The Texts of Taoism, Part I

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THE TAO TEH ATING THE WRITINGS OF A^WANG-SZE

1891 [^// Hg^kis reserved"} .S3 CONTENTS.

PREFACE xi INTRODUCTION. CHAP. I. Was TAoism older than LAo-|ze? . •• . . i Three Religions in China. Peculiarity of the T&o Teh ^ing. II. The Texts of the TAo Teh AIng and ICwavg-^e ShC, as regards their authenticity and genuine- ness^ and the arrangement of them ... 4 i. The Tio Teh ICing. The evidence of Sze-m& JCAien, the historian ; of Lieh-gze, Han Fei-gze, and other T&oist writers ; and of Pan KA. The Catalogue of the Imperial Library of Han; and that of the Sui dynasty. The Commentaries of 'the old man of the Ho-side/ and of Wang Pt. Division into Parts and Chapters, and number of Characters in the Text. it. The Writings of Awang-gze. Importance to Tioism of those Writings. The division of the Books into three Parts. Their general Title and its meaning. III. What is the meaning of the name TAo? and the CHIEF points of BELIEF IN TAoiSM • . . .12 Meaning of the name. Usage of the term T h i e n. Peculiar usage of it by AVang-jze. Mr. Giles's view that the name ' God ' is the equivalent of T h i e n. Relation of the T&o to the name Ti. No idea of Creation-proper in T&oism. Man is composed of body and spirit. That the cultivation of the Tio promotes longevity. Startling results of the TAo ; and how It proceeds by contraries. The paradisiacal state. The decay of T&oism before the growth of knowledge. The moral and practical teachings of Ldo-gze. Humility ; his three Jewels ; that good is to be returned for eviL IV. Accounts of LAo-gzB and ATwang-jze given by Sze-mA JCffiKs 33 V. On the Tractate of Actions and their Retributions 38 Peculiar style and nature of the Treatise. Its date. Meaning of the Title. Was the old T&oism a Religion ? The A"ang fiunily. Influence of Buddhism on T&oism, Vlll CONTENTS. THE TAO TEH A'ING.

Ch. 1. Embodying the Tio, p. 47. 2. The Nourishment of the Person, pp. 47, 48. 3. Keeping the People at Rest, p. 49. 4. The Fountainless, pp. 49, 50. 5. The Use of Emptiness, p. 50. 6. The Completion of Material Forms, p. 51. 7. Sheath- ing the Light, p. 52. 8. The Pkdd and Contented Nature, p. 53. 10. Possibilities through the T&o, pp. 53, 54. 11. The Use of what has no Substantive Existence, pp. 54, 55. 12. The Repression of the Desires, p. 55. 13. Loathing Shame, p. 56. 14. The Manifestation of the Mystery, p. 57. 15. The Ex- hibition of the Qualities of the T&o, pp. 58, 59. 16. Returning to the Root, pp. 59, 6a 17. The Unadulterated Influence, the Unadulterated Influence, p. 62. 20. Being Difierent from Ordinary Men, pp. 62, 63. 21. The Empty Heart, or the TSlo in its Operation, p. 64. 22. The Increase granted to Humility, p. 65. 23. Absolute Vacancy, pp. 65, 66. 24. Painful Gracious- ness, p. 67. 25. Representations of the Mystery, pp. 67^ 68. 26. The Quality of Gravity, p. 69. 27. Dexterity in Using the T^, p. 70. 28. Returning to Simplicity, p. 71. 29. Taking no Action, pp. 71, 72. 30. A Caveat against War, pp. 72, 73. 31. Stilling War, pp. 73) 74- 32. The T&o with no Name, pp. 74, 75. 33. Discriminating between Attributes, p. 75. 34. The Task of Achievement, pp. 76, 77. 35. The Attribute of Bene- volence, p. 77, 36. Minimising the Light, p. 78. 37. The Exercise of Government, p. 79.

Ch. 38. About the Attributes of the Tio, pp. 80, 81. 39. The Origin of the Law, pp. 82, 83. 40. Dispensing with the Use (of Means), pp. 83, 84. 41. Sameness and Difference, Universal Use (of the Action in Weakness of the T&o), p. S7. 44. Cautions, pp. 87, SS. 45. Great or Overflowing Virtue, p. 88, 46. The Moderating of Desire or Ambition, pp. 88, 89. 47. Surveying what is Far-off, p. 89. 48. Forgetting Knowledge, p. 90. 49. The Quality of Indulgence, p. 91. 50. The Value set on Life, pp. 92, 93. 51. The Operation (of the Tdo) in Nourishing Things, pp. 93, 94. 52. Returning to the Source, PP« 949 95* 63* Increase of Evidence, pp. 96, 97. 54. The Culti- vation (of the Tio), and the Observation (of its Eflfects), pp. 97, 98. 55. The Mysterious Charm, p. 99. 56. The Mysterious CONTENTS. IX Excellence, p. loo. 57. The Genuine Influence, pp. loo^ loi. 58. Transformation according to Circumstances, pp. loi, 102. 59. Guarding the Tio, pp. 102, 103. 60. Occupying the Throne, Practising the Tio, pp. 105, 106. 63. Thinking in the Begin- ning, pp. 106, 107. 64. Guarding the Minute, pp. 107, 108. 65. Pure, unmixed Excellence, pp. 108, 109. 66. Putting One's Self Last, p. 109. 67. Three Precious Things, p. no. 68. Matching Heaven, pp. in, 112. 69. The Use of the Mysterious (T&o), p. 112. 70. The Difficulty of being (rightly) Known, pp. 112, 113. 71. The Disease of Knowing, p. 113. 72. Loving One's Self, p. 114. 73. Allowing Men to take their Course, p. 116. 74. Restraining Delusion, p. 117. 75. How Greediness In- jures, pp. 117, 118. 76. A Warning against (Trusting in) Strength, pp. 118, 119. 77. The Way of Heaven, p. 119. 78. Things to be Believed, p. 120. 79. Adherence to Bond or Covenant, p. 121. 80. Standing Alone, p. 122. 81. The Mani- festation of Simplicity, p. 123. THE WRITINGS OF ATWANG-SZE. INTRODUCTION. rxcB Brief Notices of the different Books . . . .127

I. i. Hsiio-yio Yii, or Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease . 164 II. ii. Kh\ W(i Lun, or the Adjustment of Controversies • 176 III. iii. Yang Shang KH, or Nourishing the Lord of Life • .198 IV. iv. Z^ Alen Shih, or Man in the World, Associated with other Men 203 V. v. Teh Khxmg FQ, or the Seal of Virtue Complete • . 223 VI. vi. T& 3nng Shih, or the Great and Most Honoured Master • 236 VII. vii. Ying Tt Wang, or the Normal Course for Rulers and Kings 259

VIII. i. Phien Miu, or Webbed Toes 268 IX. iL Mi Tht, or Horses's Hoofs 276 X. iii. KhvL ATAieh, or Cutting Open Satchels . . .281 XL iv. S^i Yii, or Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance . 291 X CONTESTS. t mm n ^

XII, V. Thien Ti, or Heaven and Earth • XIII. vL Thien T4o, or the Way of Heaven XIV. vii. Thien Yiin, or the Revolution of Heaven XV. viii. Kho t, or Ingrained Ideas • XVI. ix. Shan Hsing, or Correcting the Nature. XVII. X. JCMd Shui, or the Floods of Autumn .

363 374 Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Transla- tions of the Sacred Books of the East 393 PREFACE. In the Preface to the third volume of these 'Sacred Books of the East' (1879), I stated that I proposed giving in due course, in order to exhibit the System of T4oism, translations of the Tio Teh i^ing by L4o-)ze (sixth century B.C.), the Writings of jfiTwang-jze (between the middle of the fourth and third centuries B.C.), and the Treatise of 'Actions and their Retributions' (of our eleventh century) ; and perhaps also of one or more of the other characteristic Productions of the System. The two volumes now submitted to the reader are a fulfilment of the promise made so long ago. They contain versions of the Three Works which were specified, and, in addition, as Appendixes, four other shorter Treatises of Ttoism ; Analyses of several of the Books of A'wang-}ze by Lin Hsl-^ng ; a list of the stories which form so important a part of those Books ; two Essays by two of the greatest Scholars of China, written the one in A.D. 586 and illus- trating the Tioistic beliefs of that age, and the other in A. D. 1078 and dealing with the four Books of A'wang-}ze, whose genuineness is frequently called in question. The concluding Index is confined very much to Proper Names. For Subjects the reader is referred to the Tables of Contents, the Introduction to the Books of iTwang-jze (vol. xxxix, pp. 127-163), and the Introductory Notes to the various Appendixes. The Treatise of Actions and their Retributions exhibits to us the T&oism of the eleventh century in its moral or ethical aspects; in the two earlier Works we see it rather as a philosophical speculation than as a religion in the ordinary sense of that term. It was not till after the introduction of Buddhism into China in our first century that T&oism b^an to organise itself as a XU PREFACE. Religion, having its monasteries and nunneries, its images and rituals. While it did so, it maintained the super- stitions peculiar to itself: — ^some, like the cultivation of the T4o as a rule of life favourable to longevity, come down from the earliest times, and others which grew up during the decay of the Kku dynasty, and subsequently blossomed; — now in Mystical Speculation; now in the pursuits of Alchemy; now in the search for the pills of Immortality and the Elixir vitae; now in Astrological fancies ; now in visions of Spirits and in Magical arts to control them ; and finally in the terrors of its Purgatory and everlasting Hell. Its phases have been continually changing, and at present it attracts our notice more as a degraded adjunct of Buddhism than as a developfnent of the speculations of LAo-jze and /Twang-jze. Up to its con- tact with Buddhism, it subsisted as an opposition to the Confucian system, which, while admitting the existence and rule of the Supreme Being, bases its teachings on the study of man's nature and the enforcement of the duties binding on all men from the moral and social principles of their constitutioa It is only during the present century that the Texts of T4oism have begun to receive the attention which they deserve. Christianity was introduced into China by Nestorian missionaries in the seventh century; and from the Hst-an monument, which was erected by their successors in 781, nearly 150 years after their first entrance, we perceive that they were as familiar with the books of L&o-jze and JSTwang-jze as with the Confucian literature of the empire, but that monument is the only memorial of them that remains. In the thirteenth century the Roman Catholic Church sent its earliest missionaries to China, but we hardly know anything of their literaiy labours. The great Romish missions which continue to the present day began towards the end of the sixteenth century ; and there exists now in the India Office a translation of the T&oTeh /Ting in Latin, which was brought to England PREFACE. Xlll by a Mr. Matthew Raper, and presented by him to the Royal Society, of which he was a Fellow, on January loth, 1788. The manuscript is in excellent preservation, but we do not know by whom the version was made. It was pre* sented, as stated in the Introduction, p. 12, to Mr. Raper by P. de Grammont, * Missionarius Apostolicus, ex-Jesuita.' The chief object of the translator or translators was to show that *the Mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnate God were anciently known to the Chinese nation.' The version as a whole is of little value. The reader will find, on pp. 115, 116, its explanation of L&o's seventy-second chapter; — the first morsel of it that has appeared in print. Protestant missions to China commenced in 1807 ; but it was not till 1 868 that the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, a member of one of them, published his * Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of " The Old Philosopher," Lao-Tsze.' Meanwhile, Abel R^musat had aroused the curiosity of scholars throughout Europe, in 1823, by his 'Memoir on the Life and Opinions of Ldo-Tseu, a Chinese Philosopher of the sixth century before our era, who professed the opinions commonly attributed to Pythagoras, to Plato, and to their disciples.' R^musat was followed by one who had received from him his first lessons in Chinese, and had be- come a truly great Chinese scholar, — ^the late Stanislas Julien. He published in 1842 'a complete translation for the first time of this memorable Work, which is regarded with reason as the most profound, the most abstract, and the most difficult of all Chinese Literature.' Dr. Chalmers's translation was also complete, but his comments, whether original or from Chinese sources, were much fewer than those supplied by Julien. Two years later, two German versions of the Treatise were published at Leipzig ; — by Reinhold von Planckner and Victor von Strauss, differing much from each other, but both marked by originality and ability. I undertook myself, as stated above, in 1879 to translate for 'The Sacred Books of the East' the Texts of T&oism XIV PREFACE. which appear in these volumes ; and, as I could find time from my labours on ' The Texts of Confucianism/ I had written out more than one version of L&o's work by the end of 1880. Though not satisfied with the result, I felt justified in exhibiting my general views of it in an article in the British Quarterly Review of July, 1883. In 1884 Mr. F. H. Balfour published at Shanghai a ver- sion of * Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Speculative/ His Texts were ten in all, the TSlo Teh ATing being the first and longest of them. His version of this differed in many points from all previous versions; and Mr. H. A. Giles, of H. M/s Consular Service in China, vehemently assailed it and also Dr. Chalmers's translation, in the China Review for March and April, 1886. Mr. Giles, indeed, occasionally launched a shaft also at Julien and myself; but his main object in his article was to discredit the genuineness and authenticity of the T4o Teh ATing itself. * The work,' he says, * is undoubtedly a forgery. It contains, indeed, much tliat LAo TzA did say, but more that he did not' I replied, so far as was necessary, to Mr. Giles in the same Review for January and February, 1888 ; and a brief summary of my reply is given in the second chapter of the Introduction in this volume. My confidence has never been shaken for a moment in the T&o Teh ATing as a genuine relic of L&o-)ze, one of the most original minds of the Chinese race. In preparing the version now published, I have used : — First, * The Complete Works of the Ten Philosophers ; ' — a Sd-i&iu reprint in 1804 of the best editions of the Philo- sophers, nearly all belonging more or less to the T&oist school, included in it. It is a fine specimen of Chinese printing, clear and accurate. The Treatise of Ldo-jze of course occupies the first place, as edited by Kwei YH-kwang (better known as Kwei ATSn-shan) of the Ming dynasty. The Text and Commentary are those of Ho-shang Kung (Introd., p. 7), along with the division of the whole into Parts and eighty-one chapters, and the titles of the several chapters, all attributed to him. Along the top of the page. PREFACE. XV there is a large collection of noted from celebrated com- mentators and writers down to the editor himself. Second, the Text and Commentary of Wang Pt (called also Ffl-sze), who died A.D. 249, at the early age of twenty- four. See Introduction, p. 8. Third, * Helps (lit. Wings) to Lfto-jze;' by 3i4o Hung (called also Z&o-h&u), and prefaced by him in 1587. This is what Julien calls * the most extensive and most important contribution to the understanding of L&o-jze, which we yet possess.' Its contents are selected from the ablest writings on the Treatise from Han Fei (Introd., p. 5) downwards, closing in many chapters with the notes made by the com- piler himself in the course of his studies. Altogether the book sets before us the substance of the views of sixty-four writers on our short ^ing. Julien took the trouble to analyse the list of them, and found it composed of three emperors, twenty professed TAoists, seven Buddhists, and thirty-four Confucianists or members of the Literati. He says, ' These last constantly explain L&o-jze according to the ideas peculiar to the School of Confucius, at the risk of misrepresenting him, and with the express intention of throttling his system;' then adding, 'The commentaries written in such a spirit have no interest for persons who wish to enter fully into the thought of L&o-jze, and obtain a just idea of his doctrine. I have thought it useless, therefore, to specify the names of such commentaries and their authors.' I have quoted these sentences of Julien, because of a charge brought by Mr. Balfour, in a prefatory note to his own version of the T&o Teh ^ing, against him and other translators. ' One prime defect,' he says, though with some hesitation, ' lies at the root of every translation that has been published hitherto ; and this is, that not one seems to have been based solely and entirely on commentaries furnished by members of the T4oist school. The Con- fucian element enters largely into all ; and here, I think, an injustice has been done to L4o-jze. To a Confucianist the TAoist system is in every sense of the word a heresy, and XVI PREFACE. a commentator holding this opinion is surely not the best expositor. It is as a Grammarian rather than as a Philo- sopher that a member of the J(i Chid deals with the T&o Teh ATing ; he gives the sense of a passage according to the syntactical construction rather than according to the genius of the philosophy itself; and in attempting to ex- plain the text by his own canons, instead of by the canons of T&oism, he mistakes the superficial and apparently obvious meaning for the hidden and esoteric interpretation.' Mr. Balfour will hardly repeat his chaise of imperfect or erroneous interpretation against Julien ; and I believe that it is equally undeserved by most, if not all, of the other trans- lators against whom it is directed. He himself adopted as his guide the * Explanations of the Tio Teh ATing,' current as the work of Lii Yen (called also Lii 3^9 Lii Tung-pin, and Lii ATAun-yang), a T&oist of the eighth century. Through Mr. Balfour's kindness I have had an opportunity of ex- amining this edition of LAo's Treatise ; and I am com- pelled to agree with the very unfavourable judgment on it pronounced by Mr. Giles as both 'spurious ' and ' ridiculous.' All that we are told of Lii Yen is very suspicious ; much of it evidently false. The editions of our little book ascribed to him are many. I have for more than twenty years possessed one with the title of * The Meaning of the TSlo Teh -ATing Explained by the TRUE Man of ATAun-yang/ being a reprint of 1690, and as different as possible from the work patronised by Mr. Balfour. Fourth, the Th4i Shang H wun Hsuan T4o Teh ATin ATing, — a work of the present dynasty, published at Shang- hai, but when produced I do not know. It is certainly of the Lii 3^ type, and is worth purchasing as one of the finest specimens of block-printing. It professes to be the production of * The Immortals of the Eight Grottoes,' each of whom is styled * a Divine Ruler (Tl ATun).' The eighty- one chapters are equally divided for commentary among them,excepting that ' the Divine Ruler, the Universal Refiner,' has the last eleven assigned to him. The Text is every- where broken up into short clauses, which are explained in PREFACE. XVll m a very few characters by * God, the True Helper/ the same, I suppose, who is also styled, * The Divine Ruler, the True Helper,' and comments at length on chapters 31 to 40, I mention these particulars as an illustration of how the ancient Taoism has become pol)^heistic and absurd. The name ' God, the True Helper,' is a title, I imagine, given to Lii 3^- With all this nonsense, the composite commentary is a good one, the work, evidently, of one hand. One of several recommendatory Prefaces is ascribed to WHn -ATAang, the god of Literature ; and he specially praises the work, as 'explaining the meaning by examination of the Text.' Fifth, a * Collection of the Most Important Treatises of the Taoist Fathers (T4o 3^ ATSn ATwan K\ YAo).' This was reprinted in 1877 at /iTAang-^iu in ATiang-sft ; begin- ning with the Tio Teh ATing, and ending with the Kan Ying Phi en. Between these there are fourteen other Treatises, mostly short, five of them being among Mr. Bal- four's * Tioist Texts.' The Collection was edited by a LA Yii ; and the Commentary selected by him, in all but the last Treatise, was by a L! Hsl-yiieh, who appears to have been a recluse in a monastery on a mountain in the depart- ment of P&o-ning, Sze-^Awan, if, indeed, what is said of him be not entirely fabulous. Sixth, the Commentary on the Tdo Teh A'ing, by WO ATASng (a.d. 1249-1333) of Lin ifiTAwan. This has been of the highest service to me. W<i /TASng was the greatest of the Yiian scholars. He is one of the Literati quoted from occasionally by 3iAo Hung in his * Wings ; ' but by no means so extensively as Julien supposes (Obser- vations D^tachdes, p. xli). My own copy of his work is in the lath Section of the large Collection of the * Yiieh-yi Hall,' published in 1853. Writing of Wd Kh&xig in 1865 (Proleg. to the Shft, p. 36), I said that he was * a bold thinker and a daring critic, handling his text with a freedom which I had not seen in any other Chinese scholar.* The subsequent study of his writings has confirmed me in this opinion of him. Perhaps he might be characterised as an independent, rather than as a bold, thinker, and the daring [39] b XVlll PREFACE. of his criticism must not be supposed to be without caution. (See Introd., p. 9.) The Writings of /Twang-jze have been studied by foreigners still less than the Treatise of Lelo-jze. When I undertook in 1879 to translate them, no version of them had been published. In 1881, however, there appeared at Shanghai Mr. Balfour's *The Divine Classic of Nan-hua (Introd., pp. II, I a), being the Works of Chuang Tsze, TAoist Philosopher/ It was a *bold' undertaking in Mr. Balfour thus to commence his translations of Chinese Books with one of the most difficult of them. I fancy that he was himself convinced of this, and that his undertaking had been *too bold,' by the criticism to which his work was subjected in the China Review by Mr. Giles. Never- theless, it was no small achievement to be the first to endeavour to lift up the veil from ATwang-jze. Even a first translation, though imperfect, is not without benefit to others who come after, and are able to do better. In preparing the draft of my own version, which draft was finished in April, 1887, I made frequent reference to the volume of Mr. Balfour. Having exposed the errors of Mr. Balfour, Mr. Giles proceeded to make a version of his own, which was pub- lished last year in London, with the title of * Chuang TzO, Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer.' It was not, however, till I was well through with the revision of my draft version, that I supplied myself with a copy of his volume. I did not doubt that Mr. Giles's translation would be well and tersely done, and I preferred to do my own work independently and without the help which he would have afforded me. In carrying my sheets through the press, I have often paused over my rendering of a passage to compare it with his ; and I have pleasure in acknowledging the merits of his version. The careful and competent reader will see and form his own judgment on passages and points where we differ. Before describing the editions of ATwang-jze which I PREFACE. XIX have consulted, I must not omit to mention Professor Gabelentz*s * Treatise on the Speech or Style of ATwang-gze/ as *a Contribution to Chinese Grammar/ published at Leipzig in 1888. It has been a satisfaction to me to find myself on almost every point of usage in agreement with the views of so able a Chinese scholar. The works which I employed in preparing my version have been : — First, * The True ATing of Nan-hw4/ in * The Complete Works of the Ten Philosophers/ which has been described above. The Commentary which it supplies is that of Kwo Hsiang (Introd., pp. 9, 10}, with ' The Sounds and Meanings of the Characters' from LCl Teh Ming's * Explanations of the Terms and Phrases of the Classics/ of our seventh century. As in the case of the T4o Teh ATing, the Ming editor has introduced at the top of his pages a selection of comments and notes from a great variety of scholars down to his own time. Second, * Helps (Wings) to Al'wang-jze by ^iSlo Hung/ — a kindred work to the one with a similar title on L&o-jze ; by the same author, and prefaced by him in 1588. The two works are constructed on the same lines. ^iSiO draws his materials from forty-eight authorities, from Kwo Hsiang to himself. He divides the several Books also into para- graphs, more or fewer according to their length, and the variety of subjects in them ; and my version follows him in this lead with little or no change. He has two con- cluding Books ; the one containing a collation of various readings, and the other a collection of articles on the history and genius of ATwang-jze, and different passages of his Text. Third, the /Twang- jze Hsueh or 'ATwang-jze made like Snow,' equivalent to our 'ATwang-jze Elucidated;' by a LO ShiH-itih of Canton province, written in 1796. The different Books are preceded by a short summary of their subject-matter. The work goes far to fulfil the promise of its title. Fourth, Jifwang-jze Yin, meaning *The Train of b 2 XX PREFACE. Thought in ATwang-jze Traced in its Phraseology.' My copy is a reprint, in 1880, of the Commentary of Lin Hs!