Sihui — The Four Taboos四諱篇
俗有大諱四。一曰諱西益宅。西益宅謂之不祥，不祥必有死亡，相懼以此，故世莫敢西益宅，防禁所從來者遠矣。傳曰：魯哀公欲西益宅，史爭以為不祥。哀公作色而怒，左右數諫而弗聽，以問其傅宰質睢曰：「吾欲西益宅，史以為不祥，何如？」宰質睢曰：「天下有三不祥，西益宅不與焉。」哀公大說。有頃，復問曰：「何謂三不祥？」對曰：「不行禮義，一不祥也。嗜欲無止，二不祥也。不聽規諫，三不祥也。」哀公繆然深惟，慨然自反，遂不益宅。
The common world has four great taboos. The first is the taboo on extending a house to the west. Extending a house to the west is called unlucky, and what is unlucky must bring a death. Men frighten one another with this, and so no one in the age dares extend a house to the west. The guarding and forbidding of it comes from far back. A tradition says: Duke Ai of Lu wished to extend his house to the west, and the scribe contended with him and held it unlucky. Duke Ai changed color and grew angry. Those about him remonstrated several times and he would not listen, and he asked his tutor Zai Zhisui: "I wish to extend my house to the west, and the scribe holds it unlucky. What of it?" Zai Zhisui said: "Under Heaven there are three unlucky things, and extending a house to the west is not among them." Duke Ai was greatly pleased. After a while he asked again: "What do you call the three unlucky things?" He answered: "Not practicing ritual and duty is the first unlucky thing. Craving and wanting without stop is the second unlucky thing. Not listening to admonition is the third unlucky thing." Duke Ai fell silent and thought deeply, sighed and turned back upon himself, and in the end did not extend his house.
令史與宰質睢止其益宅，徒為煩擾，則西益宅祥與不祥未可知也。令史、質睢以為西益宅審不祥，則史與質睢與今俗人等也。夫宅之四面皆地也，三面不謂之凶，益西面獨謂不祥，何哉？西益宅何傷於地體，何害於宅神？西益不祥，損之能善乎？西益不祥，東益能吉乎？夫不祥必有祥者，猶不吉必有吉矣。宅有形體，神有吉凶，動德致福，犯刑起禍。今言西益宅謂之不祥，何益而祥者？且惡人西益宅者，誰也？如地惡之，益東家之西，損西家之東，何傷於地？如以宅神不欲西益，神猶人也，人這處宅欲得廣大，何故惡之？而以宅神惡煩擾，則四（而）〔面〕益宅，皆當不祥。諸工技之家，說吉凶之占，皆有事狀。宅家言治宅犯凶神，移徙言忌歲月，祭祀言觸血忌，喪葬言犯剛柔，皆有鬼神凶惡之禁，人不忌避，有病死之禍。至於西益宅何害而謂之不祥？不祥之禍，何以為敗？
If the scribe and Zai Zhisui stopped him from extending his house and it was only vexation for nothing, then whether extending a house to the west is lucky or unlucky cannot be known. If the scribe and Zai Zhisui held that extending a house to the west is truly unlucky, then the scribe and Zai Zhisui are the same as the common men of today. Now the four sides of a house are all ground. Three sides are not called ill, and extending the west side alone is called unlucky. Why is that? What does extending a house to the west wound in the body of the earth, what does it harm in the spirit of the house? If extending to the west is unlucky, can cutting it back be good? If extending to the west is unlucky, can extending to the east be lucky? Where there is the unlucky there must be the lucky, just as where there is the unfortunate there must be the fortunate. A house has a body and a spirit has luck and ill. Move with virtue and blessing comes; offend against punishment and calamity rises. Now they say that extending a house to the west is unlucky; then extending it which way is lucky? And who is it that hates a man extending his house to the west? If the earth hates it, then extending the west of the eastern house cuts back the east of the western house; what wound is that to the earth? If it is that the spirit of the house does not want an extension to the west, a spirit is like a man, and a man dwelling in a house wants it broad and great; for what reason should the spirit hate it? And if the spirit of the house hates vexation, then extending the house on all four sides ought all to be unlucky. The various houses of craft and skill, in explaining their divinations of luck and ill, all have some shape of the matter to show. Those who read houses say that in working on a house one offends an ill spirit. Of moving they say one must shun the year and the month. Of offerings they say one touches the blood taboo. Of mourning and burial they say one offends the hard and the soft days. All have the ill and evil prohibitions of ghosts and spirits, and if a man does not shun and avoid them there is the calamity of sickness and death. But as for extending a house to the west, what does it harm that it should be called unlucky? And the calamity of what is unlucky, by what does it work its ruin?
