever". From the gloss it might be as a more literal tl, "bear/support Zhou's fate"

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Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Odes of the Temple&Altar, Sacrificial Odes of Zhou, Min Yu Xiao Zi

286. 閔予小子 - Min Yu Xiao Zi

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287. 訪落 - Fang Luo

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288. 敬之 - Jing Zhi

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289. 小毖 - Xiao Bi

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290. 載芟 - Zai Shan

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291. 良耜 - Liang Si

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292. 絲衣 - Si Yi

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293. 酌 - Zhuo

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294. 桓 - Huan

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295. 賚 - Lai

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296. 般 - Ban

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