->hing, who lived from the Ming into the present dynasty, under the editorship of a hh ATAd-wang of ATiang- sh province. The style is clear and el^ant, but rather more concise than that of the preceding work. It leaves out the four disputed Books (XXVIII to XXXI) ; but all the others are followed by an elaborate discussion of their scope and plan. Fifth, * The Nan-hwfi Classic of ATwang-jze Explained,* published in 1621, by a Hsiian Ying or 3ui^g (^ |^y 5it J^§ 5 ^^^ name is printed throughout the book, now in one of these ways, now in the other), called also Mdu-kung. The commentary is carefully executed and ingenious; but my copy of the book is so incorrectly printed that it can only be used with caution. Mr. Balfour appears to have made his version mainly from the same edition of the work; and some of his grossest errors pointed out by Mr. Giles arose from his accepting without question the misprints of his authority. Sixth, * Independent Views of Al'wang-jze (]^ -^ jj^ ^) ; ' — by Hfl WSn-ying, published in 1 75 1 . Occasionally, the writer pauses over a passage, which, he thinks, has defied all preceding students, and suggests the right explanation of it, or leaves it as inexplicable. It only remains for me to refer to the Repertories of * Elegant Extracts,' called by the Chinese Kii Win, which abound in their literature, and where the masterpieces of composition are elucidated with more or less of critical detail and paraphrase. I have consulted nearly a dozen of these collections, and would mention my indebtedness especially to that called M6i KAwsji, which discusses passages from twelve of ATwang-jze's books. When consulting the editions of Lin Hst->tung and Lfl Sh(i-^ih, the reader is surprised by the frequency with which they refer to the * old explanations ' as * incomplete and unsatisfactory,' often as 'absurd,' or 'ridiculous,' and he PREFACE. XXI finds on examination that they do not so express themselves without reason. He is soon convinced that the transla- tion of Kwaxig-^ze calls for the exercise of one's individual judgment, and the employment of every method akin to the critical processes by which the meaning in the books of other languages is determined. It was the perception of this which made me prepare in the first place a draft version to familiarise myself with the peculiar style and eccentric thought of the author. From /Twang-jze to the Tractate of * Actions and their Retributions' the transition is great. Translation in the latter case is as easy as it is difficult in the former. It was R^musat who in 1816 called attention to the Kan Ying Phien in Europe, as he did to the T4o Teh /iTing seven years later, and he translated the Text of it with a few Notes and Illustrative Anecdotes. In 1828 Klaproth published a translation of it from the Man-ch&u version ; and in 1830 a translation in English appeared in the Canton Register, a newspaper published at Macao. In 1828 Julien published what has since been the standard version of it; with an immense amount of additional HMitter under the title — *Le Livre Des Recompenses et Des Peines, en Chinois et en Fran9ais; Ac- compagn^ de quatre cent L6gendes, Anecdotes et Histoires, qui font connaitre les Doctrines, les Croyances et les Mceurs de la Secte des T4o-ss6.* In writing out my own version I have had before me : — First, 'The Thdi Shang Kan Ying Phien, with Plates and the Description of them;' a popular edition, as profusely furnished with anecdotes and stories as Julien's original, and all pictorially illustrated. The notes, comments, and corresponding sentences from the Confucian Classics are also abundant. Second, *The Th4i Shang Kan Ying Phien, with explanations collected from the Classics and Histories ; * — a Cantonese reprint of an edition prepared in the KAien- King reign by a Hsi& KrOL-hsiSi, XXU PREFACE. Third, the edition in the Collection of T&oist Texts described above on p. xvii; by Hsii Hsi6-teh. It is decidedly TAoistic ; but without stories or pictures. Fourth, 'The ThAi Shang Kan Ying Phien ATft;' by Hui Tung, of the present dynasty. The Work follows the Commentary of W(i ATASng on the TAo Teh ATing in the Collection of the Yiieh-yA Hall. The preface of the author is dated in 1749. The Commentary, he tells us, was written in consequence of a vow, when his mother was ill, and he was praying for her recovery. It contains many extracts from Ko Hung (Introduction, p. 5, note), to whom he always refers by his nom de plume of Pao-phoh 3ze, or ' Maintainer of Simplicity.' He considers indeed this Tractate to have originated from him. I have thus set forth all that is necessary to be said here by way of preface. For various information about the Treatises comprised in the Appendixes, the reader is referred to the preliminary notes, which precede the translation of most of them. I have often sorely missed the presence of a competent native scholar who would have assisted me in the quest of references, and in talking over difficult passages. Such a helper would have saved me much time; but the result, I think, would scarcely have appeared in any great alteration of my versions. J.L. Oxford, December 20, 1890* THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I, Was TAoism older than LAo-3ze? I. In writing the preface to the third volume of these Sacred Books of the East in 1879, I referred to Lfto-jze as • the acknowledged founder ' of the system of Tdoism. Pro- longed study and research, however, have brought me to the conclusion that there was a T&oism earlier than his ; and that before he wrote his T4o Teh Kingy the princi- ples taught in it had been promulgated, and the ordering of human conduct and government flowing from them inculcated. For more than a thousand years *the Three Religions' Three Religions has been a stereotyped phrase in China, in China. meaning what we call Confucianism, T&oism, and Buddhism. The phrase itself simply means * the Three Teachings,' or systems of instruction, leaving the subject-matter of each 'Teaching* to be learned by inquiry. Of the three. Buddhism is of course the most recent, having been introduced into China only in the first century of our Christian era. Both the others were indigenous to the country, and are traceable to a much greater antiquity, so that it is a question to which the earlier origin should be assigned. The years of Confucius's life lay between B.C. 551 and 478 ; but his own acknowledgment that he was • a transmitter and not a maker/ and the testimony of his grandson, that ' he handed down the doctrines of Ydo and Shun (B.C. 2300), and elegantly displayed the regulations [39] 2^ , B THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. I. of W4n and WA (B. C. 1 200), taking them as his model,' are well known. %. L4o-jze's birth is said, in the most likely account of it, to have taken place in the third year of king Ting of the Kk\i dynasty, (b. C.) 604, He was thus rather more than fifty years older than Confucius. The two men seem to have met more than once, and I am inclined to think that the name of L4o-jze, as the designation of the other, arose from Confucius's styling him to his disciples 'The Old Philosopher.' They met as Heads of different schools or schemes of thought ; but did not touch, so far as we know, on the comparative antiquity of their views. It is a pecu- liarity of the T^oTehATing that any historical element in p r tv f ** '^ ^^ ^^ vaguest nature possible, and in all the Tio Teh its chapters there is not a single proper name. Alng. Yet there are some references to earlier sages whose words the author was copying out, and to * sentence- makers ' whose maxims he was introducing to illustrate his own sentiments ^. In the most distant antiquity he saw a happy society in which his highest ideas of the T4o were realised, and in the seventeenth chapter he tells us that in the earliest times the people did not know that there were their rulers, and when those rulers were most successful in dealing with them, simply said, ' We are what we are of ourselves.* Evidently, men existed to Ldo-}ze at first in a condition of happy innocence, — in what we must call a paradisiacal state, according to his idea of what such a state was likely to be. When we turn from the treatise of L4o-jze to the writings of Al'wang-jze, the gfreatest of his followers, we are ^ The sixth chapter of Lfto's treatise, that about 'the Spirit of the Valley,' is referred to in Lieh-gze (I, i^), as being from Hwang Tt, from which the commentator TO T&o-i^ien (about A. D. 1 300) takes occasion to say \ * From which we know that Ldo-jze was accnstomed to quote in his treatise passages from earlier records, — as when he refers to the remarks of " some sage^" of " some ancient/' of '* the sentence-makers," and of " some writer on war." In all these cases he is clearly introducing the words of earlier wise men. The case is like that of Confncins when he said, <* I am a transmitter and not a maker," &&' Found in gifio Hung, in loc. CH. I. INTRODUCTION. not left in doubt as to his belief in an early state of paradisiacal T4oism. Hwang Ti, the first year of whose reign is placed in B.C. 2697, is often introduced as a seeker of the T&o, and is occasionally condemned as having been one of the first to disturb its rule in men's minds and break up *the State of Perfect Unity/ He mentions several sovereigns of whom we can hardly find a trace in the records of history as having ruled in the primeval period, and gives us more than one description of the condition of the world during that happy time \ I do not think that ^wang-jze had any historical evidence for the statements which he makes about those early days, the men who flourished in them, and their ways. His narratives are for the most part fictions, in which the names and incidents are of his own devising. They are no more true as matters of fact than the accounts of the characters in Bunyans Pilgrim's Progress are true, with reference to any particular individuals ; but as these last are grandly true of myriads of minds in different ages, so may we read in iifwang-jze's stories the thoughts of Tioistic men beyond the restrictions of place and time. He believed that those thoughts were as old as the men to whom he attributed them. I find in his belief a ground for believing myself that to Tdoism, as well as to Confucianism, we ought to attribute a much earlier origin than the famous men whose names they bear. Perhaps they did not differ so much at first as they came afterwards to do in the hands of Confucius and L4o-jze, both great thinkers, the one more of a moralist, and the other more of a metaphysician. When and how, if they were ever more akin than they came to be; their divergence took place, are difficult ques- tions on which it may be well to make some remarks after \ we have tried to set forth the most important principles of \ T&oism. Those principles have to be learned from the treatise of LAo-jze and the writings of iTwang-jze. We can hardly ^ See in Books IX, X, and Xir. B 2 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. ir. say that the T&oism taught in them is the T&oism now current in China, or that has been current in it for many centuries ; but in an inquiry into the nature and origrin of religions these are the authorities that must be consulted for T&oism^ and whose evidence must be accepted. The treatise, 'Actions and the Responses to them,' will show one of the phases of it at a much later period. CHAPTER IL The Texts of the TAo Teh ATing and A'wang- 3ze snty as regards their authenticity and genuineness, and the arrangement of them. 1. I, I will now State briefly, first, the grounds on which I accept the T&o Teh ATing as a genuine production of the age to which it has been assigned, and the truth of its authorship by L4o-jze to whom it has been ascribed. It would not have been necessary a few years ago to write as if these points could be called in question, but in 1886 Mr. Herbert A. Giles, of Her Majesty's Consular Service in China, and one of the ablest Chinese scholars living, vehemently called them in question in an article in the China Review for the months of March and April. His strictures have been replied to, and I am not going to revive here the controversy which they produced, but only to state a portion of the evidence which satisfies my own mind on the two points just mentioned, 2. It has been said above that the year B.C. 604 was, probably, that of Ldo-jze's birth. The year of his death is not recorded. Sze-m4 KMen, the first great Chinese his- The evidence of *^"^^' ^^^ ^^^^ *^ about B.C. 85, Commences Sze-ma A'iiien, his * Biographies * with a short account of L4o- the historian. ^^^ He tells us that thephUosopherhad beena curator of the Royal Library ofKSiU, and that, mourning over the decadence of the dynasty, he wished to withdraw from the world, and proceeded to the pass or defile of Hsien-ku ^, ^ In the present district of Ling-pdo, Shan AUn, province of Ho-nan. CH. It. INTRODUCTION. leading from China to the west. There he was recognised by the warden of the pass, Yin Hst (often called Kwan Yin), himself a well-known T&oist, who insisted on his leaving him a writing before he went into seclusion. L&o-)ze then wrote his views on ' The T4o and its Charac- teristics,' in two parts or sections, containing more than 5CCX3 characters, gave the manuscript to the warden, and went his way * ; ' nor is it known where he died.' This account is strange enough, and we need not wonder that it was by and by embellished with many marvels. It con- tains, however, the definite statements that Ldo-}ze wrote the TAoTeh ATing in two parts, and consisting of more than 5000 characters. And that KAien was himself well acquainted with the treatise is apparent from his quotations from it, with, in almost every case, the specification of the author. He thus adduces part of the first chapter, and a large portion of the last chapter but one. His brief references also to LAo-)ze and his writings are numerous. 3. But between L4o-}ze and Sze-m4 ATAien there were many T&oist writers whose works remain. I may specify of them Lieh-jze (assuming that his chapters, Fei-j^'and" though not composed in their present form by *^^*^th^^^^^ him, may yet be accepted as fair specimens of his teaching) ; /f wang-jze (of the fourth century B.C. We find him refusing to accept high office from king Wei of KM, B.C. 339-^99) ; Han Fei, a volumi- nous author, who died by his own hand in B.C. 230 ; and LiO An, a scion of the Imperial House of Han, king of Hw4i-nan, and better known to us as Hw4i-nan ^zc, who also died by his own hand in B.C. I22. In the books of all these men we find quotations of many passages that are in our treatise. They are expressly said to be, many of them, quotations from Lfto-)ze ; Han Fei several times all but ^ In an ordinary Student's Mannal I find a note with reference to this incident to which it may be worth while to give a place here : — The warden, it is said, set before Lfto-gze a dish of tea ; and this was the origin of the custom of tea- drinking between host and guest (see the ;^ ^ j|j|r ^ ^ ^^ ch. 7, on Food and Drink). THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. II. shows the book beneath his eyes. To show how numerous the quotations by Han Fei and Li(i An are, let it be borne in mind that the T4o Teh King has come down to us as divided into eighty-one short chapters ; and that the whole of it is shorter than the shortest of our Gospels. Of the eighty-one chapters, either the whole or portions of seventy- one are found in those two writers. There are other authors not so decidedly T&oistic, in whom we find quotations from the little book. These quotations are in general wonderfully correct. Various readings indeed there are ; but if we were sure that the writers did trust to memory, their differences would only prove that copies of the text had been multipUed from the very first. In passing on from quotations to the complete text, I will Evidence of Pan clinch the . assertion that ATAien was well ^^ acquainted with our treatise, by a passage from the History of the Former Han Dynasty (B.C ao6- A.D. 24), which was begun to be compiled by Pan KA, who died however in 92, and left a portion to be completed by his sister, the famous Pan KSio. The thirty-second chapter of his Biographies is devoted to Sze-m4 A'Aien, and towards the end it is said that * on the subject of the Great T4o he preferred Hwang and L4o to the six ATing/ * Hwang and Lio * must there be the writings of Hwang-Ti and L&o-jze. The association of the two names also illustrates the anti- quity claimed for T&oism, and the subject of note i, p. 2. 4. We go on from quotations to complete texts, and turn, first, to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of Han, as compiled by hid Hsin, not later than the commencement of our Christian era. There are entered in it Tdoist works by Catalogue of the thirty-seven different authors, containing in all Imperial Library 993 chapters or sections (phien). 1 Yin, the "' premier of KAing Thang (B.C. 1766), heads the list with fifty-one sections. There are in it four editions of L4o-jze's work with commentaries : — by a Mr. Lin, in four sections ; a Mr. Fii, in thirty-seven sections ; a Mr. Hsu, in six sections; and by Lid Hsiang, Hsin's own father, in four sections. All these four wdrks have since perished, but there they were in the Imperial Library before CH. 11. INTRODUCTION. our era b^an. ATwang-jze is in the same list in fifty-two books or sections, the greater part of which have happily escaped the devouring tooth of time. We turn now to the twentieth chapter of KAien's Biographies, in which he gives an account of Yo 1, the scion of a distinguished family, and who himself played a famous part, both as a politician and military leader, and became prince of Wang-itd under the kingdom of K&o in B.C. 279. Among his descendants was a Yo ATAan, who learned in KM * the words,' that is, the TAoistic writings * of Hwang-T! and Ldo-)ze from an old man who lived on the Ho-side.' The origin of this old man was not known, but Yo KA&n taught what he learned from him to a Mr. Ko, who again became preceptor to S^Slo 3han, the chief minister of KM, and afterwards of the new dynasty of Han, dying in B,C. 190. 5. Referring now to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of the dynasty of Sui (a.d. 589-618), we find that The catalogue it contained many editions of lAos treatise ofthe Sui dynasty, ^il-h commentaries. The first mentioned is 'The T4o Teh ATing,' with the commentary of the old man of the Ho-side, in the time of the emperor Wan of Han (B.C. 179-142). It is added in a note that the dynasty of Liang (A.D. 5021-556) had possessed the edition of * the old man of the Ho-side, of the time of the Warring States ; but that with some other texts and commentaries it had disappeared' I find it difficult to believe that there had been two old men of the Ho-side ^, both teachers of Tioism and commentators on our A'ing, but I am willing to con- tent myself with the more recent work, and accept the copy that has been current — say from B.C. 150, when Sze-md iir^ien could have been little more than a boy. Taoism was a favourite study with many of the Han emperors and their ladies. H w&i-nan 3ze, of whose many quotations from * The earlier old man of the Ho-side is styled in Chinese f^ J^ 5C ^'9 the other j^ 1^ ^^ ; bat the designations have the same meaning. Some critical objections to the genuineness of the lattei's commentary on the gronnd of the style are without foundation. 8 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. ch. II. the text of L&o I have spoken, was an uncle of the emperor W5n. To the emperor King (B.C. 156-143), the son of Win, there is attributed the designation of L&o's treatise as a. King, a work of standard authority. At the beginning of his reign, we are told, some one was com- mending to him four works, among which were those of Lfio-jze and ATwang-jze. Deeming that the work of Hwang-Jze and Lio-)ze was of a deeper character than the others, he ordered that it should be called a A'ing, estab- lished a board for the study of Tioism, and issued an edict that the book should be learned and recited at court, and throughout the country^. Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Hwang-fii Ml (a.d. a 15-282) referring to it as the T4o Teh ATing. The second place in the Sui catalogue is given to the text and commentary of Wang Pi or Wang FO-sze, an The work of extraordinary scholar who died in A. D. 249, Wang Pt. at the early age of twenty-four. This work has always been much prized. It was its text which LQ Teh-ming used in his * Explanation of the Terms and Phrases of the Classics,* in the seventh century. Among the editions of it which I possess is that printed in 1794 with the imperial moveable metal types. I need not speak of editions or commentaries subsequent to Wang Pfs. They soon b^in to be many, and are only not so numerous as those of the Confucian Classics. 