Notes

1. This refers to a strange custom which was practised at the burial of men of rank, or of others who were treated as such, as in the cases here. 'The carriages employed in it,' says Ying-tâ, 'were very small. When the funeral car was about to set off from the temple, and all to be done at the grave was arranged, they took portions of the bodies which had supplied the offerings put down by the coffin, broke them in small pieces, wrapped them up, and placed them in these carriages, to be conveyed after the car. At the grave the little bundles were placed one by one, inside the outer shell at its four corners.' The number of these small carriages varied according to the rank of the deceased. We shall find the practice mentioned again and again. It is not easy for a foreigner fully to understand it, and I have found great haziness in the attempts of native scholars to explain it. 'The eldest sons' would have died between sixteen and nineteen.

2. Where visitors had been lodged during the mourning rites, outside the great gate.

3. Wû-dze was the posthumous title of Ki-sun Suh, the principal minister of Lû in the time of duke Hsiang (B.C. 572-543). He was arrogant, and made other officers pay to him the same observances as to the ruler; but he was constrained to express his approval of the bold rectitude of Kiâo.

4. This is added by the writer, and implies a condemnation of Zang Tien, who did not know how to temper his censure of the minister, as Kiâo Kû had done. But there must be an error in the passage. Tien (the father of Zang Shan) could have been but a boy when Wû-dze died.

5. Or it may be, 'should not have music;' toning one of the characters differently.

6. It is supposed that the deceased had left no son to preside at the mourning rites.

7. But if there be no son by the wife proper, the oldest son by an inferior wife may receive the condolences. See the Khien-lung editors, in loc.

8. For some reason or other he has not gone to the house of the deceased, to wail for him there.

9. B.C. 467-431. Yû Zo had been a disciple of Confucius, and here we find the greater follower of the sage, Dze-yû, present and assisting at the mourning rites for him.

10. That is, the prince went up to the hall by the steps on the east, set apart for the use of the master and father of the house. But the ruler was master everywhere in his state, as the king was in his kingdom. An error prevailed on this matter, and Dze-yû took the opportunity to correct it.

11. That is, she had gone from the royal court to Lû, and been married thence under the superintendence of the marquis of that state, who also was of the royal surname. This was a usual practice in the marriage of kings' daughters; and it was on this account the lord of the officiating state wore mourning for them. The relationship assigned in the next clause is wrong; and so would have been the mourning mentioned, if it had been correct.

12. Fully to understand this paragraph, one must know more particulars of the history of Khung-r, and his relations with his father and the duke of Khin, than can be given here in a note. He became the ablest of the five chiefs of the Khun Khiû period.

13. This was a prudish action of the young widow, but it changed an old custom and introduced a new one.

14. This has respect to the modifications adopted in regulating the mourning rites for parents.

15. This inscription contained the surname, name, and rank of the deceased. It was at first written, I suppose, on a strip of silk, and fastened up under the eaves above the steps on the east. In the meantime a tablet of wood called Khung, the first character in the next paragraph, and for which I have given 'The first tablet for the spirit,' was prepared. The inscription was transferred to it, and it was set up on or by the coffin, now having the body in it, and by and by it was removed to the east of the coffin pit, where it remained till after the interment.

16. The observances in this paragraph and the next remain substantially the same at the present day. 'The bier,' writes Wang Thâo, 'is placed in the apartment, and the tablet with the inscription, as a resting-place for the spirit, is set up, while the offerings are set forth near it morning and evening. After the interment this tablet is burned, and the permanent tablet (神主) is made, before which the offerings are presented at the family sacrifices from generation to generation. Thus "the dead are served as the living have been."'

17. The 'Three Rituals Explained' (三禮通釋 ), ch. 238, give the figures of these caps thus:-- The hsü {illustration} The pien {illustration}

18. This would be the wife of the deceased, or the wife of his son.

19. These were some rolls of purplish silks, sent by the ruler as his parting gifts, when the hearse-car reached the city gate on its way to the grave.

20. Where was the spirit of the departed now? The bones and flesh had returned to the dust, but the soul-spirit might be anywhere (魂氣無所不之[=至]). To afford it a resting-place, the permanent tablet was now put in the shrine, and this sacrifice of repose (虞[=安]祭) was offered, so that the son might be able to think that his father was never far from him. For a father of course the personator was a male; for a mother, a female; but there are doubts on this point.

21. For the spirit of the ground.

22. If the grave were too far distant to allow all this to be transacted before midday, then the sacrifice was performed in the chamber where the coffin had rested. So says Wang Thâo on the authority of Zan Yî-shang (任翼聖).

23. When visiting a minister when alive, the ruler was accompanied by the lance-bearer, but not by those other officers;--there was the difference between life and death.

