IN this division we have thirty-one sacrificial odes of Kâu, arranged in three decades, the third of which, however, contains eleven pieces. They belong mostly to the time of king Wan, the founder of the Kâu dynasty, and to the reigns of his son and grandson, kings Wû and Khang. The decades are named from the name of the first piece in each.
The First Decade, or that of Khing Miâo.
ODE 1. THE KHING MIÂO.
CELEBRATING THE REVERENTIAL MANNER IN WHICH A SACRIFICE TO KING WAN; WAS PERFORMED, AND FURTHER PRAISING HIM.
Chinese critics agree in assigning this piece to the sacrifice mentioned in the Shû, in the end of the thirteenth Book of Part V, when, the building of Lo being finished, king Khang came to
[1. See on the last line but two of ode 3.]
the new city, and offered a red bull to Win, and the same to Wû. It seems to me to have been sung in honour of Wan, after the service was completed. This determination of the occasion of the piece being accepted, we should refer it to B.C. 1108.
Oh! solemn is the ancestral temple in its pure stillness. Reverent and harmonious were the distinguished assistants[1]; Great was the number of the officers [2]:--(All) assiduous followers of the virtue of (king Wan). In response to him in heaven, Grandly they hurried about in the temple. Distinguished is he and honoured, And will never be wearied of among men.