messenger; and forthwith Confucius ordered the pickle (in the house) to be thrown away[1].
8. Зăng-jze said, "When the grass is old[2] on the grave of a friend, we no (longer) wail for him."
9. Зze-sze said, "On the third day of mourning, when the body is put into the coffin, (a son) should exercise sincerity and good faith in regard to everything that is placed with it, so that there shall be no occasion for repentance[3]. In the third month when the body is interred, he should do the same in regard to everything that is placed with the coffin in the grave, and for the same reason. Three years are considered as the extreme limit of mourning; but though (his parents) are out of sight, a son does not forget them. Hence a superior man will have a lifelong grief, but not one morning s trouble (from without); and thus on the anniversary of a parent's death, he does not listen to music."
10. Confucius, being quite young when he was left fatherless, did not know (his father's) grave. (Afterwards) he had (his mothers) body coffined in the street of Wû-fû. Those who saw it all thought that it was to be interred there, so carefully was (everything done), but it was (only) the coffining. By inquiring
of the mother of Man-fù of Зâu, he succeeded
- ↑ Зze-lû had died in peculiar circumstances in the state of Wei, through his hasty boldness, in B.C. 480. It was according to rule that the Master should wail for him. The order about the pickled meat was natural in the circumstances.
- ↑ The characters in the text imply that a year had passed since the friend's death.
- ↑ The graveclothes and coverlet. The things placed in the grave with the coffin were many, and will by-and-by come before the reader at length.
