Ode 15, Stanza 1. The Pei Măn

ODE 15, STANZA 1. THE PEI MĂN.

AN OFFICER OF WEI SETS FORTH HIS HARD LOT, THROUGH DISTRESSES AND THE BURDENS LAID UPON HIM, AND HIS SILENCE UNDER IT IN SUBMISSION TO HEAVEN.

I go out at the north gate, With my heart full of sorrow. Straitened am I and poor, And no one takes knowledge of my distress. So it is! Heaven has done it ¹;--What then shall I say?

Footnotes

434:1 The 'Complete Digest of Comments on the Shih' warns its readers not to take 'Heaven' here as synonymous with Ming, 'what is decreed or Commanded.' The writer does not go on to define the precise idea which he understood the character to convey. This appears to be what we often mean by 'Providence,' when we speak of anything permitted, rather than appointed, by the supreme ruling Power.