Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/220

 "What do you say then to my moving the marketplace elsewhere?" The answer was, "When the son of Heaven dies, the market is held in the lanes for seven days; and it is held in them for three days, when the ruler of a state dies. It will perhaps be a proper measure to move it there on account of the present distress."

30. Confucius said, "The people of Wei, in burying husband and wife together (in the same grave and shell), leave a space between the coffins. The people of Lû, in doing the same, place them together; —which is the better way.

reader will have been struck by the many references in the Than Kung to the degrees and dress of mourning; and no other subject occupies so prominent a place in many of the books of the Lî Kî that follow. It is thought well, therefore, to introduce here, by way of appendix to it, the following passage from a very valuable paper on "Marriage, Affinity, and Inheritance in China," contributed, on February 8th, 1853, to the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, by Mr. W. H. Medhurst, jun., now Sir Walter H. Medhurst. The information and subjoined illustrative tables were taken by him mainly from the Ritual and Penal Code of China, a preliminary chapter of which is devoted to the subject of "The Dress of Mourning:"—

&emsp;'The ideas of the Chinese as to nearness of kin, whether by