Art. XX.—The Chinese Book of the Odes for English Readers

Clement F. R. Allen

doi:10.1017/S0035869X0001892X

Art. XX.—The Chinese Book of the Odes for English Readers

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Clement F. R. Allen

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The She King, usually translated the Book of the Odes, or the Classic of Poetry, is not so well known to the outside world as it deserves to be. It is one of the Classics or Canons of Chinese learning, and, like its companion books, is supposed not only to contain deep lessons of morality for the instruction of future ages, but to have been compiled, if not written, for the express purpose of their inculcation. The events recorded or alluded to in it are said to have taken place between 1765 and 585 B.C. Confucius himself is acknowledged to have been the compiler. Ssŭ Ma ch'ien states: ”The old poems amounted to more than 8000. Confucius removed those which were only repetitions of others, and selected those which would be serviceable for the inculcation of propriety and righteousness.” In other words he brought out a revised and expurgated edition. Constant allusions to the Odes are found in the Confucian Analects, the Master on all occasions expressing the highest admiration for the work, and enjoining on his disciples the necessity of a thorough study of it.

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 1884 , pp. 453 - 478

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X0001892X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1884

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^{page 453 note 1} I confess a preference for Sir Thomas Wade's system of transliteration, and would fain call the work the Shih Ching; but I am assured that this would convey no meaning to European students of Chinese.

^{page 453 note 2} Quæcunque ex antiquorum temporum monumentis idonea ad revocandum pristinum rerum ordinem videbantur, in sex libros collecta edidit, ut inde reipublicæ administrandæ modum, morum disciplinam, et saniorem doctrinam discerent posteri.—Confucii Chi King, La Charme.

^{page 453 note 3} B.C. 163–85.

^{page 453 note 4} Conf. Analects, xvii. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 454 note 1} Conf. Analects, xv. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 454 note 2} Conf. Analects, Book xvi. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 455 note 1} Part i. Book vii. Ode 8.

^{page 455 note 2} Part i. Book vi. Ode 2.

^{page 456 note 1} Davis, Sir John, “Poetry of the Chinese.”Google Scholar

^{page 456 note 2} Part i. Book i. Ode 2.

^{page 457 note 1} It must not be forgotten that the oldest of these poems have had to pass through three scripts before they could appear in their present form. The oldest style of Chinese character, the Ku Wên was in use until about 800 B.C., when in the time of ‘Hsüan Wang of the Chou dynasty, the Ta Chuan or Large Seal character was introduced. This was succeeded by the Hsiao Chuan or Small Seal character, which lasted from about 225 B.C. to about 350 A.D., when the Chiai Shu took its place. Mons. Terrien de Lacouperie informs me that he has compared the oldest version of the Shu King or Classic of History, as published in the with the present standard editions, and finds the discrepancies to amount to nearly 25 per cent, of the whole text. A comparison of the earliest and latest versions of the She King would surely show as large a proportion of error. See Prof. T. de Lacouperie, On the History of the Archaic Writing and Texts.

^{page 459 note 1} “Les Interprètes Chinois ne sont pas trop heureux à déchiffrer ces poesies. … Le stile en est tres obseur, et cette obscurité vient sans doute du laconisme, des métaphores, et de la quantité d'anciens proverbes, dont l'ouvrage est seme. Mais c'est cette obscurité la même, qui lui concilie l'estime et la vénération des savans.”—Du Halde.

^{page 460 note 1} Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, article Canticles, by T. E. Brown.

^{page 461 note 1} Part i. Book vii. Ode 21.

^{page 462 note 1} Part i. Book xii. Ode 2.

^{page 463 note 1}

^{page 463 note 2}

^{page 463 note 3} Part i. Book viii. Ode 4.

^{page 464 note 1} Part i. Book i. Ode 9.

^{page 464 note 2}

^{page 465 note 1} The ladies among the ancient Chinese, as among the Aryan nations, would leave their hair dishevelled during their husband's absence:

“I scarcely care to deck my hair,

But let my locks disordered stray,

For whom should I be neat or fair

When my loved lord is far away?”—Part i. Book v. Ode 8.

“Ten months Runjeet lay in Lahore.

Wah, a hero's heart is brass.

Ten months never did Chunda Kour

Braid her hair at the tiring glass.”—Edwin Arnold.

^{page 467 note 1} Part i. Book iii. Ode 3.

^{page 467 note 2} It is worth noticing that even in the oldest poems there are scarcely any references to sheep. The ancestors of the Chinese, unlike their Aryan contemporaries or predecessors, were not a people among whom the chief shepherd was practically a king. See Les Origines Indo-Européennes, Pictet.

^{page 468 note 1} Part i. Book xv. Ode 5.

^{page 469 note 1} Part i. Book xv. Ode 3.

^{page 471 note 1} Part i. Book ii. Ode 5.

^{page 471 note 2} Part iii. Book ii. Ode 1.

^{page 471 note 3} Part i. Book iii. Ode 18.

^{page 472 note 1} Part i Book iii. Ode 19.

^{page 472 note 2} Part i. Book iv. Ode 8.

^{page 472 note 3} Part i. Book iv. Ode 7.

^{page 473 note 1} Part i. Book ix. Ode 1.

^{page 473 note 2} Part i. Book ix. Ode 2.

^{page 473 note 3} Part i. Book x. Ode 2. This ode has a burden prefacing each of the stanzas; but as I can find no congruity in it, I have suppressed it.

^{page 475 note 1} Part i. Book xiii. Ode 4.

^{page 475 note 2} Part i. Book xiv. Ode 2.

^{page 476 note 1} Part i. Book ix. Ode 5.

^{page 476 note 2} Part i. Book vii. Ode 10.

^{page 477 note 1} The secret of the prosody has yet to he discovered. I venture to think that the clue must be sought for in the Ku Wên, whence we shall find that certain characters, which are now monosyllabic, were once dissyllabic or even polysyllabic. I am indebted to Mons. Terrien de Lacouperie for this hint.

^{page 477 note 2} I would call attention to one fact only, viz. that in the She King is perhaps the first mention of Sati [Suttee], unless the Mahâbhârata, which describes the sacrifice of Mâdrî, the best beloved wife of Pându, at her husband's tomb, is older. Ode 6 of the 11th book of the 1st part alludes to the death of a prince at whose grave three of the bravest warriors of the nation were put to death. Herodotus (book iv. 71) mentions a similar custom among the Scythians. When the king dies he is buried in the country of the Gerrhi. “In the remaining space of the grave they bury one of the king's concubines, having strangled her, and his cup-bearer, a cook, a groom, a page, a courier and horses, and firstlings of everything. A year afterwards fifty of the king's horses and fifty of his servants are strangled and stuffed with chaff, and stuck round the king's monument.”

Is this the origin of placing stone figures of animals and warriors round the graves of Chinese emperors and high officials? See also Ibn Batuta's account of the burial of the Khan of Tartary.

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