7. 兔罝  T'oo tseu.

《兔罝》，后妃之化也。關雎之化行，則莫不好德，賢人衆多也。

肅肅兔罝、椓之丁丁。 赳赳武夫、公侯干城。

肅肅兔罝、施于中逵。 赳赳武夫、公侯好仇。

肅肅兔罝、施于中林。 赳赳武夫、公侯腹心。

Carefully adjusted are the rabbit nets; Clang clang go the blows on the pegs.  That stalwart, martial man Might be shield and wall to his prince.

Carefully adjusted are the rabbit nets, And placed where many ways meet.  That stalwart, martial man Would be a good companion for his prince.

Carefully adjusted are the rabbit nets, And placed in the midst of the forest.  That stalwart, martial man Might be head and heart to his prince.

Ode 7. Praise of a Rabbit Catcher, as fit to be a Prince's Mate.

Whether any particular individual was intended will be considered in the note on the interpretation. The generally accepted view is that the ode sets forth the influence of king Wăn (acc. to Choo), or of T'ae-sze (acc. to Maou), as so powerful and beneficial, that individuals in the lowest rank were made fit by it to occupy the highest positions.

St.1. L.1.罝 is defined in the Urh-ya as 'a rabbit-net;' to which Le Seun, the glossarist, (李巡; end of the Han dyn.), adds, that the rabbit makes paths underground for itself. Choo makes 肅肅 descriptive of the careful manner in which the nets were set; Maou, of the reverent demeanour of the trapper. It is difficult to choose between them. On Choo's view the piece is allusive; on Maou's narrative.

L.2. 丁 (read chăng) 丁 is intended to represent the sound of the blows(椓) on the pins or pegs (杙) used in setting the nets.

L.3. Both Maou and Choo give 赳赳 as = 'martial-like,' while the Shwoh-wăn defines the phrase by 輕輕有材力, 'light, vigorous, able, and strong.'

L.4. 公侯 = 'duke and marquis;' together, = prince. We are to understand king Wan by the designation. At the time to which the ode refers, he was not yet styled king, and, indeed, Choo takes the phrase as one proof that Wăn never assumed that title. Mao takes 干 = 扞, so that 干城 go together, = 'defender,' or 'wall of defence;' probably after Tso-she, in his narrative appended to the 12th year of duke Ching. 'Shield and wall,' however, are suitable enough in the connection.

St.2. L.2. 施 is read she, 'to place,' 'to set.' 中逵 and 中林 below, --like 中谷 in Ode II. 逵 = 九達之道, a place from which 9 ways proceed.' I have asked Wang T'aou and other scholars, whether such a thoroughfare was not an unlikely place to catch rabbits in, and got no satisfactory answer.

L.4.  仇=逑 in Ode I.

There is a difficulty as to the rhyming of 逵 and 仇. The latter is said to be here read, by poetical license, k'e. A better solution is to adopt the reading of 首 with 九 at the side, instead of 逵, for which there is some evidence.

St.3. L.4. 腹心 = 'confidant and guide;' lit. 'belly and heart.' We do not use 'belly,' as the Chinese do.

The rhymes are in st.1, 罝, 夫; 丁, 城; in 2, 罝, 夫; 逵*, 仇(this is a doubtful rhyme); in 3, 罝, 夫; 林, 心. The alternate line all ryhme,  which is 隔句韻.

Interpretation.

The ordinary view of this ode has been mentioned above. A special interpretation, however, which is worth referring to, has been put upon it. In the 2d of his chapters (尚賢, 上), Mih Teih says that 'king Wăn raised from their rabbit nets Hwang Yaou and T'ae T'een.' We find booth those names in the Shoo (V. xvi. 12) as ministers of Wan. Kin Le-ts'eang(金履祥; Yuen dyn.) and other scholars think, therefore, that his ode had reference to them. This view seems very likely.

6. 桃夭   T’aou Yaou

《桃夭》，后妃之所致也。不妬忌，則男女以正，婚姻以時，國無鰥民也。

桃之夭夭、灼灼其華。 之子于歸、宜其家室。

桃之夭夭、有蕡其實。 之子于歸、宜其室家。

桃之夭夭、其葉蓁蓁。 之子于歸、宜其家人。

The peach tree is young and elegant; Brilliant are its flowers.  This young lady is going to her future home, And will order well her chamber and house.

The peach tree is young and elegant; Abundant will be its fruits.  This young lady is going to her future home, And will order well her chamber and house.

The peach tree is young and elegant; Luxuriant are its leaves.  This young lady is going to her future home, And will order well her family.

Ode 6. Allusive. Praise of a Bride Going to be Married.

The critics see a great deal more in the pice than this; -- the happy state of Chow, produced by king Wan (acc. to Choo), or by T'ae-sze (acc. to Maou), in which all the young people were married in the proper season, i.e., in the spring, when the peach tree was in flower, and at the proper age, i.e., yong men between 20 and 30, and girls between 15 and 20. It was a rule of the Chow dyn. that marriages should take place in the middle of spring (Chow , II. .54). This marriage would be about that time, and the peach tree was in flower; but it was only the latter circumstance which was in the poet's mind.

