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Parker, Edward Harper, 1849-1926

"Ancient China Simplified"

"
Persons of the same clan-name could not properly intermarry. Thus
the Emperor Muh, who is supposed to have travelled to Turkestan in
the tenth century B.C., had a mysterious _liaison_ during his
expedition with a beauteous Miss _Ki_ (_i.e._ a girl of his own
clan), who died on the way. The only way tolerant posterity can make
a shift to defend this "incest," is by supposing that in those times the
names of relatives were "arranged differently." However, the mere
fact that the funeral ceremonies were carried out with full imperial
Chou ritual, and that incest is mentioned at all, seems to militate against
the view (noticed in Chapter XIII.) that it was Duke Muh of Ts'in who
(400 years later) undertook this journey, for he did not belong to
the _Ki_ family at all. Curiously enough, it fell to the lot
of the son and successor of the Emperor Muh to have to punish and
destroy a petty vassal state whose ruler had committed the
incestuous act of marrying three sisters of his own clan-name. In
483 B.C. the ruler of Lu also committed an indiscretion by
marrying a _Ki_ girl.


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