Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/45

 to a description of its contents more than most of the titles in the Lî Kî. It is not taken, moreover, from any part of the text near the commencement or elsewhere. It is difficult to understand why so little of it is retained in the expurgated editions, hardly more than a page of P. Callery's work being sufficient for it.

Kǎng Hsüan says:—'The Book takes its name of Nêi Зeh, because it records the rules for sons and daughters in serving their parents, and for sons and their wives in serving her parents-in-law in the family-home. Among the other Treatises of the Lî Kî it may be considered as giving the Rules for Children. And because the observances of the harem are worthy of imitation, it is called Nêi Зeh, "the Pattern of the Interior." ' Kû Hsî says, that "it is a Book which was taught to the people in the ancient schools, an ancient Classic or Sacred Text."

Because the name of Зǎng-Зze and a sentence from him occur, the Khien-lung editors are inclined to ascribe the authorship to his disciples; but the premiss is too narrow to support such a conclusion.

The position of the wife, as described in Section i, will appear to western readers very deplorable. Much in this part of the Treatise partakes of the exaggeration that is characteristic of Chinese views of the virtue of filial piety.

The account in Section ii of the attention paid to the aged, and the nourishing of them, is interesting, but goes, as the thing itself did, too much into details. What is it to us at the present time how they made the fry, the bake, the delicacy, and the other dishes to tempt the palate and maintain the strength? The observances in the relation of husband and wife, on the birth of a child, and the education and duties of the young of both sexes, which the Section goes on to detail, however, are not wanting in attraction.

The name of the Book, Yü Зâo, is taken from the first clause of the first paragraph. The two characters denote the pendants of the royal cap worn on great occasions, and