TAN KUNG,
3rd and 4th centuries b.c.
DIVORCE.
WHEN Tzŭ-shang’s mother died, he would not attend her funeral. A disciple asked his father, Tzŭ-ssŭ (grandson of Confucius), saying, “Did not your father attend his divorced mother’s funeral?” “He did,” replied Tzŭ-ssŭ. “Then why cannot you make Tzŭ-shang do likewise?” rejoined the disciple. “My grandfather,” said Tzŭ-ssŭ, “was a man of complete virtue. With him, whatever was, was right. I cannot aspire to his level. As long as the deceased was my wife, she was my son’s mother. When she ceased to be my wife, she ceased also to be his mother.”
From that time forth, it became a rule among the descendants of Confucius not to attend the funeral of a divorced mother.
THE BURIAL OF CONFUCIUS.
A certain man travelled from afar to witness the funeral obsequies of Confucius. He stayed at the house of Tzŭ-hsia, who observed, “A sage conducting a funeral is one thing: a sage’s funeral is another thing. What did you expect to see? Do you not remember that our Master once said, ‘Some persons pile up earth into square, others into long-shaped tumuli. Some build spacious mausolea, others content themselves with small axe-shaped heaps. I prefer the heaps.’ He meant what we call horse-neck heaps. So we have given him only a few handfuls of earth, and he is buried. Is not this as he would have wished it himself?”
ON MOURNING.
One day Yu-tzŭ and Tzŭ-yu saw a child weeping for the loss of its parents. Thereupon, the former observed, “I never could understand why mourners should necessarily jump about to show
