t e t ra s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : The B o ok of P oeT ry 17trameter) and rhyme scheme (xaxa / xbxb / xcxc) are also perfectly regular, under-
lining the theme of the poem expressed in the final line: the bride will fit “with all
in the family.” This balance is structurally built into the poem, as in the couplet
“The peach tree budding and tender, / Vivid and bright its flowers.”
A similar poem is “Xi sang” (Mulberries in the Lowlands [Mao no. 228]):
C 1. 3
Mulberries in the Lowlands 隰桑 (xí sāng)Lovely are many mulberries in the lowlands, 隰桑有阿 (xí sāng yŏu ē)
2 Their leaves are flourishing. 其葉有難 (qí yè yŏu nuó)
Now I have seen my lord, 既見君子 ( jì jiàn jūn zĭ)
4 How great is my pleasure! 其樂如何 (qí lè rú hé )
Lovely are many mulberries in the lowlands, 隰桑有阿 (xí sāng yŏu ē)
6 Their leaves are tender, 其葉有沃 (qí yè yŏu wò)
Now I have seen my lord, 既見君子 ( jì jiàn jūn zĭ)
8 How could I not feel pleasure? 云何不樂 (yún hé bú lè)
Lovely are many mulberries in the lowlands, 隰桑有阿 (xí sāng yŏu ē)
10 Their leaves are dark. 其葉有幽 (qí yè yŏu yōu)
Now I have seen my lord, 既見君子 ( jì jiàn jūn zĭ)
12 His charismatic reputation is very firm. 德音孔膠 (dé yīn kŏng jiāo)
In my heart I cherish him, 心乎愛矣 (xīn hu ài yĭ )
14 Why should I not say it? 遐不謂矣 (xiá bú wèi yĭ )
In the core of my heart I treasure him, 中心藏之 (zhōng xīn cáng zhī)
16 When could I ever forget him? 何日忘之 (hé rì wàng zhī)
[MSZJ 15.8a–b]
Although the visual images of the mulberry tree and its leaves are similar to those
seen in “Tao yao,” here the persona may be seen either as a subject who admires
his lord greatly or as a young woman praising her intended. This ambiguity of this
pair (subject to lord or female to male lover) is one commonly seen in later Chi-
nese verse and turns on the term junzi, which means literally “lord” but can also be
used to refer to a “lordly man”—that is, a husband, a lover, or someone the persona
admires greatly. Indeed, interpretation of similar poems centering on a persona’s
praise for a junzi often differs from one subgenre to another: poems in the ya sec-
tions (elegantiae) read as referring to the “lord” (compare the fifth stanza of “Chu
ju” [The Carts Come Out, Mao no. 168] or “Lu xiao” [Tall Is the Southernwood, Mao
no. 173]), in contrast to those in the feng section (airs) that are read as love poems in
which junzi is interpreted as “lordly man” (“Cao chong” [Insects in the Grass, Mao
no. 14], for example). In “Mulberries in the Lowlands” both meanings may apply.
In addition to marriage in “Tao yao” and the more informal ties between the
persona and her “lordly man” in “Xi sang,” we also find more direct depictions of
courting in the Book of Poetry, as in the following poem, “Qiang Zhong Zi” (I Beg