宰我问，三年之丧，期已久矣。君子三年不为礼，礼必坏，三年不为乐，乐必崩。旧谷既没，新谷既升，钻燧改火，期可已矣。子曰，食夫稻，衣夫锦，于女安乎。曰，安。女安，则为之。夫君子之居丧，食旨不甘，闻乐不乐，居处不安，故不为也。今女安，则为之。宰我出。子曰，予之不仁也。子生三年，然后免于父母之怀。夫三年之丧，天下之通丧也。予也，有三年之爱于其父母乎。

James Legge Translation

1. Tsai Wo asked about the three years" mourning for parents, saying that one year was long enough. 2. "If the superior man," said he, "abstains for three years from the observances of propriety, those observances will be quite lost. If for three years he abstains from music, music will be ruined. 3. "Within a year the old grain is exhausted, and the new grain has sprung up, and, in procuring fire by friction, we go through all the changes of wood for that purpose. After a complete year, the mourning may stop." 4. The Master said, "If you were, after a year, to eat good rice, and wear embroidered clothes, would you feel at ease?" "I should," replied Wo. 5. The Master said, "If you can feel at ease, do it. But a superior man, during the whole period of mourning, does not enjoy pleasant food which he may eat, nor derive pleasure from music which he may hear. He also does not feel at ease, if he is comfortably lodged. Therefore he does not do what you propose. But now you feel at ease and may do it." 6. Tsai Wo then went out, and the Master said, "This shows Yu's want of virtue. It is not till a child is three years old that it is allowed to leave the arms of its parents. And the three years" mourning is universally observed throughout the empire. Did Yu enjoy the three years" love of his parents?"