"The four seasons come and
go, and all creatures live and grow. Does Heaven indeed speak?"
Once Ju Pi desired an interview with Confucius, from which the latter
excused himself on the score of ill-health; but while the attendant was
passing out through the doorway with the message he took his lute and
sang, in such a way as to let him hear him.
Tsai Wo questioned him respecting the three years' mourning, saying that
one full twelve-month was a long time--that, if gentlemen were for three
years to cease from observing rules of propriety, propriety must
certainly suffer, and that if for three years they neglected music,
music must certainly die out--and that seeing nature has taught us that
when the old year's grain is finished the new has sprung up for
us--seeing also that all the changes[32] in procuring fire by friction
have been gone through in the four seasons--surely a twelve-month might
suffice.
The Master asked him, "Would it be a satisfaction to you--that returning
to better food, that putting on of fine clothes?"
"It would," said he.
"Then if you can be satisfied in so doing, do so. But to a gentleman,
who is in mourning for a parent, the choicest food will not be
palatable, nor will the listening to music be pleasant, nor will
comforts of home make him happy in mind. Hence he does not do as you
suggest.
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