REV. ARTHUR ELWIN, ON CONFUCIANISM. 



55 



A wife's lamentation during the absence of her husband. 



"Away the startled pheasant flies, 

 With lazy movement of his wings ; 

 Borne was my heart's lord from my eyes — 

 What pain the separation brings ! 



"The pheasant though no more in view, 

 His cry below, above, forth sends, 

 Alas ! my princely brd, 'tis you — 

 Your absence that my bosom rends ! 



" At sun and moon I sit and gaze, 



In converse with my troubled heart. 

 Far, far from me my husband stays ; 

 When will he come to heal its smart ? 



"Ye princely men who with him mate, 

 Say mark ye not his virtuous way ? 

 His rule is, Covet not, none hate : 



How can his steps from goodness stray ? " 



The fourth is the Book of Rites. The original documents 

 which form the basis of this work go back to 1112 B.C., that 

 is, about the time of the disturbed days of the judges, 

 when w T e are told, " every man did that which was right in his 

 own eyes." " Even at that time, China was under the control 

 of a methodical and effective system of national polity. 

 Villages had their schools, and districts their academies." 

 This book regulates the rites and ceremonies of the nation, and 

 lias clone so for many* centuries. One of the six governing 

 Boards at Pekin is specially charged with the duty of seeing its 

 precepts carried out throughout the Empire. Both the 

 Emperor and his people regulate their lives by the Book of 

 Ilites, and no one would dare to depart from the rules there 

 laid down, even in the smallest matter. At marriages, 

 funerals, and feasts, there is always a master of ceremonies, 

 whose duty it is to see that all is done in accordance with the 

 proper etiquette." 



The following extracts from the Domestic Bules contained 

 in this ancient book, though antiquated and trivial in detail, 

 are interesting, as showing the respect paid to parents, even to 

 the present day : — 



" Men, in serving their parents, at the first cock-crowing must 

 all wash their hands, rinse their mouths, comb their hair, bind it 

 together with a net, fasten it with a bodkin, forming it into a 

 tuft, brush out the dust, put on the hat, tying the strings 

 ornamented with tassels, also the waistcoat, frock, and girdle, 

 with the note books placed in it, and the leggings attached on 



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