Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/313

 the first and fifteenth of every moon, the civil and military officers, dressed in their uniform, meet in a clean, spacious, public hall. The superintendent, who is called Le-sang, calls aloud, "stand forth in files." They do so, according to their rank: he then says, "kneel thrice, and bow the head nine times." They kneel, and bow to the ground, with their faces towards a platform, on which is placed a board, with the Emperor's name. He next calls aloud, "rise and retire;" they rise, and all go to a hall, or kind of chapel, where the law—[sacred edict] is usually read, and where the militarv and people are assembled, standing round in silence. The Le-sang then says, "Respectfully commence." The Sze-keang-sang, or orator, advancing towards an incense-altar, kneels, reverently takes up the board on which the maxim appointed for the day is written, and ascends a stage with it. An old man receives the board, and puts it down on the stage, fronting the people. Then, commanding silence with a wooden rattle which he carries in his hand, he kneels, and reads it. When he has finished, the Le-sang calls out, "Explain such a maxim, or section of the sacred edict." The orator stands up, and gives the sense,"—i. e. rehearses the amplification, or paraphrase, or both.

This practice of publishing imperial edicts is of very ancient origin, and has received different modifications and attentions at different periods. The Shoo-king says, "annually, in the first month of spring, the proclaimer of imperial decrees went hither and thither on the high ways, with his rattle, admonishing the people." Subsequently, the laws, or imperial edicts, were publicly read on the first of every month; which practice seems still to be required, but is in fact, we believe, wholly discontinued. At present the public reading of the sacred