XXXII[307]A CHINESE HUNTER (740B.C.)A strangeand vivid glimpse by firelight into distant darkness is given by two Chinese songs, Odes i, vii, 3 and 4, in Legge’sChinese Classics, IV, pp. 127 to 131. I have versified Mr Legge’s prose. The date was certainly more than 500, and probably 740B.C., and the locality northern China, probably Honan. Shuh means “younger brother,” so that, except to those who believe the commentators, which I cannot, the hero, like the poet, is anonymous,—“Theyounger brother.”Both translations may be sung to the same air, “Scots Wha Ha’e,” which was a traditional hunting tune in the south of Scotland.N.B.—“Ribbons” for reins is a literal translation. That familiar metaphor is over 2600 years old.I. SHUH HAS OUT A-HUNTING GONEShuh has out a-hunting gone;Men enough are still in town;But it seems to me there’s none,While I look for you!People feast and people drive;[308]Streets are thronged with men alive;But they’re blank till Shuh arrive,None there are like Shuh!II. SHUH UPON HIS CHARIOT STANDSIShuh upon his chariot stands;Takes the ribbons in his hands;Four bay horses feel commands,Stepping to and fro.Regular, like dancers high,Or the wild geese in the sky,Insides lead, and outsides nigh,Like their shoulders, go!IIAt the marsh Shuh stands the first;Bright the fires around it burst.Out there springs the tiger curst,Teeth and claws we meet.So does Shuh; his arms are bare,Stops the tiger, kills it there;Lays the bloody carcass fairAt the prince’s feet.IIITry it not again, my Shuh;Never hurt we’d see on you!Once like that for life willdo,—Other game is here.See him give the horses rein;Stop, and shoot, and off amain;Shoot, and hit, and shoot again,While the fire is clear.IV[309]How he brings the horses round!How the game comes to the ground,When his arrows kill and woundWheresoe’er they go.Still they go; but, now, they’re few;Now, the quiver’s empty too.Home! The steeds the stable view,Yet they’re coming slow!In the classical texts, these ancient hunting-songs appear as here translated; but in singing them, if there is time to spare, the first may well be sungafterthe second as well as before it. It is at once a fit introduction and a fit conclusion.These two songs are taken from a collection ofChinese Songs and Sayings, not published yet, and put here to show a kind of tiger-killing deserving as much honour as men can ever give a fellow-man.In those days hunting was more like work than sport, and tigers were still a menace to humanity, such as we can hardly now conceive. There was great merit in hindering a tiger from escaping then; but to-day that matters little. Such an event as the song describes is not uncommon still. I have heard credibly of about a dozen like it among contemporaries in Burma in the last twenty-four years. Men seeking deer or other[310]game are suddenly confronted by a tiger similarly engaged. If the men make way for him, he merely shows his teeth and swiftly escapes, and that is what generally happens. But if any one of the hunters hurts him, or his road seems blocked, then there is danger; and that is how fatal accidents often happen.Something of that sort was probably impending on this occasion, 740B.C., or about then. There was probably a big crowd and a desperate tiger, and while the others facing him were shrinking, Shuh perhaps leaped from his chariot, certainly stepped to the front, ready for action, a stalwart Chinese figure, stripped to the waist, like Nelson’s sailors on a day of battle, and in all likelihood a big-pointed knife in his hand. A shout might make the tiger shy a second, and so give him a chance; but the likeliest thing is that the tiger, coming out of the darkness into the glare of the fires, did not see him, and perhaps was trying to get away, or charging some other person, so that Shuh could take him sideways and kill him. Somehow or other, Shuh did it. Think of the few thrilling seconds of glorious life, and the jubilation of the crowd when the knife went home.Note the difference between them and us. Miss your shot with the breechloader, and you can fire[311]again, and even if you do not hit a vital part, you can stop him. “But with bow and arrows,” as an old man said to me in 1889, telling how he and his father had fought a tiger with such weapons, and showing me the good old cross-bow they used, “it is folly to shoot till he is close, for at a distance the arrow merely irritates him. Wait till he is near.”“Ten yards?”“My father, let him come nearer. Then you hit his brain through the eye, if he’s coming straight, or the heart through the ribs, if he shows his side, and so he is dead.”“But if he isn’t dead?”“Then drop your bow, and fight him with the knife. Never try a second shot, for, if you do, he’s sure to get you. The tiger is very,veryquick. You have to dodge him and get a knife into his vitals before he grips you.”I suggested a spear; but was told it was too clumsy and slow to be a good weapon.The words of that old veteran, living among the hills between Burma and China, seemed to me to illuminate the hunting scene in old Honan better than any of the commentators on the Classics. But for his talk, one would have been slow to guess that Shuh went close to the tiger with a[312]knife. That would explain why the poet alluded to Shuh’s bare arms, and to his standing in the front. He could not have fired arrows from his chariot, for the horses would have bolted. So we may still see him through so many centuries, afoot and in front, with business-like bare arms and sharp knife ready; we can rejoice with them all, and admire him yet, and feel also, with the singers, “once like that for life will do.” It comes like a shock to remember that we are among the shades, and that more than fifty or sixty generations of men have come and gone since Shuh and his companions all melted into dust and air.It gives us another kind of shock to contrast that kind of work with modern hunting. Our statesmen at large, slaughtering in foreign woods, are neither better nor worse than their friends at home, “the poulterers.” The only serious danger is from their own awkwardness in handling guns. Their butcheries are like those in old Roman arenas; and even Theodore Roosevelt himself, returning in gory glory but without a scratch from Africa, can only be compared by one of his admirers to the immortal Tartarin of Tarascon.COLSTONS LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
A strangeand vivid glimpse by firelight into distant darkness is given by two Chinese songs, Odes i, vii, 3 and 4, in Legge’sChinese Classics, IV, pp. 127 to 131. I have versified Mr Legge’s prose. The date was certainly more than 500, and probably 740B.C., and the locality northern China, probably Honan. Shuh means “younger brother,” so that, except to those who believe the commentators, which I cannot, the hero, like the poet, is anonymous,—“Theyounger brother.”
