A CASE OF RITUALISM 133 



liever in the law of Heaven, and the strong advocate of a 

 punctilious observance of all Rites, because rites were based 

 on correspondences in Nature. And it aroused his wrath to 

 think that his own native state of Lu should be a trans- 

 gressor in this respect, a State that otherwise was most 

 punctilious in the proprieties, and nearly perfect according 

 to his own judgment. But in the case of ritualism under 

 consideration he despaired of ever seeing the right govern- 

 ment of man. "I must leave Lu," he said, "but whither 

 shall I go? All the world is out of joint; men obey their 

 own ideas rather than the harmony of nature." 



How did it happen that this fine man the Duke of Chow 

 was involved in this ritualistic case? It began in this way. 

 Wu Wang (1122-1116 b.c.) appointed his youngest brother, 

 the Duke of Chow to the principality of Lu* because of his 

 great merits in ruling the empire, and it is said that Ch'eng 

 "Wang later on ordered that he be sacrificed to by succeeding 

 generations with the ceremonies and music accorded to 

 kings. "Therefore the Duke of Lu in the first month of 

 spring rode in the Grand Coach to the sacrifice of God at the 

 Chiao with Hou Chi as associate. From the crescent shaped 

 bamboo arm on the coach was unfurled the flag with the 

 twelve streamers, emblazoned with the sun and moon. 

 These are ceremonies of the King. 



Confucius said: "Ah! Alas! I look at the ways of 

 Chow. The Kings Yiit and Li J corrupted them indeed: 

 but if I leave Lu where shall I go to find any better country ! 

 The Chiao of Lu is contrary to propriety : — how have the 

 institutions of the Duke of Chow fallen into decay !" § 



Bear clearly in mind the points at issue. The charge 

 of impiety against Lu is that it arrogated to itself the great 

 rite of the Chiao sacrifice to Heaven and used the imperial 

 music and dances. 



Various factors enter into the problem making what 

 appears on the face of it a simple question into a complicated 

 one. We need only consider a few of these things. Such 

 as (1) The date when the Chiao was held ; (2) Was there more 

 than one Chiao. (The different calendars in use have added 

 to the difficulty) ; (3) What was the significance of the records 

 made in the Chronicles by Confucius of the mishaps to the 

 sacrificial victims. There are nine such items, — recording 

 inauspicious divinations, diseases of the animals, the ap- 

 pearance of venomous mice and so on; (4) Did the Duke of 

 Lu ride in the Grand Coach? (5) Did he use the forbidden 

 music and the dances? 



* f| 19 t $t X Wi §" Le 8ge : Li Chi, Book VII, p. 373. 



