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THE LĨ KÍ.
A COLLECTION OF TREATISES ON THE RULES OF PROPRIETY OR CEREMONIAL USAGES.
BOOK I. KHU LI. SUMMARY OF THE RULES OF PROPRIETY.
SECTION I. Part I. Ch. 1. 1. The Summary of the Rules of Propriety says :-Always and in everything let there be reverence ; with the deportment grave as when
On the names of the whole work and of this book, see the Introduction, pp. 9-12 and 15-17.
Part I is occupied with general principles and statements about Propriety rather than with the detail of particular rules. It may be divided into seven chapters, containing in all thirty-one paragraphs.
Ch. 1. 1, tells how reverence and gravity, with careful speech, are essential in Propriety; and shows its importance to a community or nation. 2. 2, specifies habits or tendencies incompatible with Propriety. 3. 3-5, gives instances of Propriety in superior men, and directions for certain cases. 4. 6, 7, states the rules for sitting, standing, and a mission to another state. 5. 8-22, sets forth how indispensable Propriety is for the regulation of the individual and society, and that it marks in fact the distinction between men and brutes. 6. 23-26, indicates how the rules, unnecessary in the most ancient times, grew with the progress of society, and were its ornament and security. 7. 27-31, speaks of the different stages of life, as divided into decades from ten years to a hundred; and certain characteristics belonging to them.
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