Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Tong Gong

[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.

* I recently wrote about the China History Podcast, which has a whole series on Tang Poetry, and might well be of general interest.

**NEXT BATCH APRIL 12.**

Comments

175. 彤弓 - Tong Gong

[x_los]

彤弓弨兮、受言藏之。
我有嘉賓、中心貺之。
鐘鼓既設、一朝饗之。

The red bows unbent,
Were received and deposited.
I have here an admirable guest,
And with all my heart I bestow one on him.
The bells and drums have been arranged in order,
And all the morning will I feast him.

彤弓弨兮、受言載之。
我有嘉賓、中心喜之。
鐘鼓既設、一朝右之。

The red bows unbent,
Were received and fitted on their frames.
I have here an admirable guest,
And with all my heart I rejoice in him.
The bells and drums have been arranged in order,
And all the morning will I honour him.

彤弓弨兮、受言櫜之。
我有嘉賓、中心好之。
鐘鼓既設、一朝醻之。

The red bows unbent,
Were received and placed in their cases.
I have here an admirable guest,
And with all my heart I love him.
The bells and drums have been arranged in order,
And all the morning will I pledge him.

Re: 175. 彤弓 - Tong Gong

[x_los]

this is the type of shit you say right before you murder King Duncan in his sleep

"red bows unbent" are these special? and what are the frames they're fitted on?

Re: 175. 彤弓 - Tong Gong

[ann712]

LOL. Strangled by a red bow.

Re: 175. 彤弓 - Tong Gong

[superborb]

Baike glosses the red bows as bows lacquered red, used by the emperor to reward meritorious feudal vassals/princes. Later it says the bow giving as etiquette was used from the Western Zhou dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.

I think Legge made up the frames part. Based on the Baike gloss and vernacular translations, it seems to be more like "The relaxed red bows, were received and loaded into the carriage / collected".