Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/438



Of our admirable, amiable sovereign Most illustrious is the excellent virtue. He orders rightly the people, orders rightly the officers, And receives his dignity from Heaven, Which protects and helps him, and (confirms) his appointment, By repeated acts of renewal from heavenHeaven [sic].

Addressed, probably, by the duke of Shâo to king Khăng, desiring for him long prosperity, and congratulating him, in order to admonish him, on the happiness of his people, the number of his admirable officers, and the auspicious omen arising from the appearance of the phœnix.

The duke of Shâo was the famous Shih, who appears in the fifth and other Books of the fifth Part of the Shû, the colleague of the duke of Kâu in the early days of the Kâu dynasty. This piece may have been composed by him, but there is no evidence in it that it was so. The assigning it to him rests entirely on the authority of the preface. The language, however, is that in which an old statesman of that time might express his complacency in his young sovereign.

Into the recesses of the large mound Came the wind, whirling from the south. There was (our) happy, courteous sovereign, Rambling and singing; And I took occasion to give forth my notes.

'Full of spirits you ramble; Full of satisfaction you rest. O happy and courteous sovereign, May you fulfil your years, And end them like your ancestors!'

'Your territory is great and glorious, And