Han shih wai chuan Han Ying's Illustrations of the didactic application of the Classic of songs |
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![]() | CHAPTER V Han shih wai chuan | ![]() |
24[1]
To Heaven belong the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn,
and winter,[2]
with wind, rain, hoar frost, and dew; [in the action
character is pure and bright, the spirit and mind are like those
of a spiritual being. When what such a person desires is about to
come, there are sure to be premonitions of it in advance, [as when]
Heaven [is about to] send down seasonable rain, clouds come out
from hills and streams. The Ode says,[4]
With their large masses[6] reaching to the heavens.
From these mountains was sent down a Spirit.
Who gave birth to [the princes of] Fu and Shên.
Fu and Shên
Are the support of Chou,
Screens[7] to all the States,
Diffusing [their influence] over the four quarters of the kingdom.
The rulers of the Three Dynasties always were preceded by
their good names.[9]
The Ode says,[10]
His good fame shall be without end.
Let him display his civil virtues,
Till they permeate all quarters of the kingdom.
This paragraph is the same as Li chi 51.5b-7b (Couvreur 2.397-9). In Chia-yü
8.12a-b it is incorporated into a longer passage which also quotes from the same Ode.
I have consulted Legge's translation in Shih, Proleg. 91-2; also in Li Ki 2.281-3.
CHy changes to [OMITTED], the sequence in Li chi, but Chia-yü and the citation
in TPYL 18.6a are the same as the present texts of HSWC. (Chao 137.) From the
next phrase one would expect [OMITTED] and [OMITTED] to be interchanged, to match each season
with its appropriate phenomenon.
Li chi continues, "Earth contains the mysterious energy [of nature]. By the wind
and thunder-clap the [seeds of] forms are carried abroad, and the various things show
the appearance of life:—in all and each of these things there is a lesson."
For [OMITTED] D has [OMITTED], which Ch`ên Ch`iao-ts`ung (I-shuo k`ao 14.1a) takes as the Han shih reading.
![]() | CHAPTER V Han shih wai chuan | ![]() |