256 



Chinese Feast to Disembodied Spirits, 



[Oct. 



drear domain. The sacrifice to the souls of the dead is of great 

 antiquity in China. Confucius, in the Chung yung* or golden me- 

 dium, is stated to have declared that, " the man who was free from 

 grief was Wan Wang — his father JVang-ke — his son Woo Wang* 

 His father commenced the career of virtue, and his son continued it. 

 Woo Wang continued the virtuous course of Tae, Wang Wang-ke and 

 Wan Wang. He only once buckled on his armour and he gained the 

 empire. His personal conduct was such, that he never lost his 

 illustrious name in the empire. As to honour, he was emperor, and in 

 riches, he possessed all within the four seas. He sacrified to his 

 ancestors in the ancestorial temple, and his posterity preserved the 

 empire. 



Woo Wang, was in the decline of life when he received the 

 appointment of heaven (i. e. the empire). Chow-kung perfected the 

 meritorious deeds (or wishes) of Woo- Wang, paid royal honours to 

 Tae Wang and Wang-ke, and sacrificed to their ancestors, according 

 to the rites due to the emperor. He extended these sacrificial rites to 

 the princes, great officers of state, literati and common people. If the 

 father held a high office and the son was one of the literati, then he was 

 buried according to the rites of great officers, and the subsequent sacri- 

 fices were those of the literati. If the father was one of the literati 

 and the son a great officer, then his funeral rites were such as belong 

 to the literati, and his sacrificial rites such as belonged to a great 

 officer. 



" * Confucius exclaimed, the filial piety of Woo Wang and Chow Kung 

 is universally talked of.' * In the spring and autumn they put in 

 order the ancestorial temples, arranged in proper order the vessels of 

 sacrifice ; put the clothes of their ancestors on a person to represent 

 them and offered the sacrifices of the season. By the rites in the 

 temple of ancestors, are separated the different generations, according 

 to their regular succession.' ' They served the dead as they did when 

 they were alive, and those who are buried, as when they were with 

 them. They served the Great Supreme by the sacrifices offered to 

 heaven and earth, and offered the sacrifices of the ancestorial hall to 

 their ancestors.' " 



We gather from what has been said above, that sacrifices to the dead 

 were offered in China so long ago as the time of W ang Wang, who is 

 supposed to have flourished about the termination of the Shang 

 dynasty, about 1 112 years before Christ ; and that they are considered 

 by Coufucius as necessary acts of religion or filial piety. They are 



* The four books, p. 14, sec. xviii. 



