THE SHE KING; OR, THE BOOK OF ANCIENT POETRY

264 THE BOOK OF POETET. [PAET II.
himself, but drawing the picture of a lady whom he would rejoice to see
as the bride of king Yew instead of the odious Paou Sze! With reason
does Chow discard the authority of the Preface. The piece is a love
eong, somewhat stately, but admirable in its way.
1 With axle creaking, all on fire I went,
To fetch my young and lovely bride.
No thirst or hunger pangs my bosom rent,—
I only longed to have her by my side.
I feast with her, whose virtue fame had told,
Nor need we friends our rapture to behold.
2 The long-tailed pheasants surest covert find,
Amid the forest on the plain.
Here from my virtuous bride, of noble mind,
And person tall, I wisdom gain.
1 praise her while we feast, and to her say,
" The love I bear you ne'er will know decay.
3 " Poor we may be ; spirits and viands fine
My humble means will not afford.
But what we have, we'll taste and not repine;
From us will come no grumbling word.
And though to you no virtue I can add,
Yet we will sing and dance, in spirit glad.
4 " I oft ascend that lofty ridge with toil,
And hew large branches from the oaks;
Then of their leafy glory them I spoil,
And faggots form with vigorous strokes.
Returning tired, your matchless grace I see,
And my whole soul dissolves in ecstasy.
5 " To the high hills I looked, and urged each steed ;
The great road next was smooth and plain.
Up hill, o'er dale, I never slackened speed ;
Like lute-string sounded every rein.
I knew, my journey ended, I should come
To you, sweet bride, the comfort of my home."
The Ts'ing ying ; metaphorical and allusive.
TO SLANDEHEKS.'
V.
AGAINST LISTENING
THE BOOK OP POETET. 265
Like the blue flies buzzing round,
And on the fences lighting,
Are the sons of slander found,
Who never cease their biting.
0 thou happy, courteous king,
To the winds their slanders fling.
2 Buzzing round the blue flies hear,
About the jujubes flocking !
So the slanderers appear,
Whose calumnies are shocking.
By no law or order bound,
All the kingdom they confound.
3 How they buzz, those odious flies,
Upon the hazels clust'ring !
And as odious are the lies
Of those slanderers blast ring.
Hatred stirred between us two
Shows the evil they can do.
VI.
The Pin che tsoo yen ; narrative. AGAINST DRUNKENNESS. DRINK
ING ACCORDING TO RULE, AND DRINKING TO EXCESS. A LIVELY
PICTURE OF THE LICENSE OF THE TIMES.
All the critics agree in thinking that the writer of the piece was duke
Woo of Wei;—whose praises are sung in I. v. I. Han Ying adds that
Woo made it, when repenting that he himself had fallen into the vice
which he so graphically describes and strongly condemns.
The general plan of the piece is plain enough. In stanzas 1 and 2 we
have two instances of the temperate use of spirits, and in 3—5 we have
the abuse of them on festive occasions. St. 1 is occupied with the
moderate use of them at trials of archery before the king, when no li
cense was indulged in ; st. 2 shows the same thing on occasions of sacri
fice. The riotous feast in st. 3—5 was, probably, the entertainment given
by the king to the princes of the same surname with himself at the con
clusion of the seasonal sacrifices. We can conceive of such a scene taking
place in the time of king Yew.
There were various trials of skill in archery, of which the principal
was that here referred to, before the king, and called "the great
archer}'." It was preceded not by a heavy feast, but by a slight enter
tainment. The shooting took place in the open court, beneath the hall
where the entertainment took place. Three pairs were selected by the
officers who had the direction of the trial. The others matched them-