SUNG IN THE LAST MONTH OF WINTER, AND IN SPRING, WHEN THE KING PRESENTED A FISH IN THE ANCESTRAL TEMPLE.
Such is the argument of this piece given in the Preface, and in which the critics generally concur. In the Lî Kî, IV, vi, 49, it is recorded that the king, in the third Month of winter, gave orders to his chief fisher to commence his duties, and went himself to see his operations. He partook of the fish first captured, but previously presented some as an offering in the back apartment of the ancestral temple. In the third month of spring, again, when the sturgeons began to make their appearance (Lî Kî, IV, i, 25), the king presented one in the same place. On
[1. All the instruments here enumerated were performed on in the open court below the hall. Nothing is said of the stringed instruments which were used in the hall itself; nor is the enumeration of the instruments in the courtyard complete.]
these passages, the prefatory notice was, no doubt, constructed. Choice specimens of the earliest-caught fish were presented by the sovereign to his ancestors, as an act of duty, and an acknowledgment that it was to their favour that he and the people were indebted for the supplies of food, which they received from the waters.
Oh! in the Khî and the Khü, There are many fish in the warrens;--Sturgeons, large and snouted, Thryssas, yellow-jaws, mud-fish, and carp;--For offerings, for sacrifice, That our bright happiness may be increased.
ODE 7. THE YUNG.
APPROPRIATE, PROBABLY, AT A SACRIFICE BY KING WÛ TO HIS FATHER WAN.
From a reference in the Analects, III, ii, to an abuse of this ode in the time of Confucius, We learn that it was sung When the sacrificial vessels and their contents were being removed.
They come full of harmony; They are here in all gravity;--The princes assisting, While the Son of Heaven looks profound.
(He says), 'While I present (this) noble bull, And they assist me in setting forth the sacrifice, O great and august Father, Comfort me, your filial son.