1. The Summary of the Rules of Propriety says:--Always and in everything let there be reverence; with the deportment grave as when one is thinking deeply, and with speech composed and definite. This will make the people tranquil.

2. Pride should not be allowed to grow; the desires should not be indulged; the will should not be gratified to the full; pleasure should not be carried to excess.

3. Men of talents and virtue can be familiar with others and yet respect them; can stand in awe of others and yet love them. They love others and yet acknowledge the evil that is in them. They accumulate wealth and yet are able to part with it to help the needy; they rest in what gives them satisfaction and yet can seek satisfaction elsewhere when it is desirable to do so. When you find wealth within your reach, do not try to get it by improper means; when you meet with calamity, do not try to escape from it by improper means. Do not seek for victory in small contentions; do not seek for more than your proper share. 5. Do not positively affirm what you have doubts about; and when you have no doubts, do not let what you say appear simply as your own view.

4. If a man be sitting, let him do so as a personator of the deceased; if he be standing, let him do so reverently, as in sacrificing. In observing the rules of propriety, what is right for the time and in the circumstances should be followed. In discharging a mission to another state, its customs are to be observed.

5. They are the rules of propriety, that furnish the means of determining the observances towards relatives, as near and remote; of settling points which may cause suspicion or doubt; of distinguishing where there should be agreement, and where difference; and of making clear what is right and what is wrong. According to those rules, one should not seek to please others in an improper way, nor be lavish of his words. According to them, one does not go beyond the definite measure, nor encroach on or despise others, nor is fond of presuming familiarities. To cultivate one's person and fulfil one's words is called good conduct. When the conduct is thus ordered, and the words are accordant with the right course, we have the substance of the rules of propriety. I have heard that it is in accordance with those rules that one should be chosen by others as their model; I have not heard of his choosing them to take him as such. I have heard in the same way of scholars coming to learn; I have not heard of the master going to teach. The course of duty, virtue, benevolence, and righteousness cannot be fully carried out without the rules of propriety; nor are training and oral lessons for the rectification of manners complete; nor can the clearing up of quarrels and discriminating in disputes be accomplished; nor can the duties between ruler and minister, high and low, father and son, elder brother and younger, be determined; nor can students for office and other learners, in serving their masters, have an attachment for them; 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; 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. 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. The parrot can speak, and yet is nothing more than a bird; the ape can speak, and yet is nothing more than a beast. Here now is a man who observes no rules of propriety; is not his heart that of a beast? But if men were as beasts, and without the principle of propriety, father and son might have the same mate. Therefore, when the sages arose, they framed the rules of propriety in order to teach men, and cause them, by their possession of them, to make a distinction between themselves and brutes.

6. In the highest antiquity they prized simply conferring good; in the time next to this, giving and repaying was the thing attended to. And what the rules of propriety value is that reciprocity. If I give a gift and nothing comes in return, that is contrary to propriety; if the thing comes to me, and I give nothing in return, that also is contrary to propriety. If a man observe the rules of propriety, he is in a condition of security; if he do not, he is in one of danger. Hence there is the saying, 'The rules of propriety should by no means be left unlearned.' Propriety is seen in humbling one's self and giving honour to others. Even porters and pedlers are sure to display this giving honour in some cases; how much more should the rich and noble do so in all! When the rich and noble know to love propriety, they do not become proud nor dissolute. When the poor and mean know to love propriety, their minds do not become cowardly.

7. When one is ten years old, we call him a boy; he goes out to school. When he is twenty, we call him a youth; he is capped. When he is thirty, we say, 'He is at his maturity;' he has a wife. When he is forty, we say, 'He is in his vigour;' he is employed in office. When he is fifty, we say, 'He is getting grey;' he can discharge all the duties of an officer. When he is sixty, we say, 'He is getting old;' he gives directions and instructions. When he is seventy, we say, 'He is old;' he delegates his duties to others. At eighty or ninety, we say of him, 'He is very old.' When he is seven, we say that he is an object of pitying love. Such a child and one who is very old, though they may be chargeable with crime, are not subjected to punishment. At a hundred, he is called a centenarian, and has to be fed. A great officer, when he is seventy, should resign his charge of affairs. If he be not allowed to resign, there must be given him a stool and staff. When travelling on service, he must have the attendance of his wife; and when going to any other state, he will ride in an easy carriage. In another state he will, style himself 'the old man;' in his own state, he will call himself by his name. When from another they ask about his state, he must tell them of its old institutions.

