place immediately after Hih's accession, and Mencius, it is said, was so
disappointed by it that he soon after left the country.]




THE SHI-KING


[_Metrical translation by James Legge_]



INTRODUCTION


The wisdom of Confucius as a social reformer, as a teacher and guide of
the Chinese people, is shown in many ways. He not only gave them a code
of personal deportment, providing them with rules for the etiquette and
ceremony of life, but he instilled into them that profound spirit of
domestic piety which is one of the strongest features in the Chinese
character. He took measures to secure also the intellectual cultivation
of his followers, and his Five Canons contain all the most ancient works
of Chinese literature, in the departments of poetry, history,
philosophy, and legislation. The Shi-King is a collection of Chinese
poetry made by Confucius himself. This great anthology consists of more
than three hundred pieces, covering the whole range of Chinese lyric
poetry, the oldest of which dates some eighteen centuries before Christ,
while the latest of the selections must have been written at the
beginning of the sixth century before Christ. These poems are of the