Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/207

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S£CT. II. PT. III.
THE THAN KUNG.
189


3. After the death of the mother of (his son, who became) duke Tâo, duke Âi wore for her the one year's mourning with its unfrayed edges. Yû Zo asked him, if it was in rule for him to wear that mourning for a concubine. "Can I help it?" replied the duke. "The people of Lû will have it that she was my wife."

4. When Kî 𝖅ze-kâo buried his wife, some injury was done to the standing com, which Shǎn-hsiang told him of, begging him to make the damage good. 𝖅ze-kâo said, "The Ming has not blamed me for this, and my friends have not cast me off. I am here the commandant of the city. To buy (in this manner a right of) way in order to bury (my dead) would be a precedent difficult to follow[1]."

5. When one receives no salary for the official duties which he performs[2], and what the ruler sends to him is called "an offering," while the messenger charged with it uses the style of "our unworthy ruler;" if such an one leave the state, and afterwards the ruler dies, he does not wear mourning for him.

6. At the sacrifice of Repose a personator of the


  1. This Kî 𝖅ze-kâo was Kâo Khâi, one of the disciples of Confucius. Shǎn-hsiang was the son of 𝖅ze-kang; see paragraph 3, page 132.
  2. Such was 𝖅ze-sze in Lû, and Mencius in Khî, They were "guests," not ministers. Declining salary, they avoided the obligations incurred by receiving it.