8. In going to take counsel with an elder, one must carry a stool and a staff with him for the elder's use. When the elder asks a question, to reply without acknowledging one's incompetency and trying to decline answering, is contrary to propriety.

9. For all sons it is the rule :--In winter, to warm the bed for their parents, and to cool it in summer; in the evening, to adjust everything for their repose, and to inquire about their health in the morning; and, when with their companions, not to quarrel.

10. Whenever a son, having received the three first gifts of the ruler, declines to use the carriage and horses, the people of the hamlets and smaller districts, and of the larger districts and neighbourhoods, will proclaim him filial; his brothers and relatives, both by consanguinity and affinity, will proclaim him loving; his friends who are fellow-officers will proclaim him virtuous; and his friends who are his associates will proclaim him true.

11. When he sees an intimate friend of his father, not to presume to go forward to him without being told to do so; nor to retire without being told; nor to address him without being questioned:--this is the conduct of a filial son. A son, when he is going abroad, must inform his parents where he is going; when he returns, he must present himself before them. Where he travels must be in some fixed region; what he engages in must be some reputable occupation. In ordinary conversation with his parents, he does not use the term 'old' with reference to them. He should serve one twice as old as himself as he serves his father, one ten years older than himself as an elder brother; with one five years older he should walk shoulder to shoulder, but a little behind him. When five are sitting together, the eldest must have a different mat by himself. A son should not occupy the south-west corner of the apartment, nor sit in the middle of the mat which he occupies alone, nor walk in the middle of the road, nor stand in the middle of the doorway. He should not take the part of regulating the quantity of rice and other viands at an entertainment. He should not act as personator of the dead at sacrifice. He should be as if he were hearing his parents when there is no voice from them, and as seeing them when they are not actually there. He should not ascend a height, nor approach the verge of a depth; he should not indulge in reckless reviling or derisive laughing. A filial son will not do things in the dark, nor attempt hazardous undertakings, fearing lest he disgrace his parents. While his parents are alive, he will not promise a friend to die with or for him, nor will he have wealth that he calls his own. A son, while his parents are alive, will not wear a cap or other article of dress, with a white border. An orphan son, taking his father's place, will not wear a cap or other article of dress with a variegated border.

12. A boy should never be allowed to see an instance of deceit. A lad should not wear a jacket of fur nor the skirt. He must stand straight and square, and not incline his head in hearing. When an elder is holding him with the hand, he should hold the elder's hand with both his hands. When the elder has shifted his sword to his back and is speaking to him with the side of his face bent, down, he should cover his mouth with his hand in answering. When he is following his teacher, he should not quit the road to speak with another person. When he meets his teacher on the road, he should hasten forward to him, and stand with his hands joined across his breast. If the teacher speak to him, he will answer; if he do not, he will retire with hasty steps. When, following an elder, they ascend a level height, he must keep his face towards the quarter to which the elder is looking. When one has ascended the wall of a city, he should not point, nor callout. When he intends to go to a lodging-house, let it not be with the feeling that he must get whatever he asks for. When about to go up to the hall of a house, he must raise his voice. When outside the door there are two pairs of shoes, if voices be heard, he. enters; if voices be not heard, he will not enter. When about to enter the door, he must keep his eyes cast down. As he enters, he should keep his hands raised as high as if he were bearing the bar of the door. In looking down or up, he should not turn his head. If the door were open, he should leave it open; if it were shut, he should shut it again. If there be others about to enter after him, while he turns to shut the door, let him not do so hastily. Let him not tread on the shoes left outside the door, nor stride across the mat in going to take his seat; but let him hold up his dress, and move hastily to his corner of the mat. When seated, he must be careful in answering or assenting.

