king Wan; And may his remotest descendant be abundantly the same!


ODE 3. THE WEI KHING.


APPROPRIATE AT SOME SACRIFICE TO KING WAN, AND CELEBRATING HIS
STATUTES.

Nothing more can, with any likelihood of truth, be said of this short
piece, which moreover has the appearance of being a fragment.

Clear and to be preserved bright, Are the statutes of king Wan. From the
first sacrifice (to him), Till now when they have issued in our complete
state, They have been the happy omen of (the fortunes of) Kau.


ODE 4. THE LIEH WAN.


A SONG IN PRAISE OF THE PRINCES WHO HAVE ASSISTED AT A
SACRIFICE, AND ADMONISHING THEM.

The Preface says that this piece was made on the occasion of king
Khang's accession to the government, when he thus addressed the princes
who had assisted him in the ancestral temple. Ku Hsi considers that it
was a piece for general use in the ancestral temple, to be sung when the
king presented a cup to his assisting guests, after they had thrice
presented the cup to the representatives of the dead. There is really
nothing in it to enable us to decide in favour of either view.