jze said, "It is not an ancient practice; it is a second announcement (to the departed)[1]!"
22. When Khǎng-jze Kâo was lying ill, Khing Î went in to see him, and asked his (parting) commands, saying, "Your disease, Sir, is severe. If it should go on to be the great illness, what are we to do?" Зze-kâo said, "I have heard that in life we should be of use to others, and in death should do them no harm. Although I may have been of no use to others during my life, shall I do them any harm by my death? When I am dead, choose a piece of barren ground, and bury me there."
23. Зze-hsiâ asked the Master (how one should deport himself) during the mourning for the ruler's mother or wife, (and the reply was), "In sitting and stopping with others, in his conversation, and when eating and drinking, he should appear to be at ease[2]."
24. When a stranger-visitor arrived, and had nowhere to lodge, the Master would say, "While he is alive, let him lodge with me. Should he die, I will see to his coffining[3]."
25. Kwo-jze Kâo[4] said, "Burying means hiding
- ↑ The contributions had been announced by the bier, as if to the departed, and a record of them made. To read the list, as is here supposed, as the procession was about to set forth, was a vain-glorious proceeding, which Зǎng-jze thus derided.
- ↑ The supplements in this paragraph are from the "Narratives of the School." Some contend that the whole should be read as what Зze-hsiâ said, and that the Master gave him no reply, disapproving of his sentiments.
- ↑ This paragraph, like the preceding, appears in rather a different form in the "Narratives of the School."
- ↑ Kwo-jze Kâo was the same as the Khǎng-jze Kâo of par. 22. Kwo was the surname, and Khǎng the posthumous title. It is difficult to decide between Kwo-jze Kâo and Kwo Зze-kâo.
