This little essay I skimmed talks about this poem and others' xing as akin to the *click* of photography, it's kinda compelling (might come back to it if I have time):
Weird to positively parallel locusts, always an image of agricultural devastation in Talmudic and Christian traditions, with hordes/unbroken strings of decedents, the ultimate in Confucian Goals. Is the sound of the locusts supposed to remind one of a crowd of people talking? That's more earthy than I typically associate with kind of austere Confucian ideas of hierarchy/order in groups.
Re: Zhong Si
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57e18fad46c3c4fc309a7725/t/5c9518c5a4222fc9502aa113/1553275077429/Haun-Saussy_Odes_EN.pdf
Weird to positively parallel locusts, always an image of agricultural devastation in Talmudic and Christian traditions, with hordes/unbroken strings of decedents, the ultimate in Confucian Goals. Is the sound of the locusts supposed to remind one of a crowd of people talking? That's more earthy than I typically associate with kind of austere Confucian ideas of hierarchy/order in groups.