Great is God, Beholding this lower world in majesty. He surveyed the four quarters (of the kingdom), Seeking for some one to give establishment to the people. Those two earlier dynasties 1 Had failed to satisfy him with their government; So, throughout the various states, He sought and considered For one on whom he might confer the rule. Hating all the great states, He turned his kind regards on the west, And there gave a settlement (to king Thâi). (King Thâi) raised up and removed The dead trunks and the fallen trees. He dressed and regulated The bushy clumps and the (tangled) rows. He opened up and cleared The tamarisk trees and the stave trees. He hewed and thinned The mountain mulberry trees. God having brought about the removal thither of this intelligent ruler, The Kwan hordes fled away 2. Heaven had raised up a helpmeet for him, And the appointment he had received was made sure. God surveyed the hills, Where the oaks and the buckthorn were thinned, And paths made through the firs and cypresses. God, who had raised the
This king Kî Was gifted by God with the power of judgment, So that the fame of his virtue silently grew. His virtue was highly intelligent,--Highly intelligent, and of rare discrimination; Able to lead, able to rule, To rule over this great country; Rendering a cordial submission, effecting a cordial union 3. When (the sway) came to king Wăn, His
He remained quietly in the capital, But (his troops) went on from the borders of Yüan. They ascended our lofty ridges, And (the enemy) arrayed no forces on our hills, On our hills, small or large, Nor drank at our springs, Our springs or our pools. He then determined the finest of the plains, And settled on the south of Khî 4, On the banks of
The engines of onfall and assault were (at first) gently plied, Against the walls of Khung high and great; Captives for the question were brought in, one after another; The left ears (of the slain) were taken leisurely 2. He had sacrificed to God and to the Father of War 3, Thus seeking to induce
389:1 Those of Hsiâ and Shang. 389:2 The same as 'the hordes of the Khwăn' in ode 3. Mr. T. W. Kingsmill says that 'Kwan' here should be 'Chun,' and charges the transliteration Kwan with error (journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for April, 1878). He had not consulted his dictionary for the proper pronunciation of the Chinese character. 390:1 King Wăn is 'the proper ruler' intended here, and the next line intimates that this was determined before there was any likelihood of his becoming the ruler even of the territory of Kâu;--another instance of the foreseeing providence ascribed to God. Thâi-po was the eldest son of king Thai, and king Kî was, perhaps, only the third. The succession ought to have come to Thai-po; but he, seeing the sage virtues of Khang (afterwards king Wăn), the son of Kî, and seeing also that king Thai was anxious that this boy should ultimately become ruler of Kâu, voluntarily withdrew from Kâu altogether, and left the state to Kî and his son. See the remark of Confucius on Thâi-po's conduct, in the Analects, VIII, i. 390:2 The lines from six to ten speak of king Kî in his relation to his elder brother. He accepted Thâi-po's act without any failure of his own duty to him, and by his own improvement of it, made his brother more glorious through it. His feeling of brotherly duty was simply the natural instinct of his heart. Having accepted the act, it only made him the more anxious to promote the good of the state, and thus he made his brother more glorious by showing what advantages accrued from his resignation and withdrawal from Kâu. 390:3 This line refers to Kî's maintenance of his own loyal duty 391:2 Mî or Mî-hsü was a state in the present King-ning Kâu, of Phing-liang department, Kan-sû. 391:3 Yüan was a state adjacent to Mî,--the present King Kâu, and Kung must have been a place or district in it. 391:4 Wăn, it appears, made now a small change in the site of his capital, but did not move to Făng, where he finally settled. 392:1 Khung was a state, in the present district of Hû, department Hsî-an, Shen-hsî. His conquest of Khung was an important event in the history of king Wăn. He moved his capital to it, advancing so much farther towards the east, nearer to the domain of-Shang. According to Sze-mâ Khien the marquis of Khung had slandered the lord of Kâu, who was president of the states of the west, to Kâu-hsin, the king of Shang, and our hero was put in prison. His friends succeeded in effecting his deliverance by means of various gifts to the tyrant, and he was reinstated In the west with more than his former power. Three years afterwards he attacked the marquis of Khung. 392:2 So far the siege was prosecuted slowly and, so to say, tenderly, Wan hoping that the enemy would be induced to surrender without great sacrifice of life. 392:3 The sacrifice to God had been offered in ,Kâu, at the commencement of the expedition; that to the Father of War, on the army's arriving at the borders of ,Khung. We can hardly tell who is intended by the Father of War. Kû Hsî and others would require the plural 'Fathers,' saying the sacrifice was to Hwang Tî and Khih Yû, who are found engaged in hostilities far back in the SHOWING THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF KÂU TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE KINGDOM THROUGH THE FAVOUR OF GOD, THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF KINGS THÂI AND KÎ, AND ESPECIALLY OF KING WĂN.
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