this great duty to my father devolves upon me; I wish to send you to ask the advice of Mencius, and then to proceed to its various services＇
2. Zan Y? accordingly proceeded to Tsau, and consulted Mencius. Mencius said, ＇Is this not good? In discharging the funeral duties to parents, men indeed feel constrained to do their utmost. The philosopher Ts?ng said, "When parents are alive, they should be served according to propriety; when they are dead,they should be buried according to propriety; and they should be sacrificed to according to propriety:—this may be called filial piety." The ceremonies to be observed by the princes I have not learned, but I have heard these points:— that the three years＇ mourning,the garment of coarse cloth with its lower edge even,and the eating of congee, were equally prescribed by the three dynasties, and binding on all, from the sovereign to the mass of the people.＇