KUH FUNG
1 Gentle blows the east wind,
With cloudy skies and with rain.
[Husband and wife] should strive to be of the same mind,
And not let angry feelings arise.
When we gather the mustard plant and earth melons,
We do not reject them because of their roots.
While I do nothing contrary to my good name,
I should live with you till our death.
2 I go along the road slowly, slowly,
In my inmost heart reluctant.
Not far, only a little way,
Did he accompany me to the threshold.
卯=我, 'I'. The meaning of the stanza is, that people should wait for a proper match, and not hurry on to form licentious connections.
The rhymes are—in st. 1, 葉*, 涉, cat. 8, t. 3; 厲, 揭, cat. 15, t. 3: in 2, 盈, 鳴, cat. 11; 軌 (prop. 軓 cat. 7),牡*, cat. 3, t. 2: in 3, 雁, 旦, 泮 cat. 14: in 4, 子, 否*,否*, cat. 1, t. 2.
Ode 10. Metaphorical, allusive, and narrative. THE PLAINT OF A WIFE REJECTED AND SUPPLANTED BY ANOTHER. Thus much we learn from the ode itself. There can be no doubt that the manners of the court of Wei injuriously affected the households of the State; but this does not appear in the piece, though Maou seems to say that it does.
St. 1. Maou and Choo take 習習 as describing the'gentle breath' of the wind. 谷風 is taken by them, after the Urh-ya, as meaning 'the east wind'. This brings clouds and rain, and all genial influences. Ying-tah explains 谷 as if it were 穀, 'living'. We may take these two lines either as metaphorical or allusive, referring to what the harmony and happiness of the family should be. Yen Ts'an explains them very differently, as referring to the angry demonstrations of the husband, like gusts of wind coming constantly (習習=連續不斷), from great valleys, and bringing with them gloom and rain. Who shall decide on the comparative merits of the two views thus conflicting?黽勉=勉勉, 'to exert one's self'. Maou gives 黽 with 人 at the side, which is also found in the same sense. 葑 and 菲 are, probably, two species of Brassica; Williams calls 葑, 'vegetables resembling mustard'. Maou says it is the seu (須) and Choo the man-tsing (蔓菁); others make it the woo-tsing (蕪菁); and others again the keae (芥), or mustard plant. These are but different names for varieties of the same plant. In the Japanese plates, the figure of the fung is that of a sorrel or dock,—rumex persicariodes; and the author says he does not know the fei.
Who says that the sowthistle is bitter?
It is as sweet as the shepherd's purse.
You feast with your new wife,
[Loving] as brothers.
3 The muddiness of the King appears from the Wei,
But its bottom may be seen about the islets.
You feast with your new wife,
And think me not worth being with.
Do not approach my dam,
Do not move my basket.
My person is rejected;—
What avails it to care for what may come after?
After the Urh-ya, Maou calls fei the wuh (芴) 'a sort of turnip, the flower of which is purple'. The root is red.It is, no doubt, a kind of radish; but Kwoh Poh calls it 'the earth melon (土瓜)'; and so I have translated it.The leaves, stalk, and root of the fung and fei are all edible; and if sometimes the root or lower part—下體—be bad, yet the whole plant is not on that account thrown away. From this the wife argues that though her beauty might in some degree have decayed, she should not on that account have been cast off. 德音 is explained by Choo by 美譽, 'admirable praise'=good character or name. K'ang-shing and Yen Ts'an,however, take the phrase here as in IV. 3;—'Husband and wife should speak kindly to each other.' Choo's view suits the connection best.
St. 2. The first 4 lines describe the cold manner in which the wife was sent away, and her reluctance to go. The 2d line says that while her feet went slowly on the way, her heart was all the while rebelling,and wished to turn back. 伊=惟, almost= 'only'. Both Maou and Choo explain 畿 by 門內, 'the inside of the door'. The word is used in the sense of 限, a limit or boundary, which, from the 3d line, we infer would here be the threshold.
The last 4 lines describe the bitterness of the wife's feelings at seeing herself supplanted. Medhurst is probably correct in calling the t'oo the sowthistle. I was inclined, from the descriptions of it, to call it a sort of lettuce. 'Its leaf exudes a white juice, which is bitter. Its flowers are like those of an aster. It is edible but bitter.' The pictures of the tse are those of the shepherd's purse. They say that the seeds of it are sweet. 昏 is used for a marriage, because it was in 'the dark', at night, that the wife was brought home. Here it=妻, 'wife'.
St. 3. The King and the Wei;—see the Shoo, on III. Pt.i.73, Pt.ii.12. 湜湜= 'clear-looking'. The Shwoh-wăn defines the term as 'clear water, where the bottom can be seen'. 'The waters of the King,' says Choo, 'are muddy, and those of the Wei are clear, and the muddiness of the King appears more clearly after its junction with the Wei; yet where its channel is interrupted by islets, and the stream flows more gently, it is not so muddy but that the bottom may be seen. So, with the rejected and the new wife. The former was thrown into the shade by the latter. Yet if the husband would only think, he might know that she still had her good qualities.' Yen Ts'an here again construes differently. With him the new wife is the King, well known for its muddiness, representing her, the clear Wei, to be muddy;—a misrepresentation which inspection or reflection would readily refute.
