Sexual Obligations of the Chinese Husband?

[Bobby Yeoh]

Dear Friends:

Please allow me to throw a brick into the Forum to solicit your thoughts on the poem 采綠 from 詩經 Book of Songs. I have previously posted this subject on another Forum, but I would like your views. Below is the poem in question and also commentaries by three Scholars- James Legge, Arthur Waley, and Anne Birrell:

(Please excuse the line spacings; in trying to place the translation side-by-side, I cannot seem to get them aligned correctly.)

采綠

(Mao Number 226; Waley Number 59)

( Translation by James Legge )

終朝采綠、不盈一匊。 All the morning I gather the king-grass ,

予髮曲局、薄言歸沐。 And do not collect enough to fill my hands .

My hair is in a wisp ; --

I will go home and wash it .

終朝采藍、不盈一擔。 All the morning I gather the indigo plant ,

五日為期、六日不儋。 And do not collect enough to fill my apron .

我不見兮、我心不說。 Five days was the time agreed on ; --

It is the sixth , and I do not see him .

彼都人士、充耳琇實。 When he went a hunting ,

彼君子女、謂之尹吉。 I put the bow in its case for him .

我不見兮、我心苑結。 When he went to fish ,

I arranged his line for him .

彼都人士、垂帶而厲。

彼君子女、卷髮如蠆。

我不見兮、言從之邁。 What did he take in angling ?

匪伊垂之、帶則有餘。 Bream and tench ; --

匪伊卷之、髮則有旟。 Bream and tench ,

我不見兮、云何盱矣。 While people [looked on] to see .

Arthur Waley comments that

" In this poem, a girl about to be married goes to gather plants (perhaps arthraxon and some form of indigo) with which to make green and blue dyes for her trousseau-dresses. She fails to fill her basket which is a bad omen. Sure enough the man does not turn up on the wedding day. She recalls the happy days of their courtship and the time when the omens were still good. When he was fishing he caught a great deal of bream and tench which meant that they would be married and have many children. "

Anne Birrell makes an interesting observation:

" According to an ancient book of rites, a husband must make love to his wife at least once in five days until she reaches the age of fifty. This custom is alluded to in this poem. "

I presume that Anne Birrell is referring to this passage from 禮記 Book of Rites:

夫婦之禮.唯及七十.同藏無間.故妾雖老.年未滿五十.必與五日之御.將御者.齊.漱.澣.慎衣服.櫛.縰.笄.總角.拂髦.衿纓.綦屨.雖婢妾.衣服飲食.必後長者.妻不在.妾御莫敢當夕.

(Translation by James Legge)

" As between husband and wife, it was not until they were seventy, that they deposited these things in the same place without separation. Hence though a concubine were old, until she had completed her fiftieth year, it was the rule that she should be with the husband (once) in five days. When she was to do so, she purified herself, rinsed her mouth and washed, carefully adjusted her dress, combed her hair, drew over it the covering of silk, fixed her hair-pins, tied up the hair in the shape of a horn, brushed the dust from the rest of her hair, put on her necklace, and adjusted her shoe-strings. Even a favourite concubine was required in dress and diet to come after her superior. If the wife were not with the husband, a concubine waiting on him, would not venture to remain the whole night. "

Dear friends, I have only hunted for these lines and picked out words so that I can ask you to share your thoughts, and thereby clear up some confusion in mine, on this poem. Thank you and best regards

Bobby Yeoh

[skylee]

I am not interested in discussing this topic. But the verses quoted under 采綠 seem to have mixed up with those of 都人士.

[Bobby Yeoh]

Dear skylee:

Thank you for pointing out the errors in the Mandarin text. I copied that text from University of Virginia Library at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/chinese/shijing

I now append below the correct text of the poem:

魚藻之什·采綠 226

終朝采綠，不盈一匊。

予發曲局，薄言歸沐。

終朝采藍，不盈一襜。

五日為期，六日不詹。

之子于狩，言韔其弓；

之子于釣，言綸之繩。

其釣維何？維魴及鱮。

維魴及鱮，薄言觀者。

Bobby Yeoh

[ananda]

I think this poem(song) is about a wife missed her husband very much,

so she couldn't do her job well. The book of poem is divided into three

parts, which is (feng1 custom, ya3 elegant, and song4 ode. three parts

are more and more serious gradually). This one is within the second part,

so the possibility of its connection with sexuality must be very little.