the dead sat Their monitors and cup-suppliers observed no regular rules. The usages were the same (as those of Yin), and the underlying principle was one. Under the Hsiâ dynasty, the personators had stood till the sacrifice was ended, (whereas) under Yin they sat. Under Kâu, when the cup went round among all, there were six personators[1]. 𝖅ǎng-𝖟ze said, "The usages of Kâu might be compared to those of a subscription club[2]."
6. A superior man will say, "The usages of ceremony that come closest to our human feelings are not those of the highest sacrifices; (as may be seen in) the blood of the border sacrifice; the raw flesh in the great offering (to all the royal ancestors) of the ancestral temple; the sodden flesh, where the spirits are presented thrice; and the roast meat, where they are presented once[3]."
7. And so those usages were not devised by
- ↑ This would be on occasion of the united sacrifice to all the ancestors; the personator of Hâu Kî being left out of the enumeration, as more honourable than the others.
- ↑ That is, all stand equally as if each had paid his contribution to the expenses.
- ↑ The greatest of all sacrifices was that to Heaven in a suburb of the capital; the next was the great triennial or quinquennial sacrifice in the ancestral temple; the third was that at the altars of the land and grain, and of the hills and rivers, which is supposed to be described here as that at which "the cup" was thrice presented; and the last in order and importance were small sacrifices to individual spirits. The four offerings in the text were presented at the first three; but not in the same order. That to Heaven began with blood; that in the ancestral temple with raw flesh. Those farthest from our human feelings had the place of honour in the greatest services. We must seek for a higher and deeper origin of them than our ordinary feelings.
