Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/178

 territory with its cities, the highest and other ministers, and the Great and other officers, all wailed in the grand ancestral temple, in mourning caps, for three days; and the ruler (for the same time) had no full meal with music. Some one says, "The ruler has his full meals and music, but wails at the altar to the spirit of the land."

46. Confucius disliked those who wailed in the open fields.

47. (A son) who has not been in office should not presume to give away anything belonging to the family. If he should have to do so, he ought to have the order of his father or elder brother for the act.

48. When the (ordinary) officers are all entered, then (the chief mourner and all the others) fall to their leaping, morning and evening.

49. After the service on the conclusion of the twenty-fourth month of mourning, the plain white cap is assumed. In that month the service on leaving off mourning is performed, and after another month (the mourners) may take to their music.

50. The ruler may confer on any officer the small curtain (as a pall for his father s coffin).