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CH. JI.
INTRODUCTION.
II
spirit, and hence we cannot always translate the character by the same term. It would be easy to add to the number of words, more or less synonymous, in French or English or any other Aryan language, which Callery has heaped together in the following passage :-'Autant que possible, j'ai traduit Lî par le mot Rite, dont le sens est susceptible à une grande étendue ; mais il faut convenir que, suivant les circonstances où il est employé, il peut signifier-Cérémonial, Cérémonies, Pratiques cérémoniales, L'étiquette, Politesse, Urbanité, Courtoisie, Honnêteté, Bonnes manières, Egards, Bonne éducation, Bienséance, Les formes, Les convenances, Savoir-vivre, Décorum, Décence, Dignité personnelle, Moralité de conduite, Ordre Social, Devoirs de Société, Lois Sociales, Devoirs, Droit, Morale, Lois hiérarchiques, Offrande, Usages, Coutumes?' I have made little use in my translation of the word Rite or Rites, which Callery says he had endeavoured to adhere to as much as possible, but I do not think I have allowed myself so much liberty in other terms in my English as he has done in his French. For the symbol in the title I have said 'Rules of Propriety or Ceremonial Usages.'
2. The meaning of the title-Lî Ki-need not take us so long. There is no occasion to say more on the signiTranslation of ficance of Li; the other character, K î, should
the title. have a plural force given to it. What unity belongs to the Books composing it arises from their being all, more or less, occupied with the subject of Lî. Each one, or at least each group, is complete in itself. Each is a Ki; taken together, they are so many Kis. Only into the separate titles of seven of them, the 13th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 27th, and 29th, does the name of Ki enter. That character is the symbol for the recording of things one by one,' and is often exchanged for another Kis, in which the classifying element is sze, the symbol for 'a packet of cocoons,' the compound denoting the unwinding
"Introduction, p. 16.
• The classifier of K't in the title is this kr (ft) is (sze).
yen), the symbol of words ; that of
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| SR No. | 007675 |
| Book Title | Text of Confucianism Part 01 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | James Legge |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1879 |
| Total Pages | 2829 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 50 MB |