TS'ËOH CH'AOU
1 The neat is the magpie's;
The dove dwells in it.
This young lady is going to her future home;
A hundred carriages are meeting her.
2 The nest is the magpie's;
The dove possesses it.
This young lady is going to her future home;
A hundred carriages are escorting her.
3 The neat is the magpie's;
The dove fills it
This young lady is going to her future home;
These hundreds of carriages complete her array.
TITLE OF THE BOOK—召南一之二, 'Shaou Nan,Book II of Part I'. On the title of the last Book, it has been stated that king Wăn, on removing to Fung,divided the original Chow of his House into two portions, which he settled on his son Tan, the duke of Chow, and on Shih, one of his principal adherents, the duke of Shaou. The site of the city of Shaou was in dep. of Fung-ts'ëang, and probably in the dis. of K'e-shan. Shih was of the Chow surname of Ke (姬), and is put down by Hwang-poo Meih as a son of Wăn by a concubine; but this is uncertain. After his death, he received the honorary name of K'ang (康公). On the overthrow of the Shang dyn., he was invested b king Woo with the principality of Yen, o North Yen (北燕), having its capital in the pres. dis. of Ta-hing (大興), dep. of Shun-t'ëen, where his descendants are traced, down to the Ts'in dyn. He himself, however, as did Tan, remained at the court of Chow, and we find them, in the Shoo, as the principal ministers of king Ching. They were known as the 'highest dukes (上公)',and the 'two great chiefs (二伯)', Tan having charge of the eastern portions of the kingdom, and Shih of the western.
The pieces in this Book are supposed to have been produced in Shaou and the principalities south of it,—west from those that yielded the odes of the Chow-nan.
Ode 1. Allusive. CELEBRATING THE MARRIAGE OF A BRIDE,—A PRINCESS, TO THE PRINCE OF ANOTHER STATE. The critics will all have it,that the poet's object was to set forth 'the virtue of the lady'; and wherein they find the allusion to that will be seen below. For myself I do not see that the virtue of the bride was a point which the writer wished to indicate; his attention was taken by the splendour of the nuptials.—
St.1. L.1. 维,—see on i. Ode II. 1. The ts'eoh is the magpie. It is common in China, and generally called he-ts'eoh (喜鵲); it makes the same elaborate nest as with ourselves. L.2. 鳩 is the general name for the dove; here, probably, the turtle dove, the she-këw (鳲鳩). It has many local names. I do not know that it is a fact that the dove is to be found breeding in a magpie's nest, as it here assumed; but Maou K'e-ling vehemently asserts it, and says that any one with eyes may see about the villages a flock of doves contending with as many magpies, and driving the latter from their nests (續詩傳鳥名卷一). The virtue of the bride is thought to be emblemed by the quietness and stupidity of the dove, unable to make a nest for itself, or making a very simple, unartistic one. The dove is a favourite emblem with all poets for a lady; but surely never, out of China, because of its 'stupidity'. But says Twan Ch'ang-woo (段昌武), towards the end of the Sung dyn.), 'The duties of a wife are few and confined; there is no harm in her being stupid.'
L.4. 兩=一車, 'a carriage', as being supported on two wheels (兩輪). 御 is commonly read here yu, and generally when it has the signification of 'to meet'. But it rhymes here with keu, and the variation of its sound, according to its signification, is a device dating only from the Han dyn. the 100 carriage here are those of the bridegroom and his friends, who come to meet the lady, as she approaches the borders of his State.
St.2. L.2. 方之=有之, 'has it'. Yen Ts'an quotes a sentence which ingeniously explains this use of 方 a verb,—方之, 以為其所也. L.4. 將=送, 'to escort'. Thecarriage here are those of the bride and all her cortéye.
St.3. L.2. The 'filling' of the nest alludes to the ladies accompanying the bride to the harem. She would be accompanied by two near relatives from her own State, and there would be three ladies from each of two kindred States, so that the prince of a State is described by Kung-yang as 'at once marrying 9 ladies(諸侯一娶九女). L.4. The 100 carriage here cover those of each of the previous stanzas. 成之,—as in i. IV. 3.,= 'make her complete'.
The rhymes are—in st. 1, 居, 御, cat. 5. t. 1; in 2, 方,將, cat. 10; in 3, 盈, 成, cat. 11.
NOTE ON THE INTERPRETATION. In his interesting essay on the poetry of the Chinese, (already referred to), Sir John Davis gives the following paraphrase of this ode:
'The nest yon winged artist builds,
The robber bird shall tear away:
—So yields her hopes the affianced maid
Some wealthy lord's reluctant prey.
'The anxious bird prepares a nest,
In which the spoiler soon shall dwell:
—Forth goes the weeping bride constrained,
A hundred cars the triumph swell.
'Mourn for the tiny architect;
A stronger bird hath ts'en its nest:
Mourn for the hapless stolen bride,
How vain the pomp to soothe her breast!'
This is paraphrased, he says, 'to convey the full sense of what is only hinted at in the original, and explained in the commentary'. He has made a little poem, more interesting than the original, but altogether away from the obvious meaning of that original, on a view of it not hinted at in any commentary.
