詩經 Book of Odes - 玄鳥 XUAN NIAO
天命玄鳥、降而生商、宅殷土芒芒。
古帝命武湯、正域彼四方。
方命厥后、奄有九有。
商之先后、受命不殆、在武丁孫子。
武丁孫子、武王靡不勝。
龍旂十乘、大饎是承。
邦畿千里、維民所止、肇域彼四海。
四海來假、來假祁祁、景員維河。
殷受命咸宜、百祿是何。
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 ,
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 ; --
King has the He for its outer border .
That Yin should have received the apppointment [of Heaven] was entirely
right ; --
[Its sovereign] sustains all its dignities .
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