mind had nothing to do, but to maintain what was entirely correct.
3. By means of the ceremonies performed in the suburb, all the spirits receive their offices. By means of those performed at the altar of the earth, all the things yielded (by the earth) receive their fullest development. By means of those in the ancestral temple, the services of filial duty and of kindly affection come to be discharged. By means of those at the five sacrifices of the house, the laws and rules of life are correctly exhibited. Hence when the ideas in these sacrifices in the suburb, at the altar of the earth, in the ancestral temple, at the altars of the hills and streams, and of the five sacrifices of the house are fully apprehended, the ceremonies used are found to be lodged in them[1].
4. From all this it follows that rules of ceremony must be traced to their origin in the Grand Unity[2].
- ↑ Kǎng explains "all the spirits" in the first sentence of this paragraph by "all the constellations." Khung agrees with him. Khǎn Hâo (Yüan dynasty) explains it of "wind, rain, cold, and heat." The Khien-lung editors say that the two explanations must be united. But why are these phenomena described as all or "the hundred spirits?" Is it by personification? or a kind of pantheism?
- ↑ Medhurst translated this name by "the Supreme One;" Callery, as I do, by "la Grande Unité," adding in parentheses, "principe de toutes choses." Does the name denote what we are to consider an Immaterial Being, acting with wisdom, intention, and goodness? Medhurst came to this conclusion. He says:—"Thâi Yî (太一) must mean the Supreme One, or the infinitely great and undivided one. Bearing in mind also that this paragraph follows another in which Tî (帝), the ruling Power, is honoured with the highest adoration, and that this ruling Power is the same
