lay aside when the interment has taken place. If it be the husband who dies, a similar course will be followed on the other side."
23. đ Çng-đze asked, "Is it according to rule that at the mourning rites there should be two (performing the part of) the orphan son (and heir, receiving visitors)[1], or that at a temple-shrine there should be two spirit-tablets?"
Confucius said, "In heaven there are not two suns; in a country there are not two kings[2]; in the seasonal sacrifices, and those to Heaven and Earth[3], there are not two who occupy the highest place of honour. I do not know that what you ask about is according to rule. Formerly duke Hwan of KhĂź[4], going frequently to war, made fictitious tablets and took them with him on his expeditions, depositing them on his return in the ancestral temple[5]. The practice of having two tablets in a temple-shrine originated from duke Hwan. As to two (playing the part of the) orphan son, it may be thus explained:âFormerly, on occasion of a visit to LĂ» by duke Ling of Wei, the mourning rites of KĂź Hwan-đze were in progress. The ruler of Wei requested leave to offer his condolences.
Duke ĂĂź (of LĂ»)[6] declined (the ceremony), but could not
- â The Chinese characters mean simply "two orphans." Neither Khang-hsĂź nor any English-Chinese dictionary explains the peculiar use of the term here; nor is Confucius' explanation satisfactory, or to the point.
- â Compare paragraphs 5, 8, III, iii, pages 224-226.
- â See the "Doctrine of the Mean," 19, 6, Chinese Classics, vol. i.
- â B.C. 685-643.
- â Literally "the temple-shrine of his grandfather;" but I think the name must have the general meaning I have given.
- â It has been shown that the ruler of Wei here could not be
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