Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/318

 Winter Thanksgiving," "Shun's Song of the South Wind," the "Song of the Fern-Gatherers," and the "Cowfeeder's Song," beginning—

might be cited as also illustrating ancient Chinese sympathies with Nature as a good friend rather than a great god.

In fact, the religious sentiments of the Chinese were with their social evolution assuming a different channel from that of the Indian Aryans; and though we have early Chinese songs to the powers of Nature as productive agents, the most profound sentiments of Chinese religion were turned away from Nature to the ancestors of the human family, the centre of all Chinese passions and emotions. Accordingly, while the Bráhmans were building up their sacred hymnal to Nature in her grandest forms, the ancestral spirits were in China receiving the mead of sacrificial song. With a specimen of such song we shall conclude this brief contrast of early Indian and Chinese poetry.

Ah, ah, our meritorious ancestor!

Permanent are the blessings coming from him,

Repeatedly confirmed without end:—

They have come to you in this place.

The clear spirits are in our vessels,

And there is granted to us the realisation of our thoughts.

There are also the well-tempered soups

Prepared beforehand, the ingredients rightly proportioned.

By these offerings we invite his presence, without a word,

Nor is there now any contention (in any part of the service).

He will bless us with the eyebrows of longevity,

With the grey hair and wrinkled face in unlimited degree.

With the naves of their wheels bound with leather, and their ornamented yokes,

With the eight bells at their horses' bits all tinkling,