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 1423

340
THE LÎ xi.
BK, 5.
his ruler, the rules say that, (if he die) in a government hotel his spirit shall be recalled; but not, (if he die) in a private one. But to whatever state a commissioner may be sent, the lodging which may be assigned to him by the proper officer becomes a public hotel ;-what is the meaning of his spirit not being recalled, (if he die) in a private one?'
Confucius said, 'You have asked well. The houses of a high minister, a Great officer, or an ordinary officer, may be called private hotels. The government hotel, and any other which the government may appoint, may be called a public hotel. In this you have the meaning of that saying that the spirit is recalled at a public hotel.
24. Zăng-zze asked, 'Children dying prematurely, between eight and eleven, should be buried in the garden in a brick grave, and carried thither on a contrivance serving the purpose of a carriage, the place being near ; but now if the grave is chosen at a distance, what do you say about their being buried there ?'
Confucius said, 'I have heard this account from Lâo Tan :-"Formerly," he said, "the recorder Yi had a son who died thus prematurely, and the grave was distant. The duke of Shâo said to him, Why not shroud and coffin him in your palace ?' The recorder said, “Dare I do so ?' The
1 Where these rules are to be found I do not know.
· I use "hotel' here in the French meaning of the term. We must suppose that the private hotel' about which Băng-zze asked was one to which the commissioner had gone without the instructions of the state; and, as the Khien-lung editors say, the rites were therefore so far diminished.'
Digitized by Google