twelfth century B.C., and the most ancient may have been composed five
centuries earlier. All the other pieces in the Shih have to be
distributed over the time between Ting and king Wan, the founder of the
line of Kau. The distribution, however, is not equal nor continuous.
There were some reigns of which we do not have a single Poetical fragment.

The whole collection is divided into four parts, called the Kwo Fang,
the Hsiao Ya, the Ta Ya, and the Sung.

The Kwo Fang, in fifteen Books, contains 160 pieces, nearly all of them
short, and descriptive of manners and events in several of the feudal
states of Kau. The title has been translated by The Manners of the
Different States, 'Les Moeurs des Royaumes,' and, which I prefer, by
Lessons from the States.

The Hsiao Ya, or Lesser Ya, in eight Books, contains seventy-four pieces
and the titles of six others, sung at gatherings of the feudal princes,
and their appearances at the royal court. They were produced in the
royal territory, and are descriptive of the manners and ways of the
government in successive reigns. It is difficult to find an English word
that shall fitly represent the Chinese Ya as here used. In his Latin
translation of the Shih, p. Lacharme translated Hsiao Ya by 'Quod rectum
est, sed inferiore ordine,' adding in a note:--'Siao Ya, latine Parvum
Rectum, quia in hac Parte mores describuntur, recti illi quidem, qui
tamen nonnihil a recto deflectunt.' But the manners described are not
less correct or incorrect, as the case may be, than those of the states
in the former Part or of the kingdom in the next. I prefer to call this
Part 'Minor Odes of the Kingdom,' without attempting to translate the
term Ya.