24. I suspect that the sorcerer and exorcist were ancient superstitions, not established by the former kings, but with which they did not care to interfere by saying anything about them.

25. Of Lû, B.C. 409-377.

26. B.C. 467-431.

27. The heads of the Kung-sun, Shû-sun, and Ki-sun families; whose power Confucius had tried in vain to break.

28. In this case Dze-yû was correct, according to rule, following the example of the chief mourner. Sze-thû was a name of office,--the ministry of Instruction; but it had become in this case the family name; from some ancestor of King-dze, who had been minister of Instruction.

29. See the note on paragraph I, page 161. An-Sze was the chief minister of Khî.

30. 'The master' here would seem to be Confucius; and yet he died before Sze-thû King-dze. There are other difficulties in parts of the paragraph.

31. It is said, 'She mourned for her husband according to propriety; for her son according to her feelings.'

32. Evidently there is a lacuna in the text here; there should be some mention of stamping. Many of the critics have seen this, especially the Khien-lung editors; and various additions have been proposed by way of correction and supplement.

33. This incursion must be that mentioned in the Zo Kwan under B.C. 494. Various corruptions and disruptions of the text of the paragraph have to be rectified, however; and the interpretation is otherwise difficult.

34. An officer of Lû.

35. Compare above, paragraph 17, p. 137 et al.

36. See vol. iii, p. 113. The Shû is not quoted exactly.

37. This was in B.C. 533. Kih Tâo-dze was a great officer of Zin. See the story in the Zo Kwan under that year.

38. This was in B.C. 512. Twice in the Analects (XIV, 14, 19) Kung-shuh Wan-dze, 'Kung-shu, the accomplished,' is mentioned. Whether he received the long honorary title given in the conclusion of this paragraph is considered doubtful.

39. Khan Dze-khang was one of the disciples of Confucius, mentioned in the Analects I, 10; VII, 25. It is difficult to follow the reasoning of the wife and steward in justification of their proposals.

40. Duke Hsien fled from Wei in B.C. 559, and returned to it in 547.

41. The same duke Hsien of Wei. Khan Hâo and others condemn his action in this case. Readers may not agree with them.

42. See this incident in the Chinese Classics, V, i, pp. 301, 302, where the account of it is discussed in a note.

43. This must be the greater dressing.

44. Pan and Zo were probably the same man; but we know that Pan lived at a later period. The incident in this paragraph therefore is doubted.

45. The fight at Lang is mentioned in the Khun Khiû under B.C. 484. Zo's description of the battle gives the incident mentioned here, but somewhat differently.

46. Khî-kî was a son of the king of Khû, and afterwards became king Phing. Khû, in B.C. 534, reduced Khan to be a dependency of itself, and put it under Khî-kî, who became known as Khî-kî of Khan.

47. The king's business;' that is, the business of the count of Khû, who had usurped the title of king.

48. It is not easy to discover the point of Confucius' reply. Even Dze-lû questioned him about it (as related in the Narratives of the School), and got an answer which does not make it any clearer.

49. In B.C. 578.

50. Probably by the marquis of Zin--duke Wan--as 'lord of Meetings and Covenants.'

51. In B.C. 545.

52. King was another name for Khû. Duke Hsiang went from Lû in B.C. 545; and it was in the spring of the next year, probably, that the incident occurred. The sorcerer and his reed-brush were used when a ruler went to the mourning for a minister (see Part i. 42), so that Khû intending to humiliate Lû was itself humiliated.

53. Duke Khang of Thang died in B.C. 539.

54. This must have been a case for which the rule is given in Part i. 12.

55. See the Zo Kwan, under B.C. 550, the twenty-third year of duke Hsiang. The name of the place in the text (To, read Thui by Kang Hsüan) seems to be a mistake. See the Khang-hsi dictionary on the character To (奪).

56. There is a good deal of difficulty and difference of opinion in the interpretation of this paragraph. According to the common view, the funeral carriage used by the king and princes was very heavy, and difficult to drag along. To ease its transit, a juice was prepared from the elm bark, and sprinkled on the ground to make it slippery. But this practice was because of the heaviness of the carriage; and was not required in the case of lighter conveyances.

57. This Kî Dze-kâo was Kâo Khâi, one of the disciples of Confucius. Shan-hsiang was the son of Dze-kang; see paragraph 3, page 132.

58. Such was Dze-sze in Lû, and Mencius in Khî. They were 'guests,' not ministers. Declining salary, they avoided the obligations incurred by receiving it.

59. The Khû (arsenal or treasury gate) was the second of the palace gates, and near the ancestral temple. Hence the position selected for the wailing.

