Text of Confucianism Part 01

SR No.: 007675
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1879
Total Pages: 2829
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 50 MB

Page 433

396
THE SHIH KING.
DECADE II.
By the Făng-water grows the white millet? ;Did not king wa show wisdom in his employment of officers? He would leave his plans to his descendants, And secure comfort and support to his son. A sovereign true was king Wa!
The Second Decade, or that of Shăng Min.
ODE 1. THE SHẰNG Min.
THE LEGEND OF HÂU-xt:-HIS CONCEPTION; HIS BIRTH; THE PERILS
OF HIS INFANCY; HIS BOYISH HABITS OF AGRICULTURE; HIS SUBSEQU'ENT METHODS AND TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE; HIS FOUNDING OF CERTAIN SACRIFICES; AND THE HONOURS OF SACRIFICE PAID TO HIM BY THE HOUSE OF KÂU.
Of Hâu-kî there is some notice on the tenth ode of the first
decade of the Sacrificial Odes of Kâu. To him the kings of Kâu traced their lineage. Of Kiang Yuan, his mother, our knowledge is very scanty. It is said that she was a daughter of the House of Thai, which traced its lineage up to Shăn nung in præhistoric times. From the first stanza of this piece it appears that she was married, and had been so for some time without having any child. But who her husband was it is impossible to say with certainty. As the Kâu surname was Ki, he must have been one of the descendants of Hwang Tỉ.
The first birth of (our) people? Was from Kiang Yüan. How did she give birth to (our) people ? She had presented a pure offering and sacrificed 3,
1.The white millet,' a valuable species, grown near the Fång, suggests to the writer the idea of all the men of ability whom Wu collected around him.
Our people' is of course the people of Kâu. The whole piece is about the individual from whom the House of Kâu sprang, of which were the kings of the dynasty so called.
* To whom Kiang Yuan sacrificed and prayed we are not told, but I receive the impression that it was to God, -see the next stanza, -and that she did so all alone with the special object which is mentioned.
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