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Ancient Classics -> Book of Poetry -> Odes of the temple and the altar -> Sacrificial Odes Of Shang -> Xuan Niao -> 1.1

Heaven commissioned the swallow,
To descend and give birth to [the father of our] Shang.
[His descendants] dwelt in the land of Yin, and became great.
[Then] long ago God appointed the martial Tang,
To regulate the boundaries throughout the four quarters.
[In those] quarters he appointed the princes,
And grandly possessed the nine regions [of the kingdom].
The first sovereign of Shang,
Received the appointment without any element of instability in it,
And it is [now] held by the descendant of Wu-ding.
The descendant of Wu-ding,
武王Is a martial king, equal to every emergency.
Ten princes, [who came] with their dragon-emblazoned banners,
Bear the large dishes of millet.
The royal domain of a thousand li,
Is where the people rest;
But there commence the boundaries that reach to the four seas.
From the four seas they come [to out sacrifices];
They come in multitudes; -
Jing has the He for its outer border.
That Yin should have received the apppointment [of Heaven] was entirely right; -
祿[Its sovereign] sustains all its dignities.


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