King Xuan's heart tightened after hearing this. He immediately ordered his driver to pass the command: "Seize every last one of those children and question them!"
Hearing the order, the children scattered in panic. Only two were caught—one old, one young—trembling as they knelt before the carriage.
King Xuan asked, "Who made up this song?"
The younger one shook so badly he could not utter a single word. The older one answered, "We did not make it up. Three days ago, a child dressed in red suddenly appeared in the marketplace and taught us these four lines. No one knew why, but in the blink of an eye, children all across the capital were humming it. They were singing it everywhere—it was not confined to one place."
King Xuan pressed, "Where is that child in red now?"
"He vanished after teaching us the song and has not shown himself since."
King Xuan fell silent for a long while. He waved the two away, then summoned the market official and sternly ordered a proclamation throughout the city: "If any child is caught spreading this ballad again, both the child and his father and elder brothers shall be punished together!"
He returned to the palace that night without another word.
At the morning court the next day, the Three Dukes and Six Ministers gathered before the hall. They performed the proper rites and finished their thunderous cries of "Long live the king!"
King Xuan then told his ministers of the children's ballad he had heard the night before. When he finished, he asked, "My lords, what do you believe these words mean?"
Grand Ritualist Zhao Hu stepped forward and reported, "Mountain mulberry is a kind of wood that can be made into bows, hence the word 'bow.' Ji grass is a pliant