St. 1. L. 1. 之 may be taken as the sign of the genitive, the whole line being = 'in the young and beautiful time of the peach tree.' Still, 之 is so constantly used throughout the She in the middle of lines, where we can only regard it as a particle, eking out the number of feet, that it is, perhaps, not worth while to resolve such lines as this in the above manner. 夭夭(Shwoh-wăn, with 木 at the side) denotes 'the appearance of youth and elegance.'

L.2. 灼灼 is descriptive rather of the brilliance of the flowers than of their luxuriance, as Choo has it. The young peach tree is allusive of the bride in the flush of youth, and its brilliant flowers of her beauty.

L.3. 之 = 是, 'this;'  子 = 'young lady.' Maou and Ch'ing take 于 as = 往, 'to go to.' But it is better to regard it as a particle, as in Ode II. 1. 歸 here is used of the bride going to her husband's house. As Choo says, women speak of being married as going home (婦人謂嫁曰歸). Should we take 之子 in the singular or plural? Lacharme translates it by puelloe nobiles, and Heu Hëen (許謙; Yuen dyn.) says, 'The poet saw the thing going on from the flowering of the peach tree till the fruit was ripe; -- the young ladies were many.' This seems to me very unpoetical.

L.4. 室 is the chamber appropriated to husband and wife; 家 is 'all within the door,' = our house. 室家 here, 家室 in st.2, and 家人 in st.3. convey the same idea, the terms being varied for the sake of the rhyme. Tso-she says that when a couple marry, the man has a 室, and the woman a 家; so that 室家 are equivalent to husband and wife. Accordingly, Maou takes the line as meaning, 'Right is it they should be married without going beyond their proper years;' and in this view he is followed by K'ang-shing. But to this there are two objections. 1st, the antecedent to 其 is 之子, the girl, and the girl only. 2d, in the 4th line, 宜 must be construed as an active verb. So it is in the 'Great Learning,' comm. ix.6, where the passage is quoted.

St.2. L.2. Choo says fun denotes the abundance of the fruit, intimating that the young lady would have many children. Maou makes the term = ' the appearances of the fruit.' intimating, that the lady had not beauty only, but also 'woman's virtue.' Fun is properly the seeds of hemp, which are exceedingly numerous; and hence it is applied to the fruit of other plants and trees to indicate its abundance. So, Lo Yuen (羅願; sung dyn.), Wang T'aou, and others.

St. 3 L.2. Ts'in-ts'in sets forth the luxuriance of the foliage, --至盛貌.

The rhymes are --in st.1, 華*, 家*, cat. 5, t.1: in 2, 實, 室, cat. 12, t.3; in 3, 蓁, 人, ib., t.1.

2.  葛覃  Koh t’an

葛之覃兮、施于中谷。 維葉萋萋、黃鳥于飛。 集于灌木、其鳴喈喈。

葛之覃兮、施于中谷。 維葉莫莫、是刈是濩。 為絺為綌、服之無斁。

言告師氏、言告言歸。 薄污我私、薄澣我衣。 害澣害否、歸寧父母 。

How the dolichos spread itself out, Extending to the middle of the valley!  Its leaves were luxuriant; The yellow birds flew about, And collected on the thickly growing trees, Their pleasant notes resounding far.

How the dolichos spread itself out, Extending to the middle of the valley!  Its leaves were luxuriant and dense.  I cut it and I boiled it, And made both fine cloth and coarse, Which I will wear without getting tired of it.

I have told the matron, Who will announce that I am going to see my parents.  I will wash my private clothes clean, And I will rinse my robes.  Which need to be rinsed, which do not?  I am going back to visit my parents.

Ode 2. Celebrating the industry and dutifulness of King Wan's queen.

It is supposed to have been made, and, however that was, it is to be read as if it had been made, by the queen herself.

St. 1. 葛之覃兮, 葛 is the general name for the dolichos tribe; here the D. tuberosus, of whose fibres a kind of cloth is make. 覃 = 延, 'to stretch out.' 兮 is of very frequent occurrence in She; a particle of song (歌辭). According to the Shwoh-wăn and the gloss of Seu in it, it denotes an affection of the mind, over and above what has been expressed in words. 施(read e, =移)于中谷, --中谷,'mid-valley,' = 谷中, 'the middle of the valley'. Ying-tah says that such inversion of the characters was customary with the ancients, especially in poetry. 維葉萋萋, --維 here, and nearly everywhere else in the she, is simply an initial character which it is not possible to translate.萋萋 expresses 'the appearance of luxuriant growth.' This repetition of the character is constantly found, giving intensity and vividness to the idea. Often, the characters are different, but of cognate meaning. The compound seems to picture the subject of the sentence to the eye in the colours of its own signification. This is one of the characters of the style of the she, which the student must carefully attend to. 黃鳥于飛--'the yellow bird is probably, an oriole. It has many names, --博黍, 黃麗, 黃鶯, &c. Twice in this st., 于 occurs as a preposition. = in, on; but in this line, we can only take it as a particle which we need not try to translate. So Wang Yin-che(王引之); the Urh-ya also, defining it by 曰=聿=欥. Ying-tah erroneously explains it by 往, 'to go.' L.5. 灌木 = 'trees growing together,' 'shrubs'. L.6. 喈喈 is explained as 'their harmonious notes heard far off.' The characters are probably like 關關 in the last Ode, onomatopoetic. -- I translate the verbs here in the past tense, because the things referred to all belong to the season of the spring, and the speaker is looking back to them.

