Notes

1. Important as showing the rule of succession to position and property. We must suppose that the younger son, who had been made the head of the family, was by a different mother, and one whose position was inferior to that of the son, the proper heir who was dead. Of course the succession should have descended in the line of the rightful heir. Po-dze evaded the point of Than Kung's question; but Confucius did not hesitate to speak out the truth. On other matters which the paragraph might suggest we need not enter.

2. On differences in the services rendered to a parent, a ruler, and a master or instructor.

3. This Wû-dze was a great-grandson of Kî Yû, the third son (by an inferior wife) of duke Kwang of Lû (B.C. 693-662), and the ancestor of the Ki-sun, one of the three famous families of Lu. It would appear that he had appropriated to himself the burying ground of the Tû family.

4. Dze-shang, by name, Pâi, was the son of Dze-sze, and great-grandson of Confucius. What is related here is important as bearing on the question whether Confucius divorced his wife or not. If I am correct in translating the original text by 'your predecessor, the superior man,' in the singular and not in the plural, and supposing that it refers to Confucius, the paragraph has been erroneously supposed to favour the view that he did divorce his wife.

5. In the former case the mourner first thought of his visitor; in the latter, of his dead and his own loss. The bow was made with the hands clasped, and held very low, the head being bowed down to them. They were then opened, and placed forward on the ground, on each side of the body, while the head was stretched forward between them, and the forehead made to touch the ground. In the second case the process was reversed.

6. Dze-lû had died in peculiar circumstances in the state of Wei, through his hasty boldness, in B.C. 480. It was according to rule that the Master should wail for him. The order about the pickled meat was natural in the circumstances.

7. The characters in the text imply that a year had passed since the friend's death.

8. The graveclothes and coverlet. The things placed in the grave with the coffin were many, and will by-and-by come before the reader at length.

9. This paragraph is generally discredited. The Khien-lung editors say it is not to be relied on.

10. These two rules are in Book I, i. Pt. iv, 43, page 89.

11. These two rules are in Book I, i. Pt. iv, 43, page 89.

12. In a still earlier time, according to the third Appendix of the Yî (vol. xvi, p. 385), they merely covered the body on the ground with faggots.

13. Duke Mû was marquis of Lû from B.C. 409 to 376.

14. This was not the disciple of Confucius, but his son, also named Shan like him; but the characters for the names are different.

15. The marquis of Zin, who is known to us as duke Hsien, ruled from B.C. 676 to 651. Infatuated by his love for a barbarian captive from among the Lî, he behaved recklessly and unnaturally to his children already grown up. One very tragical event is the subject of this paragraph.

16. The text would seem to say here that the army of the duke was defeated; but the victory was with the duke. See the Zo Kwan, under B.C. 684, and there was a different reading, to which Lû Teh-ming refers on the passage, that leaves us free to translate as I have done.

17. See p. 108, par. 32; p. 112, par. 15; and often, farther on.

18. In B.C. 638. See the Zo Kwan of that year.

19. See in the Zo Kwan, under B.C. 569.

20. This must have been the Nan Yung of the Analects, V, 1, 2.

21. The sacrificial service on the final putting off of the mourning dress and to which reference is here made, was called than (譚). It will come several times before us hereafter. It is celebrated at the end of the 'three years' mourning' for a parent; that is, at the end of twenty-seven months from the death: see the Introduction, p. 49. Wang Sû of the Wei dynasty contended that the mourning was put off at the end of twenty-five months, and the editors of the Khang-hsî dictionary rather approve of his decision: see their note under the character than. I do not think the controversy as to the exact time when the mourning ceased can be entirely cleared up. Confucius praised Hsien-dze, because he could not forget his grief, when the outward sign of it was put off.

22. The sacrificial service here is called by a different name from than; it is hsiang ( 祥 ); and in mourning for parents there was 'the small hsiang,' at the end of the first year, and 'the great hsiang,' at the end of the second. The character here probably denotes the mourning for one year, which is not continued beyond that time. Music was not used during any of the period of mourning; and it is doing violence to the text to take hsiang here as equivalent to than.

23. In condemnation of Yû-dze (see Analects, I, 2), as quick to forget his grief.

24. The third death here must be supplemented, as I have done the second.

25. Compare paragraph 4, and the note on it. Lî, designated Po-yü, was the son of Confucius, and it has been supposed that his mother had been divorced, so that his protracted wailing for her gave occasion to the rebuke of his father. But while his father was alive, a son did not wail for his mother beyond the year. The passage does not prove that Confucius had divorced his wife, but the contrary; though he might have shown more sympathy with his son's sorrow.

