[NOTE *:  Selections from Book II. are omitted.—­EDITOR.]

PART IV.—­ODES OF THE TEMPLE AND ALTAR

BOOK I

SACRIFICIAL ODES OF CHOW

Appropriate to a Sacrifice to King Wan

  My offerings here are given,
    A ram, a bull. 
  Accept them, mighty Heaven,
    All-bountiful.

  Thy statutes, O great king,
    I keep, I love;
  So on the realm to bring
    Peace from above.

  From Wan comes blessing rich;
    Now on the right
  He owns those gifts to which
    Him I invite.

  Do I not night and day,
    Revere great Heaven,
  That thus its favor may
    To Chow be given?

On Sacrificing to the Kings Woo, Ching, and K’ang

  The arm of Woo was full of might;
    None could his fire withstand;
  And Ching and K’ang stood forth to sight,
    As kinged by God’s own hand.

  We err not when we call them sage. 
    How grandly they maintained
  Their hold of all the heritage
    That Wan and Woo had gained!

  As here we worship, they descend,
    While bells and drums resound,
  And stones and lutes their music blend. 
    With blessings we are crowned.

  The rites correctly we discharge;
    The feast we freely share. 
  Those Sires Chow’s glory will enlarge,
    And ever for it care.

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN

[Translation by James Legge]

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION

Nothing of great importance is known about Fa-hien in addition to what may be gathered from his own record of his travels.  I have read the accounts of him in the “Memoirs of Eminent Monks,” compiled in A.D. 519, and a later work, the “Memoirs of Marvellous Monks,” by the third emperor of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1403-1424), which, however, is nearly all borrowed from the other; and all in them that has an appearance of verisimilitude can be brought within brief compass.

His surname, they tell us, was Kung, and he was a native of Wu-yang in P’ing-yang, which is still the name of a large department in Shan-hsi.  He had three brothers older than himself; but when they all died before shedding their first teeth, his father devoted him to the service of the Buddhist society, and had him entered as a Sramanera, still keeping him at home in the family.  The little fellow fell dangerously ill, and the father sent him to the monastery, where he soon got well and refused to return to his parents.

When he was ten years old, his father died; and an uncle, considering the widowed solitariness and helplessness of the mother, urged him to renounce the monastic life, and return to her, but the boy replied, “I did not quit the family in compliance with my father’s wishes, but because I wished to be far from the dust and vulgar ways of life.  This is why I choose monkhood.”  The uncle approved of his words and gave over urging him.  When his mother also died, it appeared how great had been the affection for her of his fine nature; but after her burial he returned to the monastery.