(other) learners, in serving their masters, have an attachment for them; 18. nor can majesty and dignity be shown in assigning the different places at court, in the government of the armies, and in discharging the duties of office so as to secure the operation of the laws; 19. nor can there be the (proper) sincerity and gravity in presenting the offerings to spiritual Beings on occasions of supplication, thanksgiving, and the various sacrifices[1]. 20. Therefore the superior man is respectful and reverent, assiduous in his duties and not going beyond them, retiring and yielding;—thus illustrating (the principle of) propriety. 21. The parrot can speak, and yet is nothing more than a bird; the ape can speak, and yet is nothing more than a beasts Here now is a man who observes no rules of propriety; is not his heart that of a beast[2]. But if (men were as) beasts, and without (the principle of) propriety, father and son might have the same mate. 22. Therefore, when the sages arose, they framed the rules of propriety
in order to teach men, and cause them, by
- ↑ Four religious acts are here mentioned, in connexion with which the offerings to spiritual Beings were presented. What I have called "various sacrifices" is in Chinese Kî sze. Wû Khāng says: "Kî means sacrificial offerings to the spirit (or spirits) of Earth, and sze those to the spirits of Heaven. Offerings to the manes of men are also covered by them when they are used together."
- ↑ We know that the parrot and some other birds can be taught to speak; but I do not know that any animal has been taught to enunciate words even as these birds do. Williams (Dict. p. 809) thinks that the shāng shāng mentioned here may be the rhinopithecus Roxellana of P. David, found in Sze-khüan; but we have no account of it in Chinese works, so far as I know, that is not evidently fabulous.
