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THE LI XI.
the staff. Where (the mourner) has himself to take part in what is to be done, he will have his face grimed (as if black with sorrow). Women who are bald do not use the coiffure; hunchbacks do not unbare their arms; the lame do not leap; and the old and ill do not give up the use of liquor and flesh. All these are cases regulated by the consideration of circumstances.
BK. XLVI.
8. After the occurrence of the death, the (wailing for) three days, which left no leisure for anything else; the not taking off (the headband or girdle) for three months; the grief and lamentation for a whole year; and the sorrow on to the three years :(in all these things) there was a gradual diminution of the (manifestation of) affection. The sages, in accordance with that diminution of the natural feeling, made their various definite regulations.
9. It was on this account that the mourning rites were limited to three years. The worthiest were not permitted to go beyond this period, nor those who were inferior to them to fall short of it. This was the proper and invariable time for those rites, what the (sage) kings always carried into practice.
When it is said in the Shû (Part IV, Book VIII, i, 1), that Kâo 3ung, while occupying the mourning shed, for three years did not speak, this expresses approval of that sovereign. But the kings all observed this rule;-why is the approval only expressed in connexion with him? It may be replied, 'This Kâo 3ung was Wa Ting.' Wa Ting was a worthy sovereign of Yin. He had come to the throne in the due order of succession, and was thus loving and good in his observance of the mourning rites. At this time Yin, which had been
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