Book of Songs
Xin Tai
Anonymous
新台有泚
河水弥弥
燕婉之求
籧篨不鲜
新台有洒
河水浼浼
燕婉之求
籧篨不殄
鱼网之设
鸿则离之
燕婉之求
得此戚施
Translation
The new tower gleams bright; the Yellow River flows full and wide. Seeking gentle, harmonious love, she found instead this ugly, unworthy one. The new tower stands clean and high; the Yellow River flows in troubled waves. Seeking gentle, harmonious love, she found instead this ugly, ill-formed one. A fishnet was set, yet a wild goose was caught in it. Seeking gentle, harmonious love, she obtained this crooked, misshapen one.
Analysis
"Xin Tai" is one of the sharpest satirical poems in the "Bei Feng" section of the Book of Songs. Traditionally, it is read as a criticism of Duke Xuan of Wei, who was said to have built the New Tower in connection with his improper taking of Xuan Jiang, originally intended for his son. More broadly, the poem attacks a marriage distorted by power and moral disorder. The poem opens with the image of a bright, newly built tower and the broad flow of the Yellow River. The surface is grand and impressive. But that grandeur is ironic. The splendid tower becomes the setting for an ugly violation of proper marriage. "Seeking gentle, harmonious love, she found instead this ugly, unworthy one." The contrast is brutal. "Yan wan" suggests tender marital harmony, the ideal of a beautiful union. "Qu chu" is a term for a deformed or repulsive person, used here as a satirical insult. The point is not merely physical ugliness; the poem uses bodily deformity as a figure for moral deformity. The second stanza repeats the structure. Again the tower appears clean and impressive; again the river flows. But the repeated contrast with the unworthy man makes the external beauty feel hollow. Public display cannot purify a corrupt act. The third stanza gives the poem's strongest metaphor: a fishnet was set, but a wild goose was caught. The net was made for one thing, yet caught another. This image points to mismatch, disorder, and violation of expected roles. A marriage that should have followed proper order has gone wrong. The final phrase "this crooked, misshapen one" completes the satire. The poem does not argue abstractly about morality. It ridicules. It makes the powerful wrongdoer grotesque. "Xin Tai" is important because it shows the Book of Songs as a vehicle of social and political criticism. It is not only a collection of tender love songs and ritual pieces. It can also preserve public mockery of elite misconduct. The poem's elegance lies in its compression: a bright tower, a great river, a false marriage, and a devastating image of the wrong creature caught in the wrong net.
About the Author
"Xin Tai" 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, labor, and social criticism. "Xin Tai" is especially known as a satirical poem condemning the abuse of power and the corruption of marriage ritual.