Sacred Books of the East/Volume 3/The Shih/Odes of the Temple and the Altar/The Sacrificial Odes of Kâu/Decade 1/Ode 7

 

Ode 7. The Wo Kiang.

 

Appropriate to a sacrifice to king Wăn, associated with Heaven, in the Hall of Audience.

There is, happily, an agreement among the critics as to the occasion to which this piece is referred. It took place in the last month of autumn, in the Hall of Audience, called also 'the Brilliant Hall,' and 'the Hall of Light.' We must suppose that the princes are all assembled at court, and that the king receives them in this hall. A sacrifice is then presented to God, and with him is associated king Wăn, the two being the fountain from which, and the channel through which, the sovereignty had come to Kâu.

I have brought my offerings,
A ram and a bull.
May Heaven accept them^[1]!

I imitate and follow and observe the statutes of king Wăn,
Seeking daily to secure the tranquillity of the kingdom.
King Wăn, the Blesser,
has descended on the right, and accepted (the offerings).

Do I not, night and day,
Revere the majesty of Heaven,
Thus to preserve (its favour)?

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1. This is a prayer. The worshipper, it is said, in view of the majesty of Heaven, shrank from assuming that God would certainly accept his sacrifice. He assumes, below, that king Wăn does so.