<Previous Section>
<Next Section>

公劉

篤公劉。
匪居匪康。
迺埸迺疆。
迺機迺倉。
迺裹餱糧。
于橐于囊。
思輯用光 。
弓矢斯張。
干戈戚揚。
爰方啟行。
篤公劉。
于胥斯原。
既庶既繁。
既順迺宣。
而無永歎。
陟則在巘。
復降在原。
何以舟之。
維玉及瑤。
鞞琫容刀。
篤公劉。
逝彼百泉。
瞻彼溥原。
迺陟南岡。
乃覯于京。
京師之野。
于時處處。
于時廬旅。
于時言言。
于時語語。
篤公劉。
于京斯依。
蹌蹌濟濟。
俾筵俾几。
既登乃依。
乃造其曹。
執豕于牢。
酌之用匏。
食之飲之。
君之宗之。
篤公劉。
既溥既長。
既景迺岡。
相其陰陽。
觀其流泉。
其軍三單。
度其隰原。
徹田為糧。
度其夕陽。
豳居允荒。
篤公劉。
于豳斯館。
涉渭為亂。
取厲取鍛。
止基迺理。
爰眾爰有。
夾其皇澗。
溯其過澗。
止旅迺密。
芮鞫之即。

GONG LIU

Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
Unable to rest or take his ease [where he was],
He divided and subdivided the country into fields;
He stored up the produce in the fields and in barns;
He tied up dried meat and grain,
In bottomless bags and in sacks; --
That he might hold [the people] together, and glorify [his tribe].
Then with bows and arrows all ready,
With shields and spears, and axes, large and small,
He commenced his march.
Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
He had surveyed the plain [where he was settled];
[The people] were numerous and crowded;
In sympathy with them, he made proclamation [of his contemplated measure],
And there were no perpetual sighings about it
He ascended to the hill-tops;
He ascended again to the plains.
What was it that he carried at his girdle?
Pieces of jade, and yao gems,
And his ornamented scabbard with its sword.
Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
He went there to [the place of] the hundred springs,
And saw [around him] the wide plain.
He ascended the ridge on the south,
And looked at a large [level] height,
A height affording space for multitudes.
Here was room to dwell in;
Here might booths be built for strangers;
Here he told out his mind;
Here he entered on deliberations.
Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
When he had found rest on the height,
With his officers all in dignified order,
He caused mats to be spread, with stools upon them;
And they took their places on the mats and leaned on the stools.
He had sent to the herds,
And taken a pig from the pen.
He poured out his spirits into calabashes;
And so he gave them to eat and to drink,
Acknowledged by them as ruler, and honoured.
Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
[His territory] being now broad and long,
He determined the points of the heavens by means of the shadows; and then, ascending the ridges,
He surveyed the light and the shade,
Viewing [also] the [course of the] streams and springs.
His armies were three troops;
He measured the marshes and plains;
He fixed the revenue on the system of common cultivation of the fields;
He measured also the fields west of the hills;
And the settlement of Bin became truly great.
Of generous devotion to the people was duke Liu,
Having settled in temporary lodging houses in Bin,
He crossed the Wei by means of boats,
And gathered whetstones and iron.
When his settlement was fixed, and all boudaries defined,
The people became numerous and prosperous,
Occupying both sides of the Huang valley,
And pushing on up that of Guo;
And as the population became dense,
They went on to the country beyond the Ju.
<Previous Section>
<Next Section>
IATHPublished by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003 by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia