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APPENDIX I

THE CUSTOM OF MOURNING TO THE THIRD YEAR

The custom of mourning for parents to the third year was urged by
Confucius,[1] seemingly because it reinforced the virtue of filial piety.[2]
It was vehemently attacked by Moh-tzu,[3] and defended by Mencius[4]
and Hsün-tzu.[5] However, even in the state of Lu at the time of Mencius,
it was still an uncommon practise. When he urged it upon the Duke of
T'eng, after the death of Duke T'ing, the court advisors memorialized the
Duke saying, "None of the former princes of Lu, which kingdom we
honor, observed [this practise of mourning to the third year], neither
have any of our own former princes observed it."[6] In its extreme form,
when the son spent his time weeping and in partial fasting, cutting himself
off from his usual pursuits, this custom could only have originated among
aristocrats, for no one else had the leisure to devote two years and more to
such a practise.

This custom of mourning to the third year seems to have remained a
specifically Confucian practise. Emperor Wen, in his posthumous edict
of 157 B.C., condemned it and limited mourning for an emperor to the
thirty-sixth day after his burial.[7] That period was thereafter adopted by
officials in mourning for their own parents.[8] Even the famous Confucian
bibliophile, Liu Tê, King Hsien of Ho-chien (d. 130 B.C.), seems not to
have followed the custom of mourning to the third year. We have the
citation of his deeds by his Commandant of the Capital,[9] and it says
nothing about his having mourned to the third year, even though he is
said to have cultivated Confucian practises in his rites and robes. Thus
the attack of Moh-tzu upon the Confucian mourning rites and Emperor
Wen's condemnation of this practise seems to have led the Confucians
themselves to dispense with this practise until their doctrine secured an

unchallenged hold upon official China. It remained quite uncommon to
the end of the first century B.C., for in 7 B.C. Emperor Ai considered
this practise unusual and so meritorious that he rewarded King Hui of
Ho-chien, Liu Liang, a descendant of King Hsien, by a complimentary
edict and an increase by ten thousand households in the size of his kingdom,
for having mourned to the third year for his mother, the Queen
Dowager.[10] In the same year Erudits and their Disciples, who were the
teachers in the Confucian Imperial University, were allowed to take leave
to the third year to mourn for their parents.[11] The practise of mourning
to the third year seems thus to have first been propagated widely during
the latter part of the first century B.C.

The Han dynasty stressed filial piety in many ways. The Classic of
Filial Piety was a textbook studied by all; the Han Emperors (except the
first) were all given the word "hsiao [OMITTED], filially pious" as the first part of
their posthumous names. They made occasional grants to Filially Pious
people and had persons recommended for the bureaucracy because of their
filial piety. Emperor Ai considered a lack of filial conduct as sufficient
grounds for dismissing even the highest official.[12] Hence it is quite
natural, when Confucianism came to be well established and an attempt
was made to fulfil all its requirements, that the practise of mourning
to the third year should have been revived and adopted by those who
were careful in their Confucianism and had the leisure to follow this
custom.

Yet the practise was slow in spreading. It was not until Jan. 1, 117
A.D. that the Empress nee Teng, while ruling for Emperor An, "for the
first time permitted high officials, [those ranking at] two thousand piculs,
and Inspectors to perform the mourning to the third year,"[13] at the end
of which time they were returned to their former posts. This provision
was confirmed by later emperors. At the suggestion of Ch'en Chung,[14]
on Dec. 25, 120, Emperor An "again decided that high officials [and those
ranking at] two thousand piculs and over should wear mourning to the
third year."[15] The actual period was twenty-five months.[16] In 154,

Emperor Huan "again permitted Inspectors [and officials ranking at] two
thousand piculs to perform the mourning to the third year,"[17] and in
Apr./May 159 he "again decided that Inspectors [and officials ranking at]
two thousand piculs should perform the mourning to the third year."[18]
Thus only at the end of the Later Han period was the mourning to the
third year performed by the high officials as an example to the empire.