there is nothing said about them in the Shih. But there were other
sacrifices to God, at stated periods in the course of the year, of at
least two of which we have some intimation in the pieces of this fourth
Part. The last in the first decade of the Sacrificial Odes of Kau is
addressed to Hau Ki as having proved himself the correlate of Heaven, in
teaching men to cultivate the grain which God had appointed for the
nourishment of all. This was appropriate to a sacrifice in spring,
offered to God to seek His blessing on the agricultural labours of the
year, Hau Ki, as the ancestor of the House of Kau, being associated with
Him in it. The seventh piece of the same decade again was appropriate to
a sacrifice to God in autumn, in the Hall of Light, at a great audience
to the feudal princes, when king Wan was associated with Him as being
the founder of the dynasty of Kau.

With these preliminary observations to assist the reader in
understanding the pieces in this Part, I proceed to give--


1. THE SACRIFICIAL ODES OF SHANG.

THESE Odes of Shang constitute the last Book in the ordinary editions of
the Shih. I put them here in the first place, because they are the
oldest pieces in the collection. There are only five of them.

The sovereigns of the dynasty of Shang who occupied the throne from B.C.
1766 to 1123. They traced their lineage to Hsieh, appears in the Shu as
Minister of Instruction to Shun. By Yao or by Shun, Hsieh was invested
with the principality of Shang, corresponding to the small department
which is so named in Shen-hsi. Fourteenth in descent from him came
Thien-Yi, better known as Khang Thang, or Thang the Successful, who