16 Pr e - q i n t i m e s
seems to have driven all night—as well as the erotic associations of the groves
(where romantic liaisons were common), the racing colts, and even eating (break-
fast) only heighten his impropriety even as he tries to excuse it. The demotic style
and run-on lines of the final stanza, which allow the lines to be read quickly, sug-
gest the duke’s urgency and his base nature.
As fascinating as this kind of interpretation may be, most of the great poems of
the Book of Poetry either provide their own historical background or need no con-
textualization, as we can see in “Tao yao” (The Peach Tree Tender [Mao no. 6]):C 1. 2
The Peach Tree Tender 桃夭 (táo yāo)The peach tree budding and tender, 桃之夭夭^ (táo zhī yāo yāo)
2 Vivid and bright its flowers. 灼灼其華 (zhuó zhuó qí huá)
This girl is going to be married, 之子于歸^ (zhī zĭ yú guī)
4 And fit for her chamber and house. 宜其室家 (yí qí shì jiā)The peach tree budding and tender, 桃之夭夭 (táo zhī yāo yāo)
6 Quite large its fruit. 有蕡其實 (yŏu fén qí shí)
This girl is going to be married, 之子于歸 (zhī zĭ yú guī)
8 And fit for her house and chamber. 宜其家室 (yí qí jiāshì)The peach tree budding and tender, 桃之夭夭^ (táo zhī yāo yāo)
10 Its leaves luxuriant and lush. 其葉蓁蓁 (qí yè zhēn zhēn)
This girl is going to be married, 之子于歸^ (zhī zĭ yú guī)
12 And fits with all in the family. 宜其家人 (yí qí jiā rén)
[MSZJ 1.6b–7a]This epithalamium is built around the comparison (bi) between the bride and the
peach tree: she is also budding and tender, vivid and bright. The peach itself has
associations in traditional China with female fertility, but here the emphasis is
on the bride’s suitability for the husband and his entire family, with whom she is
going to live. The flowers refer to her beautiful face, which will appeal to her hus-
band in their bedchamber—thus the precedence given to chamber over house in
the last line of the first stanza. In the second stanza, the implication is that her body
will be capable of producing many sons, the main concern of her parents-in-law,
who are represented synecdochically here by their house. By the third stanza, the
emphasis has moved from the flowers and the fruit to the leaves of the peach tree,
suggesting the passing of seasons from spring to fall (similar to “Meng” [Common
Fellow, Mao no. 58] or “Biao you mei” [Falling Plums, Mao no. 20]). The abundance
of leaves, and the slightly revised structure of line 10 (here the adjectival redupli-
cative “luxuriant and lush” follows the noun “leaves”) suggests the children this
bride will produce for the family. The lush leaves may also foreshadow a good rela-
tionship for the couple, as they do (by contrast) in “Di du” (The Russet Pear [Mao
no. 119]) and in the subsequent poem by the same title (no. 169). The rhythm (te-