While the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome have largely
perished in the convulsions that followed the breaking up of the Roman
empire in Europe, when the kingdom of China fell into disorder and
decrepitude this one great teacher stepped forward to save the precious
record of historic fact, philosophical thought, and of legislation as
well as poetry, from being swept away by the deluge of revolution.
Confucius showed his wisdom by the high value he set upon the poetry of
his native land, and his name must be set side by side with that of the
astute tyrant of Athens who collected the poems of Homer and preserved
them as a precious heritage to the Greek world. Confucius has given us
his opinion with regard to the poems of the Shi-King. No man, he says,
is worth speaking to who has not mastered the poems of an anthology, the
perusal of which elevates the mind and purifies it from all corrupt
thoughts. Thanks to the work of modern scholarship, English readers can
now verify this dictum for themselves.
E. W.
THE SHI-KING
_PART I--LESSONS FROM THE STATES_
BOOK I
THE ODES OF CHOW AND THE SOUTH
~Celebrating the Virtue of King Wan's Bride~
Hark! from the islet in the stream the voice
Of the fish-hawks that o'er their nests rejoice!
From them our thoughts to that young lady go,
Modest and virtuous, loth herself to show.
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