26. From the first part of the Shû King we know that Shun married the two daughters of Yao. The mention of 'three' wives here has greatly perplexed the commentators. Where Zhang-wû was is also much disputed.

27. The proper place for the operation was the principal chamber. There is only conjecture to account for the different place in the case of Zang-dze.

28. In relationships of the third degree: as by a man for a married aunt or sister, a brother's wife, a first cousin, &c.; by a wife, for her husband's grand-parents, uncles, &c.; by a married woman, for her uncle and uncle's wife, a spinster aunt, brothers, sisters, &c. See Appendix at the end of this Book.

29. In relationships of the fourth degree: as by a man for his grand-uncle and his wife, a spinster grand-aunt, a second cousin, &c.; by a wife for her husband's aunt, brother or sister, &c.; by a married woman, for her spinster aunt, married sister, &c. See Appendix.

30. This paragraph does not seem to contain any lessons of censure or approval, but simply to relate a fact.

31. We know almost nothing of the Po-kâo (the eldest son, Kâo) here. From the next paragraph it does not appear that his intimacy with Confucius had been great. Zan-dze had taken too much on himself. Perhaps the gift was too great, and sympathy cannot well be expressed by proxy. The parcel of silks contained five pieces.

32. These were two streams of Lû, near which was the home of Confucius. I thought of this passage when I crossed at least one of them on my way to Khü-fû, 'the city of Confucius,' about twelve years ago.

33. 'A great cause:'--such as danger from enemies, or death and the consequent mourning, which, especially in the case of a father's death, required the son thus to 'afflict himself.'

34. The whole of this paragraph seems overstrained and trivial.

35. We are willing to believe this paragraph, because it shows how the depths of Confucius' sympathy could be stirred in him. He was not in general easily moved.

36. This paragraph has occasioned a good deal of discussion. The text does not make it clear whether the sacrifice was that at the end of one, or that at the end of two years. Why did Confucius play on his lute? and was he right in doing so?

37. The original of this supplement has dropt out of the text. It is found in the 'Narratives of the School;' and in a Corean edition of the Lî Kî.

38. It is well known that the Khung family was a branch of the ducal house of Sung, the lords of which were the representatives of the royal house of Shang. The Khungs were obliged to flee from Sung, and take refuge in Lû in the time of the great-grandfather of Confucius.

39. It is doubtful whether this advice was entirely followed as regards the matter of the dress.

40. See the full description of a coffin and hearse with all its ornaments in Book XIX.

41. In honour of the Master, though Dze-kang himself could not claim to be descended from the kings of Yin.

42. Some would interpret this sentence as if it were--'changing the grave' ( 易 and not 易 ); but the Khien-lung editors say that this practice, originating in geomancy, arose in the time of Sin, and was unknown during the Han dynasty.

43. The object of Dze-yû in all the movements detailed here is supposed to have been to correct some irregularity in the proceedings on the occasion. Kang Hsüan thinks that Wan-dze was supporting a grandson, instead of Hû, his deceased brother's rightful son, to be the principal mourner, and consequently to succeed Hui-dze as his representative and successor. Hui-dze and Wan-dze (called Mei-mâu) were of the state of Wei.

44. A distant state, south of Wû, on the seaboard.

45. Three months after birth.

46. To show the deceased had no more occasion for food, and to keep the feet straight, so that the shoes might be put on at the dressing of the corpse.

47. Was there anything more than a joke in this reply of Po-yü? The commentators make it out to be a reproof of Wan-dze for wishing to appropriate for his grave the pleasant ground of another.

48. He should have made his preparations before, and not have had to throw down his cap on the ground.

49. The text of this paragraph would make the assisting parties to be the chief diviner and the chief archer. The translation is according to an emendation of it from the Kâu Li.

50. Worn in relationships of the fifth degree: as by a man for his great-grand-uncle and his wife, a spinster great-grand-aunt, the son of a mother's brother or sister, &c.; by a wife for her husband's great-great-grand-parents, &c. See Appendix.

