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

178. 采芑 - Cai Qi

[x_los]

薄言采芑、于彼新田、于此菑畝。
方叔涖止、其車三千、師干之試。
方叔率止、乘其四騏、四騏翼翼。
路車有奭、簟笰魚服、鉤膺鞗革。

They were gathering the white millet,
In those new fields,
And in these acres brought only one year under cultivation,
When Fang Shu came to take the command.
His chariots were three thousand,
With a host of well-disciplined warriors.
Fang Shu led them on,
In his carriage drawn by four piebalds,
Four piebalds orderly moving.
Red shone his grand carriage,
With its chequered bamboo screen, and seal-skin quivers,
With the hooks for the trappings of the breast-bands, and the rein-ends.

薄言采芑、于彼新田、于此中鄉。
方叔涖止、其車三千、旂旐央央。
方叔率止、約軝錯衡、八鸞瑲瑲。
服其命服、朱芾斯皇、有瑲蔥珩。

They were gathering the white millet,
In those new fields,
And all about these villages,
When Fang Shu came to take the command.
His chariots were three thousand;
His banners, with their blazonry of dragons, and of serpents and tortoises, fluttered gaily.
Fang Shu led them on,
The naves of his wheels bound with leather, and his yoke ornamented.
Tinkle-tinkle went the eight bells at the horses' bits.
He wore the robes conferred [by the king];
His red knee-covers were resplendent,
And the gems of his girdle-pendant sounding.

鴥彼飛隼、其飛戾天、亦集爰止。
方叔涖止、其車三千、師干之試。
方叔率止、鉦人伐鼓、陳師鞠旅。
顯允方叔、伐鼓淵淵、振旅闐闐。

Rapid is the flight of the hawk,
Soaring to the heavens,
And again descending and settling in its place.
Fang Shu came to take the command.
His chariots were three thousand,
With a host of well disciplined warriors.
Fang Shu led them on.
With his jinglers and drummers,
He marshalled his hosts and addressed them.
Intelligent and true is Fang Shu,
Deep rolled the sound of his drums;
With a lighter sound he led the troops back.

蠢爾蠻荊、大邦為讎。
方叔元老、克壯其猶。
方叔率止、執訊獲醜。
戎車嘽嘽、嘽嘽焞焞、如霆如雷。
顯允方叔、征伐玁狁、蠻荊來威。

Foolish were the savage tribes of Jing,
Presuming to oppose our great region.
Fang Shu is of great age,
But full of vigour were his plans.
He led his army on,
Seized [the chiefs] for the question, and made captives of a crowd [besides].
Numerous were his war chariots,
Numerous and in grand array,
Like the clap or the roll of thunder their onset.
Intelligent and true is Fang Shu.
He had gone and smitten the Xian-yun,
And the tribes of King came, awed by his majesty.

Re: 178. 采芑 - Cai Qi

[x_los]

Same conflict as the last poem, I guess?

Interesting that the general is old, and that this is noted.

Re: 178. 采芑 - Cai Qi

[ann712]

Reminds me of Kutuzov in War and Peace

Re: 178. 采芑 - Cai Qi

[superborb]

It's during the reign of the same king anyway (according to Baike).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xianyun mentions that there are four poems about battles between the Zhou and Xianyun in the Shijing.