dankodes | Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Gui and Odes of Cao

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* 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.

* In case you missed it and are interested, some people on the com are doing a Nirvana in Fire read-along here. Anyone with thoughts is welcome to chime in.

**NEXT BATCH MARCH 15.**

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From:

x_los

羔裘逍遙、狐裘以朝。
豈不爾思、勞心忉忉。

In your lamb's fur you saunter about;
In your fox's fur you hold your court.
How should I not think anxiously about you?
My toiled heart is full of grief.

羔裘翱翔、狐裘在堂。
豈不爾思、我心憂傷。

In your lamb's fur you wander aimlessly about;
In your fox's fur you appear in your hall.
How should I not think anxiously about you?
My heart is wounded with sorrow.

羔裘如膏、日出有曜。
豈不爾思、中心是悼。

Your lamb's fur, as if covered with ointment;
Glistens when the sun comes forth.
How should I not think anxiously about you?
To the core of my heart I am grieved.

From:

x_los

So wool is often associated with court costume, and foxes with ho-ing. What about the person being in court robes is giving the poet anxiety?

From:

From Baike: the sadness of the ruler (or ministers) of Kuai country after he was forced to abdicate. (The character is read in modern Chinese as Gui, but the Baike entry glosses it as Kuai.) Kuai is in modern day Henan province, and was conquered by Zheng country.

It is satirically showing how the ruler lives in luxury, living leisurely even in the last days.

Also baike calls out that this doesn't use the bixing technique.

From:

x_los

庶見素冠兮、棘人欒欒兮、勞心慱慱兮。

If I could but see the white cap,
And the earnest mourner worn to leanness! -
My toiled heart is worn with grief!

庶見素衣兮、我心傷悲兮、聊與子同歸兮。

If I could but see the white [lower] dress! -
My heart is wounded with sadness!
I should be inclined to go and live with the wearer!

庶見素韠兮、我心蘊結兮、聊與子如一兮。

If I could but see the white knee-covers! -
Sorrow is knotted in my heart!
I should almost feel as of one soul with the wearer!

From:

x_los

Seeing signs of ritual mourning carried out earnestly moves the poet to deep empathy. May be about telling people how to mourn correctly?

From:

As you may expect, baike says there's a gazillion possible explanations for this poem: funerals, mourning, visiting prisons, a virtuous official being rebuked, sympathy with mourners, a love poem.

From:

x_los

隰有萇楚、猗儺其枝。
夭之沃沃、樂子之無知。

In the low wet grouds is the carambola tree;
Soft and pliant are its branches,
With the glossiness of tender beauty.
I should rejoice to be like you, [O tree], without consciousness.

隰有萇楚、猗儺其華。
夭之沃沃、樂子之無家。

In the low, damp grounds is the carambola tree;
Soft and delicate are its flowers,
With the glossiness of its tender beauty.
I should rejoice to be like you, [O tree], without a family.

隰有萇楚、猗儺其實。
夭之沃沃、樂子之無室。

In the low, damp grounds is the carambola tree;
Soft and delicate is its fruit,
With the glossiness of its tender beauty.
I should rejoice to be like you, [O tree], without a household.

From:

x_los

'too many jokes about suicide' territory here

From:

Man, whatever this plant is seems to be Uncertain?

Baike: 'carambola tree': a creeper/ climbing plant, either carambola/star fruit, or kiwi fruit/Chinese gooseberry

Lots of speculation about how this fits in with political troubles (as a country declines), exploitation by the ruling class... More modern scholars say it's a love poem.

From:

x_los

匪風發兮、匪車偈兮、顧瞻周道、中心怛兮。

Not for the violence of the wind;
Not for a rushing motion of a chariot; -
But when I look to the road to Zhou,
Am I pained to the core of my heart.

匪風飄兮、匪車嘌兮。
顧瞻周道、中心弔兮。

Not for the whirlwind;
Not for the irregular motion of a chariot; -
But when I look to the road to Zhou,
Am I sad to the core of my heart.

誰能亨魚、溉之釜鬵。
誰將西歸、懷之好音。

Who can cook fish?
I will wash his boilers for him.
Who will loyally go to the west?
I will cheer him with good words.

From:

x_los

gonna need some help with this one

From:

Baike: Modern scholars think this is a poem written by a homesick traveler (either away for travel or as a forced laborer). The author's home is in the West but he's in the East. It expresses the inner feelings of people during the period of dynasty collapse and social turmoil.

'washing with boilers': Wen Yiduo thought this might be homonymous with begging. (Though the main gloss is washing) The boilers bit is a big cauldron / pot.

'good words': news of peace

The fish might be symbolic of returning to the ancestral political era and ways, related to Laozi's "ruling a country is like cooking small dishes"

From:

x_los

蜉蝣之羽、衣裳楚楚。
心之憂矣、於我歸處。

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, bright and splendid.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and abide with me!

蜉蝣之翼、采采衣服。
心之憂矣、於我歸息。

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, variously adorned.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and rest with me!

蜉蝣掘閱、麻衣如雪。
心之憂矣、於我歸說。

The ephemera bursts from its hole,
With a robe of hemp like snow.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and lodge with me!

From:

x_los

this is not any definition of ephemera i'm aware of, w h a t is this xing doing

From: (Anonymous)

蜉蝣 means mayfly, so ... tangentially related I guess?

From:

douqi

The anonymous reply to this was me! Sorry, brain not functional.

From:

Baike:

'robe of hemp': daily clothing for the social class of feudal princes and officials . The snow part is bc it's white

Mao's commentary says it's a satire of Cao Zhao gong, and most people agree. The mayfly might also indicate the many lakes of Cao country or how it is a weak country.

