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dankodes * 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.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* 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 MAY 24.**
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.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* 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 MAY 24.**
236. 大明 - Da Ming
明明在下、赫赫在上。
天難忱斯、不易維王。
天位殷適、使不挾四方。
The illustration of illustrious [virtue] is required below,
And the dread majesty is on high.
Heaven is not readily to be relied on;
It is not easy to be king.
Yin's rightful heir to the heavenly seat,
Was not permitted to possess the kingdom.
摯仲氏任、自彼殷商、來嫁于周、曰嬪于京。
乃及王季、維德之行。
大任有身、生此文王。
Ren, the second of the princesses of Zhi,
From [the domain of] Yin-shang,
Came to be married to the prince of Zhou,
And because his wife in his capital,
Both she and king Ji,
Were entirely virtuous.
[Then] Da-ren became pregnant,
And gave birth to our king Wen.
維此文王、小心翼翼。
昭事上帝、聿懷多福。
厥德不回、以受方國。
This king Wen,
Watchfully and reverently,
With entire intelligence served God,
And so secured the great blessing.
His virtue was without deflection;
And in consequence he received [the allegiance of] the States from all quarters.
天監在下、有命既集。
文王初載、天作之合。
在洽之陽、在渭之涘。
文王嘉止、大邦有子。
Heaven surveyed this lower world;
And its appointment lighted [on king Wen].
In his early years,
It made for him a mate; -
On the north of the Qia;
On the banks of the Wei.
When king Wen would wive,
There was the lady in a large State.
大邦有子、俔天之妹。
文定厥祥、親迎于渭。
造舟為梁、不顧其光。
In a large State was the lady,
Like a fair denizen of Heaven.
The ceremonies determined the auspiciousness [of the union].
And in person he met her on the Wei.
Over it he made a bridge of boats; -
The glory [of the occasion] was illustrious.
有命自天、命此文王。
于周于京、纘女維莘。
長子維行、篤生武王。
保右命爾、燮伐大商。
The favouring appointment was from Heaven,
Giving the throne to our king Wen,
In the capital of Zhou.
The lady-successor was from Xin,
Its eldest daughter, who came to marry him.
She was blessed to give birth to king Wu,
Who was preserved, and helped, and received also the appointment,
And in accordance with it smote the great Shang.
殷商之旅、其會如林。
矢于牧野、維予侯興。
上帝臨女、無貳爾心。
The troops of Yin-shang,
Were collected like a forest,
And marshalled in the wilderness of Mu.
We rose [to the crisis]; -
'God is with you, ' [said Shang-fu to the king],
'Have no doubts in your heart. '
牧野洋洋、檀車煌煌、駟騵彭彭。
維師尚父、時維鷹揚、涼彼武王、肆伐大商。
會朝清明。
The wilderness of Mu spread out extensive;
Bright shone the chariots of sandal;
The teams of bays, black-maned and white-bellied, galloped along;
The grand-master Shang-fu,
Was like an eagle on the wing,
Assisting king Wu,
Who at one onset smote the great Shang.
That morning's encounter was followed by a clear bright [day].
Re: 236. 大明 - Da Ming
Why "Da-ren"?
Shang fu and the king of Shang are different people?
So is this a dynastic history poem?
Re: 236. 大明 - Da Ming
"And the dread majesty is on high." The gloss for this is: "remarkably bright in appearance" "celestial/heavenly" (the latter is literally 'in the sky'). Vernacular translation is something like "the exceptional brightness appears in heaven".
Tai Ren is the name of the woman, and Baike's gloss on the line is "Da, same as Tai". The characters are very similar looking, 大 and 太, so perhaps it's a variant spelling.
Shang-fu is Lv Shang / Jiang Tai gong. Wen wang had him return and set up as a teacher. He helped Wen wang and Wu wang.
Baike describes it as an epic narrative poem about the founding of the Zhou dynasty.
Re: 236. 大明 - Da Ming