Chinese poem illustration/邶风 简兮/佚名 Dance of the past

Chinese poem illustration: 邶风 简兮/ Bei Wind – Jian Jian by Anonymous

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The dancers are bravo, the ceremony is grandiose, the lord is mighty. What a typical grand ceremony of Zhou dynasty! Every detail looks bright, lively and positive, until the 4th paragraph, everything turns into blurred questioning and negative, with a sense of blaming and irony to Zhou people, i.e. the glorious and beautiful westerners(西方之人).

The crystal clear image of the depicted dance and ceremony versus the negative blaming and irony aroused many decipherments to this poem till today.

A new interpretation is developed in this video: the poet, a Shang people(商人) , was an officer of Bei state, he recorded this glory event of Zhou through his sad and irony eyes: this grand hall used to be the most sacred place for the most sacred Shang dance(万舞), how sentimental Shang people were at the moment like him.

邶风 简兮
佚名

简兮简兮，方将万舞。
日之方中，在前上处。

硕人俣俣，公庭万舞。
有力如虎，执辔如组。

左手执龠，右手秉翟。
赫如渥赭，公言锡爵。

山有榛，隰有苓。
云谁之思？西方美人。
彼美人兮，西方之人兮。

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