實說其義，不祥者義理之禁，非吉凶之忌也。夫西方，長老之地，尊者之位也。尊長在西，卑幼在東。尊長，主也；卑幼，助也。主少而助多，尊無二上，卑有百下也。西益主益，主不增助，二上不百下也，於義不善，故謂不祥。不祥者，不宜也，於義不宜，未有凶也。何以明之？夫墓，死人所藏；田，人所飲食；宅，人所居處。三者於人，吉凶宜等。西益宅不祥，西益墓與田，不言不祥。夫墓，死人所居，因忽不慎。田，非人所處，不設尊卑。宅者長幼所共，加慎致意者，何可不之諱？義詳於宅，略於墓與田也。
Explaining its meaning by the truth, what is unlucky is a prohibition of duty and principle, not a taboo of luck and ill. Now the west is the ground of the elder and the seat of the honored. The honored and elder is in the west, the low and young in the east. The honored and elder is the host; the low and young are the helpers. The host is few and the helpers many: in honor there are not two above, in lowliness there are a hundred below. To extend to the west is to extend the host, and the host does not increase the helpers; then there are two above and not a hundred below. In duty it is not good, and so it is called unlucky. Unlucky means unfitting: it is unfitting in duty, and there is no ill in it. How is this made clear? Now a grave is where the dead are hidden, a field is where men drink and eat, a house is where men live. For men these three ought to be alike in luck and ill. Extending a house to the west is unlucky, yet of extending a grave or a field to the west no one says it is unlucky. Now a grave is where the dead dwell, and so it is passed over and not cared for. A field is not where men dwell, and no honor and lowliness are set up in it. A house is what elder and young share, and how could one who is careful and puts his mind to it fail to shun it there? The meaning is detailed for the house and slight for the grave and the field.
二曰諱被刑為徒，不上丘墓。但知不可，不能知其不可之意。問其禁之者，不能知其諱，受禁行者亦不要其忌。連相放效，至或於被刑，父母死，不送葬；若至墓側，不敢臨葬。甚失至於不行吊傷、見佗之人柩。
The second is the taboo that one who has suffered punishment and become a convict does not go up to the graves. They know only that it may not be done and cannot know the meaning of why it may not be done. Ask those who forbid it and they cannot tell what the taboo is; and those who take the ban and follow it do not ask for its ground either. One after another they copy one another, so that a man who has suffered punishment will not see his father and mother off at their burial when they die, and if he comes to the side of the grave he does not dare to attend the burial. The loss goes so far that he will not go to condole and mourn, and will not look on another man's coffin.
夫徒，（善）〔睾〕人也，被刑謂之徒。丘墓之上，二親也，死亡謂之先。宅與墓何別，親與先何異？如以徒被刑，先人責之，則不宜入宅與親相見。如徒不得與死人相見，則親死在堂，不得哭柩。如以徒不得升丘墓，則徒不得上山陵，世俗禁之，執據何義？實說其意，徒不上丘墓有二義，義理之諱，非凶惡之忌也。徒用心以為先祖全而生之，子孫亦當全而歸之。故曾子有疾，召門弟子曰：「開予足，開予手，而今而後，吾知免夫，小子。」
Now a convict is a man with guilt, and one who has suffered punishment is called a convict. Above the graves are one's two parents, and the dead are called forebears. What sets a house apart from a grave, what makes a parent different from a forebear? If a convict who has suffered punishment is reproached by his forebears, then he ought not to enter the house and see his parents face to face. If a convict may not see the dead face to face, then when his parent dies and lies in the hall he may not weep over the coffin. If a convict may not climb to the graves, then a convict may not climb hills and mounds. On what meaning does the common world rest in forbidding it? Explaining the intent by the truth, there are two meanings in a convict not going up to the graves, and it is a taboo of duty and principle, not a taboo of ill and evil. The convict sets his heart on this, that his ancestors bore him whole and that his descendants ought to return whole as well. Therefore Zengzi, when he was ill, called the disciples of his gate and said: "Uncover my feet, uncover my hands. From this day on I know that I am free of it, my little ones."
曾子重慎，臨絕效全，喜免毀傷之禍也。孔子曰：「身體髪膚，受之父母，弗敢毀傷。」
Zengzi was grave and careful, and at the point of his end he showed himself whole, glad to have escaped the calamity of maiming and wounding. Confucius said: "Body and limbs, hair and skin, are received from father and mother; one does not dare to maim or wound them."
孝者怕入刑辟，刻畫身體，毀傷髪膚，少德泊行，不戒慎之所致也。愧負刑辱，深自刻責，故不升墓祀於先。古禮廟祭，今俗墓祀，故不升墓。慚負先人，一義也。墓者，鬼神所在，祭祀之處。祭祀之禮，齊戒潔清，重之至也。今已被刑，刑殘之人，不宜與祭，供侍先人，卑謙謹敬，退主自賤之意也。緣先祖之意，見子孫被刑，惻怛慘傷，恐其臨祀，不忍歆享，故不上墓，二義也。昔太伯見王季有聖子文王，知太王意欲立之，入吳采葯，斷髪文身，以隨吳俗。太王薨，太伯還，王季辟主，太伯再讓，王季不聽，三讓，曰：「吾之吳越，吳越之俗，斷髪文身，吾刑餘之人，不可為宗廟社稷之主。」王季知不可，權而受之。
A filial man is afraid of falling into punishment, of having his body carved and marked and his hair and skin maimed and wounded; it comes of thin virtue and shallow conduct, brought on by not guarding himself and not being careful. Ashamed to bear the disgrace of punishment, he reproaches himself deeply, and so he does not go up to the grave to make offering to his forebears. In the old ritual the offering was in the ancestral temple; in today's custom it is at the grave, and so he does not go up to the grave. Shame before his forebears is the first meaning. The grave is where the ghosts and spirits are, the place of offering. The ritual of offering is fasting and cleansing, the height of taking a thing seriously. Now one who has already suffered punishment, a man maimed by punishment, ought not to join the offering and attend upon his forebears. It is the intent of lowering himself, humble and careful and reverent, withdrawing and holding himself base. Follow the intent of the ancestors: seeing their descendant suffer punishment they would grieve and be stricken, and he fears that when he came to the offering they could not bear to taste it. So he does not go up to the grave; this is the second meaning. Long ago Taibo saw that Wang Ji had a sage son, King Wen, and knew that King Tai meant to set him up. He went into Wu to gather herbs, cut his hair and marked his body, and followed the custom of Wu. When King Tai died, Taibo came back, and Wang Ji stepped aside from the host's place. Taibo declined twice, and Wang Ji would not listen; at the third declining he said: "I went to Wu and Yue, and the custom of Wu and Yue is to cut the hair and mark the body. I am a man left over from punishment and cannot be the host of the ancestral temple and the altars of soil and grain." Wang Ji knew that it could not be, and weighing the case he accepted.
夫徒不上丘墓，太伯不為主之義也。是謂祭祀不可，非謂柩當葬，身不送也。
Now a convict not going up to the graves is the meaning of Taibo not becoming the host. This says that the offering may not be made; it does not say that when the coffin is to be buried, he himself does not see it off.
葬死人，先祖痛；見刑人，先祖哀。權可哀之身，送可痛之尸，使先祖有知，痛尸哀形，何愧之有！如使無知，丘墓田野也，何慚之有？慚愧先者，謂身體刑殘，與人異也。古者用刑，形毀不全，乃不可耳。方今象刑，象刑重者，髡鉗之法也。若完城旦以下，施刑，彩衣繫躬，冠帶與俗人殊，何為不可？世俗信而謂之皆凶，其失至於不吊鄉党尸，不升佗人之丘，惑也。
When a dead man is buried the forebears grieve, and when they see a man who has been punished the forebears sorrow. If, weighing the case, a body fit to be sorrowed over sees off a corpse fit to be grieved over, then even if the forebears have knowledge, they grieve for the corpse and sorrow for the form; what shame is there in it! And if they have no knowledge, a grave is field and open ground; what shame is there in it? To be ashamed before the forebears means that the body is maimed by punishment and unlike other men's. In old times punishment was used so that the form was broken and not whole, and then indeed it could not be done. Today punishment is by likeness, and the heavy ones among these punishments by likeness are the law of the shaven head and the iron collar. As for wancheng dan and below, when the punishment is laid on, colored clothes are bound about the body and cap and sash differ from the common man's; what is there in that which may not be done? The common world believes it and calls all of it ill, and the loss goes so far that men will not condole over a corpse in their own village and will not go up to another man's grave. This is delusion.
三曰諱婦人乳子，以為不吉。將舉吉事，入山林，遠行度川澤者，皆不與之交通。乳子之家，亦忌惡之。丘墓廬道畔，逾月乃入，惡之甚也。暫卒見若為不吉，極原其事，何以為惡？夫婦人之乳子也，子含元氣而出。元氣，天地之精微也，何凶而惡之？人，物也，子亦物也。子生與萬物之生何以異？諱人之生謂之惡，萬物之生又惡之乎？生與胞俱也，如以胞為不吉，人之有胞，猶木實之有（扶）〔〕也，包（里）〔裹〕兒身，因與俱出，若鳥卵之有殼，何妨謂之惡？如惡以為不吉，則諸生物有（扶）〔〕殼者，宜皆惡之。萬物廣多，難以驗事。人生何以異於六畜，皆含血氣懷子，子生與人無異，獨惡人而不憎畜，豈以人體大氣血盛乎？則夫牛馬體大於人，凡可惡之事，無與鈞等，獨有一物，不見比類，乃可疑也。今六畜與人無異，其乳皆同一狀。六畜與人無異，諱人不諱六畜，不曉其故也。世能別人之產與六畜之乳，吾將聽其諱；如不能別，則吾謂世俗所諱妄矣。
The third is the taboo on a woman bearing a child, which is held to be unlucky. Those about to undertake a lucky affair, to enter the hills and woods, to travel far and cross rivers and marshes, will none of them have dealings with her. The household where a child has been born shuns and hates it too. At the graves, in the mourning hut, by the roadside, she may enter only after a month has passed; the hatred of it is extreme. Even a brief and sudden sight of her is held unlucky. Trace the matter to its root: on what ground is it called evil? Now when a woman bears a child, the child comes out holding the primal breath. The primal breath is the fine essence of Heaven and earth; what is ill in it that they should hate it? A man is a thing, and a child is a thing too. How does the birth of a child differ from the birth of the ten thousand things? If they shun the birth of a man and call it evil, do they hate the birth of the ten thousand things as well? Birth comes together with the caul. If the caul is held unlucky, a man having a caul is like a tree's fruit having a husk. It wraps the child's body and comes out with it, as a bird's egg has a shell; what harm is there in it that it should be called evil? If they hate it and call it unlucky, then all living things that have husk and shell ought all to be hated. The ten thousand things are broad and many and hard to prove by cases. How does a man's birth differ from the six domestic animals? All hold blood and breath and carry their young, and the young are born no differently from men. To hate men alone and not to loathe the animals, is it because a man's body is large and his blood and breath abundant? Then oxen and horses have bodies larger than a man's. In anything to be hated, when nothing else matches it evenly and one thing alone stands with no kind to be compared with it, then it may be doubted. Now the six domestic animals are no different from men, and their bearing is all of one shape. The six domestic animals are no different from men, yet they shun men and do not shun the six domestic animals, and the reason for it is not understood. If the age can tell a woman's bearing apart from the bearing of the six domestic animals, I will listen to its taboo; and if it cannot tell them apart, then I say that what the common world shuns is nonsense.
且凡人所惡，莫有腐臭。腐臭之氣，敗傷人心。故鼻聞臭，口食腐，心損口惡，霍亂嘔吐。夫更衣之室，可謂臭矣；鮑魚之肉，可謂腐矣。然而有甘之更衣之室，不以為忌；肴食腐魚之肉，不以為諱。意不存以為惡，故不計其可與不也。凡可憎惡者，若濺墨漆，附著人身。今目見鼻聞，一過則已，忽亡輒去，何故惡之？出見負豕於塗，腐澌於溝，不以為凶者，辱自在彼人，不著己之身也。今婦人乳子自在其身，齋戒之人，何故忌之？
And of all that men hate, nothing matches rot and stench. The breath of rot and stench ruins and wounds a man's heart. So when the nose smells a stench and the mouth eats what is rotten, the heart is hurt and the mouth loathes it, and there is retching and vomiting. Now the changing room may be called stinking, and the flesh of salted fish may be called rotten. Yet men go gladly to the changing room and do not shun it, and they eat the flesh of rotten fish with their drink and do not shun it. They do not hold it in mind as evil, and so they do not reckon whether it may be done or not. What may be hated is like splashed ink and lacquer that sticks to a man's body. Now what the eye sees and the nose smells is over once it has passed; it vanishes of itself and at once is gone. For what reason should it be hated? Going out, one sees a pig carried on the road and a rotting carcass in the ditch and does not call it ill, because the foulness is on that other man and does not stick to one's own body. Now a woman's bearing a child is on her own body; for what reason does a man who fasts and purifies shun it?
