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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 II — Minor odes of the kingdom
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Chapter 6 — Decade of Bei Shan

205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214

Shijing II. 6. (212)

Large are the fields, and various is the work to be done.
Having selected the seed, and looked after the implements,
So that all preparations have been made for our labour,
We take our sharp plough-shares,
And commence on the south-lying acres.
We sow all the kinds of grain,
Which grow up straight and large,
So that the wish of the distant descendant is satisfied.

It ears, and the fruit lies soft in its sheath ;
It hardens and is of good quality ;
There is no wolf ' s-tail grass, nor darnel.
We remove the insects that eat the heart and the leaf,
And those that eat the roots and the joints.
So that they shall not hurt the young plants of our fields.
May the Spirit, the Father of husbandry,
Lay hold of them, and put them in the blazing fire !

The clouds form in dense masses,
And the rain comes down slowly.
May it rain first on our public fields,
And then come to our private !
There shall be young grain unreaped,
And here some sheaves ungathered ;
There shall be handfuls left on the ground,
And here ears untouched : –

The distant descendant will come,
When their wives and children,
Are bringing food to those [at work] on the south-lying acres.
The surveyor of the fields [also] will come and be glad.
They will come and offer pure sacrifices to the Spirits of the four quarters,
With their preparations of millet :
Thus offering, thus sacrificing,
Thus increasing our bright happiness.

Legge 212

Shi Jing II. 6. (212) 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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