with the minister and director, again to hear it. When they had (once more) reported it to the king, he considered it with the three mitigating conditions[1], and then only determined the punishment.
15. In all inflictions of punishments and fines, even light offenders (that were not doubtful) were not forgiven. Punishment may be compared to the body. The body is a complete thing; when once completed, there cannot be any subsequent change in it[2]. Hence the wise man will do his utmost (in deciding on all these inflictions).
16. Splitting words so as to break (the force of) the laws; confounding names so as to change what had been definitely settled; practising corrupt ways so as to throw government into confusion: all guilty of these things were put to death. Using licentious music; strange garments; wonderful contrivances and extraordinary implements, thus raising doubts among the multitudes: all who used or formed such things were put to death. Those who were persistent in hypocritical conduct and disputatious in hypocritical speeches; who studied what was wrong, and went on to do so more and more, and whoever increasingly followed what was wrong so as to bewilder
the multitudes: these were put to death. Those
- ↑ Callery gives for this, "qui pardonne trois fois." The conditions were—ignorance, mistake, forgetfulness.
- ↑ There is here a play upon the homophonous names of different Chinese characters, often employed, as will be pointed out, in the Lî Kî, and in which the scholars of Han set an example to future times. Callery frames a French example of the reasoning that results from it: "Un saint est un ceint; or, la ceinture signifiant au figuré la continence, il s'ensuit que la vertu de continence est essentielle à la sainteté!"
