Text of Confucianism Part 01

SR No.: 007675
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

Page 1237

170
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THE LÎ xi.
BK, II,
31. The gruel of the chief mourner (the son), the presiding wife ?, and the steward of the family (of a Great officer) is taken by them at the order of the ruler lest they should get ill.
32. On returning (from the grave) to wail, (the son) should ascend the hall (of the ancestral temple); --returning to the place where (the deceased) performed his rites. The presiding wife should enter the chamber ;-returning to the place where he received his nourishment.
33. Condolences should be presented (to the son) when he returns (from the grave) and is wailing, at which time his grief is at its height. He has returned, and (his father) is not to be seen; he feels that he has lost him. (His grief is) then most intense. Under the Yin, they presented condolences immediately at the grave; under the Kâu, when the son had returned and was wailing. Confucius said, “Yin was too blunt; I follow Kâu.'
34. To bury on the north (of the city), and with the head (of the dead) turned to the north, was the common practice of the three dynasties :--because (the dead) go to the dark region.
35. When the coffin has been let down into the grave, the chief mourner presents the (ruler's) gifts (to the dead in the grave ?), and the officer of prayer (returns beforehand) to give notice of the sacrifice of repose 8 to him who is to personate the departed.
This would be the wife of the deceased, or the wife of his son. ? These were some rolls of purplish silks, sent by the ruler as his parting gifts, when the hearse-car reached the city gate on its way to the grave.
: Where was the spirit of the departed now? The bones and
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