13. A great officer or other officer should go out or in at the ruler's doors, on the right of the middle post, without treading on the threshold.

14. Whenever a host has received and is entering with a guest, at every door he should give place to him. When the guest arrives at the innermost door or that leading to the feast-room, the host will ask to be allowed to enter first and arrange the mats. Having done this, he will come out to receive the guest, who will refuse firmly to enter first. The host having made a low bow to him, they will enter together. When they have entered the door, the host moves to the right, and the guest to the left, the former going to the steps on the east, and the latter to those on the west. If the guest be of the lower rank, he goes to the steps of the host as if to follow him up them. The host firmly declines this, and he returns to the other steps on the west. They then offer to each other the precedence in going up, but the host commences first, followed immediately by the other. They bring their feet together on every step, thus ascending by successive paces. He who ascends by the steps on the east should move his right foot first, and the other at the western steps his left foot. Outside the curtain or screen a visitor should not walk with the formal hasty steps, nor above in the hall, nor when carrying the symbol of jade. Above, in the raised hall, the foot-prints should be alongside each other, but below it free and separate. In the apartment the elbows should not be held out like wings in bowing. When two equals are sitting side by side, they do not have their elbows extended crosswise. One should not kneel in handing anything to a superior standing, nor stand in handing it to him sitting.

15. In all cases of a lad's carrying away the dirt that has been swept up from the presence of an elder, it is the rule that he place the brush on the basket, keeping his sleeve before it as he retires. The dust is not allowed to reach the elder, because he carries the basket with its mouth turned towards himself. He carries the elder's mat in his arms like the cross-beam of a shadoof. If it be a mat to sit on, he will ask in what direction the elder is going to turn his face; if it be to sleep on, in what direction he is going to turn his feet. If a mat face the south or the north, the seat on the west is accounted that of honour; if it face the east or the west, the seat on the south.

16. Except in the case of guests who are there simply to eat and drink, in spreading the mats a space of ten cubits should be left between them. When the host kneels to adjust the mats of a visitor, the other should kneel and keep hold of them, declining the honour. When the visitor wishes to remove one or more, the host should firmly decline to permit him to do so. When the visitor steps on his mats, the host takes his seat. If the host have not put some question, the visitor should not begin the conversation.

17. When a pupil is about to go to his mat, he should not look discomposed. With his two hands he should hold up his lower garment, so that the bottom of it may be a cubit from the ground. His clothes should not hang loosely about him, nor should there be any hurried movements of his feet. If any writing or tablets of his master, or his lute or cithern be in the way, he should kneel down and remove them, taking care not to disarrange them. When sitting and doing nothing, he should keep quite at the back of his mat; when eating, quite at the front of it . He should sit quietly and keep a watch on his countenance. If there be any subject on which the elder has not touched, let him not introduce it irregularly. Let him keep his deportment correct, and listen respectfully. Let him not appropriate to himself the words of others, nor repeat them as the echo does the thunder. If he must adduce proofs, let them be from antiquity, with an appeal to the ancient kings. When sitting by his side, and the teacher puts a question, the learner should not reply till the other has finished. When requesting instruction on the subject of his studies, the learner should rise; when requesting further information, he should rise. When his father calls, a youth should not merely answer 'yes,' nor when his teacher calls. He should, with a respectful 'yes,' immediately rise and go to them. When one is sitting in attendance on another whom he honours and reveres, he should not allow any part of his mat to keep them apart, nor will he rise when he sees others come in of the same rank as himself. When the torches come, he should rise; and also when the viands come in, or a visitor of superior rank. The torches should not be allowed to burn till their ends can be seen. Before an honoured visitor we should not shout even at a dog. When declining any food, one should not spit.

