Yili (text) - Content

Content

After disparaging the repetitive and "unnecessary detail" in the text, John Steele described it as a "picture of the public and private life, education, family interests, and work-a-day religion of an average man in the China of 3,000 years ago" (Steele 1917:vii-viii)

The received text of the Yili contains seventeen pian 篇 "chapters; sections".

*Yili* Chapters
Number	Chinese	Pinyin	Translation (Boltz 1993:235-236)
1	士冠禮	Shiguan li	Capping rites for (the son of) a common officer
2	士昏禮	Shihun li	Nuptial rites for a common officer
3	士相見禮	Shi xiangjian li	Rites attendant on the meeting of common officers with each other
4	鄉飲酒禮	Xiang yinjiu li	Rites of the district symposium
5	鄉射禮	Xiang she li	Rites of the district archery meet
6	燕禮	Yan li	Banquet rites (at state, not imperial, level)
7	大射	Dashe	The great archery meet (state level)
8	聘禮	Pin li	Rites of courtesy calls (state to state)
9	公食大夫禮	Gongshi dafu li	Rites of the gong feasting a great officer
10	覲禮	Jin li	Rites of the (imperial) audience
11	喪服	Sang fu	Mourning attire
12	士喪禮	Shi sang li	Mourning rites for the common officer
13	既夕禮	Ji xi li	(Mourning procedures of) the evening preceding burial
14	士虞禮	Shi yu li	Post burial rites for a common officer
15	特牲饋食禮	Tesheng kuishi li	Rites of the single victim food offering
16	少牢饋食禮	Shaolao kuishi li	Rites of the secondary pen victim food offering
17	有司徹	Yousi che	The servant clearing the way

Compared with the other ritual texts, the Etiquette and Ceremonial contains some highly-detailed descriptions. Take for instance, this passage about the ceremony for the personator of the dead:

Then the host descends and washes a goblet. The personator and the aide descend also, and the host, laying the cup in the basket, declines the honor. To this the personator makes a suitable reply. When the washing is finished, they salute one another, and the personator goes up, but not the aide. Then the host fills the goblet and pledges the personator. Standing, facing north to the east of the eastern pillar, he sits down, laying down the cup, bows, the personator, to the west of the western pillar, facing north, and bowing in return. Then the host sits, offers of the wine, and drinks. When he has finished off the cup, he bows, the personator bowing in return. He then descends and washes the goblet, the personator descending and declining the honor. The host lays the cup in the basket, and making a suitable reply, finishes the washing and goes up, the personator going up also. Then the host fills the goblet, the personator bowing and receiving it. The host returns to his place and bows in reply. Then the personator faces north, sits, and lays the goblet to the left of the relishes, the personator, aide, and host all going to their mats. (tr. Steele 1917 2:195-6)

Famous quotes containing the word content:

“Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,—to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a life-time, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
Nor shall not be the last, like silly beggars
Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame
That many have and others must sit there,
And in this thought they find a kind of ease.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)