Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1It derives a certain amount of confirmation from the passage quoted from the Official Book of K4u on p. 278, showing that in the K4u dynasty there was a collection of poems, under the divisions of the Fang, the Ya, and the Sung, U2 292 THE SHIH KING, which it was the business of the Grand Music-Master to teach the musicians of the court. It may be accepted then, that the duke of Ku, in legislating for his dynasty, enacted that the poems produced in the different feudal states should be collected on occasion of the royal progresses, and lodged thereafter among the archives of the bureau of music at the royal court. The same thing, we may presume a fortiori, would be done, at certain other stated times, with those produced within the royal domain itself. - But the feudal states were modelled after the pattern of the royal state. They also had their music-masters, their The music. MUSicians, and their historiographers. The master of the kings in their progresses did not visit each King would get particular state, so that the Grand Musicstate from its Master could have the opportunity to collect musiomaster. the odes in it for himself, They met; at wellknown points, the marquises, earls, barons, &c., of the different quarters of the kingdom; there gave audience to them ; adjudicated on their merits, and issued to them their orders. We are obliged to suppose that the princes were attended to the places of rendezvous by their musicmasters, carrying with them the poetical compositions gathered in their several regions, to present them to their superior of the royal court. We can understand how, by‘ means of the above arrangement, the poems of the whole kingdom were accumulated and arranged among the archives of the capital. Was there any provision for dis- How the col. Seminating thence the poems of one state lected poems among all the others? There is sufficient nated through- evidence that such dissemination was effected out the states. in some way. Throughout the Narratives of | the States, and the details of 30 KAid-ming on the history of the Spring and Autumn, the officers of the states generally are presented to us as familiar not only with the odes of their particular states, but with those of other states as well. They appear equally well acquainted with all the Parts and Books of our present Shih; and we saw how the whole of it was sung over to Kt KA of Wa, when he visited the court of La in the boyhood of Confucius. There was, INTRODUCTION. 293 probably, a regular communication from the royal court to the courts of the various states of the poetical pieces that for one reason or another were thought worthy of preservation. This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders,
2This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders, 2. But if the poems produced in the different states were thus collected in the capital, and thence again disseminated throughout the kingdom, we might conclude that the collection would have been far more extensive and complete than How the Shih We have it now. The smallness of it is to be is so small and accounted for by the disorder into which the incomplete. kingdom fell after the lapse of a few reigns from king Wd. Royal progresses ceased when royal government fell into decay, and then the odes were no more collected’. We have no account of any progress of the kings during the Khun KAid period. But before that period there is a long gap of nearly 150 years between kings Khang and f, covering the reigns of Khang, K4o, Ma, and Kung, if we except two doubtful pieces among the Sacrificial Odes of Kau. The reign of Hsiao, who succeeded to I, is similarly uncommemorated ; and the latest odes are of the time of Ting, when 100 years of the Khun K/hid period had still to run their course. Many odes must have been made and collected during the 140 and more years after king K/ang. The probability is that they perished during the feeble reigns of f and the three monarchs who followed him. Then came the long and vigorous reign of Hsiian (B.C. 827 to 782), when we may suppose that the ancient custom of collecting the poems was revived. After him all was in the main decadence and confusion. -It was probably in the latter part of his reign that Aang-khdo, an ancestor of Confucius, obtained from the Grand Music- Master at the court of K4u twelve of the sacrificial odes of the previous dynasty, as will be related under the Sacri- | ficial Odes of Shang, with which he returned to Sung, 4 See Mencius, IV, ii, ch. 21. 204 THE SHIH KING. which was held by representatives of the line of Shang. They were used there in sacrificing to the old Shang kings; yet seven of the twelve were lost before the time of the sage. The general conclusion to which we come is, that the existing Shih is the fragment of various collections made during the early reigns of the kings of Kau, and added to at intervals, especially on the occurrence of a prosperous rule, in accordance with the regulation that has been preserved in the Li Xi. How it is that we have in Part I odes of comparatively few of the states into which the kingdom was divided, and that the odes of those states extend only over a short period of their history :—for these things we cannot account further’ than by saying that such were the ravages of time and the results of disorder. We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell.
