[19] Had she corresponded with someone who was in mourning, she would herself have become unclean and been disqualified from attending upon her daughter the Vestal Virgin.
[20] Used in writing to people who were in mourning.
[22] Winter clothes are begun on the first day of the tenth month.
[23] From a poem to a dead lady, by Liu Yü-hsi (a.d. 772–842).
I saw you first standing at the window of Yü Liang’s tower;
Your waist was slender as the willow-trees that grow at Wu-ch‘ang.
My finding you and losing you were both like a dream;
Oh tell me if your soul dwells in the rain, or whether in the clouds above!
[24] A husband in mourning may not wear winter clothes. The mourning lasts for three months.