these rules?" Confucius said, "I wished to see the ways of Hsiâ, and for that purpose went to Khî. But it was not able to attest my words, though I found there 'The seasons of Hsiâ.' I wished to see the ways of Yin, and for that purpose went to Sung. But it was not able to attest my words, though I found there 'The Khwǎn Khien.' In this way I got to see the meanings in the Khwǎn Khien, and the different steps in the seasons of Hsiâ[1].
6. At the first use of ceremonies, they began with meat and drink. They roasted millet and pieces of pork[2]; they excavated the ground in the form of a jar, and scooped the water from it with their two hands; they fashioned a handle of clay, and struck with it an earthen drum. (Simple as these arrangements were), they yet seemed to be able to express by them their reverence for Spiritual Beings.
7. (By-and-by)[3], when one died, they went upon
- ↑ Compare with this paragraph the ninth in the third Book of the Analects. In that Confucius tells of his visits to KM and Sung; but says nothing of his finding any book or fragment of a book in either, dwelling instead on the insufficiency of their records. "The seasons of Hsiâ," which it is said here "he got in Khî," is supposed to be the "small calendar of Hsiâ," preserved by the Greater Tâi, and "the Khwǎn Khien" to have been the "Kwei 𝖅hang Yî," attributed by many to the Shang dynasty. But all this is very uncertain.
- ↑ In an unartificial manner, we are told, "by placing them on heated stones." It is only the last sentence of the paragraph which makes us think that the previous parts have anything to do with sacrifice or religion.
- ↑ Khung Ying-tâ thinks that this describes the practices of the period of "the five Tîs." The north is the quarter of darkness and decay, the south that of brightness and life. "The paragraph