18. When one is sitting in attendance on another of superior character or rank, and that other yawns or stretches himself, or lays hold of his staff or shoes, or looks towards the sun to see if it be early or late, he should ask to be allowed to leave. In the same position, if the superior man put a question on a new subject, he should rise up in giving his reply. Similarly, if there come some one saying to the superior man, ‘I wish, when you have a little leisure, to report to you,’ he should withdraw to the left or right and wait. Do not listen with the head inclined on one side, nor answer with a loud sharp voice, nor look with a dissolute leer, nor keep the body in a slouching position. Do not saunter about with a haughty gait, nor stand with one foot raised. Do not sit with your knees wide apart, nor sleep on your face. Have your hair gathered up, and do not use any false hair. Let not the cap be laid aside; nor the chest be bared, even when one is toiling hard; nor let the lower garment be held up even in hot weather.

19. When going to sit in attendance on an elder, a visitor should not go up to the hall with his shoes on, nor should he presume to take them off in front of the Steps. When any single visitor is leaving, he will go to his shoes, kneel down and take them up, and then move to one side. When the visitors retire in a body with their faces towards the elder, they stand by the shoes, which they then, kneeling, remove some distance, and, stooping down, put on.

20. When two men are sitting or standing together, do not join them as a third. When two are standing together, another should not pass between them. Male and female should not sit together in the same apartment, nor have the same stand or rack for their clothes, nor use the same towel or comb, nor let their hands touch in giving and receiving. A sister-in-law and brother-in-law do not interchange inquiries about each other. None of the concubines in a house should be employed to wash the lower garment of a son. Outside affairs should not be talked of inside the threshold of the women's apartments, nor inside or women's affairs outside it. When a young lady is promised in marriage, she wears the strings hanging down to her neck; and unless there be some great occasion, no male enters the door of her apartment. When a married aunt, or sister, or daughter returns home on a visit, no brother of the family should sit with her on the same mat or eat with her from the same dish. Even the father and daughter should not occupy the same mat. Male and female, without the intervention of the matchmaker, do not know each other's name. Unless the marriage presents have been received, there should be no communication nor affection between them. Hence the day and month of the marriage should be announced to the ruler, and to the spirits of ancestors with purification and fasting; and the bridegroom should make a feast, and invite his friends in the district and neighbourhood, and his fellow-officers :--thus giving its due importance to the separate position of male and female. One must not marry a wife of the same surname with himself. Hence, in buying a concubine, if he do not know her surname, he must consult the tortoise-shell about it. With the son of a widow, unless he be of acknowledged distinction, one should not associate himself as a friend.

21. When one congratulates a friend on his marrying, his messenger says, ‘So and So has sent me. Having heard that you are having guests, he has sent me with this present.’

22. Goods and wealth are not to be expected from the poor in their discharge of the rules of propriety; nor the display of sinews and strength from the old.

23. In giving a name to a son, it should not be that of a state, nor of a day or a month, nor of any hidden ailment, nor of a hill or river. Sons and daughters should have their relative ages distinguished. A son at twenty is capped, and receives his appellation. Before his father a son should be called by his name, and before his ruler a minister. When a daughter is promised in marriage, she assumes the hair-pin, and receives her appellation.

24. The rules for bringing in the dishes for an entertainment are the following:--The meat cooked on the bones is set on the left, and the sliced meat on the right; the rice is placed on the left of the parties on the mat, and the soup on their right; the minced and roasted meat are put outside the chops and sliced meat, and the pickles and sauces inside; the onions and steamed onions succeed to these, and the drink and syrups are on the right. When slices of dried and spiced meat are put down, where they are folded is turned to the left, and the ends of them to the right. If a guest be of lower rank than his entertainer, he should take up the rice, rise and decline the honour he is receiving. The host then rises and refuses to allow the guest to retire. After this the guest will resume his seat. When the host leads on the guests to present an offering to the father of cookery, they will begin with the dishes which were first brought in. Going on from the meat cooked on the bones they will offer of all the other dishes. After they have eaten three times, the host will lead on the guests to take of the sliced meat, from which they will go on to all the other dishes. A guest should not rinse his mouth with spirits till the host has gone over all the dishes.

25. When a youth is in attendance on an elder at a meal, if the host give anything to him with his own hand, he should bow to him and eat it. If he do not so give him anything, he should eat without bowing.

26. When eating with others from the same dishes, one should not try to eat hastily to satiety. When eating with them from the same dish of rice, one should not rub his hands to clean them.

27. Do not roll the rice into a ball; do not bolt down the various dishes; do not swill down the soup. Do not make a noise in eating; do not crunch the bones with the teeth; do not put back fish you have been eating; do not throw the bones to the dogs; do not snatch at what you want. Do not spread out the rice to cool; do not use chopsticks in eating millet. Do not try to gulp down soup with vegetables in it, nor add condiments to it; do not keep picking the-teeth, nor swill down the sauces. If a guest add condiments, the host will apologise for not having had the soup prepared better. If he swill down the sauces, the host will apologise for his poverty. Meat that is wet and soft may be divided with the teeth, but dried flesh cannot be so dealt with. Do not bolt roast meat in large pieces.

28. When they have done eating, the guests will kneel in front of the mat, and begin to remove the dishes of rice and sauces to give them to the attendants. The host will then rise and decline this service from the guests, who will resume their seats.

29. If a youth is in attendance on, and drinking with, an elder, when the cup of spirits is brought to him, he rises, bows, and goes to receive it at the place where the spirit-vase is kept. The elder refuses to allow him to do so, when he returns to the mat, and is prepared to drink. The elder meantime lifts his cup; but until he has emptied it, the other does not presume to drink his.

30. When an elder offers a gift, neither a youth, nor one of mean, condition, presumes to decline it.

31. When a fruit is given by the ruler and in his presence, if there be a kernel in it, the receiver should place it in his bosom.

31. When one is attending the ruler at a meal, and the ruler gives him anything that is left, if it be in a vessel that can be easily scoured, he does not transfer it to another of his own; but from any other vessel he should so transfer it.

32. Portions of such food should not be used as offerings to the departed. A father should not use them in offering even to a deceased son, nor a husband in offering to a deceased wife.

33. When one is attending an elder and called to share with him at a feast, though the viands may be double what is necessary, he should not seek to decline them. If he take his seat only as the companion of another for whom it has been prepared, he should not decline them.

34. If the soup be made with vegetables, chopsticks should be used; but not if there be no vegetables.

35. He who pares a melon for the son of Heaven should divide it into four parts and then into eight, and cover them with a napkin of fine linen. For the ruler of a state, he should divide it into four parts, and cover them with a coarse napkin. To a great officer he should present the four parts uncovered. An inferior officer should receive it simply with the stalk cut away. A common man will deal with it with his teeth.

36. When his father or mother is ill, a young man who has been capped should not use his comb, nor walk with his elbows stuck out, nor speak on idle topics, nor take his lute or cithern in hand. He should not eat of different meats till his taste is changed, nor drink till his looks are changed. He should not laugh so as to show his teeth, nor be angry till he breaks forth in reviling. When the illness is gone, he may resume his former habits. He who is sad and anxious should sit with his mat spread apart from others; he who is mourning for a death should sit on a single mat.

