observant of righteousness, self-consecration, good faith, sincerity, and guilelessness, though a ruler may try to knit the people firmly to him, will not all bonds between them be dissolved?"
12. While mourning (for a father), one should not be concerned about (the discomfort of) his own resting-place[1], nor, in emaciating himself, should he do so to the endangering of his life. He should not be the former;—he has to be concerned that (his father's spirit-tablet) is not (yet) in the temple. He should not do the latter, lest (his father) should thereby have no posterity.
13. Kî-𝖟ze of Yen-ling[2] had gone to Khî; and his eldest son having died, on the way back (to Wû), he buried him between Ying and Po. Confucius (afterwards) said, "Kî-𝖟ze was the one man in Wû most versed in the rules of propriety, so I went and saw his manner of interment. The grave was not so deep as to reach the water-springs. The grave-clothes were such as (the deceased) had ordinarily worn. After the interment, he raised a mound over the grave of dimensions sufficient to cover it, and high enough for the hand to be easily placed on it.
When the mound was completed, he bared his left arm;
- ↑ Referring, I think, to the discomfort of the mourning shed. But other interpretations of the paragraph are to be found in Khǎn Hâo's work, and elsewhere.
- ↑ This Kî-𝖟ze is better known as Kî Kâ (季札), a brother of the ruler of Wû. Having declined the state of Wû, he lived in the principality of Yen-ling. He visited the northern states Lû, Khî, 𝖅in, and the others, in B.C. 515; and his sayings and doings in them are very famous. He was a good man and able, whom Confucius could appreciate. Ying and Po were two places in Khî.
