t e t ra s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : The B o ok of P oeT ry 29in a poem about a common young girl, it is used—parallel to the use of junzi for
both “lord” and “lordly man”—to refer to a female servant. Lines 13–17 all contain
repetition, reflecting the excited state of mind of the persona, a state of mind we
all share before setting out on a journey, especially a journey home to our parents.
The persona feels comfortable enough in her new home to banter idly with the
duenna—“What should I wash, what not?”—and it is this comfort that she hopes
to take back to her parents.
Although “Ge tan” shares the motif of gathering plants with “Cai fan,” the ideal
mate of “Cai fan” must be “Cai pin” (Gathering the Duckweed [Mao no. 15]):
C 1. 1 1
Gathering the Duckweed 采蘋 (căi pín)
Where can I gather the duckweed? 于以采蘋 (yú yĭ căi pín)
2 On the banks of the southern dale. 南澗之濱 (nán jiàn zhī bīn)
Where can I gather the water grasses? 于以采藻 (yú yĭ căi zăo)
4 In those rainwater pools along the paths. 于彼行潦 (yú bĭ yán lăo)
Where can I deposit them? 于以盛之 (yú yĭ chéng zhī)
6 In baskets square and round, 維筐及筥 (wéi kuāng jí jŭ)
In cauldrons and pans. 于以湘之 (yú yĭ xiāng zhī)
8 And sing in a chorus of warbling. 維錡及釜 (wéi yĭ jí fŭ)
Where can I offer them? 于以奠之 (yú yĭ diàn zhī)
10 Beneath the window of the ancestral shrine? 宗室牖下 (zōng shì yŏu xià)
Who will represent the spirits? 誰其尸之 (shéi qí shī zhī)
12 There is a reverent, unmarried maid. 有齊季女 (yŏu qí jì nǚ)
[MSZJ 1.12a–13a]
This poem is also tied to the ritual of marriage (according to the “Hun yi” [Mean-
ing of Marriage] chapter of the Li ji [Record of Rituals]). Three months before the
marriage is to take place, the prospective bride is instructed at the family’s ances-
tral shrine in how she is expected to speak and act in her new setting as a wife.
At the culmination of her lessons, sacrifices of fish, duckweed, and water grasses
are offered. The question-and-answer form of the poem reflects that of the more
formal catechism the girl has underdone at the ancestral shrine (perhaps reflected
in the balanced rhyme scheme aabb / xcxc / xdxd). The first stanza depicts where
the bride-to-be should search for the sacrificial plants; the second, how to prepare
them; and the third, where to position them. The shi referred to in the penultimate
line is the person who impersonates the ancestors in sacrifices: here the young
woman who is to be married. The poem seems not to be sung by her, but about
her, perhaps by the women who picked duckweed or other plants regularly.
Sacrifice is a regular theme of the song hymns, as “Zhen lu” (Egrets in Flight
[Mao no. 278]) illustrates: