"
He paused for a moment and then went on. "So I fled, and it is many years
since by the Yang-tze-kiang I killed my ruler and saved my friends. Yet I
had not been faithful to the ancient law, and so through the long years I
have done low work among a low people. This was for atonement, for long
ago by the Yang-tzekiang I should have died, and behold, I have lived
until now. To save my friends from the pain of killing me I fled and
lived; but at last here at this place I said to myself that I must die.
So, secretly, I made this cellar into a temple.
"That was a year ago, and I sent to my brother the Duke Ki to speak to
him what was in my mind, so that he might send my kinsmen to me, that
when I came to die, it should be after the manner ordained by the Son of
Heaven; that my body should be clothed according to the ancient rites by
my own people, my mouth filled with rice, and the meats, and grains and
fruits of sacrifice be placed on a mat at the east of my body when I
died; that the curtain should be hung before my corpse; that I should be
laid upon a mat of fine bamboo, and dressed, and prepared for my grave,
and put into a noble coffin as becomes a superior man. Did not the Son of
Heaven say that we speak of the end of a superior man, but we speak of
the death of a small man? I was a superior man, but I have lived as a
small man these many days; and now, behold, I am drawing near to my end
as a superior man.
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