6. All the editions of the book are divided into two Divisions into parts, the former called T4o, and the latter parts, chapters; J eh, meaning the Qualities or Characteristics and number of ^ , ,« , . characters in the of the T&o, but this distinction of subjects is ^^^' by no means uniformly adhered to. I referred already to the division of the whole into eighty- one short chapters (37 + 44), which is by common tradition attributed to Ho-shang Kung, or *The old man of the Ho-side.' Another very early commentator, called Yen 3un or Yen jSTu^^-phing, made a division into seventy-two chapters (40 + 32), under the influence, no doubt, of some * See Bi^o Hong's Wings or Helps, ch. v, p. 11*. CH. 11. INTRODUCTION. mystical considerations. His predecessor, perhaps, had no better reason for his eighty-one; but the names of his chapters were, for the most part, happily chosen, and have been preserved. Wft KAang arranged the two parts in sixty-seven chapters (31 + 36). It is a mistake, however, to suppose, as even Mr. Wylie with all his general accuracy did \ that Wii * curtails the ordinary text to some extent.' He does not curtail, but only re-arranges according to his fashion, uniting some of Ho-shang Kung's chapters in one, and sometimes altering the order of their clauses. Sze-m& KAiGn tells us that, as the treatise came from Lio-jze, it contained more than 5000 characters ; that is, as one critic says, ' more than 5000 and fewer than 6000.' Ho-shang Kung's text has 5350, and one copy 5590; Wang Pfs, 5683, and one copy 5610. Two other early texts have been counted, giving 5720 and 5635 characters respectively. The brevity arises from the terse conciseness of the style, owing mainly to the absence of the embellish- ment of particles, which forms so striking a peculiarity in the composition of Mencius and ATwang-jze. In passing on to speak, secondly and more briefly, of the far more voluminous writings of ATwang-jze, I may say that I do not know of any other book of so ancient a date as the T4o Teh King, of which the authenticity of the origin and genuineness of the text can claim to be so well sub- stantiated. II. 7. In the catalogue of the Han Library we have the entry of 'jfiTwang-jze in fifty-two books or sections.' By The Books of the time of the Sui dynasty, the editions of JsTvnng'lze, j^jg -^vork amounted to nearly a score. The earliest commentary that has come down to us goes by the name of Kwo Hsiang*s. He was an officer and scholar of the 3iii dynasty, who died about the year 31a. Another officer, also of ^m, called Hsiang Hsi(i, of rather an earlier date, had undertaken the same task, but left it incom- plete ; and his manuscripts coming (not, as it appears, by ^ Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 173. lO THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. II. any fraud) into Kwo's hands, he altered and completed them as suited his own views, and then gave them to the public. In the short account of Kwo, given in the twentieth chapter of the Bi<^raphies of the S^n history, it is said that several tens of commentators had laboured unsatis- factorily on A'wang's writings before Hsiang Hsiii took them in hand. As the joint result of the labours of the two men, however, we have only thirty-three of the fifty- two sections mentioned in the Han catalogue. It is in vain that I have tried to discover how and when the other nineteen sections were lost. In one of the earliest commentaries on the TAo Teh ATing, that by Yen 3un, we have several quotations from A!'wang-jze which bear evi- dently the stamp of his handiwork, and are not in the current Books ; but they would not altogether make up a single section. We have only to be thankful that so large a proportion of the original work has been preserved. S(i Shih (3ze-/fean, and Tung-pho), it is well known, called in question the genuineness of Books 28 to 31 ^. Books 15 and 16 have also been challenged, and a paragraph here and there in one or other of the Books. The various readings, according to a collation given by 3i^o Hung, are few. 8. There can be no doubt that the Books of ATwang-gze were hailed by all the friends of TAoism. It has been mentioned above that the names * Hwang-Ti * Taoism of tiie and 'Lio-jze' were associated together as Books of denoting the masters of Tdoism, and the phrase, * the words of Hwang-Tt and L&o-jze,' came to be no more than a name for the T&o Teh King. Gradually the two names were contracted into * Hwang LSo,' as in the passage quoted on p. 6 from Pan KCl. After the Han dynasty, the name Hwang gave place to A^wang, and the names Lio A'wang, and, sometimes in- verted, /Twang L4o, were employed to denote the system or the texts of Tioism. In the account, for instance, of AT! * A brother of Shih, SO A^h {Qze-yH and Ying-pin), wrote a remarkable commentary on theT&o Teh /Ting; but it was Shih who first discredited those four Books, in his Inscription for the temple of ^wang-gze, prepared in 1078. CH.n. INTRODUCTION. II Khang, in the nineteenth chapter of the Biographies of 3in, we have a typical T&oist brought before us. When grown up, ' he loved L&o and ATwang ; ' and a visitor, to produce the most favourable impression on him, says, ' Ldo-jze and J^Twang K&u are my masters.' 9. The thirty-three Books of ATwang-jze are divided into three Parts, called N6i, or *the Inner; ' WAi, or * the Outer ;* and 3 A, 'the Miscellaneous.' The first Part com- DivisioDofthe P"^^^ seven Books ; the second, fifteen; and Books into three the third, eleven. * Inner ' may be under- Parts Stood as equivalent to esoteric or More Im- portant. The titles of the several Books are significant, and each expresses the subject or theme of its Book. They are believed to have been prefixed by -ATwang-jze himself, and that no alteration could be made in the com- position but for the worse. * Outer ' is understood in the sense of supplementary or subsidiary. The fifteen Books so called are * Wings ' to the previous seven. Their titles were not given by the author, and are not significant of the TAoistic truth which all the paragraphs unite, or should unite, in illustrating ; they are merely some name or phrase taken from the commencement of the first paragraph in each Book, — like the names of the Books of the Confucian Analects, or of the Hebrew Pentateuch. The fixing them originally is generally supposed to have been the work of Kwo Hsiang. The eleven Miscellaneous Books are also supplementary to those of the first Part, and it is not easy to see why a difference was made between them and the fifteen that precede. 10. ATwang-jze's writings have long been current under the name of Nan Hwa K&n I^ing. He was a native of The general title ^^^ duchy of Sung, bom in what was then of ^wang-gze's called the district of Mang, and belonged to the state or kingdom of Liang or Wei. As he grew up, he filled some ofiScial post in the city of 3hi- yiian, — the site of which it is not easy to determine with certainty. In A.D. 743, the name of his birth-place was changed (but only for a time) to Nan-hwa, and an im- perial order was issued that ATwang-jze should thence- 12 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. 111. forth be styled *The True Man of Nan-hwa,' and his Book, *The True Book of Nan-hwaV To be *a True Man' is the highest T&oistic achievement of a man, and our author thus canonised communicates his glory to his Book. CHAPTER III. What is the meaning of the name TAo? And THE CHIEF points OF BELIEF IN TAOISM. I. The first translation of the TAo Teh ATing into a Western language was executed in Latin by some of the Meaning of the Roman Catholic missionaries, and a copy of name Tfto. j^ ^^3 brought to England by a Mr. Matthew Raper, F. R. S., and presented by him to the Society at a meeting on the loth January, 1788, — being the g^ft to him of P. Jos. de Grammont, * Missionarius Apostolicus, ex-Jesuita.' In this version TAo is taken in the sense of Ratio, or the Supreme Reason of the Divine Being, the Creator and Governor. M. Abel R^musat, the first Professor of Chinese in Paris, does not seem to have been aware of the existence of the above version in London, but his attention was attracted to LeLo's treatise about i8ao, and, in 18^3, he wrote of the character Tdo, * Ce mot me semble ne pas pouvoir fit re bien traduit, si ce n'est par le mot koyos dans le triple sens de souverain fetre, de raison, et de parole.' R^musat's successor in the chair of Chinese, the late Stanislas Julien, published in 184^ a translation of the whole treatise. Having concluded from an examination of it, and the earliest TAoist writers, such as ATwang-jze, Ho- kwan 3ze, and Ho-shang Kung, that the T4o was devoid of action, of thought, of judgment, and of intelli- gence, he concluded that it was impossible to understand by it *the Primordial Reason, or the Sublime Intelli- gence which created, and which governs the world,' and to ' See the Khang-hsl Thesanros (^ ^ ^ j^), under ^^ CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 1 3 this he subjoined the following note: — 'Quelque Strange que puisse paraitre cette id^e de Ldo-jze, elle n'est pas sans exemple dans Thistoire de la philosophie. Le mot nature n'a-t-il pas ^t^ employ^ par certains philosophes, que la religion et la raison condamnent, pour designer une cause premiere, ^alement d^pourvue de pens6e et d'in- telligence?' Julien himself did not doubt that L&o's idea of the character was that it primarily and properly meant *a way,' and hence he translated the title T4o Teh ATing by *Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu/ transferring at the same time the name Tdo to the text of his version. The first English writer who endeavoured to give a dis- tinct account of T4oism was the late Archdeacon Hardwick, while he held the office of Christian Advocate in the Uni- versity of Cambridge. In his ' Christ and other Masters * (vol. ii, p. 67), when treating of the religions of China, he says, * I feel disposed to argue that the centre of the system founded by L&o-jze had been awarded to some energy or power resembling the "Nature" of modem speculators. The indefinite expression T4o was adopted to denominate an abstract cause, or the initial principle of life and order, to which worshippers were able to assign the attributes of immateriality, eternity, immensity, invisibility.' It was, probably, Julien's reference in his note to the use of the term nature^ which suggested to Hardwick his analogy between L4o-}ze's T4o, and *the Nature of modern speculation.' Canon Farrar has said, *We have long per- sonified under the name of Nature the sum total of God's laws as observed in the physical world ; and now the notion of Nature as a distinct, living, independent entity seems to be ineradicable alike from our literature and our systems of philosophy^.' But it seems to me that this metaphorical or mythological use of the word nature for the Cause and Ruler of it, implies the previous notion of Him, that is, of God, in the mind. Does not this clearly appear in the words of Seneca? — *Vis lUum (h.e. Jovem Deum) naturam ^ Language and Langaages, pp. 184, 185. 14 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. in. vocare, non peccabis : — hie est ex quo nata sunt omnia, cujus spiritu vivimus*.' In his translation of the Works of ATwang-jze in 1881, Mr. Balfour adopted Nature as the ordinary rendering of the Chinese T4o. He says, * When the word is translated Way, it means the Way of Nature, — her processes, her methods, and her laws ; when translated Reason, it is the same as It, — the power that works in all created things, producing, preserving, and life-giving, — the intelligent prin- ciple of the world ; when translated Doctrine, it refers to the True doctrine respecting the laws and mysteries of Nature.' He calls attention also to the point that 'he uses Nature in the sense of Natura naturans> while the Chinese expression wan wd (= all things) denotes Natura natura ta.' But this really comes to the metaphorical use of nature which has been touched upon above. It can claim as its patrons great names like those of Aquinas, Giordano Bruno, and Spinoza, but I have never been able to see that its barbarous phraseology makes it more than a figure of speech^. The term Nature, however, is so handy, and often fits so appropriately into a version, that if T&o had ever such a signification I should not hesitate to employ it as freely as Mr. Balfour has done ; but as it has not that signifi- cation, to try to put a non-natural meaning into it, only perplexes the mind, and obscures the idea of L4o-)ze. . Mr. Balfour himself says (p. xviii), * The primary signifi- cation of TAo is simply "road."' Beyond question this meaning underlies the use of it by the great master of Taoism and by ATwang-jze ®. Let the reader refer to the version of the twenty-fifth chapter of LAo's treatise, and to ^ Natnr. Quaest. lib. II, cap. xlv. ' Mardneau's * Types of Ethical Theory,* I, p. a 86, and his whole ' Conjectural History of Spinoza's Thought.' " ^g is equivalent to the Greek 4 ^^t the way. Where this name for the Christian system occurs in our Revised Version of the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, the literal rendering is adhered to, W ay being printed with a capital W. See Acts ix. 2 ; xix. 9, 23 ; zxiL 4 ; zxiv. 14, 23. CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 1 5 the notes subjoined to it. There Tdo appears as the spon- taneously operating cause of all movement in the pheno- mena of the universe ; and the nearest the writer can come to a name for it is ' the Great T^o/ Having established this name, he subsequently uses it repeatedly ; see chh. xxxiv and liii. In the third paragraph of his twentieth chapter, A!^wang-)ze uses a synonymous phrase instead of Ldo's • Great TAd,' calling it the * Great Thill,' about which there can be no dispute, as meaning * the Great Path,' ' Way,' or 'Course^.' In the last paragraph of his twenty-fifth Book, ATwang-jze again sets forth the metaphorical origin of the name TSlo, *T4o,' he says, ^cannot be regarded as having a positive existence ; existences cannot be regarded as non-existent. The name TAo is a metaphor used for the purpose of description. To say that it exercises some causation, or that it does nothing, is speaking of it from the phase of a thing ; — ^how can such language serve as a de- signation of it in its greatness ? If words were sufficient for the purpose, we might in a day's time exhaust the sub- ject of the T4o. Words not being sufficient, we may talk about it the whole day, and the subject of discourse will only have been a thing. TAo is the extreme to which things conduct us. Neither speech nor silence is sufficient to convey the notion of it. When we neither speak nor refrain from speech, our speculations about it reach their highest point.' The T4o therefore is a phenomenon; not a positive being, but a mode of being. Ldo's idea of it may become plainer as we proceed to other points of his system. In the meantime, the best way of dealing with it in translating is to transfer it to the version, instead of trying to introduce an English equivalent for it. a. Next in importance to Tdo is the nameThien, mean- ing at first the vaulted sky or the open firmament of heaven. In the Confucian Classics, and in the speech of the Chinese ^ ^Z> ly * '^^ Khang-hst dictionary defines th^ by Id, road or way. Medhurst giyes ' road.* Unfortunately, both Morrison and Williams overlooked fhis definition of the character. Giles has also a note in 1 oc, showing how this synonym settles the original meaning of T &o in the sense of 'road.* 1 6 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. III. people, this name is used metaphorically as it is by our* Usage of the selves for the Supreme Being, with reference termThien. especially to His will and rule. So it was that the idea of God arose among the Chinese fathers ; so it was that they proceeded to fashion a name for God, calling Him Tl, and Shang Ti, * the Ruler,' and *the Supreme Ruler/ The Tdoist fathers found this among their people ; but in their idea of the T4o they had already a Supreme Concept which superseded the necessity of any other. The name Tl for God only occurs once in the T4o Teh A!'ing ; in the well-known passage of the fourth chapter, where, speaking of the T4o, Lio-)ze says, * I do not know whose Son it is ; it might seem to be before God.' Nor is the name Thien very common. We have the phrase, * Heaven and Earth,' used for the two great con- stituents of the kosmos, owing their origin to the T&o, and also for a sort of binomial power, acting in harmony with the T&o, covering, protecting, nurturing, and maturing all things. Never once is Thien used in the sense of God, the Supreme Being. In its peculiarly TAoistic employment, it is more an adjective than a noun. * The TAo of Heaven ' means the TAo that is Heavenly, the course that is quiet and undemonstrative, that is free from motive and effort, such as is seen in the processes of nature, grandly pro- ceeding and successful without any striving or crying. The TAo of man, not dominated by this TAo, is contrary to it, and shows will, purpose, and effort, till, submitting to it, it becomes * the TAo or Way of the Sages,' which in all its action has no striving. The characteristics both of Heaven and man are dealt with more fully by ATwang than by LAo. In the conclusion of his eleventh Book, for instance, he says : — ' What do we mean by TAo ? There is the TAo (or Way) of Heaven, and there is the TAo of man. Acting without action, and yet attracting all honour, is the Way of Heaven. Doing and being embarrassed thereby is the Way of man. The Way of Heaven should play the part of lord ; the Way of man, the part of minister. The two are far apart, and should be distinguished from each other.' CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 1 7 I III I , _^.^ In his next Book (par. a), A'wang-jze tells us what he intends by 'Heaven:' — 'Acting without action, — ^this is what is called Heaven.' Heaven thus takes its law from the TSo. *The oldest sages and sovereigns attained to do the same,' — it was for all men to aim at the same achieve- ment. As they were successful, 'vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, quietude, silence, and non-action' would be found to be their characteristics, and they would go on to the perfection of the T4o ^ The employment of Thien by the Confucianists, as of Heaven by ourselves, must be distinguished therefore from the T&oistic use of the name to denote the quiet but mighty influence of the impersonal T5Lo ; and to translate it by ' God ' only obscures the meaning of the TAoist writers. This has been done by Mr. Giles in his version of iSTwang-jze, which is otherwise for the most part so good. Everywhere on his pages there appears the great name *God ;' — a blot on his translation more painful to my eyes and ears than the use of * Nature' for Tao by Mr. Balfour. I know that Mr. Giles's plan in translating is to use strictly English equivalents for all kinds of Chinese terms ^. The plan is good where there are in the two languages such strict equivalents; but in the case before us there is no gromid for its application. The exact English equivalent for the Chinese thien is our heaven. The Confucianists often used thien metaphorically for the personal Being whom they denominated Tl (God) and Shang Tl (the Supreme God), and a translator may occasionally, in working on books of Confucian literature, employ our name God for it. But neither L&o nor A'wang ever attached anything like our idea of God to it ; and when one, in working on books of early TAoist literature, translates thien by God, such a rendering must fail to produce in an English reader a correct apprehension of the meaning. There is also in /ifwang-gze a peculiar usage of the name Thien. He applies it to the Beings whom he introduces as * The TSlo Teh A'ing. ch. 25, and AVang-gze, XIII, par. i. ' See 'Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio/ yol. i, p. I, note a. [39] c l8 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. III. ^ ,. Masters of the TAo, generally with mystical Peculiar usage r i. t_ • ofThicnin appellations in order to set forth his own ^waug-jzc. yi^y^s. Two instances from Book XI will suffice in illustration of this. In par. 4, Hwang-Tl does reverence to his instructor Kwang A'ASng-jze \ saying, * In Kwang A^Aang-jze we have an example of what is called Heaven/ which Mr. Giles renders * Kwang ATAang ^ze is surely God.' In par. 5, again, the mystical Y(in-^iang is made to say to the equally fabulous and mystical Hung- mung, *0 Heaven, have you forgotten me?' and, farther on, * O Heaven, you have conferred on me (the knowledge of) your operation, and revealed to me the mystery of it ;* in both which passages Mr. Giles renders thien by 'your Holiness.* But Mr. Giles seems to agree with me that the old T4oists had no idea of a personal God, when they wrote of M Gl ' w Thien or Heaven. On his sixty-eighth page, idea of the near the beginning of Book VI, we meet with Mme^'^God * L ^^^ following sentence, having every appear- the equivalent of ance of being translated from the Chinese text : — * God is a principle which exists by virtue of its own intrinsicality, and operates without self- manifestation.' By an inadvertence he has introduced his own definition of * God ' as if it were /fwang-jze's ; and though I can find no characters in the text of which I can suppose that he intends it to be the translation, it is valuable as helping us to understand the meaning to be attached to the Great Name in his volume. I have referred above (p. 16) to the only passage in L4o's treatise, where he uses the name T! or God in its highest The relation of sei . . , saying that * the TAo might seem to the T^o to Ti. have been before Him.' He might well say so, for in his first chapter he describes the Talo, * (conceived of as) having no name, as the Originator of heaven and * Kwang A^/iang-jie heada the list of characters in Ko Hung's * History of Spirit-like Immortals f ijffl i|jl YS).* written in our fourth century. ' He was^' it is said, ' an Immortal of old, who lives on the hiU of M'ung-thung in a grotto of rocks.' CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 1 9 earth, and (conceived of as) having a name, as the Mother of all things.' The reader will also find the same predicates of the TAo at greater length in his fifty-first chapter. The character Tt is also of rare occurrence in ATwang-jze, excepting as applied to the five ancient Tis. In Bk. Ill, par. 4, and in one other place, we find it indicating the Supreme Being, but the usage is ascribed to the ancients. In Bk. XV, par. 3, in a description of the human Spirit, its name is said to be * Thung Tt,* which Mr. Giles renders * Of God ; ' Mr. Balfour, ' One with God ; ' while my own version is ' The Divinity in Man.' In Bk. XII, par. 6, we have the expression ' the place of God ; ' in Mr. Giles, * the kingdom of God ;' in Mr. Balfour, * the home of God.' In this and the former instance, the character seems to be used with the ancient meaning which had entered into the folk- lore of the people. But in Bk. VI, par. 7, there is a passage which shows clearly the relative position of Tdo and Ti in the TAoistic system ; and having called attention to it, I will go on to other points. Let the reader mark well the follow- ing predicates of the T^o : — ' Before there were heaven and earth, from of old, there It was, securely existing. From It came the mysterious existence of spirits ; from It the mysterious existence of Tt (God). It produced heaven. It produced earth \' This says more than the utterance of lAo, — that *the Tdo seemed to be before God;' — does it not say that TAo was before God, and that He was what He is by virtue of Its operation ? 3. Among the various personal names given to the TSo NoideaofCrea- ^^^ ^^^^^ of 3^0 Hw^, ^ Maker and Trans- tion proper in former,' and 3 ^ o W A'^, ' Maker of things.' '^™' Instances of both these names are found in Bk. VI, parr. 9, 10. * Creator' and * God' have both been employed for them ; but there is no idea of Creation in Tioism. Again and again ATwang-jze entertains the question of * For this sentence we find in Mr. Balfour : — * Spirits of the dead, receiving It, become divine ; the very gods themselves owe their divinity to its influence ; and by it both Heaven and Earth were produced/ The version of it by Mr. Giles is too condensed : — * Spiritual beings drew their spirituality there- from, while the universe became what we see it now.