11. For the princes to suspend (their drums and
bells) in four rows like the walls of an apartment
(after the fashion of the king), and to use a white
bull in sacrificing[1]; to strike the sonorous jade; to
use the red shields with their metal fronts and the
cap with descending tassels in dancing the Tâ-wû;
and to ride in the grand chariot:—these were usages
which they usurped. The towered gateway with
the screen across the path, and the stand to receive
the emptied cups; the axes embroidered on the inner
garment with its vermilion colour:—these were
usurpations of the Great officers. Thus, when the son of
Heaven was small and weak, the princes pushed
their usurpations; and when the Great officers were
strong, the princes were oppressed by them. In this
state (those officers) gave honour to one another as
if they had been of (high) degree; had interviews
with one another and made offerings; and bribed
one another for their individual benefit: and thus all
usages of ceremony were thrown into disorder. It
was not lawful for the princes to sacrifice to the king
to whom they traced their ancestry, nor for the Great
officers to do so to the rulers from whom they sprang.
The practice of having a temple to such rulers in
their private families, was contrary to propriety. It
originated with the three Hwan[2].
12. The son of Heaven[3] preserved the
- ↑ That a white bull was used in Lû in sacrificing to the duke of Kâu, appears from the fourth of the Praise Odes of Lû. See vol. iii, p. 343.
- ↑ These must be the three families of Lû, so powerful in the time of Confucius, all descended from duke Hwan. The expression "in this (state)" shows that the writer was a man of Lû.
- ↑ We must think of this "son of Heaven" as the founder of a
