University of Virginia Library

Heaven commissioned the swallow ,
To descend and give birth to [the father of our] Shang .
[His descendants] dwelt in the land of Yin , and became great .
[Then] long ago God appointed the martial Tang ,
To regulate the boundaries throughout the four quarters .
[In those] quarters he appointed the princes ,
And grandly possessed the nine regions [of the kingdom] .
The first sovereign of Shang ,
Received the appointment without any element of instability in it ,
And it is [now] held by the descendant of Wu-ding .
The descendant of Wu-ding ,
Is a martial king , equal to every emergency .
Ten princes , [who came] with their dragon-emblazoned banners ,
Bear the large dishes of millet .
The royal domain of a thousand Li ,
Is where the people rest ;
But there commence the boundaries that reach to the four seas .
From the four seas they come [to out sacrifices] ;
They come in multitudes ;—
King has the He for its outer border .
That Yin should have received the apppointment [of Heaven] was entirely right ;—
[Its sovereign] sustains all its dignities .