君一時素服，使有司弔死問疾，憂以巫醫。
He would do his best to save them and would have medicinal broths prescribed.
匍匐以救之，湯粥以方之。
The good rulers would pay attention first to widows, widowers, orphans, and those with no one to care for them in their illness.
善者必先乎鰥寡孤獨，及病不能相養，死無以葬埋，則葬埋之。
If the dead had no one to bury them, he would see to their burial.
有親喪者，不呼其門；有齊衰大功，五月，不服力役之征。
As for households mourning a parent, he would ensure that no one came and shouted before their gates.
有小功之喪者，未葬，不服力役之征。
Those wearing the coarse mourning clothes used for the death of a parent or the kinds of mourning used for nine-month and five-month periods were not impressed into corvée labor teams.
Those wearing five-month mourning garb whose deceased relations had not yet been interred were likewise not impressed into corvée labor.
其有重尸多死者急，則有聚眾童子，擊鼓苣火，入官宮里用之。
In cases of crisis with great numbers of corpses, he would form children into large groups and have them beat drums and wave reed torches, and enter the reception halls of official establishments, palaces, and ward gates in order to use them.
各擊鼓苣火，逐官宮里。
Passing from one place to another, they would beat the drums and wave the torches.
家之主人，冠，立於阼。
The heads of households with ill people would don caps and stand on the steps at the eastern side of the reception halls.
事畢，出乎里門，出乎邑門，至野外。
On the completion of this procedure, the people would leave the village or city and go out to the fields beyond.
此匍匐救厲之道也。
This was how rulers endeavored to save people from plague.
師大敗亦然。
The same things were done after great defeats.
Plague: the text has li 歷, used to represent 癘, “plague.”