Another milestone: here comes Chapter 2 of the Nerdy Fengshen Translation! I'm quite surprised to have made it this far ;), and there was a lot of detail that I'd never noticed before when I read for fun. For example, the King comes across as a good guy who becomes obsessed with women, Nuwa comes across as heavy-handed, and the King's men come across as being rather spineless. Why does the King keep referring to Nuwa's face? Apparently, she had the head of a human and the body of a snake. Quite how she managed to create humans and patch the sky without any hands is something of a mystery. Anyway, here's Part 1 of Chapter 2.
Chapter 2 Su Hu of Shangzhou rebels against King Zhou
'What brave souls dare come together when prime ministers flatter kings?
The visits of the lords and barons have already happened, and the time one spends documenting words is wasted.'
Back we come to King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty, who was returning to his palace, rejoicing at what he had just heard.
A night passed, and the next morning, he summoned his literati and martial officers before him, and told them all, ‘At our edict, command the Barons to sweep over the land, and select a hundred beautiful girls for us. We do not care if the girls are rich or poor, so long as they are beautiful, gentle, well-mannered and generous. They will serve us in our palace.’
This command of King Zhou of the Shang, the Son of Heaven, had scarcely ended when suddenly, a man prostrated before him, saying, ‘Majesty! Your old servant Shang Rong wishes to speak! If a King has principles, the people he rules over will be so happy that they will follow him even if he does not command them to. Your Majesty now has around a thousand beauties at Your Majesty’s beck and call, not to mention concubines; the people will be disappointed in Your Majesty if Your Majesty still continues with the pursuit of women!…’
Thursday, October 04, 2007
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