/* 



OF OHIKA. / 9 



silkworms, the people descended from the nills and dwelt in the plains. 1 ' 40 

 16. The Book of Poetry might be referred to as a proof that silk culture 

 was in olden times a regular occupation/in the south of Shensi, in the 

 P'in and K'i countries, the seats of the Tchou tribes for some five hundred 

 years previously to the establishment of their dynasty eastwards at Hao- 

 King, later Si-ngan, and at Loh-yang. The celebrated Duke of Tchou 

 wrote a long ode describing the ancient manners and ways of his country- 

 men. 41 The tale is supposed to be told by an aged yeoman, but no allusion 

 is made to the date nor to the name of the region of the scene. But as 

 the spokesman alludes to the Fire-star or Heart of Scorpio passing the 

 meridian in the seventh month, an astronomical fact which was correct in 

 the twelfth century, while it was not so 600 years previously, and as the 

 numeric order of the months quoted therein is yet that of the Hia dynasty, 

 if follows that the descriptions in the Ode refer to the condition and 

 occupations of the Tchou people during the age immediately preceding the 

 foundation of their dynasty. 



The verses concerning the silk-culture are interesting to read: — 



"With the spring days the warmth begins 



And the oriole utters its song. 



The young women take their deep baskets, 



And go along the small paths 



Looking for the tender (leaves of the) mulberry trees. 



In^the silkworm month they strip the mulberry branches of their leaves, 



And take their axes and hatchets, 



To lop off those that are distant and high ; 



Only stripping the young trees cf their leaves. 



In the seventh month the shrike is heard. 



In the eighth month, they begin their spinning; 



They make dark 42 fabrics and yellow. 



Our red manufacture is very brilliant, 



It is for the lower robes of our young princes. 



18. The song of the Oriole gave notice of the time to take the silk- 

 worms in hand, and the note of the shrike was the signal to set about 

 spinning. The expression used here for that operation, fs^,(8004) is that 

 specially appropriate to the twisting of hemp. The commentators explain 

 the following verse as referring to the dyeing operations on both the woven 

 silk and the cloth 43 . But as silk work was an occupation more noble, so 

 to say, than hemp and dolichos work, it was to be expected from the 

 commentators that they should impress upon their readers that silk was 

 alluded to in the passage in question. Anyhow, in facei of proof to the 

 contrary derived previously from the Yu-kung, it cannot be inferred from 

 these verses that silk culture was indigenous in Shensi, and known there 



