Ode I. The Min yu seaou tsze

Alas for me, still but a child!

For all too soon I know

The cares of the unsettled State.

Too heavy will they grow.

I shrink in sorrow from the task;

But, O my mighty sire,

To filial virtue, all thy life,

Thou ever didst aspire.

My great grandsire, though now enshrined,

To thee still living [in memory] proved,

As if in court-yard and in hall

His royal person moved,

And I, the little child, will be

As reverent night and day.

To you, great kings, such [honour in memory] I

Now on your throne will pay.

Ode II. The Fang lŭh

At the beginning of my sway,

Counsel I seek to know

How in my shrined father’s way

My feet may surely go.

Far-reaching were, his life proclaims,

The plans of his great mind;

But how to carry out his aims

I fail as yet to find.

When most my powers I shall have tried

To reach to his grand height,

My steps will ever turn aside,

Or to the left or right.

I’m but a child, how can I hope

Aright my seat to fill,

Or with the many troubles cope

That bode disturbance still?

O excellent and mighty [Lord],

To help Thy [servant] now deign!

With Thy high wisdom me inspire,

And on [my father’s] throne maintain.

To Thee, as ever near, I’ll try

My virtue true to prove.

In court, in house, before my eye,

[My father’s] form shall always move.

Ode III. The King che

With reverence I will go

Where duty’s path is plain.

Heaven’s [GOD’s] will I clearly know;

Its favour to retain

Is hard. Let me not say

Heaven is remote on high,

Nor notices men’s way.

There in the starlit sky

It round about us moves,

Inspecting all we do,

And daily disapproves

What is not just and true.

Only a child am I.

Treading in duty’s way,

With effort vain I try

Due reverence to display.

Each day throughout the year,

How slight the progress seems

But to the vision clear

I’ll pass from broken gleams.

Aid then my feeble youth

To bear the heavy crown.

Teach me the right and truth

Through all my life to own.

Ode IV. The Seaou pe

When of the past I think, myself I blame;

I’ll guard in future ’gainst what caused me shame.

I’ll shun the wasp, nor do the foolish thing

By which I seemed to invite its painful sting.

It looked a wren, that I could hold unharmed;

It grew to a fierce bird, with talons armed!

Uneasy is my head which wears the crown,

And bitter trials press me sorely down.

Ode V. The Tsae shoo

The toilers come to clear the ground,

Where grass and brushwood thick abound,

Where ploughshare never yet was found.

In thousands now they gather there;

And side by side, and pair by pair,

The roots from out the soil they tear:—

Some in the marshes lying low;

Some where the dry paths winding go;

Some where the running waters flow.

The master see, inspecting all;

His sons, responsive to his call;

Their households also, great and small.

With them are neighbours, strong and true,

Who come all helpful work to do;

And servants hired are present too.

Hark! how the merry feast goes round!

The husbands’ hearts with love abound;

Their wives close by their sides are found.

Now they begin with patient care

The southern acres to prepare.

The soil is broken by the share.

They sow the various grains; each ear

With mystic life will soon appear,

When the young plants their heads uprear.

Behold in lines unbroken rise

The tender blades, whose lengthening size

Gains daily growth before our eyes!

Luxuriant is the sprouting grain,

And through it goes a numerous train,

Who weed it o’er and o’er again.

Ere long their work the reapers ply,

The golden grain is piled on high;

The stalks unnumbered multiply:—

Enough to make the spirits [lawful drink] sweet,

To offer [for GOD’s sake] at our fathers’ feet;

To furnish what for rites is meet;

Enough, when at the fragrant board

Sit host and guest, for king and lord

The glorious banquet to afford;

Enough, when now the feast is o’er,

To satisfy the aged poor,

And cheer them from the unfailing store.

Nor now alone, but from of old,

And everywhere the story told,

Toil reaps from earth a thousand-fold.

Ode VI. The Leang sze

With sharp and well-shaped glittering share,

The toilers turn, with patient care,

The southern acres to prepare.

The different kinds of grain they sow,

Each seed, though hid the earth below,

Its form of life will quickly show.

Behold their wives and children there!

These the cooked millet to them bear,

Carried in baskets round and square.

In light splint hats their hoes they speed,

Clearing the ground for fruitful seed,

And rooting out the noisome weed.

The weeds, uprooted, die away,

And feed the ground by their decay.

The millets grow from day to day.

And now the golden stalks and tall

Before the reapers, rustling, fall.

Straightway they're built up like a wall.

High as a wall the sheaves are placed,

Like comb-teeth close, and interlaced.

Anon the grain is stored in haste.

Hundreds of houses hold the store;

The wives and children fret no more;

The labours of the year are o'er.

This black-lipped tawny bull we slay,

Whose horns the well-known curve display,

The rites of husbandry [for GOD] to pay.

Thus to the future hand we down

These rites long held in high renown,

Glad the ancestral ways to own.

VII. The Sze e

In robes of silk, all bright and clean,

And temple cap, with reverent mien,

The officer walks from the hall

Straight to the porch, and looks at all

The sheep and oxen doomed to bleed.

Back he returns, and gives good heed

To tripods and the mighty horn

By the rhinoceros once borne.

No need for it! The feasters drink

The spirits [lawful drink] good and mild, but shrink

From wanton revelry and pride.

By this an auspice is supplied

Of the long life which those shall reap

Who thus the rules of virtue keep.

VIII. The Choh

Oh! powerful was the mighty host,

By which the throne to Chow was given.

Woo nursed it, while the time was dark,

Submissive to the will of Heaven [GOD].

But when the day propitious came,

He armed himself, and marched to fame,

And what the martial king achieved,

We have been favoured to obtain.

That we may rightly use the lot,

Which thou for us didst nobly gain,

Thy course, O king, we on our part

Will follow with sincerest heart.

IX. The Hwan

Throughout our myriad regions there is peace;

Year after year the plenteous harvest brings.

Great Heaven [GOD] in showing favours does not cease,

And will with blessing crown Chow's line of kings.

The martial sovereign, Woo, the confidence

He won from all his officers retained.

Their service would he through the realm dispense,

And for his house security thus gained.

Oh! glorious was he in the sight of Heaven,

By which to him the throne of Shang was given.

X. The Lae

King Wan with earnest purpose toiled,

And nothing left undone.

'Tis right his sons should now be styled

Lords of the realm he won.

Abroad his virtue we will spread;

Him in our hearts we'll shrine;

Our aim that peace establishéd

May last while lasts our line.

Through him it was there came to Chow

Heaven's [GOD's] favour and decree.

Him in our breasts we cherish now;

Our pattern shall he be.

XI. The Pan

Oh! great is now the house of Chow.

The lofty hills we climb,—

Both those whose ridges far extend,

And those with peaks sublime.

Along the Ho we watch the flow

Of its embankéd stream.

Where'er o'erhead the sky is spread,

Me truly king men deem.

The princes all, both great and small,

My summons promptly own.

So by this progress do I know

Chow stablished on the throne.