3We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell. 3. The conclusions which I have thus sought to establish concerning the formation of the Shih as a collection have an important bearing on the interpretation of many of the pieces. The remark of Sze-m4 K4ien that ‘Confucius Bearing of these Selected those pieces which would be service- _ views onthe able for the inculcation of propriety and interpretation of , . particular Yighteousness’ is as erroneous as the other, Pieces. that he selected 305 pieces out of more than 3000. The sage merely studied and taught the pieces which he found existing, and the collection necessarily contained odes illustrative of bad government as well as of good, of licentiousness as well as of a pure morality. Nothing -has been such a stumbling-block in the way of the reception of Kd Hsi’s interpretation of the pieces as the readiness with which he attributes a licentious meaning to many of those. in the seventh Book of Part I. But the reason why the kings had the odes of the different states collected and presented to them was, ‘that they might judge from them of the manners of the people, and so come to a decision regarding the government and morals of their rulers, A student and translator of the odes has simply to allow them INTRODUCTION. 295 to speak for themselves, and has no more reason to be surprised by references to vice in some of them than by the language of virtue in many others. Confucius said, indeed, in his own enigmatical way, that the single sentence, ‘ Thought without depravity,’ covered the whole 300 pieces'; and it may very well be allowed that they were collected and preserved for the promotion of good government and virtuous manners. The merit attaching to them is that they give us faithful pictures of what was good and what was bad in the political state of the country, and in the social, moral, and religious habits of the people. The pieces were of course made by individuals who possessed the gift, or thought that they possessed the gift, The writers of Of poetical composition. Who they were we the odes. could tell only on the authority of the pieces themselves, or of credible historical accounts, contemporaneous with them or nearly so. It is not worth our while to question the opinion of the Chinese critics who attribute very many of them to the duke of K4u, to whom we owe so much of the fifth Part of the Shd. There is, however, independent testimony only to his composition of a single ode,—the second of the fifteenth Book in Part I. Some of the other pieces in that Part, of which the historical interpretation may be considered as sufficiently fixed, are written in the first person; but the author may be personating his subject.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1It derives a certain amount of confirmation from the passage quoted from the Official Book of K4u on p. 278, showing that in the K4u dynasty there was a collection of poems, under the divisions of the Fang, the Ya, and the Sung, U2 292 THE SHIH KING, which it was the business of the Grand Music-Master to teach the musicians of the court. It may be accepted then, that the duke of Ku, in legislating for his dynasty, enacted that the poems produced in the different feudal states should be collected on occasion of the royal progresses, and lodged thereafter among the archives of the bureau of music at the royal court. The same thing, we may presume a fortiori, would be done, at certain other stated times, with those produced within the royal domain itself. - But the feudal states were modelled after the pattern of the royal state. They also had their music-masters, their The music. MUSicians, and their historiographers. The master of the kings in their progresses did not visit each King would get particular state, so that the Grand Musicstate from its Master could have the opportunity to collect musiomaster. the odes in it for himself, They met; at wellknown points, the marquises, earls, barons, &c., of the different quarters of the kingdom; there gave audience to them ; adjudicated on their merits, and issued to them their orders. We are obliged to suppose that the princes were attended to the places of rendezvous by their musicmasters, carrying with them the poetical compositions gathered in their several regions, to present them to their superior of the royal court. We can understand how, by‘ means of the above arrangement, the poems of the whole kingdom were accumulated and arranged among the archives of the capital. Was there any provision for dis- How the col. Seminating thence the poems of one state lected poems among all the others? There is sufficient nated through- evidence that such dissemination was effected out the states. in some way. Throughout the Narratives of | the States, and the details of 30 KAid-ming on the history of the Spring and Autumn, the officers of the states generally are presented to us as familiar not only with the odes of their particular states, but with those of other states as well. They appear equally well acquainted with all the Parts and Books of our present Shih; and we saw how the whole of it was sung over to Kt KA of Wa, when he visited the court of La in the boyhood of Confucius. There was, INTRODUCTION. 293 probably, a regular communication from the royal court to the courts of the various states of the poetical pieces that for one reason or another were thought worthy of preservation. This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders,
