Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 1219

238
DÂDISTÂN-I DÎnik.
to order it? 2. And, whenever one orders it, how is it necessary then to order it, how is it best when they celebrate it, and what is its great advantage as a good work?
3. The reply is this, that worship with the ceremonial for those newly passed away, during the three days which they spend in the account', is suitable for the discreet, just as the protection with nourishment of those newly born, in their infancy, is also much more suitable for the discreet. 4. He is a truly discreet man through whom there is ceremonial for the three days, on account of his own father, and privileged wife, and infant child, and well-behaved servant, on their passing away; and it is indispensable to order the triple ceremonial of the three days.
5. This, too, is said: where it is not possible to solemnize his three days, or they solemnize them afterwards, when information of the death arrives?, three days are to be solemnized as a substitute for those three. 6. For the good work of the ceremonial which is ordered by him himself, or bequeathed by him, or is his through consenting to it by design, exists—even though it is thus possible that it will be conducted afterwards—whenever it comes into progress; therefore he is exalted for it at his account
See Chaps. XXIV, XXV. * M14 has or they do not solemnize them, after which the information arrives,' which is clearly inconsistent with the context. When a person dies away from home, and the ceremonies are not performed on the spot, they must be performed at his home immediately after information of his death arrives, and the three succeeding days are considered as representing the three days after the death (see Sls. XVII, 6).
* Comp. Chap. VIII, 5.
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