Both translations may be sung to the same air, “Scots Wha Ha’e,” which was a traditional hunting tune in the south of Scotland.
N.B.—“Ribbons” for reins is a literal translation. That familiar metaphor is over 2600 years old.
I. SHUH HAS OUT A-HUNTING GONEShuh has out a-hunting gone;Men enough are still in town;But it seems to me there’s none,While I look for you!People feast and people drive;[308]Streets are thronged with men alive;But they’re blank till Shuh arrive,None there are like Shuh!
Shuh has out a-hunting gone;Men enough are still in town;But it seems to me there’s none,While I look for you!People feast and people drive;[308]Streets are thronged with men alive;But they’re blank till Shuh arrive,None there are like Shuh!
Shuh has out a-hunting gone;Men enough are still in town;But it seems to me there’s none,While I look for you!People feast and people drive;[308]Streets are thronged with men alive;But they’re blank till Shuh arrive,None there are like Shuh!
Shuh has out a-hunting gone;
Men enough are still in town;
But it seems to me there’s none,
While I look for you!
People feast and people drive;[308]
Streets are thronged with men alive;
But they’re blank till Shuh arrive,
None there are like Shuh!
II. SHUH UPON HIS CHARIOT STANDSIShuh upon his chariot stands;Takes the ribbons in his hands;Four bay horses feel commands,Stepping to and fro.Regular, like dancers high,Or the wild geese in the sky,Insides lead, and outsides nigh,Like their shoulders, go!IIAt the marsh Shuh stands the first;Bright the fires around it burst.Out there springs the tiger curst,Teeth and claws we meet.So does Shuh; his arms are bare,Stops the tiger, kills it there;Lays the bloody carcass fairAt the prince’s feet.IIITry it not again, my Shuh;Never hurt we’d see on you!Once like that for life willdo,—Other game is here.See him give the horses rein;Stop, and shoot, and off amain;Shoot, and hit, and shoot again,While the fire is clear.IV[309]How he brings the horses round!How the game comes to the ground,When his arrows kill and woundWheresoe’er they go.Still they go; but, now, they’re few;Now, the quiver’s empty too.Home! The steeds the stable view,Yet they’re coming slow!
IShuh upon his chariot stands;Takes the ribbons in his hands;Four bay horses feel commands,Stepping to and fro.Regular, like dancers high,Or the wild geese in the sky,Insides lead, and outsides nigh,Like their shoulders, go!IIAt the marsh Shuh stands the first;Bright the fires around it burst.Out there springs the tiger curst,Teeth and claws we meet.So does Shuh; his arms are bare,Stops the tiger, kills it there;Lays the bloody carcass fairAt the prince’s feet.IIITry it not again, my Shuh;Never hurt we’d see on you!Once like that for life willdo,—Other game is here.See him give the horses rein;Stop, and shoot, and off amain;Shoot, and hit, and shoot again,While the fire is clear.IV[309]How he brings the horses round!How the game comes to the ground,When his arrows kill and woundWheresoe’er they go.Still they go; but, now, they’re few;Now, the quiver’s empty too.Home! The steeds the stable view,Yet they’re coming slow!
I
Shuh upon his chariot stands;Takes the ribbons in his hands;Four bay horses feel commands,Stepping to and fro.Regular, like dancers high,Or the wild geese in the sky,Insides lead, and outsides nigh,Like their shoulders, go!
Shuh upon his chariot stands;
Takes the ribbons in his hands;
Four bay horses feel commands,
Stepping to and fro.
Regular, like dancers high,
Or the wild geese in the sky,
Insides lead, and outsides nigh,
Like their shoulders, go!
II
At the marsh Shuh stands the first;Bright the fires around it burst.Out there springs the tiger curst,Teeth and claws we meet.So does Shuh; his arms are bare,Stops the tiger, kills it there;Lays the bloody carcass fairAt the prince’s feet.
At the marsh Shuh stands the first;
Bright the fires around it burst.
Out there springs the tiger curst,
Teeth and claws we meet.
So does Shuh; his arms are bare,
Stops the tiger, kills it there;
Lays the bloody carcass fair
At the prince’s feet.
