Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/34

 about the rites of mourning, and the loss or abandonment of one's state, to the "inauspicious;" about the payment of tributory dues and appearances at the royal court to "the rites of hospitality;" about weapons, chariots, and banners, "to those of war;" and about serving elders, reverencing the aged, giving offerings or presents, and the marriage of daughters, to the "festive ceremonies."' On this view the title would mean "Rules belonging to the different classes of ceremonies," or, more concisely, the "Rites Divers" of Callery; and Mr. Wylie has called the Book "The Universal Ritual."

But this rendering of the title does not suit the proper force of the character Khü, which is the symbol of "being bent or crooked," and is used, with substantival meaning, for what is small and appears irregularly. Mention is made in Book XXVIII, ii, 23, of "him who cultivates the shoots of goodness in his nature," those "shoots" being expressed by this character Khü; and in a note on the passage there I have quoted the words of the commentator Pâi Lü:—"Put a stone on a bamboo shoot, or where the shoot would show itself, and it will travel round the stone, and come out crookedly at its side." Thus Khü is employed for what is exhibited partially or in a small degree. Even Kǎng Hsüan on that passage explains it by "very small matters;" and the two ablest in my opinion of all the Chinese critics and commentators, Kû Hsî and Wû Khǎng (of the Yüan dynasty, A.D. 1249-1333), take our title to mean "The minuter forms and smaller points of ceremony." P. Zottoli is not to be blamed for following them, and styling the Book—"Minutiores Ritus." Still even this does not satisfy my own mind. Great rites are mentioned in the treatise as well as small ones. Principles of ceremony are enunciated as well as details. The contents are marked indeed by the "unconnectedness" which Callery mentions; but a translator cannot help that. The Book may not be as to method all that we could wish, but we must make the best we can of it as it stands; and I have ventured to call it "A Summary of the Rules of Ceremony." It occupies very properly the place at the beginning of the