60. See the Khun Khiû, under B.C. 588.

61. This Kâu Fang must have been a worthy who had withdrawn from public life.

62. Referring, I think, to the discomfort of the mourning shed. But other interpretations of the paragraph are to be found in Khan Hâo's work, and elsewhere.

63. This Ki-dze is better known as Kî Kâ (季札), a brother of the ruler of Wû. Having declined the state of Wû, he lived in the principality of Yen-ling. He visited the northern states Lû, Khî, Zin, and the others, in B.C. 515; and his sayings and doings in them are very famous. He was a good man and able, whom Confucius could appreciate. Ying and Po were two places in Khî.

64. Khâo should probably be Ting. Duke Khâo lived after the period of the Khun Khiû, during which the power of Hsü had been entirely broken.

65. Here was Yung Kü, merely a Great officer, wishing to do what only a prince could do, according to the rules of propriety. He defends himself on the ground that the lords of Hsü claimed the title of King. The language of the officers of Kû shows that they were embarrassed by his mission.

66. Literally, 'The mother of the Shû family is dead,' but the interpretation of the text is disputed. The Khien-lung editors and many others question the genuineness of the whole paragraph.

67. The officers of prayer were divided into five classes; the first and third of which are intended here. See the Official Book of Kâu, ch. 25.

68. Great efforts are made to explain away this last sentence.

69. This duke Ting became ruler of Kû in B.C. 613. Some interpret the paragraph as if it said that all the officers, as well as the whole family of a regicide or parricide, should be killed with him. But that cannot be, and need not be, the meaning.

70. It is doubtful how this first sentence should be translated. Most naturally we should render Hsien-wan-dze of Zin having completed his house, but binomial honorary titles were not yet known; and the view seems to be correct that this Wan-dze was Kâo Wû, a well-known minister of Zin. The 'Nine Plains' below must have been the name of a burying-place used by the officers of Zin. There seems to be an error in the name in the text, which is given correctly in paragraph 25.

71. The concluding sentence is found also in the 'Narratives of the School,' and may have been added to the rest by the compiler of this Than Kung. We are not prepared for the instance which Confucius gives of his poverty; but perhaps we like him better for keeping a dog, and seeing after its burial.

72. Because he was older than Zang-dze.

73. This concluding sentence is much objected to; seeming, as it does, to attribute to their toilet what was due to the respectful demeanour of the two worthies, and their established reputation. But the text must stand as it is.

74. The whole narrative here is doubted. See the Shih, I. iii. Ode 10. 4. The reading of the poem, but not the meaning, is different from the text. The application is far-fetched.

75. The time was one of great disorder; there may have been reasons for the violations of propriety, which we do not know.

76. We have another instance of Confucius's relations with Yüan Zang in the Analects, XIV, 46. He was evidently 'queer,' with a sort of craze. It gives one a new idea of Confucius to find his interest in, and kindly feeling for, such a man.

77. See paragraph 19 and note.

78. Master of duke Hsiang B.C. 627-621, and an important minister afterwards.

79. See in paragraph 19, Part i. But scant measure is dealt here to 'uncle Fan.'

80. See in paragraph 19, Part i. But scant measure is dealt here to 'uncle Fan.'

81. Wû-dze of Sui had an eventful life, and played an important part in the affairs of Zin and Khin in his time. See a fine testimony to him in the Zo Kwan, under B.C. 546.

82. Shû-kung Phî was the first of a branch of the Shû-sun clan, descended from the ruling house of Lû. The object of the paragraph seems to be to show, that Dze-liû's wife, though a plain simple woman, was taught what to do, by her native feeling and sense, in a matter of ceremony, more correctly than the two gentlemen, mere men of the world, her husband and his uncle. The paragraph, however, is not skilfully constructed, nor quite clear. Kang Hsüan thought that Dze-liû was Phî's son, which, the Khien-lung editors say, some think a mistake, They do not give definitely their own opinion.

83. The Dze-kâo here was the same as Kao Khâi; see the note on paragraph 4. The incident here shows the influence of his well-known character. He is the crab whose shell forms a box for the cocoons, and the cicada whose antennae form the strings for the cap.

84. 'Duke Mû and Hsien-dze;' see Section I. Part iii. 5.

85. In the Zo Kwan, under B.C. 639, duke Hsî of Lû makes a proposal about exposing a deformed person and a witch like that which is recorded here. Nothing is said, however, about changing the site of the market. Reference is made, however, to that practice in a work of Tung Kung-shu (second century, B.C.), of which Wang Thâo ventures to give a geomantic explanation. The narrative in the text is probably taken from the Zo Kwan, the compiler having forgotten the time and parties in the earlier account.