Shi Jing 
– The Book of Odes
The oldest collection of Chinese poetry, more than three hundred songs, odes and hymns. Tr. Legge (en) and Granet (fr, incomplete).
Shijing I. 4. (52)
Look at a rat, – it has its skin ;
But a man should be without dignity of demeanour.
If a man have no dignity of demeanour,
What should he but die ?
Look at a rat, – it has its teeth ;
But a man shall be without any right deportment.
If a man have not right deportment,
What should he wait for but death ?
Look at a rat, – it has its limbs ;
But a man shall be without any rules of propriety.
If a man observe no rules of propriety,
Why does he not quickly die ?
Legge 52
The Book of Odes – Shi Jing I. 4. (52) – Chinese off/on – Français/English
Alias Shijing, Shi Jing, Book of Odes, Book of Songs, Classic of Odes, Classic of
Poetry, Livre des Odes, Canon des Poèmes.
The Book of Odes, The Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Three-characters book, The Book of Changes, The Way and its Power, 300 Tang Poems, The Art of War, Thirty-Six Strategies
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