37. When heavy rains have fallen, one should not present fish or tortoises to a superior. He who is presenting a bird should turn its head on one side; if it be a tame bird, this need not be done. He who is presenting a carriage and horses should carry in his hand to the hall the whip, and strap for mounting by. He who is presenting a suit of mail should carry the helmet to the hall. He who is presenting a staff should hold it by its end. He who is presenting a captive should hold him by the right sleeve. He who is presenting grain unhulled should carry with him the left side of the account of the quantity; if the hull be off, he should carry with him a measure-drum. He who is presenting cooked food, should carry with him the sauce and pickles for it. He who is presenting fields and tenements should carry with him the writings about them, and give them up to the superior. In every case of giving a bow to another, if it be bent, the string of sinew should be kept upwards; but if unbent, the horn. The giver should with his right hand grasp the end of the bow, and keep his left under the middle of the back. The parties, without regard to their rank as high and low, bow to each other till the napkins at their girdles hang down to the ground. If the host wish to bow still lower, the other moves on one side to avoid the salutation. The host then takes the bow, standing on the left of the other. Putting his hand under that of the visitor, he lays hold of the middle of the back, having his face in the same direction as the other; and thus he receives the bow. He who is giving a sword should do so with the hilt on his left side. He who is giving a spear with one hook should do so with the metal end of the shaft in front, and the sharp edge behind. He who is presenting one with two hooks, or one with a single hook and two sharp points, should do so with the blunt shaft in front. He who is giving a stool or a staff should first wipe it. He who is presenting a horse or a sheep should lead it with his right hand. He who is presenting a dog should lead it with his left hand. He who is carrying a bird as his present of introduction should do so with the head to the left. For the ornamental covering of a lamb or a goose, an embroidered cloth should be used. He who receives a pearl or a piece of jade should do so with both his hands. He who receives a bow or a sword should do so having his hands covered with his sleeves. He who has drunk from a cup of jade should not go on to shake it out. Whenever friendly messages are about to be sent, with the present of a sword or bow, or of fruit, flesh, and other things, wrapped in matting of rushes, with grass mats, and in baskets, round and square, the messenger has these things carried with him, when he goes to receive his commission, and deports himself as when he will be discharging it. Whenever one is charged with a mission by his ruler, after he has received from him his orders, and heard all he has to say, he should not remain over the night in his house. When a message from the ruler comes to a minister, the latter should go out and bow to the bearer, in acknowledgment of the honour of it. When the messenger is about to return, the other must bow to him again, and escort him outside the gate. If a minister send a message to his ruler, he must wear his court-robes when he communicates it to the bearer; and on his return, he must descend from the hall, to receive the ruler's commands.

38. To acquire extensive information and remember retentively, while at the same time he is modest; to do earnestly what is good, and not become weary in so doing:--these are the characteristics of him whom we call the superior man. A superior man does not accept everything by which another would express his joy in him, or his devotion to him; and thus he preserves their friendly intercourse unbroken.

39. A rule of propriety says, ‘A superior man may carry his grandson in his arms, but not his son.’ This tells us that a grandson may be the personator of his deceased grandfather at sacrifices, but a son cannot be so of his father. When a great officer or other officer sees one who is to personate the dead on his way to the ancestral temple, he should dismount from his carriage to him. The ruler himself, when he recognises him, should do the same. The personator at the same time must bow forward to the cross-bar. In mounting the carriage, he must use a stool.

40. One who is fasting in preparation for a sacrifice should neither listen to music nor condole with mourners.

41. According to the rules for the period of mourning for a father, a son should not emaciate himself till the bones appear, nor let his seeing and hearing be affected by his privations. He should not go up to, nor descend from, the hail by the steps on the east which his father used, nor go in or out by the path right opposite to the centre of the gate. According to the same rules, if he have a scab on his head, he should wash it; if he have a sore on his body, he should bathe it. If he be ill, he should drink spirits, and eat flesh, returning to his former abstinence when he is better. If he make himself unable to perform his mourning duties, that is like being unkind and unfilial. If he be fifty, he should not allow himself to be reduced by his abstinence very much; and, if he be sixty, not at all. At seventy, he will only wear the unhemmed dress of sackcloth, and will drink and eat flesh, and occupy the usual apartment inside his house.

42. Intercourse with the living will be continued in the future; intercourse with the dead friend was a thing of the past. He who knows the living should send a message of condolence; and he who knew the dead a message also of his grief. He who knows the living, and did not know the dead, will send his condolence without that expression of his grief; he who knew the dead, and does not know the living, will send the expression of grief, but not go on to condole.

43. He who is condoling with one who has mourning rites in hand, and is not able to assist him with a gift, should put no question about his expenditure. He who is enquiring after another that is ill, and is not able to send anything to him, should not ask what he would like. He who sees a traveller, and is not able to lodge him, should not ask where he is stopping. He who would confer something on another should not say, 'Come and take it;' he who would give something to a smaller man, should not ask him what he would like.