4 Where the water was deep,
I crossed it by a raft or a boat.
Where it was shallow,
I dived or swam across it.
Whether we had plenty or not,
I exerted myself to be getting.
When among others there was a death,
I crawled on my knees to help them.
5 You cannot cherish me,
And you even count me as an enemy.
You disdain my virtues,—
A pedlar's wares which do not sell.
In l. 4 不屑, = 'you do not think it right to demean yourself to'. See, by help of the index, the use of 不屑in Mencius. Both by Maou and Choo, 屑 is correctly explained by 潔, 'pure'; but Choo is wrong when he construes 不我屑,—不以我為潔, 'you do not consider me to be pure'; such is not the usage of 不屑. We must, then, look out for a substantive meaning to the concluding 以. K'ang-shing explains it by 用, 'to employ', which is allowable. It is better, however, to take it, with Choo, as=與, 'with', 'to associate with'.Though he errs with the 不屑, his expansion of the whole line is not far wrong:—不以我為潔而與之.Chaou K'e on Mencius, II.Pt.i.IX., quotes the line as 不我屑已; but we cannot argue from that. 梁 is a stone dam in the stream, with open spaces, through which the fish might pass, or where they might be taken by means of baskets (笱). 逝=之, 'to go to', 'to approach'. The wife is suddenly excited to address her enemy, and order her away from her place and her property; but she as suddenly checks herself. Her person rejected, she could hereafter have no interest in anything that had belonged to her. 閱 is explained by容, 'to bear, be borne, with'; 遑, 'leisure', is, as often,taken interrogatively:—'what leisure have I to—', or'of what use will it be to.—' 我後=我已去之後, 'what will happen after I am gone'.
St. 4. The wife here sets forth how diligent and thoughtful she had been in her domestic affairs, ever consulting for the prosperity of her husband.
方 and 泳,—see on i. IX. 1. 之 after these characters,and also 舟 and 游,—as in 頡之, 頏之, in III. 2. 何有, 何亡=不論貧富, 'without regard to our being rich or poor'. 'If they had plenty,' says K'ang-shing, 'she sought that they might have more; if they wanted, she sought that they might have enough'. And not in her own family only was she thus sedulous. She was eve ready to help in the need of her neighbours, thus consulting for her husband's popularity and comfort.
St. 5. The wife dwells on her husband's hostile feeling to her in his prosperity, in contrast with what had been her interest in his early struggles.
We may accept Ying-tah and Choo's explanation of慉 by 養, 'to nourish'. 阻= 'to hinder or impede'.
Formerly, I was afraid our means might be exhausted,And I might come with you to destitution.
Now, when your means are abundant,
You compare me to poison.
6 My fine collection of vegetable
Is but a provision against the winter.
Feasting with your new wife,
You think of me as a provision [only] against your poverty.
Cavalierly and angrily you treat me;
You give me only pain.
You do not think of the former days,
And are only angry with me.
Choo explains it here by
, 'to reject'. The idea is that of an impediment or obstruction between the wife's virtues and the husband's mind, so that he would give no recognition of them. 賈 is read koo, 'a shopman;,'a trader'. 用 may be taken as=以 or 因, and the whole line is—'The trader therefore does not sell his wares.'
In the last 4 lines, there is a difficulty with the two育 in l. 5 and 旣生旣育 in l. 7. Yen Ts'au thinks the former 育 refers to the business of child-bearing, after the marriage of the parties, when the wife was always fearing that the number of mouths would be more than they could feed, and the 7th line says that that business was all over;—the children were grown up and there was prosperity. Few will be inclined to accept this exegesis, and I can make nothing out of Maou, who explains 育 by 長. We must be content to accept the construction of Choo. The 1st 育 is the struggle for a livelihood, and the 2nd is the means of that livelihood.Then 旣生旣育 expresses the idea that the livelihood has been abundantly secured. 鞠=窮, 'to be exhausted'.顛覆 means 'to be overthrown'; here=to come to destitution. Yen Ts'an and Ying-tah are both obliged to force upon the terms the meaning of 'did my utmost'.
St. 6. The wife repeats the plaint of last stanza, and conclude by deploring her husband's angry mood 蓄 is understood to be 'the collection', of vegetables which the wife has made against (御=禦 or 當) the winter. In the spring, when new vegetables were produced, she would not need it. So she herself had been cherished by her husband only when he had need of her in his poverty. The text has thus to be supplemented considerably in order to get a meaning out of it. 有洸= 'fierce-like'. 有潰= 'angry-like'. 肄=勞, 'pain', 'toil'.Both Maou and Choo take 塈 in the sense of 息, 'to rest', so that the 7th and 8th lines= 'you do not think of the former days, when I came to rest'. Much better is the exegesis of Wang Yin-che, which I have followed.He explains 伊 by 惟, 來 by 是, and 塈 by 愾,—'to be angry'. This usage of 來 is not infrequent.
