RELATED TOPIC:
The Book of Songs and China's Literary Tradition

RELATED TOPIC:
The Han Dynasty Codification

RELATED TOPIC:
"The Great Preface" and Five Notions about Poetry

RELATED TOPIC:
Individual Voices in the Book of Songs

Stephen Owen :: The last part of the poem is a ritual poem, in which the people talk about the nature of the harvest ritual, preparing the grain, making the sacrifice, and stressing the continuity of the sacrifice; that is, that these procedures, both ritual and farming, are the sort of reproducible forms that are done exactly the same year after year.

Excerpt from "Foundation of the Zhou," from the Book of Songs

Houji reaped and acred;
Far and wide the millet pink and white
He carried in his arms, he bore on his back,
Brought them home, and created the sacrifice.
Indeed, what are they, our sacrifices?
We pound the grain, we bake it out,
We sift, we tread,
We wash it, soak, soak;
We boil it all steamy.
Then with due care, due thought
We gather southernwood, make offering of fat,
Take lambs for the rite of expiation,
We roast, we broil,
To give a start to the coming year. ...
Houji founded the sacrifices, And without blemish or flaw
They have gone on till now.

Stephen Owen :: Certainly, you know, ritual is very important in Chinese life. Not ritualism in some sort of hollow sense, but ritual in the sense that one can control or manage things. That if you do the right thing, certain results will follow, that the universe is not essentially unpredictable.

** The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].