江北乳子不出房室，知其無惡也。至於犬乳，置之宅外，此復惑也。江北諱犬不諱人，江南諱人不諱犬，謠俗防惡，各不同也。夫人與犬何以異，房室宅外何以殊，或惡或不惡，或諱或不諱，世俗防禁，竟無經也。月之晦也，日月合宿，紀為一月，猶八日，〔日〕月中分謂之弦；十五日，日月相望謂之望；三十日，日月合宿謂之晦。晦與弦望一實也，非月晦日月光氣與月朔異也。何故逾月謂之吉乎？如實凶，逾月未可謂吉；如實吉，雖未逾月猶為可也。實說，諱忌產子乳犬者，欲使人常自潔清，不欲使人被污辱也。夫自潔清則意精，意精則行清，行清而貞廉之節立矣。
North of the Jiang a child is born without leaving the room, and one knows there is no evil in it. But as for a dog's whelping, they put her outside the house; here is delusion again. North of the Jiang they shun the dog and do not shun the woman; south of the Jiang they shun the woman and do not shun the dog. Songs and customs guard against evil, and each is unlike the other. Now what makes a man and a dog different, what sets the room apart from outside the house, that one should be hated and the other not, one shunned and the other not? The common world's guarding and forbidding has no rule to it at the last. The dark of the moon is when sun and moon lodge together, and it is reckoned as one month; just as on the eighth day, when sun and moon divide the middle, it is called xian; on the fifteenth day, when sun and moon look at each other, it is called wang; on the thirtieth day, when sun and moon lodge together, it is called hui. Hui and xian and wang are one and the same truth, and it is not that the light and breath of sun and moon on the dark of the month differ from those on the first of the month. For what reason is passing the month called lucky? If it is truly ill, passing the month cannot be called lucky; and if it is truly lucky, then even before the month has passed it may still be done. To explain the truth, the taboo on bearing a child and on a dog's whelping is meant to make men always keep themselves clean and to keep men from being defiled. Now if one keeps oneself clean the mind is fine; if the mind is fine the conduct is clear; and if the conduct is clear, the bearing of the upright and the incorrupt is set up.
四曰諱舉正月、五月子。以為正月、五月子殺父與母，不得已舉之，父母禍死，則信而謂之真矣。
The fourth is the taboo on rearing a child born in the first month or the fifth. They hold that a child of the first month or the fifth kills its father and mother; and if they rear it unwillingly and the parents then die by some calamity, they believe it and call it true.
夫正月、五月子何故殺父與母？人之含氣在腹腸之內，其生十月而產，共一元氣也。正與二月何殊，五與六月何異，而謂之凶也？世傳此言久，拘數之人，莫敢犯之。弘識大材，實核事理，深睹吉凶之分者，然後見之。昔齊相田嬰賤妄有子，名之曰文。文以五月生，嬰告其母勿舉也，其母竊舉生之。及長，其母因兄弟而見其子文於嬰，嬰怒曰：「吾令女去此子，而敢生之，何也？」文頓首，因曰：「君所以不舉五月子者何故？」嬰曰：「五月子者長至戶，將不利其父母。」文曰：「人生受命於天乎，將受命於戶邪？」嬰嘿然。文曰：「必受命於天，君何憂焉。如受命於戶，即高其戶，誰能至者？」嬰善其言，曰：「子休矣！」
Now for what reason does a child of the first month or the fifth kill its father and mother? A man holds the breath within the belly and bowels, and his birth is at ten months. It is one and the same primal breath. What sets the first month apart from the second, what makes the fifth differ from the sixth, that it should be called ill? This saying has been handed down in the world a long time, and men bound by numbers do not dare to cross it. Only one of wide understanding and great talent, who truly weighs the principle of things and sees deeply the parting of luck and ill, sees it afterward. Long ago Tian Ying, the prime minister of Qi, had a son by a base concubine and named him Wen. Wen was born in the fifth month, and Ying told his mother not to rear him, but his mother reared him in secret and kept him alive. When he was grown, his mother made use of his brothers to show her son Wen to Ying. Ying was angry and said: "I ordered you to be rid of this child, and you dared to keep him alive. Why?" Wen bowed his head to the ground and then said: "For what reason does my lord not rear a child of the fifth month?" Ying said: "A child of the fifth month grows to the height of the door and will do his father and mother no good." Wen said: "Does a man's life receive its destiny from Heaven, or does it receive its destiny from the door?" Ying was silent. Wen said: "If it must receive its destiny from Heaven, what has my lord to worry about? And if it receives its destiny from the door, then raise the door high, and who could ever reach it?" Ying thought his words good and said: "Enough, my son!"
