{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop250.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop250.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop250.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\nThe earlier lines of kings had practiced ill,\n And ruling, ruled not after God's just will.\n He therefore \u2019mong the states was searching still.\nSearching for one in whom He could confide.\n From the great states He westward turned aside,\n And there a place did for our house provide.\n2Ta then was chief, who made wild nature trim\n And cleared the forest of the rotting limb.\n Impervious tracts grew pervious by him. p. 348\nHe felled and dressed the bosky clumps and rows;\n He drained the marshes where the willow grows;\n He thinned the mulberries, rising thick and close.\nWhen this wise chieftain God to Chou had given,\n The Kwan hordes fled away, by terror driven;\n And sons came from the wife Ta got from Heaven.\n3God looked upon the hills where Ta the oak\n And thorny shrubs had thinned, and lo! there broke\n Paths through the firs, that human feet bespoke.\nThe state thus founded, God prepared the king,\n And he through Ta-pai's flight from Chi shall spring.\n Ta's son was Chi, whose praises now I sing.\nA younger brother's heart within him glowed;\n He to his elder rendered all he owed,\n And when he fled, a patriot's heart Chi showed.\nSo through his course his brother's flight appeared\n With glory crowned. Head of the name, Chi reared\n The throne to which Chou's way erelong was cleared. p. 349\n4Gifted was Chi by God with wisdom high.\n His judgments true drew on him every eye;\n With silent growth his fame spread far and nigh.\nMost ken, most wise, to yield or to command,\n And sway to exercise throughout the land,\n He was \u2019twixt king and chief a powerful band.\nHis son, King W\u00ean, could all his honors claim,\n With virtue pure, beyond the reach of blame.\n On him and on his sons God's blessing came.\n5God spake to W\u00ean, \"Be thou not like to those,\n Whose aim now flies to this, to that now goes,\n Whose facile wills obey each wind that blows.\"\nSo grandly clomb he to fair virtue's height.\n When rebel Mi dared to dispute his might,\n And dared to challenge this great land to fight;\nThey entered Y\u00fcan, and against Kung conspire.\n Then rose the king, majestic in his ire,\n And sent his troops to make the foe retire; p. 350\nHis power, as all expected, to display,\n And, strength\u2019ning Chou, a deep foundation lay,\n On which might rise an universal sway.\n6Calm in his capital, the king abode.\n His troops from utmost Y\u00fcan held on their road;\n O\u2019er lofty hills right valiantly they strode.\nThe foe could plant no forces on our hills,\n Or high or low, nor drink our springs and rills,\n Nor touch the pools that trickling brooklet fills.\nSouth of the Chi, and near the Wei, W\u00ean saw\n Large plains, to which the masses he could draw.\n There now he dwelt, and to the states gave law.\n7God spake to W\u00ean, \"I love your virtue wise\n Not blatant-tongued, nor flashed before men's eyes,\n Not seeking fickle change, or rude emprize. p. 351\nAll unpremeditate, and free from art,\n It leads you to enact the noblest part,\n A pattern king,\u2014according to God's heart.\"\nGod spake to W\u00ean, \"Straight with your brethren go;\n And ladders take, and engines to bring low\n The walls of Ch\u2018ung, and there defeat the foe.\"\n8The warlike engines gently first they ply,\n Against the walls of Ch\u2018ung, walls broad and high,\n Hoping the foe would not their power defy.\nCaptives for question, one by one, were brought;\n The left ears of the slain were slowly sought:\u2014\n So would they wake the foe's relenting thought.\nWith the same object,\u2014human life to spare,\n To God, and to war's sire, W\u00ean sought by prayer\n And sacrifice. Who should resistance dare?\nBut Ch\u2018ung held out. The engines moved along\n With all their force against its bulwarks strong,\n At which the troops were hurled, one eager throng.\nW\u00ean razed its walls, and quenched its rites in blood.\n The eye could scarcely tell where once it stood.\n Throughout the land, all feared his wrathful mood.","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book I. Decade of King W\u00ean: VII. Huang I","type":"page"}