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3.4 Lin Fang asked for some main principles in connexion with ritual. Confucius said, “A very big question. In ritual at large it is a safe rule always to be too sparing rather than too lavish; and in the particular case of mourning-rites, they should be dictated by grief rather than by ease.”
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3.3 Confucius said, “A man who is not benevolent, what can he have to do with ritual? A man who is not benevolent, what can he have to do with music?
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3.2 The Three Families used the Yong Song during the removal of the sacrificial vessels. Confucius said, “‘By rulers and lords attended,The Son of Heaven, mysterious….’ What possible application can such words have in the hall of the Three Families?”
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2.24 Confucius said, “Just as to sacrifice to ancestors other than one’s own is presumption, so to see what is right and not do it is cowardice.”
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2.23 Zizhang asked whether the state of things ten generations hence could be foretold.