27. They had the two tui of the lord of Yü (for holding the grain at sacrifices); the four lien of Hsiâ; the six hû of Yin; and the eight kwei of Kâu1.

28. They had for stands (on which to set forth the flesh of the victims), the khwan of Shun; the küeh of Hsiâ; the kü of Yin; and the room-like stand of Kâu. For the tall supports of the dishes, they used those of Hsiâ of unadorned wood; those of Yin, adorned with jade; and those of Kâu, with feathers carved on them.

29. They had the plain leather knee-covers of Shun; those of Hsiâ, with hills represented on them; those of Yin, with flames; and those of Kâu, with dragons.

30. They used for their sacrificial offerings (to the father of Cookery), like the lord of Yü, (portions of) the head; like the sovereigns of Hsiâ, (portions of) the heart; as they did under Yin, (portions of) the liver; and as they did under Kâu, (portions of) the lungs2.

31. They used the bright water preferred by Hsiâ; the unfermented liquor preferred by Yin; and the completed liquor preferred by Kâu3.

1

Figures of all these are given. The number of the vessels in the different dynasties is thought to have been regulated by the number of the kinds of grain; but most of this is conjecture.

Kang Hsuan, in explanation of these practices, has only three characters, which I confess I do not fully comprehend. Khung Ying-tâ says nothing about them, nor the Khien-lung editors. Fang Küeh writes, on the relation between the five elements and the five colours, and the symbolical colours adopted by the different dynasties, and of the different members of the victims; very mystically and darkly, and failing to elucidate the passage.

3

There have been various references to these points already, and there will be more hereafter.

32. They used (the names) of the 50 officers of the lord of Yü; of the 100 of the sovereigns of Hsiâ; of the 200 of Yin; and of the 300 of Kâu1.

33. (At their funerals) they used the feathery ornaments of the lord of Yü; the wrappings of white silk (about the flag-staffs) of the sovereigns of Hsiâ; (the flags) with their toothed edges of Yin; and the round pieces of jade and plumes of Kâu2.

34. Lû (thus) used the robes, vessels and officers of all the four dynasties, and so it observed the royal ceremonies. It long transmitted them everywhere. Its rulers and ministers never killed one another. Its rites, music, punishments, laws, governmental proceedings, manners and customs never changed. Throughout the kingdom it was considered the state which exhibited the right ways; and therefore dependence was placed on it in the matters of ceremonies and music3.

1

Compare the Shû, V, xx, 3. Various attempts are made to reconcile the statements there and those of this paragraph; ‘all,' says Khăn Hâo, 'mere conjectures.'

2 Compare paragraph 22, page 139, vol. xxvii.

Much of what is said here is glaringly false; and justifies what is said of the Book in the introduction, page 29.

BOOK XIII. SANG FU HSIAO AÎ

OR

RECORD OF SMALLER MATTERS IN THE DRESS OF MOURNING1.

SECTION I.

1. When wearing the unhemmed sackcloth (for a father), (the son) tied up his hair with a hempen (band), and also when wearing it for a mother. When he exchanged this band for the cincture (in the case of mourning for his mother) 2, this was made of linen cloth.

(A wife), when wearing the (one year's mourning) of sackcloth with the edges even, had the girdle (of the same), and the inferior hair-pin (of hazel-wood), and wore these to the end of the mourning.

2. (Ordinarily) men wore the cap, and women the hair-pin; (in mourning) men wore the cincture, and women the same after the female fashion.

1 See the introductory notice, vol. xxvii, page 30.

2 This was done after the slighter dressing of the corpse. The cincture (wăn,) is mentioned in the first paragraph of the Than Kung (vol. xxvii, page 120). The hempen band being removed, one of linen cloth, about the breadth of which there are different accounts, was put round the hair on the crown, taken forward to the forehead, there crossed, taken back again, and knotted at the back of the hair.

3 The text does not mention 'the wife' here; but a comparison of different passages shows that this sentence is only applicable to her.

The idea was (simply) to maintain in this way a distinction between them 1.

3. The dark-coloured staff was of bamboo; that pared and fashioned (at the end) was of eleococca wood 2.

4. When the grandfather was dead, and afterwards (the grandson) had to go into mourning for his grandmother, he, being the representative of the family (through the death of his father), did so for three years.

5. The eldest son, (at the mourning rites) for his father or mother, (before bowing to a visitor who had come to condole with him), first laid his forehead to the ground (as an expression of his sorrow).

When a Great officer came to condole (with an ordinary officer), though it might be (only) in a case of the three months' mourning, (the latter first) laid his forehead to the ground 3.

A wife, at the rites for her husband or eldest son, bowed her head to the ground before she saluted

1

Anciently, it is said, there was no distinction between these two cinctures, but in the name. There probably came to be some difference between them; but what it was I cannot discover.

2 This is found also in the Î Lî, XXXII, 5; but the interpretation there is as difficult as here. The translation of the first character (hü) by 'dark-coloured' is from Khung Ying-tâ. The paring away the end of the dryandria branch was to make it square. The round bamboo was carried in mourning for a father, and was supposed to symbolise heaven; the other was carried in mourning for a mother, and its square end symbolised earth. What heaven and earth were to nature that the father and mother were to a child. I can make nothing more or better of the passage.

s We do not see how this instance coheres with the former one; nor why the two are brought together.

a visitor; but in mourning for others, she did not do so 1.

6. The man employed to preside (at the mourning rites) was required to be of the same surname (as the deceased parent); the wife so employed, of a different surname 2.

7. The son who was his father's successor (as now head of the family) did not wear mourning for his mother who had been divorced.

8. In counting kindred (and the mourning to be worn of them), the three closest degrees become expanded into five, and those five again into nine. The mourning diminished as the degrees ascended or descended, and the collateral branches also were correspondingly less mourned for; and the mourning for kindred thus came to an end 3,

9. At the great royal sacrifice to all ancestors, the first place was given to him from whom the founder of the line sprang, and that founder had the place of assessor to him. There came thus to be established four ancestral shrines 4. In the

1 The 'others,' according to Kăng, must be understood of her own parents. She was now identified with a family of another surname; and her husband's relatives were more to her than her own.

2 The son and his wife who should have presided are supposed to be dead. The wife elected for the office would be the wife of some other member of the family, herself therefore of a different surname.

3 The three closest degrees are father, son, and son's son.' Add the grandfather and grandson (counting from the son), and we have five; great-grandfather and great-grandson (here omitted), and we have seven. Then great-great-grandfather and great-greatgrandson, make nine; and the circle of kindred, for whom mourning should be worn, is complete. See Appendix, Book II, vol. xxvii.

This statement about the four shrines has given occasion to much writing.