SECT. I. PT. I.
THE YÜEH LING.
253
10. In this month there takes place the inauguration
of spring. Three days before this ceremony, the
Grand recorder informs the son of Heaven, saying,
"On such and such a day is the inauguration of the
spring. The energies of the season are fully seen in
wood." On this the son of Heaven devotes himself to
self-purification, and on the day he leads in person
the three ducal ministers, his nine high ministers,
the feudal princes (who are at court), and his Great
officers, to meet the spring in the eastern suburb[1];
- ↑ We are not told what the ceremonies in the inauguration of the spring were. The phrase li khun (立春) is the name of the first of the twenty-four terms into which the Chinese year is divided, dating now from the sun's being in the fifteenth degree of Aquarius. Kǎng Hsüan thought that the meeting of the spring in the eastern suburb was by a sacrifice to the first of "the five planetary gods," corresponding to Jupiter, "the Azure Tî, called Ling-wei-jang" (靈威仰). But where he found that name, and what is its significance, is a mystery; and the whole doctrine of five planetary Tîs is held to be heresy, and certainly does not come from the five King.
