inspectors[1] to make a great collection over all the districts of the different kinds of fodder to nourish the sacrificial victims; and to require all the people to do their utmost towards this end;—to supply what is necessary for (the worship of) God (who dwells in) the great Heaven, and for the spirits of the famous hills, great streams, and four quarters, and for the sacrifices to the Intelligences of the ancestral temple, and at the altars to the spirits of the land and grain; that prayer may be made for blessing to the people.
9. In this month orders are given by the officers of women's (work), on the subject of dyeing[2]. (They are to see) that the white and black, the black and green, the green and carnation, the carnation and white be all according to the ancient rules, without error or change; and that their black, yellow, azure, and carnation be all genuine and good, without any presumptuous attempts at imposition. These furnish the materials for the robes used at the sacrifices in the suburbs and the ancestral temple; for flags and their ornaments; and for marking the different degrees of rank as high or low.
10. In this month the trees are luxuriant; and orders are given to the foresters to go among the hills and examine the trees, and see that the people
do not cut any down or lop their branches[3].
- ↑ Of hills, forests, rivers, and meres.
- ↑ We find full details of the number and duties of the superintendents of women's work, with its tailoring, dyeing, and other things, in the Kâu Lî, Books I and VII.
- ↑ The Khien-lung editors say that this was to let the process of growth have its full course; and, besides, that wood cut down in spring and summer will be found full of insects.
