Part 26 (1/2)

AN OFFICER OF WEI SETS FORTH HIS HARD LOT, THROUGH DISTRESSES AND THE BURDENS LAID UPON HIM, AND HIS SILENCE UNDER IT IN SUBMISSION TO HEAVEN.

I go out at the north gate, With my heart full of sorrow. Straitened am I and poor, And no one takes knowledge of my distress. So it is! Heaven has done it[1];--What then shall I say?

BOOK IV. THE ODES OF YUNG.

See the preliminary note on p. 433.

ODE 1. THE PAI KaU.

PROTEST OF A WIDOW AGAINST BEING URGED TO MARRY AGAIN, AND HER APPEAL TO HER MOTHER AND TO HEAVEN.

THIS piece, it is said, was made by Kung Kiang, the widow of Kung-po, son of the marquis Hsi Of Wei (B.C. 855-814). Kung-po having died an early death, her parents (who must have been the marquis of Khi and his wife or one of the ladies of his harem) wanted to force her to a second marriage, against which she protests. The ode was preserved, no doubt, as an example of

[1. The 'Complete Digest of Comments on the s.h.i.+h' warns its readers not to take 'Heaven' here as synonymous with Ming, 'what is decreed or Commanded.' The writer does not go on to define the precise idea which he understood the character to convey. This appears to be what we often mean by 'Providence,' when we speak of anything permitted, rather than appointed, by the supreme ruling Power.]

what the Chinese have always considered a great virtue,--the refusal of a, widow to marry again.

It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, There in the middle of the Ho [1]. With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead [2], He was my mate; And I swear that till death I will have no other. O mother, O Heavens[3], Why will you not understand me?

It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, There by the side of the Ho.

With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead, He was my only one; And I swear that till death I will not do the evil thing. O mother, O Heaven, Why will you not understand me?

ODE 3, STANZA 2. THE KuN-DZE KIEH LaO.

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE BEAUTY AND SPLENDOUR OF HSuAN KIANG AND HER VICIOUSNESS.

Hsuan Kiang was a princess of Khi, Who, towards the close of the seventh century B.C., became wife to the marquis of Wei, known as duke Hsuan.

She was beautiful and unfortunate, but various things are related of her indicative of the grossest immoralities prevailing in the court of Wei.

How rich and splendid Is her pheasant-figured

[1. These allusive lines, probably, indicate the speaker's widowhood, Which left her like 'a boat floating about on the water.'

2. Such was the mode in which the hair was kept, while a boy or young man's parents were alive, parted into two tufts from the pia mater, and brought down as low as the eyebrows on either side of the forehead.

3. Mao, thought that the lady intended her father by 'Heaven;' while Ku held that her father may have been dead, and that the mother is called Heaven, with reference to the kindness and protection that she ought to show. There seems rather to be in the term a wild, and not very intelligent, appeal to the supreme Power in heaven.]

robe[1]! Her black hair in ma.s.ses like clouds, No false locks does she descend to. There are her earplugs of jade, Her comb-pin of ivory, And her high forehead, so white. She appears like a visitant from heaven!

She appears like a G.o.ddess[2].

ODE 6, STANZAS 1 AND 2. THE TING KIH FANG KuNG.

CELEBRATING THE PRAISE OF DUKE WIN;--HIS DILIGENCE, FORESIGHT, USE OF DIVINATION, AND OTHER QUALITIES.