2This is nowhere expressly stated, but it may be contended for by analogy from the accounts which I have given, in the Introduction to the Sha, pp. 4, 5, of the duties of the royal historiographers or recorders, 2. But if the poems produced in the different states were thus collected in the capital, and thence again disseminated throughout the kingdom, we might conclude that the collection would have been far more extensive and complete than How the Shih We have it now. The smallness of it is to be is so small and accounted for by the disorder into which the incomplete. kingdom fell after the lapse of a few reigns from king Wd. Royal progresses ceased when royal government fell into decay, and then the odes were no more collected’. We have no account of any progress of the kings during the Khun KAid period. But before that period there is a long gap of nearly 150 years between kings Khang and f, covering the reigns of Khang, K4o, Ma, and Kung, if we except two doubtful pieces among the Sacrificial Odes of Kau. The reign of Hsiao, who succeeded to I, is similarly uncommemorated ; and the latest odes are of the time of Ting, when 100 years of the Khun K/hid period had still to run their course. Many odes must have been made and collected during the 140 and more years after king K/ang. The probability is that they perished during the feeble reigns of f and the three monarchs who followed him. Then came the long and vigorous reign of Hsiian (B.C. 827 to 782), when we may suppose that the ancient custom of collecting the poems was revived. After him all was in the main decadence and confusion. -It was probably in the latter part of his reign that Aang-khdo, an ancestor of Confucius, obtained from the Grand Music- Master at the court of K4u twelve of the sacrificial odes of the previous dynasty, as will be related under the Sacri- | ficial Odes of Shang, with which he returned to Sung, 4 See Mencius, IV, ii, ch. 21. 204 THE SHIH KING. which was held by representatives of the line of Shang. They were used there in sacrificing to the old Shang kings; yet seven of the twelve were lost before the time of the sage. The general conclusion to which we come is, that the existing Shih is the fragment of various collections made during the early reigns of the kings of Kau, and added to at intervals, especially on the occurrence of a prosperous rule, in accordance with the regulation that has been preserved in the Li Xi. How it is that we have in Part I odes of comparatively few of the states into which the kingdom was divided, and that the odes of those states extend only over a short period of their history :—for these things we cannot account further’ than by saying that such were the ravages of time and the results of disorder. We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell.
3We can only accept the collection as it is, and be thankful for it. How long before Confucius the collection was closed we cannot tell. 3. The conclusions which I have thus sought to establish concerning the formation of the Shih as a collection have an important bearing on the interpretation of many of the pieces. The remark of Sze-m4 K4ien that ‘Confucius Bearing of these Selected those pieces which would be service- _ views onthe able for the inculcation of propriety and interpretation of , . particular Yighteousness’ is as erroneous as the other, Pieces. that he selected 305 pieces out of more than 3000. The sage merely studied and taught the pieces which he found existing, and the collection necessarily contained odes illustrative of bad government as well as of good, of licentiousness as well as of a pure morality. Nothing -has been such a stumbling-block in the way of the reception of Kd Hsi’s interpretation of the pieces as the readiness with which he attributes a licentious meaning to many of those. in the seventh Book of Part I. But the reason why the kings had the odes of the different states collected and presented to them was, ‘that they might judge from them of the manners of the people, and so come to a decision regarding the government and morals of their rulers, A student and translator of the odes has simply to allow them INTRODUCTION. 295 to speak for themselves, and has no more reason to be surprised by references to vice in some of them than by the language of virtue in many others. Confucius said, indeed, in his own enigmatical way, that the single sentence, ‘ Thought without depravity,’ covered the whole 300 pieces'; and it may very well be allowed that they were collected and preserved for the promotion of good government and virtuous manners. The merit attaching to them is that they give us faithful pictures of what was good and what was bad in the political state of the country, and in the social, moral, and religious habits of the people. The pieces were of course made by individuals who possessed the gift, or thought that they possessed the gift, The writers of Of poetical composition. Who they were we the odes. could tell only on the authority of the pieces themselves, or of credible historical accounts, contemporaneous with them or nearly so. It is not worth our while to question the opinion of the Chinese critics who attribute very many of them to the duke of K4u, to whom we owe so much of the fifth Part of the Shd. There is, however, independent testimony only to his composition of a single ode,—the second of the fifteenth Book in Part I. Some of the other pieces in that Part, of which the historical interpretation may be considered as sufficiently fixed, are written in the first person; but the author may be personating his subject.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.