ABSTRACT
The Chinese peasants lived a hard and monotonous life from day to day, but at set times great fêtes occurred to awake in them the joy of living. These had the character of orgies. They were condemned from the time of the first philosophers. Yet Confucius acknowledged that they had a beneficent value. He would not have desired that the Prince “ after having imposed one hundred days of fatigue upon the people, should not grant them one day of rejoicing ” for one must not “ always stretch the bow without ever loosing it—(or) always loose, without ever stretching it.” 1 Confucius acknowledged that the popular fêtes were an invention of princely wisdom. As a matter of fact, these fêtes date back to an immemorial past, and the general conditions of rustic life suffice to explain them.
