Book of Songs
Mao Qiu
Anonymous
旄丘之葛兮
何诞之节兮
叔兮伯兮
何多日也
何其处也
必有与也
何其久也
必有以也
狐裘蒙戎
匪车不东
叔兮伯兮
靡所与同
琐兮尾兮
流离之子
叔兮伯兮
褎如充耳
Translation
The creepers on Mao Hill — how long their joints have grown. Uncles, elders, why have so many days passed? Why do they stay there? Surely they have someone to wait for. Why are they so long delayed? Surely there must be a reason. The fox-fur robe is shaggy and disordered; it is not that the carriage will not go east. Uncles, elders, there is no one willing to be of one mind with us. Small and lowly, these children of exile. Uncles, elders, you sit as if your ears were stopped.
Analysis
"Mao Qiu" is a poem of grievance from the "Bei Feng" section of the Book of Songs. It is commonly read as the complaint of people in distress, perhaps exiles or displaced persons, who wait for help from relatives, allies, or superiors but receive none. The poem moves from anxious waiting to bitter recognition. The opening image is of creepers growing on Mao Hill. Their joints have stretched long. This image of length and extension becomes a figure for delay. Time has stretched out, and those who should have come have not arrived. "Uncles, elders, why have so many days passed?" The address to "uncles" and "elders" suggests people who should bear some responsibility: kin, senior figures, or those with the power to aid. The question is not neutral. It carries the pain of expectation. The second stanza appears to make excuses for the absent helpers. Perhaps they are waiting for someone. Perhaps they have a reason. But the repetition sounds increasingly ironic. The speaker is trying to explain the delay, while also revealing that the explanation is no longer convincing. The third stanza removes the excuse. "It is not that the carriage will not go east." The problem is not impossibility. The vehicle can move. The path can be taken. What is lacking is solidarity. "There is no one willing to be of one mind with us." This is the poem's central accusation. The final stanza names the sufferers: small, lowly, displaced children of exile. They are vulnerable and in need. But those addressed as uncles and elders behave "as if their ears were stopped." They hear but do not respond; they know but do not act. The poem is powerful because it captures a specific social wound: abandonment by those who should help. It is not the loneliness of having no relations; it is the sharper pain of having relations who remain indifferent. "Mao Qiu" therefore stands as an early poem of social criticism. It exposes delay, excuses, failed solidarity, and the moral ugliness of pretending not to hear the suffering of those in need.
About the Author
"Mao Qiu" comes from the "Bei Feng" section of the "Airs of the States" in the Book of Songs. Its author is unknown. The Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poetry, containing more than three hundred poems from roughly the early Western Zhou to the mid-Spring and Autumn period. "Bei Feng" preserves songs associated with the region of Bei and the state of Wei, many of which concern marriage, family, politics, war, exile, labor, and social distress. "Mao Qiu" is notable for its sharp complaint against those who delay or refuse aid to displaced and vulnerable people.