“A son,” says the Li Ki, “possesses nothing while his parents are living. He cannot even expose his life for a friend.”[84]
“A son has received his life from his father and his mother,” says Confucius in the Hiao King, composed 480 B. C., “and this gives them rights over him that are above all others.”
In the legend of How Tseih, the founder of the House of Chow, whose mother was Keang Yuen and whose father was “a toe print made by God,” the adventures of the child are thus described:
He was placed in a narrow lane,
But the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care.
He was placed in a wide forest,
Where he was met with by the wood-cutters.
He was placed on the cold ice,
And a bird screened and supported him with its wings.
When the bird went away