其後使文主家，待賓客，賓客日進，名聞諸侯。文長過戶，而嬰不死。以田文之說言之，以田嬰不死效之，世俗所諱，虛妄之言也。夫田嬰俗父，而田文雅子也。嬰信忌不實義，文信命不辟諱。雅俗異材，舉措殊操，故嬰名暗而不明，文聲馳而不滅。
Afterward he had Wen take charge of the household and receive guests. Guests came forward day by day, and his name was heard among the feudal lords. Wen grew past the height of the door, and Ying did not die. Argue it by Tian Wen's words and prove it by Tian Ying not dying, and what the common world shuns is empty and false talk. Now Tian Ying was a vulgar father and Tian Wen an elegant son. Ying believed the taboo and did not make duty real; Wen believed in his destiny and did not avoid the taboo. Elegance and vulgarity are different talents, and their actions were of a different temper; and so Ying's name is dark and not bright, while Wen's fame runs on and is not put out.
實說，世俗諱之亦有緣也。夫正月歲始，五月盛陽，子以生，精熾熱烈，厭勝父母，父母不堪，將受其患，傳相放效，莫謂不然。有空諱之言，無實凶之效，世俗惑之，誤非之甚也。
To explain the truth, the common world's shunning has its reason too. Now the first month is the beginning of the year and the fifth month is the height of the yang. A child born in them, they say, has an essence fierce and hot and burning that presses down and overcomes its father and mother, and the father and mother cannot bear it and will take harm from it. They hand it on and copy one another, and no one says it is not so. There is the empty word of a taboo and no proof of real ill, yet the common world is deluded by it. The error is very great.
夫忌諱非一，必托之神怪，若設以死亡，然後世人信用。畏避忌諱之語，四方不同，略舉通語，令世觀覽。若夫曲俗微小之諱，眾多非一，咸勸人為善，使人重慎，無鬼神之害，凶丑之禍。世諱作豆醬惡聞雷，一人不食，欲使人急作，不欲積家逾至春也。
Now taboos are not of one kind. They must be tied to spirits and marvels and set out as if with death, and only then do the men of the age believe and follow them. The words of fear and avoidance and taboo are not the same in the four quarters, and I raise the common ones in outline for the age to look over. As for the little taboos of crooked local custom, they are many and not of one kind. All of them urge men to do good and make men careful and grave, and they hold no harm of ghosts and spirits, no calamity of the ill and the ugly. The world shuns hearing thunder while making bean sauce, and says that one man will not eat it; this is to make men make it quickly and to keep them from storing it in the house past the spring.
諱厲刀井上，恐刀墮井中也；或說以為刑之字，井與刀也，厲刀井上，井刀相見，恐被刑也。毋承屋檐而坐，恐瓦墮擊人首也。毋反懸冠，為似死人服，或說惡其反而承塵溜也。毋偃寢，為其象尸也。毋以箸相受，為其不固也。毋相代掃，為修冢之人冀人來代己也。諸言毋者，教人重慎，勉人為善。禮曰：「毋摶飯，毋流。」
They shun whetting a knife above a well, fearing the knife may fall into the well. Some explain that the character for punishment is a well and a knife, and that if a knife is whetted above a well, well and knife see each other and one fears suffering punishment. Do not sit under the eaves of a roof, for fear a tile may fall and strike a man's head. Do not hang a cap upside down, for it is like the clothes of a dead man; some say it is because they hate its being turned over to catch dust and dripping. Do not lie stretched flat in sleep, for that is in the likeness of a corpse. Do not pass things to one another with chopsticks, for they are not firm. Do not take turns sweeping for one another, for a man who tends a grave hopes that another will come and take his place. All these sayings of "do not" teach men to be careful and grave and urge men to do good. The Ritual says: "Do not roll the rice into a ball; do not let it spill."
禮義之禁，未必吉凶之言也。
These are prohibitions of ritual and duty; they are not of necessity words of luck and ill.