A person of the state of Chu was singing loud in the capital city. At first he sang "Xia li" ,and "Ba ren", thousands of people joined him in sing.
When he came to "A yang" "Jiu lu", there were still several hundreds people who joined in the sing.
Then he sang "Yang chun" "Bai xue", at this time only several dozens of people joined him. When he begun sang those melodious1 and rising and falling songs, few people could still join in the singing. The more elegant his melody was, the fewer people could join him.
一个楚国人在郢国都里面高声歌唱，开始他唱的是《下里》《巴人》，郢都城中跟着他唱的有好几千人。
他唱《阿阳》《薤露》时，跟着唱的也还有几百人。
随后他又唱《阳春》《白雪》来，这时能跟着他唱的不超过几十人。等他开始唱起那些悠扬婉转、忽高忽低的歌曲时，跟得上的人就剩下不多了。他唱的曲调越来越高雅，能够跟他一起唱的人越来越少了。
