Two Poems From the Book of Songs, Airs of Bei
Wei was built on the old lands of the Shang dynasty. After Zhou conquered Shang, King Wu enfeoffed his younger brother Kangshu there, founding the state of Wei with its capital at Zhaoge (modern Qi County, Henan). As a fief held by kinsmen of the royal Ji clan, Wei was prominent in its early days. Kangshu was charged with overseeing the remnant Shang population, a post of real prestige. But after centuries of change through the Western Zhou, by the Spring and Autumn period Wei had declined into a middling state, limited in strength, usually a supporting player at the interstate covenants.
Yet this unremarkable state kept appearing in the histories, thanks to a string of sensational palace scandals. From Duke Xuan seizing his own son’s bride, to the fratricidal deaths of princes Ji and Shou, Wei’s palace intrigues rank among the most grotesque chapters of the Spring and Autumn era.
Airs of Bei: The New Terrace (新台)
新台有泚 河水弥弥
燕婉之求 蘧篨不鲜
新台有洒 河水浼浼
燕婉之求 蘧篨不殄
鱼网之设 鸿则离之
燕婉之求 得此戚施
The new terrace gleams bright, the river swells wide.
She sought a gentle, loving match, and got this bloated wretch who cannot bend.
The new terrace looms high, the river runs full.
She sought a gentle, loving match, and got this wretch who will not die.
The fishnet was cast, but a toad got caught in it.
She sought a gentle, loving match, and got this hunchbacked toad.
新台 (New Terrace): the terrace Duke Xuan of Wei built to receive Xuan Jiang; its site is on the north bank of the Yellow River in modern Juancheng County, Shandong. 有泚 (cǐ): bright and fresh looking; 有 is an empty particle prefixed to the adjective.
河: the Yellow River. 弥弥: the water swelling vast.
燕婉: describes the ease and tenderness of a happy married couple. 燕, peace; 婉, gentleness.
籧 (qú) 篨 (chú): one who cannot bend forward. Originally a beast-shaped pedestal under bell and drum stands, a pig-like creature crouched on its hind legs, propping itself with its forelegs, head raised, unable to look down. Here it mocks Duke Xuan as an old man with a stiff, unbending spine. Another reading takes it as a toad-like creature. 鲜 (xiǎn): few, meaning young; some read it as “good.”
洒 (cuǐ): tall and steep.
浼 (měi) 浼: the water swelling vast.
殄: read as 腆, abundant, fine.
鸿: a toad; some say a wild goose. 离: to leave; or read as 丽, to attach to, to meet with; or as 罹, to suffer, here meaning to be caught in the net.
戚施: a toad, which squats on all fours and cannot look up, a figure for an ugly hunchback.
What “The New Terrace” satirizes is a scandal of Duke Xuan of Wei so lurid that it has drawn stares for over two thousand years.
The story begins with Duke Xuan’s father, Duke Zhuang of Wei.
Duke Zhuang doted on a concubine from the Yi lands, known as Yi Jiang. Perhaps desire overcame propriety: Duke Zhuang’s son, Prince Jin, had an affair with his father’s concubine Yi Jiang, and she bore him a son, Ji.
Later, with the backing of Shi Que, Prince Jin took the throne as Duke Xuan of Wei. Once in power, he made Ji his heir apparent and entrusted his upbringing to Noble Son Zhi of the Right.
Ji grew to manhood. The Noble Son of the Right arranged a marriage for the future ruler: a bride from Qi, Xuan Jiang. The match was settled; only the wedding date remained. But when Duke Xuan heard of Xuan Jiang’s beauty, he cast aside the bond of father and son, took his son’s bride into his own harem before she had even entered Ji’s household, and fobbed Ji off with some other woman chosen at random.
The “new terrace” of the poem is the tower Duke Xuan built to receive Xuan Jiang; the toad, 戚施, is the toad Duke Xuan himself.
Airs of Bei: Two Sons Board the Boat (二子乘舟)
二子乘舟 泛泛其景
愿言思子 中心养养
二子乘舟 泛泛其逝
愿言思子 不瑕有害
Two sons board the boat, drifting far into the distance.
Thinking of you both, my heart churns with unease.
Two sons board the boat, drifting away and gone.
Thinking of you both, can it be no harm will come?
二子 (two sons): Duke Xuan’s two sons by different mothers, the heir apparent Ji and Prince Shou.
泛泛: drifting, floating. Wang Xianqian’s Collected Commentaries: “泛 means floating; doubled, it is 泛泛.” 景: read as 憬, traveling far. Wen Yiduo’s General Interpretation of the Book of Songs: “景 should be read as 迥, meaning drifting ever farther away.”
愿: yearning. 言: an empty particle.
中心: in the heart. 养 (yáng) 养: restless, troubled at heart.
逝: to go, to depart.
瑕: glossed as 胡, read as 无. 不瑕 is like “is it not that…”, a phrase of doubt and surmise.
If “The New Terrace” exposes Duke Xuan’s greed, “Two Sons Board the Boat” is the bitter fruit that greed bore: two innocent sons, both dead by their father’s ruthless plot.
After Duke Xuan took Xuan Jiang, she bore him two sons, Shou and Shuo. Xuan Jiang and Shuo slandered the heir apparent Ji before Duke Xuan, claiming he plotted rebellion. Duke Xuan, guilty in his own conscience, had already turned against Ji, and resolved to have him killed. The Zuo Zhuan, sixteenth year of Duke Huan, records how the plot ended:
The duke sent Ji on a mission to Qi and had assassins wait for him at Shen to kill him. Shou told Ji and urged him to flee. Ji refused, saying: “If I cast aside my father’s command, what use am I as a son? Only in a land without fathers could that be done.” When the time came to set out, Shou plied him with wine, took his banner, and went ahead in his place; the assassins killed him. When Ji arrived, he said: “It was I they wanted. What crime did he commit? Kill me instead!” And they killed him too. For this the two noble sons bore a grudge against Duke Hui.
Ending
With Ji and Shou both murdered, Duke Xuan had no choice but to name Prince Shuo heir apparent. The duke died the following year, and Shuo took the throne as Duke Hui of Wei.
Noble Son Zhi of the Right and Noble Son Xie of the Left nursed their resentment. In the fourth year of Duke Hui (696 BC), the two noble sons rose in arms and installed Prince Qianmou as ruler. Duke Hui fled to Qi.
In the eighth year of Qianmou’s rule (the sixth year of Duke Zhuang of Lu, 688 BC), Xuan Jiang’s brother Duke Xiang of Qi, on the orders of King Zhuang of Zhou, led the feudal lords against Wei, executed the noble sons of the Left and Right, and restored Duke Hui to the throne.
To placate the people of Wei and the factions of the two noble sons, Duke Xiang of Qi arranged for Xuan Jiang to be remarried to Wan (a son of Duke Xuan), and she bore three sons and two daughters. The Zuo Zhuan, second year of Duke Min, records:
At first, when Duke Hui came to the throne young, the men of Qi made Zhaobo take Xuan Jiang; he refused, and they forced him. She bore Qizi, Duke Dai, Duke Wen, the wife of Duke Huan of Song, and the wife of Duke Mu of Xu. Because Wei suffered so many troubles, Duke Wen went first to Qi.