* C 2 20 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. ch. III. how it was at the first beginning of things. Different views are stated. In Bk. II, par. 4, he says: — 'Among the men of old their knowledge reached the extreme point. What was that extreme point ? * Some held that at first there was not anything. This is the extreme point, — the utmost limit to which nothing can be added. 'A second class held that there was something, but with- out any responsive recognition of it (on the part of man). 'A third class held that there was such recognition, but there had not begun to be any expression of different opinions about it. It was through the definite expression of different opinions about it that there ensued injury to the (doctrine of the) Tio*.' The first of these three views was that which A'wang-jze himself preferred. The most condensed expression of it is given in Bk. XII, par. 8 : — * In the Grand Beginning of all things there was nothing in all the vacancy of space ; there was nothing that could be named'. It was in this state that there arose the first existence ; the first existence, but still without bodily shape. From this things could be pro- duced, (receiving) what we call their several characters. That which had no bodily shape was divided, and then without intermission there was what we call the process of conferring. (The two processes) continued to operate, and things were produced. As they were completed, there appeared the distinguishing lines of each, which we call the bodily shape. That shape was the body preserving in it the spirit, and each had its peculiar manifestation which we call its nature.* Such was the genesis of things ; the formation of heaven * Compare also Bk. XXII, parr. 7, 8, and XXIII, par. 10. * Mr. Balfoar had given for this sentence : — ' In the beginning of all things there was not even nothing. There were no names; these arose afterwards.' In his critique on Mr. Balfoar*s version in i88a, Mr. Giles proposed : — * At the beginning of all things there was nothing ; but this nothing had no name.' He now in his own version gives for it, ' At the beginning of the beginning, even nothing did not exist. Then came the period of the nameless ; *— an improve- ment, certainly, on the other ; but which can hardly be accepted as the correct version of the text. CH. IIL INTRODUCTION. 21 and earth and all that in them is, under the guidance of the Tdo. It was an evolution and not a creation. How the Tdo itself came, — I do not say into existence, but into operation, — neither lAo nor A'wang ever thought of saying anything about. We have seen that it is nothing material^. It acted spontaneously of itself. Its sudden appearance in the field of non-existence, Producer, Trans- former, Beautifier, surpasses my comprehension. To L&o it seemed to be before God. I am compelled to accept the existence of God, as the ultimate Fact, bowing before it with reverence, and not attempting to explain it, the one mystery, the sole mystery of the universe. 4. ' The bodily shape was the body preserving in it the spirit^ and each had its peculiar manifestation which we call its nature.' So it is said in the passage quoted above from /Twang-jze's twelfth Book, and the language shows Man om osed ^^^ T&oism, in a loose and indefinite way, of body and considered man to be composed of body and "P*"*' spirit, associated together, yet not necessarily dependent on each other. Little is found bearing on this tenet in the Tao Teh ATing. The concluding sentence of ch. 33, * He who dies and yet does not perish, has lon- gevity,' is of doubtful acceptation. More pertinent is the description of life as 'a coming forth,' and of death as 'an entering^;' but ATwang-jze expounds more fully, though after all unsatisfactorily, the teaching of their system on the subject. At the conclusion of his third Book, writing of the death of Ldo-jze, he says, * When the master came, it was at the proper time; when he went away, it was the simple se- quence (of his coming). Quiet acquiescence in what happens at its proper time, and quietly submitting (to its sequence), afford no occasion for grief or for joy. The ancients de- scribed (death) as the loosening of the cord on which God suspended (the life). What we can point to are the faggots that have been consumed ; but the fire is transmitted else- where, and we know not that it is over and ended.' > The Tfio Teh ^ing, ch. 14; et aL * Ch. 50. 22 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. III. It is, however, in connexion with the death of his own wife, as related in the eighteenth Book, that his views most fully — I do not say * clearly' — appear. We are told that when that event took place, his friend Hui-jze went to con- dole with him, and found him squatted on the ground, drumming on the vessel (of ice), and singing. His friend said to him, *When a wife has lived with her husband, brought up children, and then dies in her old age, not to wail for her is enough. When you go on to drum on the vessel and sing, is it not an excessive (and strange) demon- stration?' ATwang-jze replied, *It is not so. When she first died, was it possible for me to be* singular, and not affected by the event ? But I reflected on the commence- ment of her being, when she had not yet been born to life. Not only had she no life, but she had no bodily form. Not only had she no bodily form, but she had no breath. Suddenly in this chaotic condition there ensued a change, and there was breath ; another change, and there was the bodily form; a further change, and she was bom to life; a change now again, and she is dead. The relation be- tween those changes is like the procession of the four seasons, — spring, autumn, winter, and summer. There she lies with her face up, sleeping in the Great Chamber*; and if I were to fall sobbing and going on to wail for her, I should think I did not understand what was appointed for all. I therefore restrained myself.' The next paragraph of the same Book contains another story about two ancient men, both deformed, who, when looking at the graves on Kwan-lun, b^in to feel in their own frames the symptoms of approaching dissolution. One says to the other, * Do you dread it ? ' and gets the reply, * No. Why should I dread it ? Life is a borrowed thing. The living frame thus borrowed is but so much dust. Life and death are like day and night' In every birth, it would thus appear, there is, somehow, a repetition of what it is said, as we have seen, took place at * the Grand Beginning of all things,* when out of the ^ That is, between heaven and earth. CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 23 primal nothingness, the T&o somehow appeared, and there was developed through its operation the world of things, — material things and the material body of man, which en- shrines or enshrouds an immaterial spirit. This returns to the Tdo that gave it, and may be regarded indeed as that T4o operating in the body during the time of life, and in due time receives a new embodiment. In these notions of Taoism there was a preparation for the appreciation by its followers of the Buddhistic system when it came to be introduced into the country, and which forms a close connexion between the two at the present day, Taoism itself constantly becoming less definite and influential on the minds of the Chinese people. The Book which tells us of the death of A^wang-3ze's wife concludes with a narrative about Lieh-jze and an old bleached skulP, and to this is appended a passage about the metamorphoses of things, ending with the statement that ' the panther pro- duces the horse, and the horse the man, who then again enters into the great machinery (of evolution), from which all things come forth (at birth) and into which they re-enter (at death).' Such representations need not be charac- terised. 5. Kd Hsl, * the prince of Literature,' described the main object of TAoism to be * the preservation of the breath of Th Taoas ^^^^ '* ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ probably of our thirteenth promotive of century ^, in his * Dispassionate Comparison longevity. ^j ^j^^ jj^^^^ Religions,' declares that * its chief achievement is the prolongation of longevity.' Such is the account of Taoism ordinarily given by Confucian and Buddhist writers, but our authorities, LAo and A'wang, hardly bear out this representation of it as true of their time. There are chapters of the Tdo Teh A'ing which > Qaoted in the Amplification of the Sixteen Precepts or Maxims of the second emperor of the present dynasty by his son. The words are from Dr. Milne's version of ' the Sacred Edict/ p. 137. ' In his Index to the Tripi/aka, Mr. Bunyio Nanjio (p. 559) assigns Ltii Mt and his work to the Yiian dynasty. In a copy of the work in my possession they are assigned to that of Sung. The author, no doubt, lived under both dynasties^ — from the Sung into the Yiian. 24 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. HI. presuppose a peculiar management of the breath, but the treatise is singularly free from anything to justify what Mr. Balfour well calls * the antics of the Kung-fCi, or system of mystic and recondite calisthenics ^.' Lio insists, however, on the TAo as conducive to long life, and in ATwang-jze we have references to it as a discipline of longevity, though even he mentions rather with disapproval * those who kept blowing and breathing with open mouth, inhaling and exhaling the breath, expelling the old and taking in new ; passing their time like the (dormant) bear, and stretching and twisting (their necks) like birds.' He says that 'all this simply shows their desire for longevity, and is what the scholars who manage the breath, and men who nourish the body and wish to live as long as Fh^g-jil, are fond of doing ^.' My own opinion is that the methods of the TAo were first cultivated for the sake of the longevity which they were thought to promote, and that Lio, discoun- tenancing such a use of them, endeavoured to g^ve the doctrine a higher character ; and this view is favoured by passages in A!'wang-jze. In the seventh paragraph, for instance, of his Book VI, speaking of parties who had ob- tained the TAo, he begins with a prehistoric sovereign, who * got it and by it adjusted heaven and earth.* Among his other instances is Phing-jd, who got it in the time of Shun, and lived on to the time of the five leading princes of A^iu, — a longevity of more than 1 800 years, greater than that ascribed to Methuselah I In the paragraph that follows there appears a Nil Yli, who is addressed by another famous TAoist in the words, * You are old. Sir, while your com- plexion is like that of a child ; — how is it so ? ' and the reply is, * I became acquainted with the TAo.' I will adduce only one more passage of A'wang. In his eleventh Book, and the fourth paragraph, he tells us of interviews between Hwang-Tt, in the nineteenth year of his reign, which would be B. c. 2679, and his instructor Kwang /jfAang-jze. The TAoist sage is not readily prevailed on * See note on p. 187 of his AVang-gze. » See Bk. XV, par. i. CH. m. INTRODUCTION. 2 5 to unfold the treasures of his knowledge to the sovereign, but at last his reluctance is overcome, and he says to him, * Come, and I will tell you about the Perfect T4o. Its "" essence is surrounded with the deepest obscurity ; its highest reach is in darkness and silence. There is nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard. When it holds the spirit in its arms in stillness, then the bodily form will of itself become correct. You must be still, you must be pure; not subjecting your body to toil, not agitating your vital force : — then you may live for long. When your eyes see nothing, your ears hear nothing, and your mind knows nothing, your spirit will keep your body, and the body will live long. Watch over what is within you ; shut up the avenues that connect you with what is external; — much knowledge is pernicious. I will proceed with you to the summit of the Grand Brilliance, where we come to the bright and expanding (element) ; I will enter with you the gate of the dark and depressing element. There heaven and earth have their Controllers; there the Yin and Yang have their Repositories. Watch over and keep your body, and all things will of themselves give it vigour. I maintain the (original) unity (of these elements). In this way I have cultivated myself for 1200 years, and my bodily form knows no decay.' Add laoo to 2679, and we obtain 3879 as the year B.C. of Kwang A'Aang- jze's birth I 6. L&o-jze describes some other and kindred results of cultivating the T^o in terms which are sufficiently startling, Startling lesnlts and which it is difficult to accept. In his of the Tio. fiftieth chapter he says, * He who is skilful in managing his life travels on land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason ? Because there is in him no place of death.' To the same effect he says in his fifty-fifth chapter, * He who has in himself abundantly the attributes (of the T&o) is like an infant. Poisonous 26 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. III. insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him ; birds of prey will not strike him.* Such assertions startle us by their contrariety to our observation and experience, but so does most of the teaching of Tioism. What can seem more absurd than the declara- tion that *the T&o does nothing, and so there is nothing that it does not do ? * And yet this is one of the fundamental axioms of the system. The thirty-seventh chapter, which enunciates it, goes on to say, ' If princes and kings were able to maintain (the TAo), all things would of themselves be transformed by them.' This principle, if we can call it so, is generalised in the fortieth, one of the shortest chapters, and partly in rhyme : — *The movement of the Tio By contraries proceeds ; And weakness marks the course Of Tdo's mighty deeds. All things under heaven sprang from it as existing (and named); that existence sprang from it as non-existent (and not named).' Ho-shang Kung, or whoever gave their names to the chapters of the TdoTeh^ing, styles this fortieth chapter * Dispensing with the use (of means).' If the wish to use means arise in the mind, the nature of the T&o as * the Nameless Simplicity' has been vitiated; and this nature is celebrated in lines like those just quoted : — * Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right, as of their will' I do not cull any passages from A^'wang-jze to illustrate these points. In his eleventh Book his subject is Govern- ment by *Let-a-be and the exercise of Forbearance.' 7. This TAo ruled men at first, and then the world was in a paradisiacal state. Neither of our authorities tells us The paradisiaoil how long this condition lasted, but as Ldo slate. observes in his eighteenth chapter, *the T4o ceased to be observed.' ATwang-jze, however, gives us CH. HI. INTRODUCTION. 2 7 more than one description of what he considered the para- disiacal state was. He calls it * the age of Perfect Virtue.' In the thirteenth paragraph of his twelfth Book he says, * In this age, they attached no value to wisdom, nor employed men of ability. Superiors were (but) as the higher branches of a tree ; and the people were like the deer of the wild. They were upright and correct, without knowing that to be so was Righteousness ; they loved one another, without knowing that to do so was Benevolence ; they were honest and leal-hearted, without knowing that it was Loyalty; they fulfilled their engagements, without knowing that to do so was Good Faith ; in their movements they employed the services of one another, without thinking that they were conferring or receiving any gift. Therefore their actions left no trace, and there was no record of their affairs.' Again, in the fourth paragraph of his tenth Book, address- ing an imaginary interlocutor, he says, *Are you, Sir, un- acquainted with the age of Perfect Virtue?' He then gives the names of twelve sovereigns who ruled in it, of the greater number of whom we have no other means of know- ing anything, and goes on : — *In their times the people used knotted cords in carrying on their business. They thought their (simple) food pleasant, and their (plain) clothing beautiful. They were happy in their (simple) manners, and felt at rest in their (poor) dwellings. (The people of) neighbouring states might be able to descry one another ; the voices of their cocks and dogs might be heard from one to the other ; they might not die till they were old ; and yet all their life they would have no communication together. In those times perfect good order prevailed.' One other description of the primeval state is still more interesting. It is in the second paragraph of Bk. IX : — * The people had their regular and constant nature : — they wove and made themselves clothes ; they tilled the ground and got food. This was their common faculty. They were all one in this, and did not form themselves into separate classes ; so were they constituted and left to their natural tendencies. Therefore in the age of Perfect Virtue men walked along with slow and grave step, and with their 28 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. ch. hi. looks steadily directed forwards. On the hills there were no footpaths nor excavated passages ; on the lakes there were no boats nor dams. All creatures lived in companies, and their places of settlement were made near to one another. Birds and beasts multiplied to flocks and herds ; the grass and trees grew luxuriant and long. The birds and beasts might be led about without feeling the con- straint ; the nest of the magpie might be climbed to, and peeped into. Yes, in. the age of Perfect Virtue, men lived in common with birds and beasts, and were on terms of equality with all creatures, as forming one family; — ^how could they know among themselves the distinctions of superior men and small men ? Equally without knowledge, they did not leave the path of their natural virtue ; equally free from desires, they were in the state of pure simplicity. In that pure simplicity, their nature was what it ought to be.' Such were the earliest Chinese of whom ATwang-jze could venture to give any account. If ever their ancestors had been in a ruder or savage condition, it must have been at a much antecedent time. These had long passed out of such a state ; they were tillers of the ground, and acquainted with the use of the loom. They lived in happy relations with one another, and in kindly harmony with the tribes of inferior creatures. But there is not the slightest allusion to any sentiment of piety as animating them indi- vidually, or to any ceremony of religion as observed by them in common. This surely is a remarkable feature in their condition. I call attention to it, but I do not dwell upon it. 8. But by the time of Ldo and /ifwang the cultivation of the TSlo had fallen into disuse. The simplicity of life which it demanded, with its freedom from ^m Sfore^t^e all disturbing speculation and action, was no growth of longer to be found in individuals or in govem- knowledge. _ , , , - ment. It was the general decay of manners and of social order which unsettled the mind of LSo, made him resign his position as a curator of the Royal Library, and determine to withdraw from China and hide himself CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 29 among the rude peoples beyond it. The cause of the de- terioration of the Tio and of all the evils of the nation was attributed to the ever-growing pursuit of knowledge, and of what we call the arts of culture. It had commenced very long before ; — in the time of Hwang-Tl, A'wang says in one place ^; and in another he carries it still higher to Sui-zan and Fu-hst*. There had been indeed, all along the line of history, a groping for the rules of life, as indi- cated by the constitution of man's nature. The results were embodied in the ancient literature which was the life- long study of Confucius. He had gathered up that litera- ture ; he recognised the nature of man as the gift of Heaven or God. The monitions of God as given in the convictions of man's mind supplied him with a T do or Path of duty very different from the T4o or Mysterious Way of LAo. All this was gall and wormwood to the dreaming librarian or brooding recluse, and made him say, * If we could re- nounce our sageness and discard our wisdom^ it would be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce our benevolence and discard our righteousness, the people would again become filial and kindly. If we could re- nounce our artful contrivances and discard our (scheming for) gain, there would be no thieves nor robbers*.' We can laugh at this. Taoism was wrong in its opposi- tion to the increase of knowledge. Man exists under a law of progress. In pursuing it there are demanded discretion and justice. Moral ends must rule over material ends, and advance in virtue be ranked higher than advance in science. So have good and evil, truth and error, to fight out the battle on the field of the world, and in all the range of time ; but there is no standing still for the individual or for society. Even Confucius taught his countrymen to set too high a value on the examples of antiquity. The school of Ldo-)ze fixing themselves in an unknown region beyond antiquity, — a prehistoric time between * the Grand Begin- ning of all things ' out of nothing, and the unknown com- mencement of societies of men, — has made no advance » Bk. XI, par. 5. Bk. XVI, par. 2. » Tio Teh irmg, ch. 19. 30 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. III. but rather retrograded, and is represented by the still more degenerate Tioism of the present day. There is a short parabolic story of Al'wang-jze, intended to represent the antagonism between Taoism and know- ledge, which has always struck me as curious. The last paragraph of his seventh Book is this : — * The Ruler (or god Tl)ofthe Southern Ocean was Shii (that is, Heedless); the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was H Cl (that is, Hasty) ; and the Ruler of the Centre was Hwun-tun (that is, Chaos). Sh(i and Hfi were continually meeting in the land of Hwun-tun, who treated them very well. They con- sulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, " Men have all seven orifices for the purposes of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him." Ac- cordingly they dug one orifice in him every day ; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.* So it was that Chaos passed away before Light. So did the nameless Simplicity of the TSlo disappear before Know- ledge. But it was better that the Chaos should give place to the Kosmos. * Heedless ' and * Hasty ' did a good deed. 9. I have thus set forth eight characteristics of the T&o- istic system, having respect mostly to what is peculiar and mystical in it. I will now conclude my exhibftion of it by Th ct' 1 bringing together under one head the prac- lessons of tical lessons of its author for men individually, °"^^' and for the administration of government. The praise of whatever excellence these possess belongs to Ldo himself: Al'wang-jze devotes himself mainly to the illustration of the abstruse and difficult points. First, it does not surprise us that in his rules for individual man, hko should place Humility in the foremost place. A favourite illustration with him of the T Ao is water. In his eighth chapter he says : — * The highest excel- lence is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low ground which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to that of the Tdo.