The Hwang E

Oh! great is God. His glance on earth He bent,
Scanning our regions with severe intent
For one whose rule the people should content.
The earlier lines of kings had practised ill,
And ruling, ruled not after God’s just will.
He therefore ’mong the States was searching still.
Searching for one in whom He could confide.
From the great States He westward turned aside,
And there a place did for our House provide.

Tae then was chief, who made wild nature trim,
And cleared the forest of the rotting limb.
Impervious tracts grew pervious by him.
He felled and dressed the bosky clumps and rows ;
He drained the marshes where the willow grows ;
He thinned the mulberries, rising thick and close.
When this wise chieftain God to Chow had given,
The Kwan hordes fled away, by terror driven ;
And sons came from the wife Tae got from Heaven.

God looked upon the hills where Tae the oak
And thorny shrubs had thinned, and lo! there broke
Paths through the firs, that human feet bespoke.
The State thus founded, God prepared the king,
And he through T‘ae-pih’s flight from Ke shall spring.
T‘ae’s son was Ke, whose praises now I sing.
A younger brother’s heart within him glowed ;
He to his elder rendered all he owed,
And when he fled, a patriot’s heart Ke showed.
So through his course his brother’s flight appeared
With glory crowned. Head of the name, Ke reared
The throne to which Chow’s way ere long was cleared.
Gifted was Ke by God with wisdom high.
His judgments true drew on him every eye;
With silent growth his fame spread far and nigh.
Most keen, most wise, to yield or to command,
And sway to exercise throughout the land,
He was ’twixt king and chief a powerful band.
His son, king Wan, could all his honours claim,
With virtue pure, beyond the reach of blame.
On him and on his sons God’s blessing came.
God spake to Wan, “Be thou not like to those,
Whose aim now flies to this, to that now goes,
Whose facile wills obey each wind that blows.”
So grandly clomb he to fair virtue’s height.
When rebel Meih dared to dispute his might,
And dared to challenge this great land to fight;
They entered Yuen, and against Kung conspire.
Then rose the king, majestic in his ire,
And sent his troops to make the foe retire ;
His power, as all expected, to display,
And, strength’ning Chow, a deep foundation lay,
On which might rise an universal sway.
Calm in his capital, the king abode.
His troops from utmost Yuen held on their road ;
O’er lofty hills right valiantly they strode.
The foe could plant no forces on our hills,
Or high or low, nor drink our springs and rills,
Nor touch the pools that trickling brooklet fills.
South of the K‘e, and near the Wei, Wan saw
Large plains, to which the masses he could draw.
There now he dwelt, and to the States gave law.

God spake to Wan, “I love your virtue wise
Not blatant-tongued, nor flashed before men’s eyes,
Not seeking fickle change, or rude emprize.
All unpremeditate, and free from art,
It leads you to enact the noblest part,
A pattern king,—according to God’s heart.”
God spake to Wan, “Straight with your brethren go ;
And ladders take, and engines to bring low
The walls of Ts‘ung, and there defeat the foe.”

The warlike engines gently first they ply,
Against the walls of Ts‘ung, walls broad and high,
Hoping the foe would not their power defy.
Captives for question, one by one, were brought ;
The left ears of the slain were slowly sought :—
So would they wake the foe’s relenting thought.
With the same object,—human life to spare,
To God, and to war’s Sire, Wan sought by prayer
And sacrifice. Who should resistance dare ?
But Ts‘ung held out. The engines moved along
With all their force against its bulwarks strong,
At which the troops were hurled, one eager throng.
Wan razed its walls, and quenched its rites in blood.
The eye could scarcely tell where once it stood.
Throughout the land, all feared his wrathful mood.