THE LÎ KÎ
A COLLECTION OF TREATISES ON THE RULES
OF PROPRIETY OR CEREMONIAL USAGES.
BOOK I. KHÜ LÎ.
SUMMARY OF THE RULES OF PROPRIETY.
Section I. Part I[1].
Ch. 1. 1. The Summary of the Rules of Propriety says:—Always and in everything let there be reverence; with the deportment grave as when
- ↑ On the names of the whole work and of this book, see the Introduction, pp, 9-12 and 15-17.
Part I is occupied with general principles and statements about Propriety rather than with the detail of particular rules. It may be divided into seven chapters, containing in all thirty-one paragraphs.
Ch. 1. 1, tells how reverence and gravity, with careful speech, are essential in Propriety; and shows its importance to a community or nation. 2. 2, specifies habits or tendencies incompatible with Propriety. 3. 3-5, gives instances of Propriety in superior men, and directions for certain cases. 4. 6, 7, states the rules for sitting, standing, and a mission to another state. 5. 8-22, sets forth how indispensable Propriety is for the regulation of the individual and society, and that it marks in fact the distinction between men and brutes. 6, 23-26, indicates how the rules, unnecessary in the most ancient times, grew with the progress of society, and were its ornament and security. 7. 27-31, speaks of the different stages of life, as divided into decades from ten years to a hundred; and certain characteristics belonging to them.
