Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/375

 duke of Shâo spoke about it to the duke of Kâu, who said, "Why may it not be done?" and the recorder did it. The practice of coffins for boys who have died so prematurely, and shrouding them, began with the recorder Yî.' "

25. 𝖅ǎng-𝖟ze asked, "A minister or a Great officer is about to act the part of a personator of the dead for his ruler. If, when he has received (orders) to pass the night in solemn vigil, there occur in his own family an occasion for him to wear the robe of hemmed sackcloth, what should he do?"

Confucius said, "The rule is for him to leave (his house) and lodge in a state hotel, and wait till (the ruler's) business is accomplished."

26. Confucius said, "When one who has represented the dead comes forth in the (officer's) leathern cap, or the (Great officer's) tasseled cap (which he has worn), ministers. Great officers, and other officers, all will descend from their carriages (when his passes). He will bow forward to them, and he will also have a forerunner (to notify his approach)."

27. 𝖅ze-hsiâ asked, "There is such a thing as no longer declining military service, after the wailing in the three years' mourning has come to an end. Is this the rule? or was it at first required by the officers (of the state)?"

Confucius said, "Under the sovereigns of Hsiâ, as soon as the coffining in the three years' mourning was completed, they resigned all their public duties. Under Yin they did so as soon as the interment was over. Is not this the meaning of what we find in the record, that 'the ruler does not take from men their affection to their parents, nor do men take from their parents their filial duty?' "