Baike spends a LOT of characters describing the ~shortness and beauty~ of the mayfly's life. Also, apparently they will swarm at sunset and form thick layers of their dead bodies, thus an emotional scene.

From:

x_los

彼候人兮、何戈與祋。
彼其之子、三百赤芾。

Those officers of escort,
Have their carriers of lances and halberds.
But these creatures,
With their three hundred red covers for the knees! -

維鵜在梁、不濡其翼。
彼其之子、不稱其服。

The pelican is on the dam,
And will not wet his wings!
These creatures,
Are not equal to their dress!

維鵜在梁、不濡其咮。
彼其之子、不遂其媾。

The pelican is on the dam,
And will not wet his beak!
These creatures,
Do not respond to the favour they enjoy.

薈兮蔚兮、南山朝隮。
婉兮孌兮、季女斯飢。

Extensive and luxuriant is the vegetation,
And up the south hill in the morning rise the vapours.
Tender is she and lovely,
But the young lady is suffering from hunger.

From:

x_los

This one feels all over the place. Are the finely-dressed retainers not careful in their work? Is the lady hungry or, you know, Hungry?

From:

Baike: Most think this is ridiculing how mediocre people get high positions, criticizing unequal social reality. The poem uses a lot of poetic techniques.

The 'fu' technique is used in the first stanza, comparing two different people. (The first two lines of the first stanza and the last two lines refer to different people.) The people it complains about (those people with the red covers) are high-ranking and pompous.

The second and third stanzas use the 'bi' (comparison) technique. Here the pelican is standing on the dam and only needs to stretch its neck to get fish (not enter the water), as the fish will jump into its mouth.

The last stanza uses the 'qixing' technique, describing the gray and overcast atmosphere and the abandoned and starved young lady.

'red covers': ceremonial clothing(?) made of leather, the upper part is narrow and the lower part is wide, and the upper part is fixed to the waist. The colors indicate rank; red is for senior officials and above.
'dam': a dike that extends into the water for fishing
'hunger': one source says it's the hunger of a woman for marriage

From:

x_los

Thanks for all the info on techniques here, this was really helpful.

From:

x_los

鳲鳩在桑、其子七兮。
淑人君子、其儀一兮。
其儀一兮、心如結兮。

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are seven.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Is uniformly correct in his deportment.
He is uniformly correct in his deportment,
His heart is as if it were tied to what is correct.

鳲鳩在桑、其子在梅。
淑人君子、其帶伊絲。
其帶伊絲、其弁伊騏。

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the plum tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Has his girdle of silk.
His girdle is of silk,
And his cap is of spotted deer-skin.

鳲鳩在桑、其子在棘。
淑人君子、其儀不忒。
其儀不忒、正是四國。

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the jujube tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Has nothing wrong in his deportment.
He has nothing wrong in his deportment,
And thus he rectifies the four quarters of the State.

鳲鳩在桑、其子在榛。
淑人君子、正是國人。
正是國人、胡不萬年。

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the hazel tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Rectifies the people of the State.
He rectifies the people of his State:
May he continue for ten thousand years!

From:

x_los

There's such a deep connection here and in several of these between ritual, appearance and essence: presenting and manifesting correct behaviour is tied to both bearing good emotions/thoughts and the prosperity of the state. 'Rectifies' is itself an interesting choice: is he setting problems right, or does his personal rectitude infuse the broader context he operates in via his correct deportment?

From:

Baike's gloss is that he serves as an example / leads, but then one source says "to correct; make right" which would imply a more active role?

From:

It is so interesting to me that we get a lot of positive imagery with cuckoos? (Baike glosses the turtle dove as a cuckoo) https://www.jstor.org/stable/604785?seq=1 seems to discuss the relevance of the cuckoo in the Shijing, but I can't access it.

Baike:
It's seven children bc that's what was said about cuckoos.
Cuckoos are signs of spring and unselfishly and unbiasedly feed many small birds.

The two diametrically opposed opinions on if it's satire or praise.

From:

x_los

It looks like if you go to 'alternate access options' it's available to read for free, via the 100 articles a month quota.

From:

x_los

冽彼下泉、浸彼苞稂。
愾我寤嘆、念彼周京。

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy wolf's-tail grass,
Ah me! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital of Zhou.

冽彼下泉、浸彼苞蕭。
愾我寤嘆、念彼京周。

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy southernwood,
Ah me! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital of Zhou.

冽彼下泉、浸彼苞蓍。
愾無寤歎、念彼京師。

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy divining plants,
Ah me! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital-city.

芃芃黍苗、陰雨膏之。
四國有王、郇伯勞之。

Beautifully grew the fields of young millet,
Enriched by fertilizing rains.
The States had their sovereign,
And there was the chief of Xun to reward their princes.

From:

x_los

Cold water that floods these plants and renders them hard to work with/useless reminds the poet of how shitty the situation is in this capital (their own?).

In contrast, in this other capital, gentle rain nourished the plants: the natural order (kingship, the water cycle) was as it should be, and the sovereign 'made it rain'. Idk why that should be better than inundation as a metaphor for rewards? But here we are.

From:

Baike: Cao country officials sadly observing the decline of the Zhou dynasty, as states bully weaker ones, and so they miss the stable situation of when the Zhou first held power.

People are apparently in conflict over if the last stanza (and its sudden departure from the structure of the first three) is done well or not. The first three stanzas follow a common Shijing sentence structure, where only the last word of the first sentence and the last two of the second differ. Then the last stanza is structurally different. I think the doubts are for if this last stanza belongs in this poem at all?

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