1823.] 
this world, you are cruel, and your minis- 
ters are tigers and wolves; you are avari- 
cious, and your ministers are so many 
leeches; you endure such persons about 
you, you raise them to the highest offices, 
and because, in the judgments of heaven, 
you are visited with a spirit of Vertigo, 
you place these miserables at the head of 
your subjects, ; 
Ven-Vang exclaims: Alas! kings of this 
world, as soon as you would introduce any 
wise man into your councils, the wicked 
instantly take the alarm, instantly propa- 
gate‘a thousand false reports, covering 
their aversion with specious pretences. 
To such as these you listen, give them 
your countenance and favour, lodging in 
your palaces a horde of robbers; hence 
arise imprecations, to which the people 
set no bounds, 
Ven-Vang exclaims: Alas! kings of this 
world, the murmurs of your people are 
onheeded, like the cries of the grass- 
hoppers ; your insensibility excites ebul- 
litions of wrath in the hearts of your sub- 
jects, You are approaching to the crisis 
of some frightful calamity, but persist in- 
flexibly in your thoughtless career. The 
pestilence rages in the interior of your 
empire, and is making its way to the most 
remote and barbarous extremities. 
Ven-Vang exclaims; Alas! kings of this 
world, it is not the Lord, the prince of 
lieaven, that is chargeable with so many 
and great enormities ; let them be ascribed 
to yourselves. You have refused lending 
an ear to the ancient sages; you have dis- 
éarded them from your presence. But, 
aithough these respectable personages are 
excluded, you have the laws with you; 
why do you not comply with them, to 
avert the evils that ere long will overwhelm 
you? 
Ven-Vang exclaims: Alas! kiugs of this 
world, common fame repeats, and it is but 
too true, that it is not breaking oif the 
branches, or plucking away the leaves, 
that has been the destruction of this fine 
tree ; the root was spoiled and rotten. As 
you should contemplate yourself in the 
kin s your predecessors, and to whom you 
bear any resemblance, so you will serve 
one day for an cxample to those that shall 
come after you, The older the world 
grows, and more and more notable exam- 
ples will spring up, to serve as monitors, 
but these avail not to a radical reforma- 
tion. 
The two odes which follow. are 
taken from the first book :— 
; The Young Widow, 
A vessel, when Jaunched into the water, 
forsakes the shore where it was built. My 
locks, formerly floating on my forehead, 
were cut at times, and at times combed 
and trimmed, on my head. I remain 
attached to the spouse that received my 
plighted faith, and will adhere to my first 
Canonical and Moral Books of the Chinese. 
421 
engagement, even to the tomb. O my 
mother! my mother! wherefore do you 
seek to turn me. from my purpose, by 
availing yourself of the rights which nature 
has attributed to you? Those rights I 
revere ; your benefits I compare to those 
of Tien; but this heart of mine shall never 
be stained with a perjury. 
The Shepherdess. 
O, Tchong-tsee, I entreat thee not to 
enter our cottage; I enireat thee to desist 
from breaking the branclies of our willows. 
My fears will not permit nie to love thee, 
—the dread of my father and my mother 
forbids it. My heart would readily incline 
towards thee, but can I forget the expostu- 
lations of my father and my mother? 
O, Tchong-tsee, I conjure thee not to 
mountaloft upon our wall,—to forbear from 
further breaking down the branches of 
our mulberry-trees; my fears will not 
authorize me to love thee, that is, the 
dread of my brothers. My heart would 
readily turn towards thee, but can I for- 
get the reprehensions of my brothers? 
O, Tchong-tsee, I beseech thee not to 
enter our garden,—not to break the 
branches of our sandal-trees. I dare not 
love thee; the dread of my relations is an 
hindrance. My heart would readily turn 
towards thee, but can I forget all that my 
relations have urged to dissuade me ? 
Here follow certain other odes of 
the ‘‘ Chiking,” which Father Cibot, 
in his ‘“‘ Hssay on the Language of the 
Chinese,” says he has translated, in 
the manner of a miniature copy, with 
a black-lead pencil. 
The Departure of the Female Friend ; 
sung by «a IWoman. 
The swallow fiies with nimble wings. 
I have accompanied my friend, as far as I 
was able. Bnt a separation must take 
place. In vain do I new trace her image, 
my eyes exploring remote points of view; 
no longer is she to be seen, Flow, flow, 
my tears, 
The swallow sings, in wheeling its rapid, 
airy flight. With loud lamentations, lint 
voked the return of my friend ; her name I 
repeated to the echoes, but could not 
heavy any report of her return. Flow, 
flow, my tears,—I sink wider my grief. 
O, dear and tender friend, thy virtues 
were the charm of my life. Faithful ‘and 
true, simple and sincere, thou wouldst 
have blushed at the thoughts of any dis- 
guise, The purity of thy mind was never 
drawn aside from the paths of imocence. 
Beneficence was in thee the fruit of a 
native propensity. Wisdom was the guide 
of thy steps. O, how tenderly didst thou 
exhort me to remain true to the spouse 
that death has snatched from nic! 
Complaint of a Repudiated Wife. 
Like ‘two clouds that have imited in 
the upper regions of air, which the most 
violent 