51. Lest he should seem not to be wishing individuals to live long.

52. The Khien-lung editors say on this:--'To serve the dead as he served the living is the highest reach of a son's feeling. But there is a difference, it is to be presumed, between the ways of spirits and those of men. In the offerings put down immediately after death, there is an approach to treating the deceased as if he were still a (living) man. But at the burial the treatment of him approaches to that due to a (disembodied) spirit. Therefore the dealing with the dead may be spoken of generally as something between that due to a man and that due to a spirit,--a manifestation of the utmost respect without any familiar liberty.' We should like to have something still more definite. Evidently the subject was difficult to those editors, versed in all Chinese lore, and not distracted by views from foreign habits and ways of thinking. How much more difficult must it be for a foreigner to place himself 'en rapport' with the thoughts and ways of men, so far removed from him in time and in mental training! The subject of these vessels, which yet were no vessels, will come up again.

53. Confucius sent those two disciples, that he might get their report of King (or Khû), and know whether he might himself go and take office there as be wished to do.

54. B.C. 409-377.

55. Confucius gives a decision against mourning at all in such a case, excepting it were exceptional,--in the 'Narratives of the School,' chapter 10, article I.

56. Dze-sze's mother, after his father's death, had married again into the Shû family of Wei. What mourning was Dze-sze now to wear for her? Liû Zo seems to have apprehended that he would be carried away by his feelings and would do more than was according to rule in such a case. Dze-sze's reply to him is not at all explicit.

57. This record is supposed to be intended to ridicule Hâu Mû for troubling himself as he did.

58. Settling places for the wailers, &c. But this explanation is deemed unsatisfactory.

59. The name was used only in calling the spirit back immediately after death; the wailing was a subsequent thing.

60. On death, the body was lifted from the couch, and laid on the ground. When there was no response to the recalling of the spirit, it was returned to the couch and dressed. A practice seems to have arisen of slightly dressing it on the ground, which Pan did not wish to follow. Dze-yu ought to have told him that his proposal was according to rule; whereas he expressed his permission of it,--a piece of arrogance, which Hsien-dze condemned.

61. Hsiang died in B.C. 637.

62. The contributions had been announced by the bier, as if to the departed, and a record of them made. To read the list, as is here supposed, as the procession was about to set forth, was a vain-glorious proceeding, which Zang-dze thus derided.

63. The supplements in this paragraph are from the 'Narratives of the School.' Some contend that the whole should be read as what Dze-hsiâ said, and that the Master gave him no reply, disapproving of his sentiments.

64. This paragraph, like the preceding, appears in rather a different form in the 'Narratives of the School.'

65. Kwo-dze Kâo was the same as the Khang-dze Kâo of par. 22. Kwo was the surname, and Khang the posthumous title. It is difficult to decide between Kwo-dze Kâo and Kwo Dze-kâo.

66. This short paragraph is difficult to construe. The Khien-lung editors seem to approve of another interpretation of it; but even that is not without its difficulties. The flesh of sacrifice, it is said, left uncovered, would become unfit for use or to be sold.

67. The outer sackcloth remained unchanged; but inside it was now worn this robe of white silk, a good deal ornamented. Inside this and over the deer's-fur in winter might be worn another robe of thin silk, through which the fur was seen. Inside the fur was what we should call the shirt, always worn.

68. Tracing the Î tree, through the dictionaries from synonym to synonym, we come at last to identify it with the 'white aspen;' whether correctly or not I do not know.

69. This cap, it is said, was of leather, of the dark colour of a male sparrow's head. Hence its name.

70. See Book XIX.

71. Confucius' death took place on the 18th of the fourth month of duke Âi's 16th year, B.C. 479. The eulogy is given somewhat differently in the Zo Kwan under that year: 'Compassionate Heaven vouchsafes me no comfort, and has not left me the aged man, to support me, the One man, on my seat. Dispirited I am, and full of distress. Woe is me! Alas! O Nî-fû. There is no one now to be a rule to me!' Khiû was Confucius' name, and Kung-nî his designation.' After this eulogy, Nî-fû was for a time his posthumous title.

72. It was the rule to mourn in the open country for an acquaintance. See p. 134. There must have been some irregularity in the practice adverted to.

73. That is, supposing him to have been in office; though some suppose that the necessity might arise, even in the case of a son who had not been in office.

74. Of course the higher officers must also be there. This refers to the mourning rites for a ruler.

75. See the note on page 130. It is difficult, notwithstanding all the references to it, to say definitely in what month the than sacrifice was performed.