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BK, XLIII.
SHỂ .
449
themselves to archery, and the practice in connexion with it of the ceremonies and music. But when rulers and officers practise ceremonies and music, never has it been known that such practice led to their banishment or ruin. 6. Hence it is said in the ode (now lost),
• The long-descended lord
Presents your cups of grace. His chiefs and noble men Appear, all in their place; Small officers and Great, Not one will keep away. See them before their prince, All in their full array. They feast, and then they shoot,
Happy and praised to boot.' The lines show how when rulers and their officers earnestly devoted themselves together to archery, and the practice in connexion with it of ceremonies and music, they were happy and got renown. It was on this account that the son of Heaven instituted the custom, and the feudal lords diligently attended to it. This was the way in which the son of Heaven cherished the princes, and had no need of weapons of war (in dealing with them); it furnished (also) to the princes an instrument with which they trained themselves to rectitude.
7. (Once), when Confucius was conducting an archery meeting in a vegetable garden at Kiohsiang, the lookers-on surrounded it like a wall. When the proceedings reached the point when a Master of the Horse should be appointed, he directed Zre-ld to take his bow and arrows, and go [28]
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