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Shi Jing Introduction Table of content – The Book of Odes

The oldest collection of Chinese poetry, more than three hundred songs, odes and hymns. Tr. Legge (en) and Granet (fr, incomplete).

Section III — Greater odes of the kingdom
1 2 3
Chapter 3 — Decade of Dang

255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265

Shijing III. 3. (262)

Large was the volume of the Jiang and the Han,
And the troops advanced like a flowing current.
There was no resting, no idle wandering ; –
We were seeking for the tribes of the Huai.
We had sent forth our chariots ;
We had displayed our falcon-banners.
There was no resting, no remissness ; –
Against the tribes of the Huai were we marshalled.

Large flowed the Jiang and the Han,
And grandly martial looked the troops.
The whole country had been reduced to order,
And an announcement of our success had been made to be king.
When the whole country was pacified,
The king's State began to feel settled.
There was then an end of strife,
And the king's heart was composed.

On the banks of the Jiang and the Han,
The king had given charge to Hu of Zhou : –
'Open up the whole of the country ;
Make the statutory division of my lands there ;
Not to distress the people, nor with urgency,
But making them conform to the royal state.
Make the larger and the smaller divisions of hte ground,
As far as the southern sea. '

The king gave charge to Hu of Zhou : –
'You have everywhere diffused [and carried out my orders].
When Wen and Wu received their appointment,
The duke of Zhou was their strong support.
You do not [only] have a regard to me the little child,
But you try to resemble that duke of Zhou.
You have commenced and earnestly displayed your merit ;
And I will make you happy.

'I give you a large libation-cup of jade,
And a jar of herb-flavoured spirits from the black millet.
I have made announcement to the accomplished one,
And confer on you hills, lands, and fields.
In Yu-zhou shall you receive investiture,
According as your ancestor received his. '
Hu bowed with his head to the ground, [and said],
'May the Son of Heaven live for ever ! '

Hu bowed with his head to the ground,
And in response displayed the goodness of the king,
And roused himself to maintain the fame of his ancestor.
'May the Son of Heaven live for ever !
Very intelligent is the Son of Heaven ;
His good fame shall be without end.
Let him display his civil virtues,
Till they permeate all quarters of the kingdom.

Legge 262

Shi Jing III. 3. (262) IntroductionTable of content
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The Book of Odes – Shi Jing III. 3. (262) – Chinese on/offFrançais/English
Alias Shijing, Shi Jing, Book of Odes, Book of Songs, Classic of Odes, Classic of Poetry, Livre des Odes, Canon des Poèmes.

The Book of Odes, The Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Three-characters book, The Book of Changes, The Way and its Power, 300 Tang Poems, The Art of War, Thirty-Six Strategies
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