Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Qin

[x_los]

* 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.

* 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 MARCH 1.**

Comments

135. 權輿 - Quan Yu

[x_los]

於我乎、夏屋渠渠、今也每食無餘。
于嗟乎、不承權輿。

He assigned us a house large and spacious;
But now at every meal there is nothing left.
Alas that he could not continue as he began!

於我乎、每食四簋、今也每食不飽。
于嗟乎、不承權輿。

He assigned us at every meal four dishes of grain;
But now at every meal we do not get our fill.
Alas that he could not continue as he began!

Re: 135. 權輿 - Quan Yu

[x_los]

An over-promiser. Now you're left with a giant house to keep up and no fuckin food. What an asshole. Should have given you a small house, and a more consistent food supply.

Re: 135. 權輿 - Quan Yu

[forestofglory]

Is grain here rice? Millet? Wheat? Unclear?

Re: 135. 權輿 - Quan Yu

[superborb]

Baike: this is satirizing Qin Kang gong, who has forgotten the ministers/scholars of his predecessor Qin Mu gong, and now their plentiful meals are no more. Of course, the important thing isn't the diet, but their position in the mind of the monarch.