爰及姜女，聿来胥宇。
周原膴膴，菫茶如饴。
爰始爰谋，爰契我龟。
曰止曰时，筑室于兹。
迺慰迺止，迺左迺右，迺疆迺理，迺宣迺亩，自西徂东，周爰执事。
5. Engraved and chiselled are the ornaments; Of metal and of jade is their substance. Ever active was our king, Giving law and rules to the four quarters [of the kingdom].
乃召司空，乃召司徒，俾立室家。
其绳则直，缩版以载，作庙翼翼。
捄之陾陾，度之薨薨，筑之登登，削屡冯冯，百堵皆兴，鼛鼓弗胜。
迺立臯门，臯门有伉。
迺立应门，应门将将。
races of man, Sometimes a mass of flesh, which the man divides into 360 parts....' In ancient China, as in modern Indo-China, gourds were commonly used as lifebelts, and it is clear that in all these stories the gourd is merely a primitive equivalent to Noah's Ark. The first line of the song which follows has always been taken as a simile, and no doubt it functions as one to-day. But in view of the facts mentioned above, it is most likely that imbedded in this line is an allusion to a forgotten belief that 'the people when they were first brought into being' were gourd seeds or young gourds.
迺立冢土，戎丑攸行。
肆不殄厥愠，亦不陨厥问。
柞棫拔矣，行道兑矣。
混夷駾矣，维其喙矣。
虞芮质厥成，文王蹶厥生。
予曰有疏附，予曰有先后，予曰有奔奏，予曰有御侮。
One has the impression, when reading the opening of this poem, that Tan-fu is an independent culture-hero, a rival, in fact, to Hou Chi. But tradition makes him a descendant of Hou Chi. He leads the people away from Pin, where their security is menaced by savage tribes, to Mount Ch'i, farther west. The 'as yet they had no houses' of verse I does not mean that they were incapable of making houses, but that till their houses were ready they lived in loess-pits, as many inhabitants of Shensi still do permanently. Compare