Baike's vernacular translation of the first line is "Hurry up and pick the soybeans, hurry up and pick; fill the square basket, then fill the round", so I think it's kind of setting the scene of the next scenes are imminently happening and we have to go look?
The first stanza, is the narrator guessing what gifts the king of Zhou might give the feudal princes when they come to court.
The tree xing is (I think?) comparing to how there are feudal princes in all directions (like the spreading branches) and how they're happy and thriving (with the lush leaves)
It's interesting to have this after a bunch of insulting Zhou You wang poems. Baike says it could be about Zhou Kang wang or Zhou Xuan wang.
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Re: 222. 采菽 - Cai Shu
Date: 2021-05-09 05:50 pm (UTC)The first stanza, is the narrator guessing what gifts the king of Zhou might give the feudal princes when they come to court.
The tree xing is (I think?) comparing to how there are feudal princes in all directions (like the spreading branches) and how they're happy and thriving (with the lush leaves)
It's interesting to have this after a bunch of insulting Zhou You wang poems. Baike says it could be about Zhou Kang wang or Zhou Xuan wang.