124 EXOGAMY IN CHINA 



what days were unfavourable (for the doing of particular 

 affairs). The son of Heaven received his admonitions 

 with reverence." 



The great exception to the taboo on. the names of 

 the dead was, as we have seen, the use of their names 

 in the ancestral temple, or at commemorative services 

 in the "principal apartment" in the homes of those 

 who had no special ancestral temples of their own : the 

 reason being that, then and there, the attendance of 

 the spirits of the dead was desired. 



7c ne vu' \\ Me * As t° the non-avoidance of the names of the dead 



p." 242. ' when reciting the classics in the schools : — When Duke 



Wan of T'ang asked Mencius to advise him as to the 

 proper way of governing a kingdom, the Sage's advice 

 w.as to first ensure the people a livelihood by just land 



LiKi.Legge, jaws and then educate them. Village schools, and 

 higher schools, had been maintained since the days of 

 Yii of ITsia (22nd Century B.C.). 



The idea that the power, malignant or benignant, 

 of the spirits of the dead was subject to limitations, 

 depending on the position when in life of the dead, 

 as compared with that of the person now using his 

 name, and also as compared with that of the person in 

 whose presence he stood, was probably the reason for 

 some other exceptions to the avoidance of the names 

 of the dead. 



LiKi.Legge, In the Xlth Book of the Li Ki which deals with 



Op. cit., S.B.E. 



Pt. IV. p. 17-18. "The Rules of Propriet}^ or Ceremonial Usage" it is 

 said: "When an officer was speaking before the ruler, 

 if he had occasion to speak of a great officer who was 

 dead, he called him by his posthumous epithet, or by 

 the designation of his maturity; if of an officer (who 

 was similarly dead), he called him by his name. When 

 speaking with a great officer, he mentioned officers by 

 their name, and (other) great officers by their designa- 

 tion." 



"In Speaking at a great officer's, he avoided using 

 the name of the (former) ruler, but not that of any of 

 his own dead." 

 o' Ki '-i efl f e B E ^ n ^ ne 'Summary of the Rules of Propriety" it is 



Pt. III. 'p. 93. ' said: "Even in his presence, 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 need not be avoided." That is 

 to say the names need not be avoided by distant 



