Zai Wo suggests cutting parental mourning to one year over ritual decay worries. Confucius argues three years repay parents’ early care, criticizing Zai Wo’s lack of heartfelt filial benevolence, holding true rituals spring from sincere inner grief rather than superficial forms.
Confucius questions whether ritual merely means jade and silk, or music only bells and drums. He criticizes empty formalism, stressing their true essence lies in inner reverence and harmony rather than superficial ceremonial objects.
When Yang Shuxian was in office in Jingzhou, the tigers there were a scourge to the people. So Yang had an edict engraved on a big rock on a nearby mountain, ordering the tigers to leave the place.