enters his mouth for three days, and with the aid of his staff he is still able to rise."
8. Зǎng-jze said, "If, in cases coming under the five months' mourning, none be worn when the death is not heard of till after the lapse of that time, then when brethren are far apart there would be no wearing of mourning for them at all; and would this be right?"
9. On the mourning rites for Po-kâo, before the messenger from Confucius could arrive, Zan-jze had taken it on him, as his substitute, to present a parcel of silks and a team of four horses. Confucius said, "Strange! He has only made me fail in showing my sincerity in the case of Po-kâo[1]."
10. Po-kâo died in Wei, and news of the event was sent to Confucius. He said, "Where shall I wail for him? For brethren, I wail in the ancestral temple; for a friend of my father, outside the gate of the temple; for a teacher, in my chamber; for a friend, outside the door of the chamber; for an acquaintance, in the open country, (some distance off). (To wail) in the open country would in this case be too slight (an expression of grief), and to do so in the bed-chamber would be too great a one. But it was by Зhze that he was introduced to me. I will wail for him in 3hze's." Accordingly he ordered
Зze-kung to act as presiding mourner on the
- ↑ We know almost nothing of the Po-kâo (the eldest son, Kâo) here. From the next paragraph it does not appear that his intimacy with Confucius had been great Zan-jze had taken too much on himself. Perhaps the gift was too great, and sympathy cannot well be expressed by proxy. The parcel of silks contained five pieces.