* To the same effect in the seventy-eighth CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 3 1 chapter: — ^^ There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it. Every one in the world knows that the soft over- comes the hard, and the weak the strong ; but no one is able to carry it out in practice.' In his sixty-seventh chapter L4o associates with Humility two other virtues, and calls them his three Precious Things or Lio's three Jewels. They are Gentleness, Economy, and Jewels. Shrinking from taking precedence of others. * With that Gentleness,' he says, * I can be bold ; with that Economy I can be liberal ; Shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour.' And in his sixty-third chapter, he rises to a still loftier height of morality. He says, * (It is the way of the Tdo) to act without (thinking of) acting, to conduct affairs with- out (feeling) the trouble of them ; to taste without discern- ing any flavour, to consider the small as great, fo"enl^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ many, and to recompense injury with kindness.' Here is the grand Christian precept, * Render to no man evil for evil. If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.' We know that the maxim made some noise in its author's lifetime ; that the disciples of Confucius consulted him about it, and that he was unable to receive it^. It comes in with less important matters by virtue of the T^oistic *rule of contraries.' I have been sur- prised to find what little reference to it I have met with in the course of my Chinese reading. I do not think that A'wang-jze takes notice of it to illustrate it after his fashion. There, however, it is in the TAoTehATing. The fruit of it has yet to be developed. Second, L4o laid down the same rule for the policy of the state as for the life of the individual. He says in his sixty-first chapter, ' What makes a state great is its being like a low-lying, down-flowing stream ; — it becomes the ^ Confucian Analects, XIV, 36. 32 THE TEXTS OF TAoISM. CH. IIT. centre to which tend all (the small states) under heaven.' He then uses an illustration which will produce a smile : — *Take the case of all females. The female always over- comes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be con- sidered (a sort of) abasement.' Resuming his subject, he adds, ' Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement tends to gaining adherents ; in the other case, to procuring favour. The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them ; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.' * All very well in theory,' some one will exclaim, * but, the world has not seen it yet reduced to practice.' So it is. The fact is deplorable. No one saw the misery arising from it, and exposed its unreasonableness more unsparingly, than /Twang-^ze. But it was all in vain in his time, as it has been in all the centuries that have since rolled their course. Philosophy, philanthropy, and religion have still to toil on, * faint, yet pursuing,' believing that the time will yet come when humility and love shall secure the reign of peace and good will among the nations of men. While enjoining humility, LAo protested against war. In his thirty-first chapter he says, * Arms, however beau- tiful, are instruments of evil omen ; hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. They who have the T&o do not like to employ them.' Perhaps in his sixty-ninth chapter he allows defensive war, but he adds, * There is no calamity greater than that of lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious. Thus it is that when weapons are (actually) crossed, he who deplores the (situation) conquers.' There are some other points in the practical lessons of Tioism to which I should like to call the attention of the reader, but I must refer him for them to the chapters of the TSlo Teh A'ing, and the Books of ATwang-jze. Its salient features have been set forth somewhat fully. Not- CH. IV. INTRODUCTION. 33 withstanding the scorn poured so freely on Confucius by A'wang-jze and other TAoist writers, he proved in the course of time too strong for LAo as the teacher of their people. The entrance of Buddhism, moreover, into the country in our first century, was very injurious to T&oism, which still exists, but is only the shadow of its former self. It is tolerated by the government, but not patronised as it was when emperors and empresses seemed to think more of it than of Confucianism. It is by the spread of know- ledge, which it has always opposed, that its overthrow and disappearance will be brought about ere long. CHAPTER IV. Accounts of LAo-sze and ATwang-Sze given BY SzE-mA KfflE.^. It seems desirable, before passing from L^o and JSTwang in this Introduction, to give a place in it to what is said about them by Sze-m& Kkxcn. I have said that not a single proper name occurs in the T^o Teh A'ing. There is hardly an historical allusion in it. Only one chapter, the twentieth, has somewhat of an autobiographical character. It tells us, however, of no incidents of his life. He appears alone in the world through his cultivation of the T&o, melancholy and misunderstood, yet binding that T4o more closely to his bosom. The Books of iiTwang-jze are of a different nature, abounding in pictures of T&oist life, in anecdotes and narratives, graphic, argumentative, often satirical. But they are not historical. Confucius and many of his dis- ciples, L&o and members of his school, heroes and sages of antiquity, and men of his own day, move across his pages; but the incidents in connexion with which they are introduced are probably fictitious, and devised by him 'to point his moral or adorn his tale.' His names of individuals and places are often like those of Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress or his Holy War, emblematic of their characters and the doctrines which he employs [39] D 34 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. CH. IV. them to illustrate. He often comes on the stage himself, and there is an air of verisimilitude in his descriptions, possibly also a certain amount of fact about them ; but we cannot appeal to them as historical testimony. It is only to Sze-m4 KAien that we can go for this ; he always writes in the spirit of an historian ; but what he has to tell us of the two men is not much. And first, as to his account of L4o-jze. When he wrote, about the beginning of the first century B.C., the TAoist master was already known as LAo-jze. A'Aien, how- ever, tells us that his surname was Lt, and his name R^ meaning *Ear,' which gave place after his death to Tan, meaning * Long-eared,' from which we may conclude that he was named from some peculiarity in the form of his ears. He was a native of the state of KAd, which had then extended far beyond its original limits, and his birth-place was in the present province of Ho-nan or of An-hui. He was a curator in the Royal Library ; and when Confucius visited the capital in the year B.C. 517, the two men met. KAien says that Confucius's visit to Lo-yang was that he might question LAo on the subject of ceremonies. He might have other objects in mind as well ; but however that was, the two met. Li said to Khung, * The men about whom you talk are dead, and their bones are mouldered to dust ; only their words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets his opportunity, he mounts aloft ; but when the time is against him, he is carried along by the force of circumstances^. I have heard that a good merchant, though he have rich treasures safely stored, appears as if he were poor; and that the superior man, though his virtue be complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your in- sinuating habit and wild will. They are of no advantage to you ; — this is all I have to tell you.' Confucius is made to say to his disciples after the interview: *I know how ' JuUen translates this by 'il eire k raventarc' In 186 1 I rendered it, ' He moves as if his feet were entangled.' To one critic it suggests the idea of a bundle or wisp of brushwood rolled about over the ground by the wind. CH.IV, INTRODUCTION. 35 birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon: — I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen L^o-)ze, and can only compare him to the dragon.' In this speech of Confucius we have, I believe, the origin of the name L&o-jze, as applied to the master of TAoism. Its meaning is * The Old Philosopher,* or * The Old Gen- tleman ^' Confucius might well so style Li R, At the time of this interview he was himself in his thirty-fifth year, and the other was in his eighty-eighth. Khien adds, *L4o-gze cultivated the Tio and its attributes, the chief aim of his studies being how to keep himself concealed and remain unknown. He continued to reside at (the capital of) K&u, but after a long time, seeing the decay of the dynasty, he left it and went away to the barrier- gate, leading out of the kingdom on the north-west. Yin Hst, the warden of the gate, said to him, " You are about to withdraw yourself out of sight. Let me insist on your (first) composing for me a book.*' On this, L&o-jze wrote a book in two parts, setting forth his views on the T4o and its attributes, in more than 5000 characters. He then went away, and it is not known where he died. He was a superior man, who liked to keep himself unknown.' Kkiexi finally traces L&o's descendants down to the first century B.C., and concludes by saying, 'Those who attach themselves to the doctrine of Ldo-}ze condemn that of the Literati, and the Literati on their part condemn L4o- jze, verifying the saying, ** Parties whose principles are different cannot take counsel together." Lt R taught that by doing nothing others are as a matter of course trans- ^ The characters may mean * the old boy/ and so understood haye given rise to various fabnlons legends ; that bis mother had carried him in her womb for seventy-two years (some say, for eighty-one), and that when bom the child had the white hair of an old man. Julien has translated the fabalons legend of Ko Hnng of onr fourth century about him. By that time the legends of Buddhism about 5^yamuni had become current in China, and were copied and applied to LSo-gze by his followers. Looking at the meaning of the two names, I am surprised no one has characterized LHo-^ze as the Chinese Seneca. D 2 36 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. IV. formed, and that rectification in the same way ensues from being pure and still.' This morsel is all that we have of historical narrative about LAo-jze. The account of the writing of the TSlo Teh A!'ing at the request of the warden of the barrier-gate has a doubtful and legendary appearance. Otherwise, the record is free from anything to raise suspicion about it. It says nothing about previous existences of L&o, and nothing of his travelling to the west, and learning there the doctrines which are embodied in his work. He goes through the pass out of the domain of K&u, and died no one knowing where. It is difficult, however, to reconcile this last statement with a narrative in the end of ATwang-jzc's third Book. There we see Lio-jze dead, and a crowd of mourners wailing round the corpse, and giving extraordinary demon- strations of grief, which offend a disciple of a higher order, who has gone to the house to offer his condolences on the occasion. But for the peculiar nature of most of ATwang's narratives, we should say, in opposition to AT^ien, that the place and time of L&o's death were well known. Possibly, however, A!'wang-jze may have invented the whole story, to give him the opportunity of setting forth what, according to his ideal of it, the life of a T&oist master should be, and how even L&o-jze himself fell short of it. Second, -STAien's account of Al'wang-jze is still more brief. He was a native, he tells us, of the territory of Mang, which belonged to the kingdom of Liang or Wei, and held an office, he does not say what, in the city of ATAi-yiian. ATwang was thus of the same part of China as L&o-jze, and probably grew up familiar with all his speculations and lessons. He lived during the reigns of the kings Hui of Liang, Hsiian of ATAi, and Wei of KAd. We cannot be wrong therefore in assigning his period to the latter half of the third, and earlier part of the fourth century B. C. He was thus a contemporary of Mencius. They visited at the same courts, and yet neither ever mentions the other. They were the two ablest debaters of their day, and fond of exposing what they deemed heresy. But it would only be CH. IV. INTRODUCTION. 37 a matter of useless speculation to try to account for their never having come into argumentative collision. A'Aien says : ' ATwang had made himself well acquainted with all the literature of his time, but preferred the views of L&o-^e, and ranked himself among his followers, so that of the more than ten m}a'iads of characters contained in his published writings the greater part are occupied with meta- phorical illustrations of Leio's doctrines. He made *' The Old Fisherman," " The Robber ^ih," and " The Cutting open Satchels," to satirize and expose the disciples of Con- fucius, and clearly exhibit the sentiments of Ldo. Such names and characters as " Wei-lei Hsii " and " Khang-sang 32e" are fictitious, and the pieces where they occur are not to be understood as narratives of real events ^. ' But A^wang was an admirable writer and skilful com- poser, and by his instances and truthful descriptions hit and exposed the Mohists and Literati. The ablest scholars of his day could not escape his satire nor reply to it, while he allowed and enjoyed himself with his sparkling, dashing style ; and thus it was that the greatest men, even kings and princes, could not use him for their purposes. * King Wei of ATAA, having heard of the ability of ATwang KSlu, sent messengers with large gifts to bring him to his court, and promising also that he would make him his chief minister. iSTwang-jze, however, only laughed and said to them, " A thousand ounces of silver are a great gain to me, and to be a high noble and minister is a most honourable position. But have you not seen the victim-ox for the border sacrifice ? It is carefully fed for several years, and robed with rich embroidery that it may be fit to enter the Grand Temple. When the time comes for it to do so, it would prefer to be a little pig, but it cannot get to be so. Go away quickly, and do not soil me with your presence. ^ Khang-sang Qze is evidently the K&ng-sang UTAH of AVang^s Book XXIII. Wei-16i Hsii is supposed by Sze-m& A^g of the Thang dynasty, who called himself the Lesser Sze-m&, to be the name of a Book ; one, in that case, of the lost books of AVang. But as we find the * Hill of Wei-16i * mentioned in Bk. XXIII as the scene of KImg-sang HCk^^s T&oistic labours and success, I suppose that XMeD*s reference is to that. The names are quoted by him from memory, or might be insisted on as instBncfts of different readings. 38 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. Ch. V. I had rather amuse and enjoy myself in the midst of a filthy ditch than be subject to the rules and restrictions in the court of a sovereign. I have determined never to take office, but prefer the enjoyment of my own free will." * KMen concludes his account of -K'wang-jze with the above story, condensed by him, probably, from two of ATwang's own narratives, in par. it of Bk. XVII, and 13 of XXXII, to the injury of them both. Paragraph 14 of XXXII brings before us one of the last scenes of ATwang-jze's life, and we may doubt whether it should be received as from his own pencil. It is interesting in itself, however, and I introduce it here : * When A"wang-jze was about to die, his disciples signified their wish to give him a grand burial. " I shall have heaven and earth," he said, " for my coffin and its shell ; the sun and moon for my two round symbols of jade ; the stars and constellations for my pearls and jewels ; — will not the provisions for my interment be complete ? What would you add to them?*' The disciples replied, "We are afraid that the crows and kites will eat our master." ATwang-jze rejoined, "Above, the crows and kites will eat me ; below, the mole-crickets and ants will eat me ; to take from those and give to these would only show your partiality." * Such were among the last words of ATwang-jze. His end was not so impressive as that of Confucius ; but it was in keeping with the general magniloquence and strong assertion of independence that marked all his course. CHAPTER V. On THE Tractate of Actions and their Retributions. I. The contrast is great between the style of the TAo Teh -STing and the Books of A'wang-jze and that of the _ ,. . Kan Ying Phien, a translation of which is PeculiRT Btyle .^ and nature of now Submitted as a specimen of the Texts of ^^* PMen.""^ Tioism. The works of L4o and ATwang stand alone in the literature of the system. What CH. V, INTRODUCTION. 39 it was before L&o cannot be ascertained, and in his chap* ters it comes before us not as a religion, but as a subject of philosophical speculation, together with some practical applications of it insisted on by Ldo himself. The bril- liant pages of ^wang-jze contain little more than his inge- nious defence of his master's speculations, and an aggregate of illustrative narratives sparkling with the charms of his composition, but in themselves for the most part unbe- lievable, often grotesque and absurd. This treatise, on the other hand, is more of what we understand by a sermon or popular tract. It eschews all difficult discussion, and sets forth a variety of traits of character and actions which are good, and a still greater variety of others which are bad, exhorting to the cultivation and performance of the former, and warning against the latter. It describes at the outset the machinery to secure the record of men's doings, and the infliction of the certain retribution, and concludes with insisting on the wisdom of repentance and reformation. At the same time it does not carry its idea of retribution beyond death, but declares that if the reward or punish- ment is not completed in the present life, the remainder will be received by the posterity of the good-doer and of the offender. A place is given to the treatise among the Texts of Tlloism in ' The Sacred Books of the East,' because of its popularity in China. * The various editions of it,' as ob- served by Mr. Wylie, * are innumerable ; it has appeared from time to time in almost every conceivable size, shape, and style of execution. Many commentaries have been written upon it, and it is frequently published with a collec- tion of several hundred anecdotes, along with pictorial illus- trations, to illustrate every paragraph seriatim. It is deemed a great act of merit to aid by voluntary contribution to- wards the gratuitous distribution of this work^.* 2. The author of the treatise is not known, but, as Mr. Wylie also observes, it appears to have been written during The origin of ^^e Sung dynasty. The earliest mention of the treatise, jt which I have met with is in the continua- ^ Notes on Chinese Literatnrfi p. 1 79. A 40 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. v. tion of Ma-twan Lin's encyclopedic work by Wang iTAi, first published in 1586, the fourteenth year of the fourteenth emperor of the Ming dynasty. In Wang s supplement to his predecessor's account of Tdoist works, the sixth notice is of *a commentary on the Th4i Shang Kan Ying Phien by a Li /TAang-ling,' and immediately before it is a commentary on the short but well-known Yin Fd King by a ha Tien, who lived 1042-1102. Immediately after it other works of the eleventh century are mentioned. To that same century therefore we may reasonably refer the origin of the Kan Ying Phien. As to the meaning of the title, the only difficulty is with the two commencing characters Thii Shang. Julien left The meaning of them untranslated, with the note, however, the title. that they were * labr^viation de Thii Shang Lio A^'iin, expression honorifique par laquelle les Tdo-sze d^signent Ldo-jze, le fondateur de leur secte^.' This is the interpretation commonly given of the phrase, and it is hardly worth while to indicate any doubt of its correct- ness ; but if the characters were taken, as I believe they were, from the begfinning of the seventeenth chapter of the TAo Teh A'ing, I should prefer to understand them of the highest and oldest form of the Tioistic teaching*. 3. I quoted on page 13 the view of Hardwick, the Chris- tian Advocate of Cambridge, that * the indefinite expression ^ See * Le Livre des Recompense et des Peines en Chinois et en Fran9ois * (London, 1835). ' The designation of Lfto-|ze usTh&iShangL&oA'iin originated probably in the Thang dynasty. , It is on record that in 666 Kio 3ang, the thizd em- peror, went to L&o-jze's temple at Po J^u (the place of LSo^s birth, and still called by the same name, in the department of Fing-yang in An-hui), and con- ferred on him the title of Thfti Shang Yiian Yuan Hwang Tt, * The Great God, the Mysterious Originator, the Most High.' ' Then,* says Mayers, Manual, p. 113, * for the first time he was ranked among the gods as " Great Supreme, the Emperor (or Imperial God) of the Dark First Cause." * The whole entry is M ^/H ^^ # ^i: ± 7C(<»^)7C M'S^. Later on, in 1 014, we find Aim 3ang, the fourth Sung emperor, also visiting Po AHu, and in Lao*8 temple, which has by this time become * the Palace of Grand Purity,' enlarging his title to Thii Shang Lfto -ATun Hwun Yuan Shang Teh Hwang T!, ' The Most High, the Ruler Lfto, the Great God of Grand Virtue at the Chaotic Origin.* But such titles are not easily translated. CH. V. INTRODUCTION. 4 1 Tclo was adopted to denominate an abstract Cause, or Was the old ^^^ initial principle of life and order, to Taoism a religion? which worshippers were able to assign the attributes of immateriality, eternity, immensity, in- visibility.' His selection of the term worshippers in this passage was unfortunate. Neither Lio nor iTwang says anything about the worship of the T&o, about priests or monks, about temples or rituals. How could they do so, seeing that Tio was not to them the name of a personal Being, nor * Heaven ' a metaphorical term equivalent to the Confucian Tl, 'Ruler,' or Shang Tt, 'Supreme Ruler.' With this agnosticism as to God, and their belief that by a certain management and discipline of the breath life might be prolonged indefinitely, I do not see how any- thing of an organised religion was possible for the old TAoists. The T4oist proclivities of the founder of the KMn dyn- asty are well known. If his life had been prolonged, and the dynasty become consolidated, there might have arisen such a religion in connexion with Taoism, for we have a record that he, as head of the Empire, had eight spirits^ to which he offered sacrifices. KAin, however, soon passed away ; what remained in permanency from it was only the abolition of the feudal kingdom. 