its cocoons, but the crab supplies the box for them; the bee has its cap, but the cicada supplies the strings for it. His elder brother died, but it was 𝖅ze-kâo who made the mourning for him[1]."
28. When Yo Kǎng, 𝖅ze-khun's mother, died, he was five days without eating. He then said, "I am sorry for it. Since in the case of my mothers death, I could not eat according to my feelings, on what occasion shall I be able to do so?"
29. In a year of drought duke Mû[2] called to him Hsien-𝖟ze, and asked him about it. "Heaven," said he, "has not sent down rain for a long time. I wish to expose a deformed person in the sun (to move its pity), what do you say to my doing so?" "Heaven, indeed," was the reply, "does not send down rain; but would it not be an improper act of cruelty, on that account to expose the diseased son of some one in the sun?"
"Well then," (said the duke), "I wish to expose in the sun a witch; what do you say to that?" Hsien-𝖟ze said, "Heaven, indeed, does not send down rain; but would it not be wide of the mark to hope anything from (the suffering of) a foolish woman,
and by means of that to seek for rain[3]?"
- ↑ The 𝖅ze-kâo here was the same as Kâo Khâi; see the note on paragraph 4. The incident here shows the influence of his well-known character. He is the crab whose shell forms a box for the cocoons, and the cicada whose antennae form the strings for the cap.
- ↑ "Duke Mû and Hsien-𝖟ze;" see Section I. Part iii. 5.
- ↑ In the 𝖅o Kwan, under B.C. 639, duke Hsî of Lû makes a proposal about exposing a deformed person and a witch like that which is recorded here. Nothing is said, however, about changing the site of the market. Reference is made, however, to that practice in a work of Tung Kung-shu (second century, B.C.), of which Wang Thâo ventures to give a geomantic explanation. The narrative in the text is probably taken from the 𝖅o Kwan, the compiler having forgotten the time and parties in the earlier account.
