FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS TO THE OFFICERS OF HUSBANDRY.

Again there is a difficulty in determining to what sacrifice this piece
should be referred. The Preface says it was sung on the occasions of
sacrifice by the king to God, in spring and summer, for a good year. But
the note on the first two lines will show that this view cannot be
accepted without modification.

Oh! yes, king Khang [2] Brightly brought himself near [2]. Lead your
husbandmen To sow their various kinds of grain, Going vigorously to work

[1. It is this line which makes it difficult to determine after what
sacrifice we are to suppose these instructions to have been delivered.
The year, during the Hsia dynasty, began with the first month of spring,
as it now does in China, in consequence of Confucius having said that
that was the proper time. Under the Shang dynasty, it commenced a month
earlier; and during the Kau period, it ought always to have begun with
the new moon preceding the winter solstice,--between our November 22 and
December 22. But in the writings of the Kau period we find statements of
time continually referred to the calendar of Hsia,--as here.

2 These first two lines are all but unmanageable. The old critics held
that there was no mention of king Khang in them; but the text is
definite on this point. We must suppose that a special service had been
performed at his shrine, asking him to intimate the day when the
sacrifice after which the instructions were given should be performed;
and that a directing oracle had been received.]