REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 1G1 



a detail was not really necessary. For the work is not required to-day 

 as a guide by any one. At best it is a work only interesting to the 

 student of ancient sociology. It can be no guide to the etiquette of 

 present-day life. Even in the solemn functions of funerals such 

 minutiae would not be observed. Of course the ordinances and rules 

 laid down here are for the governing Powers rather than for the com- 

 mon people, yet even these would leave the knowledge of these com- 

 plicated matters to the Master of Ceremonies, and not be burdened 

 with them individually. Therefore we think that Dr. Steele might 

 have reduced the translation to smaller dimensions still without 

 seriously inconveniencing the usefulness of this valuable work. 



Dr. Steele has given a certain amount of introduction to the text. 

 We could have wished he had supplied more information on the work : 

 such as the distinction, and difference between the I-Li — Chou Kuan 

 and Li Chi. For instance assuming the I-Li to have been also pro- 

 duced in the Chou dynasty reasons might have been given why it was 

 called the I-Li, the cause being possibly that a great number of the 

 Etiquettes from the Hsia and Yin were included. Hence a more general 

 term was ascribed : a term signifying etiquettes in general. 



What a profound age that of Chou was, how significant in- the 

 history of civilization ! For in the history and development of civiliza- 

 tion outward rites bear a vital part. And as such the Chou age is 

 one of the most important in the world's history. It signified that the 

 affairs of the world were to be carried on by means of Law — Cere- 

 monial rather than the lawless and barbaric means of arms. It formed 

 then a great step in the rescue of humankind from the mud and ooze 

 of existence into a higher level and safer path. The danger has always 

 been in the tendency to go back again to the pit and confusion, whence 

 men have painfully but surely emerged. The cataclysmic battle now 

 raging in Europe is but another phase of the attempt to revert to 

 primeval savagery, where the rule of the individual working through 

 the instrumentality of the brute force of the horde may emerge and 

 dominate. The triumph of this would not only imply the abrogation 

 of Christianity from the field of politics but also the earlier step in the 

 progression of humanity, the age of ritual and ceremony, as seen pre- 

 eminently in the Jewish and Chinese codes. The stages are clear and 

 important,— Brute force indicating triumph of clan and tribe. Law 

 and ritual still preserving class distinctions : Democracy where class 

 distinctions are swept away — no male or female : no bond or free : all 

 are one in the law of the Spiritual Life. 



Very few people in China study the I-Li now ; even this nation 

 has ceased to be governed by the etiquettes outlined in this work. At 

 no time was it the standard for the king or the people. The instruc- 



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