robe[1]! Her black hair in masses like clouds, No false locks does she descend to. There are her earplugs of jade, Her comb-pin of ivory, And her high forehead, so white. She appears like a visitant from heaven! She appears like a goddess[2].
Ode 6, Stanzas 1 and 2. The Ting kih fang Kung.
Celebrating the praise of duke Wăn;—his diligence, foresight, use of divination, and other qualities.
The state of Wei was reduced to extremity by an irruption of some northern hordes in B.C. 660, and had nearly disappeared from among the states of Kâu. Under the marquis Wei, known in history as duke Wăn, its fortunes revived, and he became a sort of second founder of the state.
When Ting culminated (at night-fall)[3], He began to build the palace at Khû[4], Determining
- ↑ The lady is introduced arrayed in the gorgeous robes worn by the princess of a state in the ancestral temple.
- ↑ P. Lacharme translated these two concluding lines by 'Tu primo aspectu coelos (pulchritudine), et imperatorem (majestate) adaequas,' without any sanction of the Chinese critics; and moreover there was no Tî (帝) in the sense of imperator then in China. The sovereigns of Kâu were Wang or kings. Kû Hsî expands the lines thus:—'Such is the beauty of her robes and appearance, that beholders are struck with awe, as if she were a spiritual being.' Hsü Khien (Yüan dynasty) deals with them thus:—'With such splendour of beauty and dress, how is it that she is here? She has come down from heaven! She is a spiritual being!'
- ↑ Ting is the name of a small space in the heavens, embracing α Markab and another star of Pegasus. Its culminating at night-fall was the signal that the labours of husbandry were over for the year, and that building operations should be taken in hand. Great as was the urgency for the building of his new capital, duke Wăn would not take it in hand till the proper time for such a labour was arrived.
- ↑ Khû, or Khû-khiû, was the new capital of Wei, in the present district of Khăng-wû, department Z/ilhâo-kâu, Shan-tung.