4. We cannot here attempt to relate in detail the rise and growth of the -STang family in which the headship of Tdoism has been hereditary since our first Christian cen- tury, with the exception of one not very long interruption. The family of ^^^ ^f the earliest members of it, ATang Aang. Liang, must have been bom not long after the death of ^wang-jze, for he joined the party of Lift ^ The eight spirits were : — i. The Lord of Heaven ; a. The Lord of Earth ; 3. The Lord of War ; 4. The Lord of the Yang operation ; 5. The Lord of the Yin operation ; 6. The Lord of the Moon ; 7. The Lord of the Sun ; and 8. The Lord of the Four Seasons. See Mayers's C. R. Mannal, pp. 327, 328. His authority is the sixth of Sze-m& A^/iien's monographs. iLAiea. seems to say that the worship of these spirits conld be traced toTh&i Kung^ one of the principal ministers of kings W&n and WO at the rise of the Aau dyn&sty in the twelfth centary B. C, and to whom in the list of Tlloist writings in the Imperial Library of Han, no fewer than 337 phien are ascribed. 42 THE TEXTS OF TAoISM. CH. V. Pang, the founder of the dynasty of Han, in B.C. ao8, and by his wisdom and bravery contributed greatly to his suc- cess over the adherents of Khm^ and other contenders for the sovereignty of the empire. Abandoning then a political career, he spent the latter years of his life in a vain quest for the elixir of life. Among Liangs descendants in our first century was a ATang T&o-ling, who, eschewing a career in the service of the state, devoted himself to the pursuits of alchemy, and at last succeeded in compounding the grand elixir or pill, and at the age of 123 was released from the trammels of the mortal body, and entered on the enjoyment of immor- tality, leaving to his descendants his books, talismans and charms, his sword, mighty against spirits, and his seal. T^o-ling stands out, in TAoist accounts, as the first patri- arch of the system, with the title of Thien Shih, * Master or Preceptor of Heaven.' Hsiian 3ung of the Thang dyn- asty in 748, confirmed the dignity and title in the family ; and in 1016 the Sung emperor A'an 3ung invested its repre- sentative with large tracts of land near the Lung-hQ moun- tain in ATiang-hsi. The present patriarch — ^for I suppose the same man is still alive — made a journey from his resi- dence not many years ago, and was interviewed by several foreigners in Shanghai. The succession is said to be per- petuated by the transmigration of the soul of Kditig T&o- ling into some infant or youthful member of the family ; whose heirship is supematurally revealed as soon as the miracle is effected ^. This superstitious notion shows the influence of Buddhism on T&oism. It has been seen from the eighteenth of the Books of /Twang-jze what affinities there were between 2 ^ . T&oism and the Indian system ; and there can Buddhism on be no doubt that the introduction of the latter °**™" into China did more than anything else to affect the development of the Tdoistic system. As early as the time of Confucius there were recluses in the country, men who had withdrawn from the world, disgusted with its ^ See Mayers's C. R. Manual, Part I, article 35. CH. v. INTRODUCTION. 43 vanities and in despair from its disorders. L&o would appear to have himself contemplated this course. When their representatives of our early centuries saw the Bud- dhists among them with their images, monasteries, and nunneries, their ritual and discipline, they proceeded to organise themselves after a similar fashion. They built monasteries and nunneries, framed images, composed litur- gies, and adopted a peculiar mode of tying up their hair. The * Three Precious Ones ' of Buddhism, emblematic to the initiated of Intelligence personified in Buddha, the Law, and the Community or Church, but to the mass of the worshippers merely three great idols, styled by them Buddha Past, Present, and To Come: these appeared in T&oism as the * Three Pure Ones,' also represented by three great images, each of which receives the title of ' His Celestial Eminence,' and is styled the ' Most High God (Shang Ti).' The first of them is a deification of Chaos, the second, of L&o-jze, and the third of I know not whom or what ; perhaps of the TSlo. But those Three Pure Ones have been very much cast into the shade, as the objects of popular worship and vene- ration, by Yii Hwang T! or Yii Hwang Shang Tf. This personage appears to have been a member of the KsLTig clan, held to be a magician and venerated from the time of the Thang dynasty, but deified in 1116 by the Sung emperor Hui 3ung at the instigation of a charlatan Lin Ling-sO, a renegade Buddhist monk. He is the god in the court of heaven to whom the spirits of the body and of the hearth in our treatise proceed at stated times to report for approval or condemnation the conduct of men. Since the first publication of the Kan Ying Phien, the tenets of Buddhism have been still further adopted by the teachers of TAoism, and shaped to suit the na- ture of their own system. I have observed that the idea of retribution in our treatise does not go beyond the present life ; but the manifestoes of Tftoism of more recent times are much occupied with descriptions of the courts of purgatory and threatenings of the everlasting misery of hell to those whom their sufferings in those courts 44 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. ch.v. fail to wean from their wickedness. Those manifestoes are published by the mercy of Yii Hwang Shang Ti that men and women may be led to repent of their faults and make atonement for their crimes. They emanate from the temples of the tutelary deities* which are found throughout the empire, and especially in the walled cities, and are under the charge of T4oist monks. A visitor to one of the larger of these temples may not only see the pictures of the purgatorial courts and other forms of the modem superstitions, but he will find also astrologers, diviners, geomancers, physiognomists, et id genus omne, plying their trades or waiting to be asked to do so, and he will wonder how it has been possible to affiliate such things with the teachings of Lio-jze. Other manifestoes of a milder form, and more like our tractate, are also continually being issued as from one or other of what are called the state gods, whose temples are all in the charge of the same monks. In the approxima- tion which has thus been going on of T&oism to Buddhism, the requirement of celibacy was long resisted by the pro- fessors of the former ; but recent editions of the Penal Code * contain sundry regulations framed to enforce celi- bacy, to bind the monks and nuns of both systems to the observance of the Confucian maxims concerning filial piety, and the sacrificial worship of the dead ; and also to restrict the multiplication of monasteries and nunneries. Neither L4o nor ATwang was a celibate or recommended celibacy. The present patriarch, as a married man, would seem to be able still to resist the law. ' Called A^>l&Dg Hwang Mido, <WaU and Moat Temples,* Palladia of the city. ' See Dr. Eitel's third edition of his * Three Lectures on Bnddhism,' pp. 36-45 (Hongkong: Lane, Crawford & Co., 1884). The edition of the Penal Code to which he refers is of 1879. THE TAO TEH KING. OR THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS. THE TAO TEH KING. PART I. Ch. 1. I. The TAo that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging TAo. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. 2. (Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth ; (conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things. 3. Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound ; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see. 4. Under these two aspects, it is really the same ; but as development takes place, it receives the dif- ferent names. Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful. ', * Embodying the Tie* The author sets forth, as well as the difficulty of his subject would allow him, the nature of the TSlo in itself, and its manifestation. To understand the T4o one must be partaker of its nature. Par. 3 suggests the words of the apostle John, * He that loveth not knoweth not God ; for God is love.' Both the T^o, L&o-jze's ideal in the absolute, and its Teh, or opera- tion, are comprehended in this chapter, the latter being the T4o with the name, the Mother of all things. See pages 1 3, 13 in the Introduction on the translation of the term TAo. 2. I. All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) 48 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. what ugliness is ; they all know the skill of the skil- ful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is. 2. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to (the idea of) the other ; that diffi- culty and ease produce the one (the idea of) the other ; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other ; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other ; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another. 3. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech. 4. All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show itself ; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership; they go through their processes, and there is no expecta- tion (of a reward for the results). The work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it (as an achievement). The work is done, but how no one can see ; 'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be. ^ J^, * The Nourishment of the Person.' But many of Ho-shang Kung's titles are more appropriate than this. The chapter starts with instances of the antinomies, which suggest to the mind each of them the existence of its corresponding opposite ; and the author finds in them an analogy to the * contraries ' which characterize the operation of the T4o, as stated in chapter 40. He then proceeds to describe the action of the sage in par. 3 as in accordance with this law of contraries ; and, in par. 4, that of heaven CH. IV. THE tAo TEH MNG. 49 and earth, or what we may call nature, in the processes of the v^etable world. Par. a should be rhymed, but I could not succeed to my satisfaction in the endeavour to rhyme it. Every one who can read Chinese will see that the first four members rhyme. The last two rhyme also, the concluding ^ being pronounced so; — see the Khang-hsl dictionary in voc. 3. I. Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles which are difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming thieves ; not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is the way to keep their minds from disorder. 2. Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones. 3. He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from pre- suming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal. ^ K, * Keeping the People at Rest.' The object of the chapter is to show that government according to the TAo is unfavourable to the spread of knowledge among the people, and would keep them rather in the state of primi- tive simplicity and ignorance, thereby securing their rest- fulness and universal good order. Such is the uniform teaching of Lio-)ze and his great follower ATwang-jze, and of all Tioist writers. 4. I. The TAo is (like) the emptiness of a vessel ; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfa- [39] E 50 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I, thomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things ! 2. We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel . the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the TSo is, as if it would ever so continue ! 3. I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God. ^ ^> * ^^^ Fountainless.' There is nothing before the T4o ; it might seem to have been before God. And yet there is no demonstration by it of its presence and operation. It is like the emptiness of a vessel. The second character = J'l' = ^; — see Khang-hst on the latter. The practical lesson is, that in following the Tdo we must try to be like it. 5. I. Heaven and earth do not act from (the im- pulse of) any wish to be benevolent ; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent ; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with. 2. May not the space between heaven and earth be compared to a bellows ? 'Tis emptied, yet it loses not its power ; 'Tis moved again, and sends forth air the more. Much speech to swift exhaustion lead we see ; Your inner being guard, and keep it free. jS ffi» * ^^^ ^^^ ^^ Emptiness.* Quiet and unceasing is the operation of the T4o, and effective is the rule of the sage in accordance with it. The grass-dogs in par. i were made of straw tied up in the shape of dogs, and used in praying for rain ; and after- CH, VI. THE tAo TEH ^ING. 5 1 wards, when the sacrifice was over, were thrown aside and left uncared for. Heaven and earth and the sages dealt so with all things and with the people ; but the illustration does not seem a happy one. Both ATwang-jze and HwAi- nan mention the grass-dogs. See especially the former, XIV, 25 a, b. In that Book there is fully developed the meaning of this chapter. The illustration in par. 2 is better. The Chinese bellows is different to look at from ours, but the principle is the same in the construction of both. The par. concludes in a way that lends some countenance to the later Tdoism's dealing with the breath. 6. The valley spirit dies not, aye the same ; The female mystery thus do we name. Its gate, from which at first they issued forth, Is called the root from which grew heaven and earth. Long and unbroken does its power remain, Used gently, and without the touch of pain. J^ ^, *The Completion of Material Forms.' This title rightly expresses the import of this enigmatical chapter; but there is a foundation laid in it for the de- velopment of the later T4oism, which occupies itself with the prolongation of life by the management of the breath ^^) or vital force. * The valley ' is used metaphorically as a symbol of ' emptiness * or 'vacancy ;' and * the spirit of the valley' is the something invisible, yet almost personal, belonging to the TAo, which constitutes the Teh (^^) in the name of our A'ing. *The spirit of the valley' has come to be a name for the activity of the TAo in all the realm of its operation. 'The female mystery' is the TAo with a name of chapter i, which is * the Mother of all things.' All living beings have a father and mother. The processes of gene- ration and production can hardly be imaged by us but by a recognition of this fact ; and so LAo-jze thought of the existing realm of nature — of life — as coming through an E 2 52 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. evolution (not a creation) from the primal air or breath, dividing into two, and thence appearing in the forms of things, material and immaterial. The chapter is found in Lieh-jze (I, i b) quoted by him from a book of Hwang-Tt ; and here L&o-jze has appropriated it, and made it his own. See the Introduction, p. a. 7. I. Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are able to continue and endure. 2. Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the foremost place ; he treats his person as if it were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved. Is it not because he has no personal and private ends, that therefore such ends are realised ? US 3t> ' Sheathing the Light.' The chapter teaches that one's best good is realised by not thinking of it, or seeking for it. Heaven and earth afford a pattern to the sage, and the sage affords a pattern to all men. 8. I. The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its bene- fiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the T&o. 2. The excellence of a residence is in (the suita- bility of) the place ; that of the mind is in abysmal stillness ; that of associations is in their being with the virtuous ; that of government is in its securing good order ; that of (the conduct of) affairs is in its ability ; and that of (the initiation of) any movement is in its timeliness. CH, X. THE TAO TEH KNG. 53 3. And when (one with the highest excellence) does not wrangle (about his low position), no one finds fault with hinu ^ltt» ''^^^ Placid and Contented Nature.' Water, as an illustration of the way of the T4o, is repeatedly em- ployed by Ldo-}ze. The various forms of what is excellent in par. 2 are brought forward to set forth the more, by contrast, the excellence of the humility indicated in the acceptance of the lower place without striving to the contrary. 9. I. It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness. 2. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming dis- tinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven. )H ^ ; but I cannot give a satisfactory rendering of this title. The teaching of the chapter is, that fulness and complacency in success are contrary to the Tdo. The first clauses of the two sentences in par. i, "^ f}j| Mz.^mm z-M mnz,mm^z. are instances of the * inverted ' style not uncommon in the oldest composition. ' The way of Heaven ' = * the Heavenly T^o' exemplified by man. 10. I. When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided at- tention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender) 54 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. babe. When he has cleansed away the most mys- terious sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw. 2. In loving the people and ruling the state, can- not he proceed without any (purpose of) action ? In the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven, cannot he do so as a female bird ? While his intelli- gence reaches in every direction, cannot he (appear to) be without knowledge ? 3. (The T4o) produces (all things) and nourishes them ; it produces them and does not claim them as its own ; it does all, and yet does not boast of it ; it presides over all, and yet does not control them. This is what is called ' The mysterious Quality' (of the Tio). lli ^' ' I'ossibilities.' This chapter is one of the most difficult to understand and translate in the whole work. Even KH Hst was not able to explain the first member satisfactorily. The text of that member seems well sup- ported ; but I am persuaded the first clause of it is some- how corrupt. The whole seems to tell what can be accomplished by one who is possessed of the Tio. In par. 3 he appears free from all self-consciousness in what he does, and of all self-satisfaction in the results of his doing. The other two paragraphs seem to speak of what he can do under the guidance of the T&o for himself and for others. He can by his management of bis vital breath bring his body to the state of TAoistic perfection, and keep his intelligent and animal souls from being separated, and he can rule men without purpose and effort. * The gates of heaven * in par. 2 is a Tdoistic phrase for the nostrils as the organ of the breath ; — see the commentary of Ho-shang Kung. 11. The thirty spokes unite in the one nave ; but it is on the empty space (for the axle), that the CH. XII. THE TAO TEH JHNG. 55 use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness, that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out (from the walls) to form an apartment ; but it is on the empty space (within), that its use depends. Therefore, what has a (positive) existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that for (actual) usefulness. ^ ^, ' The Use of what has no Substantive Existence.' The three illustrations serve to set forth the freedom of the Tdo from all pre-occupation and purpose, and the use of what seems useless. 12. I. Colours five hues from th' eyes their sight will take; Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make ; The flavours five deprive the mouth of taste ; The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste Make mad the mind ; and objects rare and strange, Sought for, men s conduct will to evil change. 2. Therefore the sage seeks to satisfy (the craving of) the belly, and not the (insatiable longing of the) eyes. He puts from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former. t^ Sfe' ' ^^^ Repression of the Desires.' Government in accordance with the TSlo seeks to withdraw men from the attractions of what is external and pleasant to the senses and imagination, and to maintain the primitive simplicity of men's ways and manners. Compare chap. 2. The five colours are Black, Red, Green or Blue, White, and Yellow ; the five notes are those of the imperfect Chinese musical scale, our G, A, B, D, E ; the five tastes are Salt, Bitter, Sour, Acrid, and Sweet. I am not sure that Wang PI has caught exactly the author's idea in the contrast between satisfying the belly 56 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. and satisfying the eyes; but what he says is ingenious: * In satisfying the belly one nourishes himself; in gratifying the eyes he makes a slave of himself.' 13. I. Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared ; honour and great calamity, to be re- garded as personal conditions (of the same kind). 2. What is meant by speaking thus of favour and disgrace ? Disgrace is being in a low position (after the enjoyment of favour). The getting that (favour) leads to the apprehension (of losing it), and the losing it leads to the fear of (still greater cala- mity) : — this is what is meant by saying that favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared. And what is meant by saying that honour and great calamity are to be (similarly) regarded as per- sonal conditions ? What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself) ; if I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me ? 3. Therefore he who would administer the king- dom, honouring it as he honours his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it, jj^ ^, ' Loathing Shame.' The chapter is difficult to construe, and some disciples of Kh Hsi had to ask him to explain it as in the case of ch. 10. His remarks on it are not to my mind satisfactory. Its object seems to be to show that the cultivation of the person according to the T&o, is the best qualification for the highest offices, even for the government of the world. Par. 3 is found in A'wang-jze (XI, i8b) in a connexion which suggests this view of the chapter. It may be observed, however, that in him the position of the verbal characters in the two clauses CH. XIV. THE tAo TEH KING. 57 of the paragraph is the reverse of that in the text of Ho- shang Kung, so that we can hardly accept the distinction of meaning of the two characters given in his commentary, but must take them as synonyms. Professor Gabelentz gives the following version of -K'wang-jze : *Darum, ge- braucht er seine Person achtsam in der Verwaltung des Rdches, so mag man ihm die Reichsgewalt anvertrauen ; . . . liebend (schonend) . . . iibertragen.' 14. I. We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it ' the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it * the Inaudible.* We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it * the Subtle.' With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description ; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One. 2. Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible ; this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable. 3. We meet it and do not see its Front ; we follow it, and do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the T4o of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of T&o. ^ ^, *The Manifestation of the Mystery.' The subject of par. I is the T4o, but the T&o in its operation, and not the primal conception of it, as entirely distinct from things, which rises before the mind in the second paragraph. The Chinese characters which I have translated *the Equable,* *the Inaudible,* and 'the Subtle,' are now pronounced t. Hi, and Wei, and in 1823 Rdmusat fancied that they were 58 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. r. intended to give the Hebrew tetragrammaton n'^TT' which he thought had come to Lelo-jze somehow from the West, or been found by him there. It was a mere fancy or dream ; and still more so is the recent attempt to revive the notion by Victor von Strauss in 1870, and Dr. Edkins in 1884. The idea of the latter is specially strange, maintaining, as he does, that we should read the cha- racters according to their old sounds. Ulo-jze has not in the chapter a personal Being before his mind, but the procedure of his mysterious T4o, the course according to which the visible phenomena take place, incognisable by human sense and capable of only approximate description by terms appropriate to what is within the domain of sense. See the Introduction, pp. 14, 15. 15. I. The skilful masters (of the Tdo) in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, com- prehended its mysteries, and were deep (also) so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be. 2. Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter ; irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them; grave like a guest (in awe of his host) ; evanescent like ice that is melting away ; unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything ; vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water, 3. Who can (make) the muddy water (clear) ? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest ? Let move- ment go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise. 4. They who preserve this method of the Tdo do not wish to be full (of themselves). It is through their not being full of themselves that they can CH. XVI. THE TAO TEH riNG. 59 afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete. a, 'The Exhibition of the Quality/ that is, of the T4o, which has been set forth in the preceding chapter. Its practical outcome is here described in the masters of it of old, who in their own weakness were yet strong in it, and in their humility were mighty to be co-workers with it for the good of the world. The variety of the readings in par. 4 is considerable, but not so as to affect the meaning. This par. is found in Hw4i- nan (XII, 23 a) with an unimportant variation. From the illustration to which it is subjoined he understood the fulness, evidently as in ch. 9, as being that of a vessel filled to overflowing. Both here and there such fulness is used metaphorically of a man overfull of himself; and then Ldo-jze slides into another metaphor, that of a worn- out garment. The text of par. 3 has been variously tampered with. I omit the ^ of the current copies, after the example of the editors of the great recension of the Yung-lo period (a.D. 1403-1424) of the Ming dynasty. 16. I. The (state of) vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigour. All things alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them return (to their original state). When things (in the vegetable world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness ; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end. 2. The report of that fulfilment is the regular, un- changing rule. To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent ; not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues. The knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a (grand) capacity and forbearance, and 60 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. I. that capacity and forbearance lead to a community (of feeling with all things). From this community of feeling comes a kingliness of character ; and he who is king-like goes on to be heaven-like. In that like- ness to heaven he possesses the T&o. Possessed of the Tdo, he endures long; and to the end of his bodily life, is exempt from all danger of decay. 1^ ^, * Returning to the Root.' The chapter exhibits the operation of the T4o in nature, in man, and in govern- ment ; an operation silent, but all-powerful ; unaccompanied with any demonstration of its presence, but great in its results. An officer receives a charge or commission from his superior (^ ^) ; when he reports the execution of it he is said ^ ^. So all animate things, including men, receive their chaige from the Tfto as to their life, and when they have fulfilled it they are represented as reporting that fulfilment ; and the fulfilment and report are described as their unchanging rule, so that they are the T4o's impassive in- struments, having no will or purpose of their own, — according to L4o-jze's formula of * doing nothing and yet doing all things {i^^mm:^ M)' The getting to possess the T4o, or to be an embodiment of it, follows the becoming Heaven or Heaven-like ; and this is in accordance with the saying in the fourth chapter that *the TSlo might seem to have been before God.' But, in ATwang-jze especially, we often find the full possessor and displayer of the Tio spoken of as * Heaven.' The last sen- tence, that he who has come to the full possession of the T4o is exempt from all danger of decay, is generally illustrated by a reference to the utterances in ch. 50 ; as if L4o-jze did indeed see in the T4o a preservative against death. 17. I. In the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there were (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the CH. XVIII. THE tAo TEH riNG. 6 1 next they feared them ; in the next they despised them. Thus it was that when faith (in the T4o) was deficient (in the rulers) a want of faith in them ensued (in the people). 2. How irresolute did those (earliest rulers) appear, showing (by their reticence) the importance which they set upon their words ! Their work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the people all said, * We are as we are, of ourselves ! ' ^- J51,, 'The Unadulterated Influence.' The influence is that of the Tdo, as seen in the earliest and paradisiacal times. The two chapters that follow are closely connected with this, showing how the silent, passionless influence of the T&o was gradually and injuriously superseded by ' the wisdom of the world,' in the conduct of government. In the first sentence there is a small various reading of >j^ for "|\, but it does not aflect the meaning of the passage. The first clause of par. 2 gives some difficulty; ^ j^ "S", *they made their words valuable or precious,' i. e. * they seldom •spake;' cp. i Sam. iii. i. 18. I. When the Great Tio (Way or Method) ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteous- ness came into vogue. (Then) appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there ensued great hypocrisy. 2. When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation ; when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared. *!§► i^» * The Decay of Manners.' A sequel to the preceding chapter, and showing also how the general decay of manners afforded opportunity for the display of certain virtues by individuals. Observe *the Great T4o,' oc- curring here for the first time as the designation of * the T4o.' 62 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. 19. I. If we could renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it would be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce our benevo- lence and discard our righteousness, the people would again become filial and kindly. If we could renounce our artful contrivances and discard our (scheming for) gain, there would be no thieves nor robbers. 2. Those three methods (of government) Thought olden ways in elegance did fail And made these names their want of worth to veil ; But simple views, and courses plain and true Would selfish ends and many lusts eschew. j^ y^, * Returning to the Unadulterated Influence.* The chapter desires a return to the simplicity of the T4o, and shows how superior the result would be to that of the more developed Systems of morals and government which had superseded it. It is closely connected with the two chapters that precede. LAo-jze's call for the renunciation of the methods of the sages and rulers in lieu of his fancied- paradisiacal state is repeated ad nauseam by A!^wang-)ze. 20. I. When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) ' yes,' and (flattering) ' yea ; ' — Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill ; — What space the gulf between shall fill ? What all men fear is indeed to be feared ; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed) ! 2. The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased ; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their CH. XX. THE tAo TEH ZING. 63 presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man ; I am in a state of chaos. Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Tdo). ^ ^, ' Being Different from Ordinary Men.' The chap- ter sets forth the difference to external appearance which the pursuit and observance of the T4o produces between its votaries and others ; and L&o-jze speaks in it as himself an example of the former. In the last three chapters he has been advocating the cause of the Tio against the learning and philosophy of the other school of thinkers in the country. Here he appears as having renounced learning, and found an end to the troubles and anxieties of his own mind ; but at the expense of being misconceived and misrepresented by others. Hence the chapter has an autobiographical character. Having stated the fact following the renunciation of learning, he proceeds to dwell upon the troubles of learning in the rest of par. i. Until the votary of learning knows everything, he has no rest. But the instances which he adduces of this are not striking nor easily understood. I cannot throw any light on the four lines about the * yes ' and the *yea/ Confucius (Ana. XVI, viii) specifies three things of which the superior man stands in awe ; and these and others of 64 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. I. a similar nature may have been the thii^s which Lio-jze had in his mind. The nursing-mother at the end is, no doubt, the T&o in operation, 'with a name,' as in ch. i ; * the mysterious virtue' of chapters 51 and 52. 21. The grandest forms of active force From T &o come, their only source. Who can of TAo the nature tell ? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch. The forms of things all in it crouch ; Eluding touch, eluding sight, There are their semblances, all right Profound it is, dark and obscure ; Things essences all there endure. Those essences the truth enfold Of what, when seen, shall then be told. Now it is so ; 'twas so of old. Its name — ^what passes not away ; So, in their beautiful array. Things form and never know decay. How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things ? By this (nature of the Tdo). Jfi Jli^y * The Empty Heart' But I fail to see the applicability of the title. The subject of the chapter is the Tdo in its operation. This is the significance of the ^ in the first clause or line, and to render it by * virtue,' as Julien and Chalmers do, only serves to hide the meaning. JuHen, however, says that *the virtue is that of the T4o; and he is right in taking ^, the last character of the second line, as having the sense of *from,* 'the source from,' and not, as Chalmers does, in the sense of * following.' LAo-jze's mind is occupied with a very difficult subject — to describe the production of material forms by the TAo; how or from what, he does not say. What I have rendered 'semblances,' Julien *les images,' and Chalmers 'forms,' CH. XXIII. THE TAO TEH TING. 65 seems, as the latter says, in some way to correspond to the 'Eternal Ideas' of Plato in the Divine Mind. But L&o-)ze had no idea of * personality ' in the T4o. 22. I. The partial becomes complete ; the crooked, straight ; the empty, full ; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them ; he whose (desires) are many goes astray. 2. Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility), and manifests it to all the world. He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished ; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged ; from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him. 3. That saying of the ancients that * the partial becomes complete' was not vainly spoken: — all real completion is comprehended under it. ;, * The Increase granted to Humility.' This title rightly expresses the subject-matter of the chapter. I cannot translate the first clause otherwise than I have done. It was an old saying, which LAo-jze found and adopted. Whether it was intended to embrace all the cases which are men- tioned may be questioned, but he employs it so as to make it do so. 'The emptiness' which becomes full is literally the hoUowness of a cavity in the ground which is sure to be filled by overflowing water ; — see Mencius, IV, li, 18. * The worn out' is explained by the withered foliage of a tree, which comes out new and fresh in the next spring. I have taken the first sentence of par. 2 as WA ATAang does ; — see his commentary in loc. 23. I. Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent [39] F 66 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. I, wind does not last for a whole morning ; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing ? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man I 2. Therefore when one is making the TAo his business, those who are also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that ; while even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where they fail. 3. Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the TAo have the happiness of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation have the happiness of attaining to it ; and those with whom he agrees in their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tdo). (But) when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of faith (in him) ensues (on the part of the others). J^ ^, 'Absolute Vacancy.* This, I think, is the meaning of the title, * Emptiness and Nothingness,' an entire con- formity to the T4o in him who professes to be directed by It. Such an one will be omnipotent in his influence in all others. The T4o in him will restrain all (spasmodic) loquacity. Those who are described in par. 7, as * failing ' are not to be thought of as bad men, men given up, as Julien has it, au crime. They are simply ordinary men, who have failed in their study of the T4o and practice of it, but are won to truth and virtue by the man whom the author has in mind. As we might expect, however, the mention of such men has much embarrassed the com- mentators. Compare the concluding sentence with the one at the end of par. i in ch. j 7. CH.XXV. THE tAo TEH JHNG. (>"] 24. He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm ; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distin- guished ; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged ; he who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him. Such conditions, viewed from the standpoint of the Tio, are like remnants of food, or a tumour on the body, which all dislike. Hence those who pursue (the course) of the Tdo do not adopt and allow them. ^ J@l> * Painful Graciousness.' The chapter should be so designated. This concludes the subject of the two pre- vious chapters, — pursuing the course, the course of the unemotional T4o without vain effort or display. The remnants of food were not used as sacrificial offer- ings ; — see the L! K\ (vol. xxvii, p. 8:*). In what I have rendered by ' a tumour attached to the body,' the ^ is probably, by a mistake, for ^ ; — see a quotation by WA JJTAangfrom Szt-mk Khxtn. 'Wliich all dislike' is, liter- ally, * Things are likely to dislike them,' the * things ' being * spirits and men,' as Wii explains the term. 25. I. There was something undefined and com- plete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching every- where and in no danger (of being exhausted) ! It may be regarded as the Mother of all things. 2. I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the T^o (the Way or Course). Making an effort (further) to give it a name I call it The Great. 3. Great, it passes on (in constant flow). Passing F 2 68 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. I. on, it becomes remote. Having become remote, it returns. Therefore the Tdo is great; Heaven is great ; Earth is great ; and the (sage) king is also great. In the universe there are four that are great, and the (sage) king is one of them. 4. Man takes his law from the Earth ; the Earth takes its law from Heaven ; Heaven takes its law from the T4o. The law of the T4o is its being what it is. ^ ^, 'Representations of the Mystery.' In this chapter L4o approaches very near to give an answer to the question as to what the T&o is, and yet leaves the reader disappointed. He commences by calling it 'a thing (^) ; ' but that term does not necessitate our regarding it as ' mate- rial.' We have seen in the preceding chapter that it is used to signify 'spirits and men.' Nor does his going on to speak of it as * chaotic (^ Jgj^) ' necessarily lead us to conceive it as made up of the * material elements of things;' we have the same term applied in ch. 14 to the three im- material constituents there said to be blended in the idea of it. * He does not know its name,' and he designates it by the term denoting a course or way (T4o, j^), and indicating the phenomenal attribute, the method in which all pheno- mena come before our observation, in their development or evolution. And to distinguish it from all other methods of evolution, he would call it * the Great Method,' and so he employs that combination as its name in ch. 18 and else- where; but it cannot be said that this name has fully maintained itself in the writings of his followers. But understood thus, he here says, as in ch. i, that it is ' the Mother of all things.' And yet, when he says that 'it was before Heaven and Earth were produced,' he comes very near his affirmations in chapters i and 4, that * the nameless T&o was the beginning (or originating cause) of Heaven and Earth,' and * might seem to have been before 1 ■■■'■■ ••^v^rv«^9MOTP^mn«^Mi^Rv«iv«wsiHveiSBMS^HnBB^90PWi"''<^'W CH. XXVI. THE tAo TEH riNG. 69 God.' Was he groping after God if haply he might find Him ? I think he was, and he gets so far as to conceive of Him as ' the Uncaused Cause/ but comes short of the idea of His personality. The other subordinate causes which he mentions all get their force or power from the T4o, but after all the T4o is simply a spontaneity, evolving from Itself, and not acting from a personal will, consciously in the direction of its own wisdom and love. * Who can by searching find out God ? Who can find out the Almighty to perfection ? ' The predicate of the T4o in the chapter, most perplexing to myself, is * It returns,' in par. 3. * It flows away, far away, and comes back;' — ^are not the three statements together equal to * It is everywhere ? ' 26. I . Gravity is the root of lightness ; stillness, the ruler of movement. 2. Therefore a wise prince, marching the whole day, does not go far from his baggage waggons. Although he may have brilliant prospects to look at, he quietly remains (in his proper place), indifferent to them. How should the lord of a myriad chariots carry himself lightly before the kingdom ? If he do act lightly, he has lost his root (of gravity) ; if he proceed to active movement, he will lose his throne. ^, * The Quality of Gravity.' Gravity and stillness are both attributes of the T&o ; and he who cultivates it must not give way to lightness of mind, or hasty action. The rule for a leader not to separate from his baggage wagons is simply the necessity of adhering to gravity. I have adopted from Han Fei the reading of * the wise prince ' for * the sage,' which is found in Ho-shang Kung ; and later on the reading of * has lost his root ' for his Moses his ministers,' though the latter is found also in Han Fei. 70 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. I. 27. I. The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or footsteps ; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault with or blamed ; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies ; the skilful closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be impossible ; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the sage is always skilful at saving men, and so he does not cast away any man ; he is always skilful at saving things, and so he does not cast away anything. This is called ' Hiding the light of his procedure.' 2. Therefore the man of skill is a master (to be looked up to) by him who has not the skill ; and he who has not the skill is the helper of (the reputation of) him who has the skill. If the one did not honour his master, and the other did not rejoice in his helper, an (observer), though intelligent, might greatly err about them. This is called * The utmost degree of mystery.' 15 ^j * Dexterity in Using,' that is, in the application of the Tdo. This is the substance of the chapter, cele- brating the effective but invisible operation of the T^o, and the impartial exercise of it for the benefit of all men and all things. I have given the most natural construction of the two characters at the end of par. i, the only possible construc- tion of them, so far as I can see, suitable to the context. The action of the T&o (non-acting and yet all-efficient) and that of the sage in accordance with it, are veiled by their nature from the sight of ordinary men. It is more difficult to catch the scope and point of par. 2. If there were not the conditions described in it, it would be hard for even an intelligent onlooker to distinguish between the man who had the skill and the man without it, between CH. XXIX. THE TAO TEH riNG. 71 him who possessed the Tio, and him who had it not, which would be strange indeed. 28. I. Who knows his manhood's strength, Yet still his female feebleness maintains ; As to one channel flow the many drains. All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky. Thus he the constant excellence retains ; — The simple child again, free from all stains. Who knows how white attracts, Yet always keeps himself within black's shade, The pattern of humility displayed, Displayed in view of all beneath the sky ; He in the unchanging excellence arrayed, Endless return to man's first state has made. Who knows how glory shines. Yet loves disgrace, nor e'er for it is pale ; Behold his presence in a spacious vale. To which men come from all beneath the sky. The unchanging excellence completes its tale ; The simple infant man in him we hail 2. The unwrought material, when divided and distributed, forms vessels. The sage, when em- ployed, becomes the Head of all the Officers (of government); and in his greatest regulations he employs no violent measures. ^ 5^, * Returning to Simplicity.* The chapter sets forth humility and simplicity, an artless freedom from all purpose, as characteristic of the map of TAo, such as he was in the primeval tim^. * The sage ' in par. 2 may be ' the Son of Heaven,' — the Head of all rule in the kingdom, or the feudal lord in a state. 