5. The son of Heaven occupies the apartment on
the right of the Hsüan Thang (Fane); rides in the
dark-coloured carriage, drawn by the iron-black horses,
and bearing the dark-coloured flag. He is dressed
in the black robes, and wears the dark-coloured gems
of jade. He eats millet and sucking-pig. The vessels
which he uses are large and rather deep.
6. He issues orders to the proper officers to institute on a great scale all ceremonies against pestilence, to have (animals) torn in pieces on all sides, and (then) to send forth the ox of earth, to escort away the (injurious) airs of the cold[1].
7. Birds of prey fly high and rapidly[2].
8. They now offer sacrifices all round to (the spirits of) the hills and rivers, to the great ministers of the (ancient) deified sovereigns, and to the spirits of heaven (and earth)[3].
9. In this month orders are given to the master of the Fishermen to commence the fishers' work. The son of Heaven goes in person (to look on). He partakes of the fish caught, first presenting some in
the apartment at the back of the ancestral temple[4].
- ↑ Compare par. 16, p. 266. The "ox of earth" is still seen in China.
- ↑ This evidently is one of the natural phenomena of the season, and should belong to paragraph 4. The translation of the first two characters by "Birds of prey" is sufficiently close and exact.
- ↑ The Khien-lung editors point out the difficulties in explaining the three sacrifices here referred to, and seem to think they were practices of Khin, about which we have little information. "The great ministers of the Tî" in the second member were probably those mentioned at the commencement of each season. They supplement the concluding member, as I have done, from Lü's Khun Khiû.
- ↑ Compare paragraphs 7, p. 263; 17, p. 271. In paragraph 7,
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