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Shi Jing Introduction Table of content – 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).

Section I — °ê ­· Lessons from the states
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15
Chapter 4 — »Á ­· The odes of Yong

45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Shijing I. 4. (50)

When [Ding] culminated [at night fall],
He began to build the palace at Chu.
Determining its aspects by means of the sun,
He built the mansion at Chu.
He planted about it hazel and chesnut trees,
The yi, the tong, the zi, and the varnish-tree,
Which, when cut down, might afford materials for lutes.

He ascended those old walls,
And thense surveyed [the site of ] Chu.
He surveyed Chu and Tang,
With the high hills and lofty elevations about :
He descended and examined the mulberry trees ;
He then divined, and got a fortunate response ;
And thus the issue has been truly good.

When the good rain had fallen,
He would order his groom,
By starlight, in the morning, to yoke his carriage,
And would then stop among the mulberry trees and fields.
But not only thus did he show what he was ; –
Maintaining in his heart a profound devotion to his duties,
His tall horses and mares amounted to three thousand.

Legge 50

Shi Jing I. 4. (50) IntroductionTable of content
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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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