Chinese poem illustration: 小雅 信南山/ Xiaoya – Two nights on South Mountains by Anonymous
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The autumn ceremony(秋尝) is the most grand and significant ceremony in four seasons(春曰礿，夏曰禘，秋曰尝，冬曰烝). This poem give us a lot of details of it. The ceremony and praying to heaven and ancestors are not only for asking blessing and fortune, it is the fundamental life style and philosophy of Zhou people. 小雅 楚茨 is also about the grand ceremony with full coverage of the whole process and ritual, a good cross reference to this poem.
Arguements on characters 信, 理, 彧 , 菹 are made. 禹, 南亩 and 尸 are explained. An explanation on 享: originally is 亨(heng1), a loan character of 烹(peng1) which means cooking by boiling in water. As such, 是烝是享 means food offering by steaming and boiling, which is still two major unique cooking style in modern Chinese cuisine.
小雅 信南山
佚名
信彼南山，维禹甸之。
畇畇原隰，曾孙田之。
我疆我理，南东其亩。
上天同云。雨雪雰雰，
益之以霡霂。既优既渥，
既沾既足。生我百谷。
疆埸翼翼，黍稷彧彧。
曾孙之穑，以为酒食。
畀我尸宾，寿考万年。
中田有庐，疆埸有瓜。
是剥是菹，献之皇祖。
曾孙寿考，受天之祜。
祭以清酒，从以骍牡，
享于祖考。执其鸾刀，
以启其毛，取其血膋。
是烝是享，苾苾芬芬。
祀事孔明，先祖是皇。
报以介福。万寿无疆。
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