III. Chên Lu

The Chên Lu; allusive. Celebrating the representatives of the two former dynasties, who had come to court to assist at sacrifice:—may have been sung when the king was dismissing them in the ancestral temple.

Round yonder marsh, there in the west,
A flock of egrets fly.
With graceful movement, like those birds,
My visitors came nigh.
Their fathers reigned where I reign now,
But loyal are they to our Chou.

There in their own states are they loved,
Nor tired of are they here.
Their fame with lapse of time shall grow
Both day and night more clear.
Their fathers reigned where I reign now,
But loyal are they to our Chou.