Confucius said: “Formerly, along with Lao Tan, I was assisting at a burial in the village of Hsiang, and when we had got to the path the sun was eclipsed. Lao Tan said to me, ‘Ch‘iu, let the bier be stopped on the left of the road; and then let us wail and wait till the eclipse pass away. When it is light again we will proceed.’ He said that this was the rule. When we had returned and completed the burial, I said to him, ‘In the progress of a bier there should be no returning. When there is an eclipse of the sun, we do not know whether it will pass away quickly or not; would it not have been better to go on?’ Lao Tan said, ‘When the prince of a state is going to the court of the Son of Heaven, he travels while he can see the sun. At sundown he halts and presents his offerings (to the spirit of the way). When a great officer is on a mission, he travels while he can see the sun, and at sundown he halts. Now a bier does not set forth in the early morning, nor does it rest anywhere at night; but those who travel by starlight are only criminals and those who are hastening to the funeral rites of a parent.’” Other specimens will be found in Chapters iii. and iv. * * * * * Until the time of the Ming dynasty, A.D. 1368, another and a much older work, known as the _Chou Li_, or Rites of the Chou dynasty, and dealing more with constitutional matters, was always coupled with the _Li Chi_, and formed one of the then recognised Six Classics. There is still a third work of the same class, and also of considerable antiquity, called the _I Li_. Its contents treat mostly of the ceremonial observances of everyday life. * * * * * [Sidenote: THE SPRING AND AUTUMN] We now come to the last of the Five Classics as at present constituted, the _Ch‘un Ch‘iu_, or Spring and Autumn Annals. This is a chronological record of the chief events in the State of Lu between the years B.C. 722-484, and is generally regarded as the work of Confucius, whose native State was Lu. The entries are of the briefest, and comprise notices of incursions, victories, defeats, deaths, murders, treaties, and natural phenomena. The following are a few illustrative extracts:-- “In the 7th year of Duke Chao, in spring, the Northern Yen State made peace with the Ch‘i State. “In the 3rd month the Duke visited the Ch‘u State. “In summer, on the _chia shên_ day of the 4th month (March 11th, B.C. 594), the sun was eclipsed. “In the 7th year of Duke Chuang (B.C. 685), in summer, in the 4th moon, at midnight, there was a shower of stars like rain.”