drear domain. The sacrifice to the souls of the dead is of great antiquity in China. Confucius, in the Chung yung,[1] or golden medium, is stated to have declared that, "the man who was free from grief was Wan Wang—his father Wang-ke—his son Woo Wang. His father commenced the career of virtue, and his son continued it. Woo Wang continued the virtuous course of Tae, Wang Wang-ke and Wan Wang. He only once buckled on his armour and he gained the empire. His personal conduct was such, that he never lost his illustrious name in the empire. As to honour, he was emperor, and in riches, he possessed all within the four seas. He sacrified to his ancestors in the ancestorial temple, and his posterity preserved the empire.
Woo Wang, was in the decline of life when he received the appointment of heaven (i. e. the empire). Chow-kung perfected the meritorious deeds (or wishes) of Woo-Wang, paid royal honours to Tae Wang and Wang-ke, and sacrificed to their ancestors, according to the rites due to the emperor. He extended these sacrificial rites to the princes, great officers of state, literati and common people. If the father held a high office and the son was one of the literati, then he was buried according to the rites of great officers, and the subsequent sacrifices were those of the literati. If the father was one of the literati and the son a great officer, then his funeral rites were such as belong to the literati, and his sacrificial rites such as belonged to a great officer.
"'Confucius exclaimed, the filial piety of Woo Wang and Chow Kung is universally talked of.' 'In the spring and autumn they put in order the ancestorial temples, arranged in proper order the vessels of sacrifice; put the clothes of their ancestors on a person to represent them and offered the sacrifices of the season. By the rites in the temple of ancestors, are separated the different generations, according to their regular succession.' 'They served the dead as they did when they were alive, and those who are buried, as when they were with them. They served the Great Supreme by the sacrifices offered to heaven and earth, and offered the sacrifices of the ancestorial hall to their ancestors.'"
"We gather from what has been said above, that sacrifices to the dead Were offered in China so long ago as the time of Wang Wang, who is supposed to have flourished about the termination of the Shang dynasty, about 1112 years before Christ; and that they are considered by Confucius as necessary acts of religion or filial piety. They are
- ↑ The four books, p. 14, sec xviii.
