14. 𝖅ǎng-𝖟ze asked, "In a case of the mourning for
five months, may (the principal) take part in the
other sacrifices (of mourning)[1]?"
Confucius said, "Why speak only of the mourning for five months? In all cases from the mourning for three years downwards, (the principals) take part in those sacrifices."
𝖅ǎng-𝖟ze said, "Would not this be making the mourning of little importance, and giving (undue) importance to the sacrifices?"
Confucius said, "In the mourning sacrifices for the son of Heaven and the prince of a state, none but those who wear the sackcloth with the jagged edges take part in them. In those for a Great officer, they who wear the sackcloth with the even edges do so. In those for another officer, if the participants be insufficient, they add to them from their brethren who should wear mourning for nine months downwards."
15. 𝖅ǎng-𝖟ze asked, "When acquaintances are in mourning, may they participate in one another's sacrifices?"
Confucius said, "When wearing the three months' mourning, one has no occasion to sacrifice (in his own ancestral temple), and how should he assist another
man (out of his own line)?"
- ↑ Khung Ying-tâ makes this out to be the sacrifices of repose, and at the end of the wailing. I think the reference is more general.
aliquis in novem mensium luctu constitutus possit adjuvare alterius funestae familiae oblationem. Confucius intelligit de adjuvanda proprii funeris oblatione." There appears to be a similar misunderstanding between the two in the next paragraph.