III
Try it not again, my Shuh;Never hurt we’d see on you!Once like that for life willdo,—Other game is here.See him give the horses rein;Stop, and shoot, and off amain;Shoot, and hit, and shoot again,While the fire is clear.
Try it not again, my Shuh;
Never hurt we’d see on you!
Once like that for life willdo,—
Other game is here.
See him give the horses rein;
Stop, and shoot, and off amain;
Shoot, and hit, and shoot again,
While the fire is clear.
IV[309]
How he brings the horses round!How the game comes to the ground,When his arrows kill and woundWheresoe’er they go.Still they go; but, now, they’re few;Now, the quiver’s empty too.Home! The steeds the stable view,Yet they’re coming slow!
How he brings the horses round!
How the game comes to the ground,
When his arrows kill and wound
Wheresoe’er they go.
Still they go; but, now, they’re few;
Now, the quiver’s empty too.
Home! The steeds the stable view,
Yet they’re coming slow!
In the classical texts, these ancient hunting-songs appear as here translated; but in singing them, if there is time to spare, the first may well be sungafterthe second as well as before it. It is at once a fit introduction and a fit conclusion.
These two songs are taken from a collection ofChinese Songs and Sayings, not published yet, and put here to show a kind of tiger-killing deserving as much honour as men can ever give a fellow-man.
In those days hunting was more like work than sport, and tigers were still a menace to humanity, such as we can hardly now conceive. There was great merit in hindering a tiger from escaping then; but to-day that matters little. Such an event as the song describes is not uncommon still. I have heard credibly of about a dozen like it among contemporaries in Burma in the last twenty-four years. Men seeking deer or other[310]game are suddenly confronted by a tiger similarly engaged. If the men make way for him, he merely shows his teeth and swiftly escapes, and that is what generally happens. But if any one of the hunters hurts him, or his road seems blocked, then there is danger; and that is how fatal accidents often happen.
Something of that sort was probably impending on this occasion, 740B.C., or about then. There was probably a big crowd and a desperate tiger, and while the others facing him were shrinking, Shuh perhaps leaped from his chariot, certainly stepped to the front, ready for action, a stalwart Chinese figure, stripped to the waist, like Nelson’s sailors on a day of battle, and in all likelihood a big-pointed knife in his hand. A shout might make the tiger shy a second, and so give him a chance; but the likeliest thing is that the tiger, coming out of the darkness into the glare of the fires, did not see him, and perhaps was trying to get away, or charging some other person, so that Shuh could take him sideways and kill him. Somehow or other, Shuh did it. Think of the few thrilling seconds of glorious life, and the jubilation of the crowd when the knife went home.
Note the difference between them and us. Miss your shot with the breechloader, and you can fire[311]again, and even if you do not hit a vital part, you can stop him. “But with bow and arrows,” as an old man said to me in 1889, telling how he and his father had fought a tiger with such weapons, and showing me the good old cross-bow they used, “it is folly to shoot till he is close, for at a distance the arrow merely irritates him. Wait till he is near.”
“Ten yards?”
“My father, let him come nearer. Then you hit his brain through the eye, if he’s coming straight, or the heart through the ribs, if he shows his side, and so he is dead.”
“But if he isn’t dead?”
“Then drop your bow, and fight him with the knife. Never try a second shot, for, if you do, he’s sure to get you. The tiger is very,veryquick. You have to dodge him and get a knife into his vitals before he grips you.”
I suggested a spear; but was told it was too clumsy and slow to be a good weapon.
The words of that old veteran, living among the hills between Burma and China, seemed to me to illuminate the hunting scene in old Honan better than any of the commentators on the Classics. But for his talk, one would have been slow to guess that Shuh went close to the tiger with a[312]knife. That would explain why the poet alluded to Shuh’s bare arms, and to his standing in the front. He could not have fired arrows from his chariot, for the horses would have bolted. So we may still see him through so many centuries, afoot and in front, with business-like bare arms and sharp knife ready; we can rejoice with them all, and admire him yet, and feel also, with the singers, “once like that for life will do.” It comes like a shock to remember that we are among the shades, and that more than fifty or sixty generations of men have come and gone since Shuh and his companions all melted into dust and air.
It gives us another kind of shock to contrast that kind of work with modern hunting. Our statesmen at large, slaughtering in foreign woods, are neither better nor worse than their friends at home, “the poulterers.” The only serious danger is from their own awkwardness in handling guns. Their butcheries are like those in old Roman arenas; and even Theodore Roosevelt himself, returning in gory glory but without a scratch from Africa, can only be compared by one of his admirers to the immortal Tartarin of Tarascon.
COLSTONS LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
Transcriber’s NoteInconsistent hyphenation (firearms/fire-arms, forepaws/fore-paws, midday/mid-day, retell/re-tell, tucktoo/tuck-too) and spelling (da/dah, veranda/verandah) have been left as printed in the original.
Inconsistent hyphenation (firearms/fire-arms, forepaws/fore-paws, midday/mid-day, retell/re-tell, tucktoo/tuck-too) and spelling (da/dah, veranda/verandah) have been left as printed in the original.