44. When one goes to a burying-ground, he should not get up on any of the graves. When assisting at an interment, one should join in holding the rope attached to the coffin. In a house of mourning, one should not laugh. In order to bow to another, one should leave his own place. When one sees at a distance a coffin with the corpse in it, he should not sing. When he enters among the mourners, he should not keep his arms stuck out. When eating with others, he should not sigh. When there are mourning rites in his neighbourhood, one should not accompany his pestle with his voice. When there is a body shrouded and coffined in his village, one should not sing in the lanes. When going to a burying-ground, one should not sing, nor on the same day when he has wailed with mourners. When accompanying a funeral, one should not take a by-path. When taking part in the act of interment, one should not try to avoid mud or pools. When presenting himself at any mourning rite, one should have a sad countenance. When holding, the rope, one should not laugh. When present on an occasion of joy, one should not sigh. When wearing his coat of mail and helmet, one's countenance should say, ‘Who dares meddle with me?’ Hence the superior man is careful to maintain the proper expression of his countenance before others.

45. Where the ruler of a state lays hold of the cross-bar, and bends forward to it, a great officer will descend from his carriage. Where a great officer lays hold of the bar and bends forward, another officer will descend. The rules of ceremony do not go down to the common people. The penal statutes do not go up to great officers. Men who have suffered punishment should not be allowed to be by the side of the ruler.

46. A fighting chariot has no cross-board to assist its occupants in bowing; in a war chariot the banner is fully displayed; in a chariot of peace it is kept folded round the pole. A recorder should carry with him in his carriage his implements for writing; his subordinates the recorded words of former covenants and other documents. When there is water in front, the flag with the green bird on it should be displayed. When there is a cloud of dust in front, that with the screaming kites. For chariots and horsemen, that with wild geese in flight. For a body of troops, that with a tiger's skin. For a beast of prey, that with a leopard's skin. On the march the banner with the Red Bird should be in front; that with the Dark Warrior behind; that with the Azure Dragon on the left; and that with the White Tiger on the right; that with the Pointer of the Northern Bushel should be reared aloft in the centre of the host:--all to excite and direct the fury of the troops. There are rules for advancing and retreating; there are the various arrangements on the left and the right, each with its proper officer to look after it.

47. With the enemy who has slain his father, one should not live under the same heaven. With the enemy who has slain his brother, one should never have his sword to seek to deal vengeance. With the enemy who has slain his intimate friend, one should not live in the same state without seeking to slay him.

48. Many ramparts in the country round and near a capital are a disgrace to its high ministers and great officers. Where the wide and open country is greatly neglected and uncultivated, it is a disgrace to the officers in charge of it.

49. When taking part in a sacrifice, one should not show indifference. When sacrificial robes are worn out, they should be burnt: sacrificial vessels in the same condition should be buried, as should the tortoise-shell and divining stalks, and a victim that has died. All who take part with the ruler in a sacrifice must themselves remove the stands of their offerings.

50. When the ceremony of wailing is over, a son should no longer speak of his deceased father by his name. The rules do not require the avoiding of names merely similar in sound to those not to be spoken. When a parent had a double name, the avoiding of either term used singly is not required. While his parents are alive, and a son is able to serve them, he should not utter the names of his grandparents; when he can no longer serve his parents through their death, he need not avoid the names of his grandparents. Names that would not be spoken in his own family need not be avoided by a great officer before his ruler; in the great officer's, however, the names proper to be suppressed by the ruler should not be spoken. In reading the books of poetry and history, there need be no avoiding of names, nor in writing compositions. In the ancestral temple there is no such avoiding. Even in his presence, a minister need not avoid the names improper to be spoken by the ruler's wife. The names to be avoided by a wife need not be unspoken outside the door of the harem. The names of parties for whom mourning is worn only nine months or five months are not avoided. When one is crossing the boundaries of a state, he should ask what are its prohibitory laws; when he has fairly entered it, he should ask about its customs; before entering the door of a house, he should ask about the names to be avoided in it.

