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THE Lî Kî.
BK. IV.
19. The son of Heaven prays for (a blessing on)
the coming year to the Honoured ones of heaven;
sacrifices with an ox, a ram, and a boar at the public
altar to the spirits of the land, and at the gates of
towns and villages; offers the sacrifice three days
after the winter solstice with the spoils of the chase
to all ancestors, and at the five (household)
sacrifices;—thus cheering the husbandmen and helping them
to rest from their toils[1].
20. The son of Heaven orders his leaders and commanders to give instruction on military
- ↑ The most common view seems to be that we have here the various parts of one sacrificial service, three days after the winter solstice, called kâ (蜡), in the time of Kâu, and lâ (臘), in that of Khin. While the son of Heaven performed these services, it must have been at different places in the capital I suppose, analogous and modified services were celebrated generally throughout the kingdom.
There is no agreement as to who are intended by "the Honoured ones of heaven." Many hold that they are "the six Honoured ones," to whom Shun is said to have sacrificed in the second part of the Shû King. But the Khien-lung editors contend that the want of "six" is a fatal objection to this view. Kâo Yû, supposing the six Honoured ones to be meant, argued that "heaven, earth, and the four seasons" were intended by them,—those seasons co-operating with heaven and earth in the production of all things; but the same editors show, from the passages in the Shû, that heaven can in no sense be included among the six Honoured ones. They do not say, however. Who or what is intended by the designation in the text The lâ in the paragraph is taken in a pregnant sense, as if it were lieh (獵, and not 臘), meaning "to sacrifice with the spoils of the chase."
