Heaven is sending down death and disorder, And
[1. That is, the war-chariots, each drawn by its team of four horses.
2. The young and able-bodied of the people were slain or absent on distant expeditions, and only old and gray-headed men were to be seen.
3. Intimating that no such men were now to be found in office.
4. Meaning the king by his misgovernment and employment of bad men.]
has put an end to our king. It is (now) sending down those devourers of the grain, So that the husbandry is all in evil case. Alas for our middle states [1]! All is in peril and going to ruin. I have no strength (to do anything), And think of (the Power in) the azure vault.
ODE 4. THE YUN HAN.
KING HSÜAN, ON OCCASION OF A GREAT DROUGHT, EXPOSTULATES WITH GOD AND ALL THE SPIRITS, WHO MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO HELP HIM AND HIS PEOPLE; ASKS THEM WHEREFORE THEY WERE CONTENDING WITH HIM; AND DETAILS THE MEASURES HE HAD TAKEN, AND WAS STILL TAKING, FOR THE REMOVAL OF THE CALAMITY.
King Hsüan does not occur by name in the ode, though the remarkable prayer which it relates is ascribed to a king in stanza 1. All critics have admitted the statement of the Preface that the piece was made, in admiration of king Hsüan, by Zang Shû, a great officer, we may presume, of the court. The standard chronology places the commencement of the drought in B.C. 822, the sixth year of Hsüan's reign. How long it continued we cannot tell.
Bright was the milky way, Shining and revolving in the sky. The king said, 'Oh! What crime is chargeable on us now, That Heaven (thus) sends down death and disorder? Famine comes again and again. There is no spirit I have not sacrificed to[2]; There is no victim I have grudged; Our