St.2. L.3. 莫莫 (read moo or moh) adds the idea of denseness to ts'e ts'e above. L.4. 濩 = 煮, 'to boil.' The boiling was necessary in order to the separation of the fibres, which could afterwards be woven, the finer to the form the 絺, and the coarser to form the 綌.

L.5. K'ang shing takes 服=整 'to make,' 'to work at', giving not a bad meaning. --'T'ae-sz' worked at this cloth-making without weariness.' 斁 is interchanged with 射, both = 厭 'to be satiated with,' and then 'to conceive a distaste for,' 'to dislike.'

St. 3. LI.1,2. Choo He takes 言 here as a particle, untranslateable (言, 辭也); Maou and K'ang-shing make it = 我 'I,' 'me,' which is a meaning the Urh-ya gives for the term. Wang Ying-che coincides with Choo-He. Wang T'aou would take it in the 1st line as = 我, and as a particle in the 2nd. I regard it as a particle in both. The 師氏 here is difft. from the officer so styled in the Chow Le, Books Viii. and XIII. That was a teacher of morals attached to the emperor and the youths of the State; this was a matron, or duenna, whose business it was to instruct in 'woman's virtue, woman's words, woman's deportment, and woman's work.' Childless widows over 50 were acc. to Ying-tah, employed for the office. There would be not a few such matrons in the harem, and the one intended in the text would be the mistress of them all. The 1st 告 is to be understood of the lady's announcement to the matron; the 2nd of the matron's announcement to the king. Maou is led by his interpretation of the whole Ode to understand 歸 as = 'to be married,' but we must take it as synonymous with the same term, in the concluding line.

LI.3,4. 薄, acc. to Choo He, = 少, 'slightly. It is better to take it, as a particle, with Maou, and Wang Yin-che, who calls it 發聲, 'an initial sound.' 污, 'dirty,' is used for 'to cleanse,' just as we have 亂, 'disorder,' in the sense of 治, 'good order,' 'to govern.' This cleansing was effected by hard rubbing, whereas 澣 denotes a gentler operation, simply rinsing. The 私, as opposed to 衣, is understood of the private or ordinary dress, whereas the other term refers to the robes in which T'ae-sze assisted at sacrificial and other services, or in which she went in to the king. All this and what follows, is to be taken as a soliloquy, and not what T'ae-sz' told the matron (乃后妃自審之詞, 非告師氏也) L.5. 害(read hoh) = 何, 'what.' 否 simply = 不, the negative. L.6. 寧=安, i.e., 問安, 'to inquire after their wellbeing.'

The rhymes are --in Stt. 1,2, 谷,木, cat. 3, t. 3: in 1, 萋,飛,喈, cat. 15.t.1:in 2, 莫,濩,綌*,斁*, cat. 5, t.1: in 3, 歸,私,衣, cat. 15,5.1; 否*,母*, cat. 1, t.2

Interpretation; and Class.

The old interpreters held that the ode was of T'ae-sze in her virgin prime, bent on all woman's work; and thus interpreted, it is placed among the allusive pieces. The first two stanzas might be so explained; but the third requires too much straining to admit of a proleptical interpretation as to what the virgin would do in the future, when a married wife.

Choo He make it a narrative piece(賦), in which the queen tells first of her diligent labours, and then how, when they were concluded, she was going to pay a visit of duty and affection to her parents. If we accept the traditional reference to T'ae-sze, this, no doubt, is the only admissible interpretation. The imperial editors prefer Choo He's view in this instance, and add: -- 'The Le of T'ae only speaks of the personal tendance of the silkworms by the queen and other ladies of the harem; but here we see that there was no department of woman's work, in which they did not exert themselves. Well might they did transform all below them. Anciently, the rules to be observed between husband and wife required the greatest circumspection. They did not speak directly to each other, but employed internuncios, thus showing how strictly reserved should be intercourse between men and women, and preventing all disrespectful familiarity. When the wife was about to lie in, the husband took up his quarters in a side apartment, and sent to inquire about her twice a day. When the wife wished to visit her parents, she intimated her purpose through the matron. Inside the door of the harem, no liberty could be taken any more than with a reverend guest. Thus was the instruction of the people made to commence from the smallest matters, with a wonderful depth of wisdom!'