{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop274.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop274.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop274.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\n2See o\u2019er the land Heaven's net of crime!\n \u00a0\u00a0And lo! in place appear\n Men idle, knowing not the time,\n \u00a0\u00a0Locusts looked at with fear,\n Oppressive, perverse, fond of strife!\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0Can such as these bring peace and life?\n3Slanderers and insolent, the king\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet sees in them no ill.\n Us to dread peril's brink they bring;\n \u00a0\u00a0Our minds with care they fill. p. 431\n Not for a moment dare we rest,\n \u00a0\u00a0Degraded oft, and sore opprest.\n4As when the dry parched grass we see\n \u00a0\u00a0Wither for want of rain;\n As water plants graft on a tree\n \u00a0\u00a0Cannot their life retain;\n So all things now to ruin haste.\n \u00a0\u00a0Who can their fatal course arrest?\n5\u2019Twas merit once that riches gained;\n \u00a0\u00a0The case how different now!\n Troubles through all our time have reigned,\n \u00a0\u00a0And greater still they grow.\n Like grain unhulled those men in place!\n Like fine rice these who find no grace!\n Ye villains, of yourselves retire!\n Why thus prolong my grief and ire?\n6Now empty stands and dry the pool;\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0No streams into it flow.\n The spring is idle, once so full;\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0Unfed now from below!\n So for those evils all around\n Sufficient causes could be found; p. 432\n But they increase my anxious care,\n Lest I be caught in evil snare.\n7When our first kings the throne received,\n \u00a0\u00a0Such ministers they had\n As Chao's great chief, whom all believed.\n \u00a0\u00a0In one day he would add\n A thousand li, from states which came\n Our king's protecting care to claim.\n Now in one day that space is lost!\n Can none the ancient virtue boast?","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book III. Decade of Tang: XI. Chao Min","type":"page"}