Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/151

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SECT. I. PT. II.
THE THAN KUNG.
133

a small man. I am today, perhaps, drawing near to my end (as a superior man)."

4. Зǎng-jze said, "May not what remains in the cupboard suffice to set down (as the offerings) by (the corpse of) one who has just died?"

5. Зǎng-jze said, "Not to have places (for wailing) in cases of the five months mourning[1] is a rule which sprang from the ways in small lanes." When Зze-sze wailed for his sister-in-law, he made such places, and his wife took the lead in the stamping. When Shǎn-hsiang wailed for Yen-sze, he also did the same.

6. Anciently, (all) caps were (made) with the seams going up and down them; now the (mourning cap) is made with the seams going round. Hence to have the mourning cap different from that worn on felicitous occasions is not the way of antiquity[2].

7. Зǎng-jze said to Зze-sze, "Khî, when I was engaged in the mourning for my parents, no water or other liquid entered my mouth for seven days." Зze-sze said, "With regard to the rules of ceremony framed by the ancient kings, those who would go beyond them should stoop down to them, and those who do not reach them should stand on tip-toe to do so. Hence, when a superior man is engaged in

mourning for his parents, no water or other liquid


  1. In relationships of the fourth degree: as by a man for his grand-uncle and his wife, a spinster grand-aunt, a second cousin, &c.; by a wife for her husband's aunt, brother or sister, &c.; by a married woman, for her spinster aunt, married sister, &c. See Appendix.
  2. This paragraph does not seem to contain any lessons of censure or approval, but simply to relate a fact.