51. External undertakings should be commenced on the odd days, and internal on the even. In all cases of divining about a day, whether by the tortoise-shell or the stalks, if it be beyond the decade, it is said, 'on such and such a distant day,' and if within the decade, 'on such and such a near day.' For matters of mourning a distant day is preferred; for festive matters a near day. It is said, 'For the day we depend on thee, O great Tortoise-shell, which dost give the regular indications; we depend on you, O great Divining Stalks, which give the regular indications.' Divination by the shell or the stalks should not go beyond three times. The shell and the stalks should not be both used on the same subject. Divination by the shell is called pû; by the stalks, shih. The two were the methods by which the ancient sage kings made the people believe in seasons and days, revere spiritual beings, stand in awe of their laws and orders; the methods also by which they made them determine their perplexities and settle their misgivings. Hence it is said, ‘If you doubted, and have consulted the stalks, you need not any longer think that you will do wrong. If the day be clearly indicated, boldly do on it what you desire to do.’

52. When the ruler's carriage is about to have the horses put to it, the driver should stand before them, whip in hand. When they are yoked, he will inspect the linch pin, and report that the carriage is ready. Coming out again, he should shake the dust from his clothes, and mount on the right side, taking hold of the second strap. he should then kneel in the carriage. Holding his whip, and taking the reins separately, he will drive the horses on five paces, and then stop. When the ruler comes out and approaches the carriage, the driver should take all the reins in one hand, and with the other hand the strap to him. The attendants should then retire out of the way. They should follow quickly as the carriage drives on. When it reaches the great gate, the ruler will lay his hand on that of the driver that he may drive gently, and, looking round, will order the warrior for the seat on the right to come into the carriage. In passing through the gates of a city or village, and crossing the water-channels, the pace must be reduced to a walk.

53. In all cases it is the rule for the driver to hand the strap to the person about to mount the carriage. If the driver be of lower rank than himself that other receives it. If this be not the case, he should not do so. If the driver be of the lower rank, the other should still lay his own hand on his as if to stop him. If this be not the case and the driver will insist on handing it, the other should take hold of the strap below the driver's hand.

54. A guest's carriage does not enter the great gate; a woman does not stand up in her carriage; dogs and horses are not taken up to the hall.

55. Hence, the ruler bows forward to his cross-board to an old man of yellow hair; he dismounts and walks on foot past the places of his high nobles in the audience court. He does not gallop the horses of his carriage in the capital; and should bow forward on entering a village. When called by the ruler's order, though through a man of low rank, a great officer, or other officer, must meet him in person. A man in armour does not bow, he makes an obeisance indeed, but it is a restrained obeisance. When the carriage of a deceased ruler is following at his interment, the place on the left should be vacant. When any of his ministers on other occasions are riding in any of the ruler's carriages, they do not presume to leave the seat on the left vacant, but he who occupies it should bend forward to the cross-board. A charioteer driving a woman should keep his left hand advanced with the reins in it, and his right hand behind him. When driving the ruler of a state, the charioteer should have his right hand advanced, with the left kept behind and the head bent down. The ruler of a state should not ride in a one-wheeled carriage. In his carriage one should not cough loudly, nor point with his hand in an irregular way. Standing in his carriage one should look forward only to the distance of five revolutions of the wheels. Bending forward, he should do so only till he sees the tails of the horses. He should not turn his head round beyond the line of the naves. In the streets of the capital one should touch the horses gently with the brush-end of the switch. He should not urge them to their speed. The dust should not fly beyond the ruts. The ruler of a state should bend towards the cross-board when he meets a sacrificial victim, and dismount in passing the ancestral temple. A great officer or other officer should descend when he comes to the ruler's gate, and bend forward to the ruler's horses. A minister riding in one of the ruler's carriages must wear his court robes. He should have the whip in the carriage with him, but not use it. He should not presume to have the strap handed to him. In his place on the left, he should bow forward to the cross-board. An officer walking the ruler's horses should do so in the middle of the road. It he trample on their forage, he should be punished, and also if he look at their teeth, and go on to calculate their age.