elegant form. A true heart and good faith are their radical element. The characteristics of each according to the idea of what is right in it are its outward and elegant form. Without the radical element, they could not have been established; without the elegant form, they could not have been put in practice[1].
3. (The things used in performing) the rites should be suitable to the season, taken from the resources supplied by the ground, in accordance with (the requirements of) the spirits[2], and agreeable to the minds of men;—according to the characteristics of all things. Thus each season has its productions, each soil its appropriate produce, each sense its peculiar power, and each thing its advantageousness. Therefore what any season does not produce, what any soil does not nourish, will not be used by a superior man in performing his rites, nor be enjoyed by the spirits. If mountaineers were to (seek to)
use fish and turtles in their rites, or the dwellers
- ↑ Callery gives for this short paragraph:—"Les rites établis par les anciens rois ont leur essence intimé et leur dehors; la droiture est l'essence des rites; leur accord patent avec la raison en est le dehors. Sans essence, ils ne peuvent exister; sans dehors ils ne peuvent fonctionner." He appends a long note on the difficulty of translation occasioned by the character 文 (wǎn), which he renders by "le dehors," and I by "the outward, elegant form;" and concludes by saying, "Traduise mieux qui pourra." I can only say that I have done the best I could (at the time) with this and every other paragraph.
- ↑ Khung Ying-tâ says here that "the spirits were men who, when alive, had done good service, and were therefore sacrificed to when dead. From which it follows that what was agreeable to the minds of men would be in accordance with (the requirements of) the spirits."
