| Li Qi: |
In (judging of) rites the time should be the great consideration. (Their relation to) natural duties, their material substance, their appropriateness to circumstances, and their proportioning are all secondary. Yao's resignation of the throne to Shun, and Shun's resignation of it to Yu; Tang's dethronement of Jie; and the overthrow of Zhou by Wen and Wu - all these are to be judged of by the time. As the Book of Poetry says, "It was not that he was in haste to gratify his wishes; It was to show the filial duty that had come down to him.'" The sacrifices to heaven and earth; the services of the ancestral temple; the courses for father and son; and the righteousness between ruler and minister - these are to be judged of as natural duties. The services at the altars of the land and grain and of the hills and streams; and the sacrifices to spirits - these are to be judged of by the material substance of the offerings. The use of the funeral rites and sacrifices; and the reciprocities of host and guest - these are to be judged of by their appropriateness to circumstances. Sacrificing with a lamb and a sucking pig, by the multitude of officers, when yet there was enough; and sacrificing with an ox, a ram, and a boar, when yet there was nothing to spare - in these we have an instance of the proportioning. The princes set great store by the tortoise, and consider their jade-tokens as the insignia of their rank, while the (chiefs of) clans have not the tortoises that are so precious, nor the jade-tokens to keep (by themselves), nor the towered gateways - these (also) are instances of the proportioning. |
