1C2 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



tions were only meant for the scholar and officers o'f the state and the 

 etiquettes have to do with the rites of the Coming of Age : Marriage : 

 Intercourse : the Courtesies at an archery meeting : Banquets and 

 Missions. And it should be remembered that to carry out these 

 instructions houses had to be constructed on a definite plan. A plan 

 of the Chou house accompanies this work. To give an idea of the 

 admirable mechanical arrangement of the work a short quotation will 

 best serve the purpose. The first words in the first volume will do as 

 well as any other. Thus : — 



CHAPTEK I. 



The Capping of an Ordinary Officer's Son (Part I). 



1. Divining for the Day. 



(a) The divining (with the stalks) is carried on in the door- 

 way of the ancestral temple. 



(b) The father of the boy, as Master of Ceremonies, in his 

 dark cap, dress clothes, black silk girdle, and white knee-pads, 

 takes his place on the east side of the doorway, with his face to 

 the west. 



(c) The assistants, dressed like the Master of Ceremonies, 

 take their places on the west side, facing east, and graded from 

 the north. 



(d) The divining stalks, the mat, and the recording materials, 

 are all laid out in the western gatehouse. 



(e) Then the mat is spread in the doorway, to the west of 

 the mid-post, and outside the threshold. 



Enough has been said on the general character of the work. 

 There but remains one thing, and it is perhaps the most difficult of all. 

 It is the value of the translation. It must have been a very difficult 

 task in many respects, especially when the obscurity of the text is 

 remembered. The very first paragraphs of the first chapter, — the 

 passages just quoted, show this. Take the phrase the ancestral temple 

 in (a). Commentators differ as to the meaning of the miao. The 

 general opinion seems to be that when other than the father's is meant 

 special mention is made of the fact. And the interpretation does make 

 a difference to the whole passage 



Again take the phrase graded from the north (c). It is difficult 

 to know what it is that is exactly meant by the phrase as translated. 

 The Chinese looks simple enough : it is 3fc J: . Now another possible 

 meaning is leaning towards the north, i.e. not standing immediately in 

 the centre, out of respect. But the real meaning is found in neither : 

 rather it is. (they turned about) and walked north : because the 



