(abstinence) when he is better. If he make himself unable to perform his mourning duties, that is like being unkind and unfilial. 34. If he be fifty, he should not allow himself to be reduced (by his abstinence) very much; and, if he be sixty, not at all. At seventy, he will only wear the unhemmed dress of sackcloth, and will drink and eat flesh, and occupy (the usual apartment) inside (his house).
7. 35. Intercourse with the living (will be continued) in the future; intercourse with the dead (friend) was a thing of the past[1]. 36. He who knows the living should send (a message of) condolence; and he who knew the dead (a message also of his) grief. He who knows the living, and did not know the dead, will send his condolence without (that expression of) his grief; he who knew the dead, and does not know the living, will send the (expression of) grief, but not go on to condole.
8. 37. He who is condoling with one who has mourning rites in hand, and is not able to assist him with a gift, should put no question about his expenditure.
He who is enquiring after another that is ill, and is not able to send (anything to him), should
- ↑ This gives the reasons for the directions in the next paragraph. We condole with the living—to console them; for the dead, we have only to express our grief for our own loss. P. Zottoli's translation is:—"Vivis computatur subsequens dies; mortuo computatur praecedens dies;" and he says in a note:—"Vivorum luctus incipit quarta a morte die, et praecedente die seu tertia fit mortui in feretnim depositio; luctus igitur et depositio, die intercipiuntur; haec precedit ille subsequetur." This is after many critics, from Kǎng Khang-khǎng downwards; but it does great violence to the text. I have followed the view of the Khien-lung editors.