29. I, If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to effect this by what he does, I see 72 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. ?T. I. that he will not succeed. The kingdom is a spirit- like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He who would so win it destroys it ; he who would hold it in his grasp loses it. 2. The course and nature of things is such that What was in front is now behind ; What warmed anon we freezing find. Strength is of weakness oft the spoil ; The store in ruins mocks our toil. Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extrava- gance, and easy indulgence. ^ S > ' Taking no Action.* All efforts made with a purpose are sure to fail. The nature of the Tio necessi- tates their doing so, and the uncertainty of things and events teaches the same lesson. That the kingdom or throne is a * spirit-like vessel' has become a common enough saying among the Chinese. Julien has, 'L'Empire est comme un vase divin;* but I always shrink from translating |j^ by Mivine.' Its English analogue is 'spirit,' and the idea in the text is based on the immunity of spirit from all material law, and the uncertain issue of attempts to deal with it according to ordinary methods. Wi^ ATAang takes the phrase as equiva- lent to * superintended by spirits,' which is as inadmissible as Julien's ' divin.' The T&o forbids action with a personal purpose, and all such action is sure to fail in the greatest things as well as in the least. 80. I. He who would assist a lord of men in harmony with the Tdo will not assert his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms. Such a course is sure to meet with its proper return. 2. Wherever a host is stationed, briars and thorns spring up. In the sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years. CH. ZXXI. THE tAo TEH JTING. 73 3. A skilful (commander) strikes a decisive blow, and stops. He does not dare (by continuing his operations) to assert and complete his mastery. He will strike the blow, but will be on his guard against being vain or boastful or arrogant in consequence of it He strikes it as a matter of necessity ; he strikes it, but not from a wish for mastery. 4. When things have attained their strong matu- rity they become old. This may be said to be not in accordance with the T4o : and what is not in accordance with it soon comes to an end. a^ jl^, * A Caveat against War.' War is contrary to the spirit of the T4o, and, as being so, is productive of misery, and leads to early ruin. It is only permissible in a case of necessity, and even then its spirit and tendencies must be guarded against. In translating ^ by ' striking a decisive blow,' I have, no doubt, followed Julien's * frapper un coup d^cisif.* The same ^ occurs six times in par. 3, followed by j(^y and 3i^o Hung says that in all but the first instance the jfQ should be taken as equivalent to "j^t so that we should have to translate, ' He is determined against being vain,' &c. But there is no necessity for such a construction of flj. * Weakness ' and not * strength ' is the character of the TSlo ; hence the lesson in par. 4. 31. I. Now arms, however beautiful, are instru- ments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. Therefore they who have the T4o do not like to employ them. 2. The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honourable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instru- ments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the 74 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. I. superior man ; — he uses them only on the compul- sion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes ; victory (by force of arms) is to him undesir- able. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men ; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom. 3. On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position ; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left ; the general commanding in chief has his on the right ; — ^his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief ; and the victor in battle has his place (rightly) according to those rites. IS l$» * Stilling War.' The chapter continues the subject of the preceding. The imperially-appointed editors of Wang Pi's Text and Commentary (1765) say that from the beginning of par. z to the end, there is the appearance of text and commentary being mixed together ; but they make no alteration in the text as it is found in Ho-shang Kung, and in all other ancient copies. The concluding sentence will suggest to some readers the words of the Duke of Wellington, that to gain a battle was the saddest thing next to losing it. 32. I. The T4o, considered as unchanging, has no name. 2. Though in its primordial simplicity it may be small, the whole world dares not deal with (one embodying) it as a minister. If a feudal prince or the king could guard and hold it, all would sponta- neously submit themselves to him. 3. Heaven and Earth (under its guidance) unite together and send down the sweet dew, which, with- CH. XXXIII. THE TAO TEH KING. 75 out the directions of men, reaches equally everywhere as of its own accord. 4. As soon as it proceeds to action, it has a name. When it once has that name, (men) can know to rest in it. When they know to rest in it, they can be free from all risk of failure and error. 5. The relation of the TAo to all the world is like that of the great rivers and seas to the streams from the valleys. Chalmers translates this by 'sagely virtue/ But I cannot adopt that rendering, and find it difficult to supply a better. The * virtue ' is evidently the Attribute of the T4o come out from the condition of the Absolute, and capable of being named. In the former state it has no name ; in the latter, it has. Par. 1 and the commencement of par. 4 must both be explained from ch. i. The * primordial simplicity' in par. 2 is the T&o in its simplest conception, alone, and by itself, and the ^ ^J in par. 4 is that TSlo come forth into operation and become Teh, the Teh which affords a law for men. From this to the end of the paragraph is very obscure. I have trans- lated from the text of Wang Pi. The text of Ho-shang Kung is different, and he comments upon it as it stands, but to me it is inexplicable. 33. I. He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who over- comes others is strong ; he who overcomes himself is mighty. He who is satisfied with his lot is rich ; he who goes on acting with energy has a (firm) will. 2. He who does not fail in the requirements of his position, continues long; he who dies and yet does not perish, has longevity. ^ ^, 'Discriminating between (different) Attributes.' The teaching of the chapter is that the possession of the 76 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT.I. T&o confers the various attributes which are here most dis- tinguished. It has been objected to it that elsewhere the TSlo is represented as associated with dulness and not intelligence, and with weakness and not with strength. But these seem to be qualities viewed from without, and acting on what is beyond itself. Inwardly, its qualities are the very opposite, and its action has the effect of enlightening what is dark, and overcoming what is strong. More interesting are the predicates in par. 2. S^Slo Hung gives the comment on it of the Indian monk, KxxmSirBgWB^ ' one of the four suns of Buddhism,' and who went to China in A.D. 401 : *To be alive and yet not alive may well be called long; to die and yet not be dead may well be called longevity/ He also gives the views of LA Nang- shih (a.d. i04!Z-iioa) that the freedom from change of Lieh-jze, from death of /iTwang-jze, and from extinction of the Buddhists, have all the same meaning as the concluding saying of Lio-jze here; that the human body is like the covering of the caterpillar or the skin of the snake ; that we occupy it but for a passing sojourn. No doubt, L&o*jze believed in another life for the individual after the present Many passages in ATwang-jze indicate the same faith. 34. I. AU-pervading is the Great Tdol It may be found on the left hand and on the right. 2. All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord ; — it may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root and disap- pear), and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so; — it may be named in the greatest things. 3. Hence the sage is able (in the same way) to accomplish his great achievements. It is through CH. XXXV. THE tAo TEH riNG. 77 his not making himself great that he can accom- plish them. ft^ Jgjj, 'The Task of Achievement/ The subject is the greatness of what the T&o, called here by LAo's own name for it in ch. 25, does ; and the unconscious simplicity with which it does it ; and then the achievements of the sage who is permeated by the T4o. Par. 2 is descriptive of the influence of the T4o in the vegetable world. The statements and expressions are much akin to those in parts of chapters 2, 10, and 51, and for Ho-shang Kung's difficult reading of ^ ^ ^ some copies give Uj) >|^ J§, as in chapter 2. 85. I. To him who holds in his hands the Great Image (of the invisible TAo), the whole world re- pairs* Men resort to him, and receive no hurt, but (find) rest, peace, and the feeling of ease. 2. Music and dainties will make the passing guest stop (for a time). But though the TAo as it comes from the mouth, seems insipid and has no flavour, though it seems not worth being looked at or listened to, the use of it is inexhaustible. ^ J^, 'The Attribute of Benevolence.' But there seems little appropriateness in this title. The subject of the chapter is the inexhaustible efficacy of the T&o for the good of the world. The Great Image (of the invisible T4o) is a name for the T&o in its operation; as in chapters 14 and 41. He who embodies this in his government will be a centre of attraction for all the world. Or the ^ "JC >^ may be taken as a predicate of the holder of the Great Image: — *If he go all under heaven teaching the T4o.' Both constructions are maintained by commentators of note. In par. 2 the attraction of the T4o is contrasted with that of ordinary pleasures and gratifications. 78 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. I. 36. I. When one is about to take an inspiration, he is sure to make a (previous) expiration ; when he is going to weaken another, he will first strengthen him ; when he is going to overthrow another, he will first have raised him up ; when he is going to despoil another, he will first have made gifts to him : — this is called * Hiding the light (of his procedure)/ 2. The soft overcomes the hard ; and the weak the strong. 3. Fishes should not be taken from the deepr instruments for the profit of a state should not be shown to the people. 1f^ ^, * Minimising the Light ; ' equivalent, as WQ K/iding has pointed out, to the ^ ^ of ch. 27. The gist of the chapter is to be sought in the second paragraph, where we have two instances of the action of the T&oby contraries, supposed always to be for good. But there is a difficulty in seeing the applicability to this of the cases mentioned in par. i. The first case, indeed, is merely a natural phenomenon, having no moral character ; but the others, as they have been illustrated from historical incidents, by Han Fei and others at least, belong to schemes of selfish and unprincipled ambitious strategy, which it would be injurious to Ldo-jze to suppose that he intended. Par. 3 is the most frequently quoted of all the passages in our ATing, unless it be the first part of ch. i. Fishes taken from the deep, and brought into shallow water, can be easily taken or killed ; that is plain enough. * The sharp instruments of a state ' are not its * weapons of war,' nor its * treasures,' nor its * instruments of government,' that is, its rewards and punishments, though this last is the inter- pretation often put on them, and sustained by a foolish reference to an incident, real or coined, in the history of the dukedom of Sung. The \\ kh\ are 'contrivances for gain,* machines, and other methods to increase the wealth of a state, but, according to the principles of L&o-jze, really injurious to it. These should not be shown to the people, CH. XXXVII. THE tAo TEH ^ING. 79 whom the TAoistic system would keep in a state of primitive simplicity and ignorance. This interpretation is in accordance with the meaning of the characters, and with the general teaching of TAoism. In no other way can I explain the paragraph so as to justify the place un- doubtedly belonging to it in the system. 37, I. The T do in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do. 2, If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them. 3. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity. Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will. -j^ j|fi^> ' The Exercise of Government.' This exercise should be according to the T4o, doing without doing, governing without government. The subject of the third paragraph is a feudal prince or the king, and he is spoken of in the first person, to give more vividness to the style, unless the ^, * I,' may, possibly, be understood of LcLo-}ze himself personating one of them. 8o THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. II. PART II. 38. I. (Those who) possessed in highest degree the attributes (of the Tdo) did not (seek) to show them, and therefore they possessed them (in fullest measure). (Those who) possessed in a lower de- gree those attributes (sought how) not to lose them, and therefore they did not possess them (in fullest measure). 2. (Those who) possessed in the highest degree those attributes did nothing (with a purpose), and had no need to do anything. (Those who) possessed them in a lower degree were (always) doing, and had need to be so doing. 3. (Those who) possessed the highest benevolence were (always seeking) to carry it out, and had no need to be doing so. (Those who) possessed the highest righteousness were (always seeking) to carry it out, and had need to be so doing. 4. (Those who) possessed the highest (sense of) propriety were (always seeking) to show it, and when men did not respond to it, they bared the arm and marched up to them. 5. Thus it was that when the T4o was lost, its attributes appeared ; when its attributes were lost, benevolence appeared ; when benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared; and when righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared. 6. Now propriety is the attenuated form of leal- heartedness and good faith, and is also the com- mencement of disorder; swift apprehension is CH. XXXVIII. THE tAo TEH JTING. 8 1 (only) a flower of the TAo, and is Ihe beginning of stupidity. 7. Thus it is that the Great man abides by what is solid, and eschews what is flimsy ; dwells with the fruit and not with the flower. It is thus that he puts away the one and makes choice of the other. Ifif I6» * About the Attributes ;' of T4o, that is. It is not easy to render teh here by any other English term than ' virtue,' and yet there would be a danger of its thus misleading us in the interpretation of the chapter. The 'virtue' is the activity or operation of the Tdo, which is supposed to have come out of its absoluteness. Even Han Fei so defines it here, — *Teh is the meritorious work of the T4o.' In par. 5 we evidently have ar^sum6 of the preceding paragraphs, and, as it is historical, I translate them in the past tense ; though what took place on the early stage of the world may also be said to go on taking place in the experience of every individual. With some considerable hesitation I have given the subjects in those paragraphs in the concrete, in deference to the authority of Ho-shang Kung and most other commentators. The former says, *By "the highest teh" is to be understood the rulers of the greatest antiquity, without name or designation, whose virtue was great, and could not be surpassed.' Most ingenious, and in accordance with the Tdoistic system, is the manner in which Wii A'Aang construes the passage, and I am surprised that it has not been generally accepted. By *the higher teh' he understands *the T4o,' that which is prior to and above the T eh ( J^ ^^ ^, ^ ^ ;^ J^, 5^ ifc) 9 by *the lower teh,' benevolence, that which is after and below the Teh; by *the higher benevolence,* the Teh which is above benevolence; by 'the higher righteousness,' the benevolence which is above righteous- ness; and by *the higher propriety,' the righteousness which is above propriety. Certainly in the summation of these four paragraphs which we have in the fifth, the [39] G 82 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. II. subjects of them would appear to have been in the mind of L4o-jze as thus defined by WO. In the remainder of the chapter he goes on to speak depreciatingly of ceremonies and knowledge, so that the whole chapter must be understood as descriptive of the process of decay and deterioration from the early time in which the T&o and its attributes swayed the societies of men. 39. I. The things which from of old have got the One (the Tio) are — Heaven which by it is bright and pure ; Earth rendered thereby firm and sure ; Spirits with powers by' it supplied; Valleys kept full throughout their void ; All creatures which through it do live ; Princes and kings who from it get The model which to all they give. All these are the results of the One (TAo). 2. If heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend ; If earth were not thus sure, 'twould break and bend ; " Without these powers, the spirits soon would fail ; If not so filled, the drought would parch each vale ; Without that life, creatures would pass away ; Princes and kings, without that moral sway, Howeve* grand and high, would all decay • 3. Thus it is that dignity finds' its (firm) root in its (previous) meanness, and what is lofty finds its stability in the lowness (from which it rises). Hence princes and kings call themselves * Orphans,' * Men of small virtue,' and as * Carriages without a nave.' Is not this an acknowledgment that in their con- sidering themselves mean they see the foundation of CH. XL. THE tAo TEH JTING. 83 their dignity ? So it is that in the enumeration of the different parts of a carriage we do not come on what makes it answer the ends of a carriage. They do not wish to show themselves elegant-looking as jade, but (prefer) to be coarse-looking as an (ordinary) stone. j^ ;^, ' The Origin of the Law.' In this title there is a reference to the Law given to all things by the T4o, as described in the conclusion of chapter 25. And the T4o affords that law by its passionless, undemonstrative nature, through which in its spontaneity, doing nothing for the sake of doing, it yet does all things. The difficulty of translation is in the third paragraph. The way in which princes and kings speak depreciatingly of themselves is adduced as illustrating how they have in- deed got the spirit of the TAo; and I accept the last epithet as given by Ho-shang Kung, *naveless' (^), instead of ^ (='the unworthy'), which is found in Wang PI, and has been adopted by nearly all subsequent editors. To see its appropriateness here, we have only to refer back to chapter 11, where the thirty spokes, and the nave, empty to receive the axle, are spoken of, and it is shown how the usefulness of the carriage is derived from that emptiness of the nave. This also enables us to give a fair and consistent explanation of the difficult clause which follows, in which also I have followed the text of Ho-shang Kung. For his ^.. Wang Pi has 0^ , which also is found in a quotation of it by Hwfti-nan ^ze ; but this need not affect the meaning. In the translation of the clause we are assisted by a some- what similar illustration about a horse in the twenty-fifth of iSTwang-jze's Books, par. 10. 40. I. The movement of the Tio By contraries proceeds ; And weakness marks the course Of Tdo's mighty deeds, G 2 84 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. II. 2. All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named) ; that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named). ^ ^, * Dispensing with the Use (of Means) ;* — ^with their use, that is, as it appears to us. The subject of the brief ' chapter is the action of the TAo by contraries, leading to a result the opposite of what existed previously, and by means which might seem calculated to produce a contrary result. In translating par. 2 I have followed 3i^o Hung, who finds the key to it in ch, i. Having a name, the TSlo is * the Mother of all things ; ' having no name, it is * the Ori- ginator of Heaven and Earth.' But here is the teaching of LAo-jze: — *If T4o seems to be before God,' T4o itself sprang from nothing. 41. I. Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the T&o, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the TAo. 2. Therefore the sentence-makers have thus ex- pressed themselves : — * The T&o, when brightest seen, seems light to lack ; Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back ; Its even way is like a rugged track. Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise ; Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes ; And he has most whose lot the least supplies. Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low; Its solid truth seems change to undergo ; I ts largest square doth yet no corner show ; ^ A vessel great, it is the slowest made ; ^.~ v> - r CH. XLII. THE TAO TEH KNG. 85 Loud is its sound, but never word it said ; A semblance great, the shadow of a shade/ 3. The Tdo is hidden, and has no name ; but it is the Tdo which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete. ^^ ^) ' Sameness and Difference.' The chapter is a sequel of the preceding, and may be taken as an illustra- tion of the TAo's proceeding by contraries. Who the sentence-makers were whose sayings are quoted we cannot tell, but it would have been strange if L&o-)ze had not had a large store of such sentences at his command. The fifth and sixth of those employed by him here are found in Lieh-jze (II, 15 a), spoken by LAo in reproving Yang KiX^ and in VII, 3 a, that heretic appears quoting an utterance of the same kind, with the words, * according to an old saying ("j^ ^ :# ZV 42. I. TheTio produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three ; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy. 2. What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as carriages without naves ; and yet these are the designations which kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased. 3. What other men (thus) teach, I also teach. The violent and strong do not die their natural death. I will make this the basis of my teaching. ^ ^, ' The Transformations of the T^o.' In par. 2 we 86 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. ir. have the case of the depreciating epithets given to them- selves by kings and princes, which we found before in ch. 39, and a similar lesson is drawn from it. Such depre- ciation leads to exaltation, and the contrary course of self- exaltation leads to abasement. This latter case is stated emphatically in par. 3, and L4o-jze says that it was the basis of his teaching. So far therefore we have in this chapter a repetition of the lesson that * the movement of the Tio is by contraries/ and that its* weakness is the sure precursor of strength. But the connexion between this lesson and what he says in par. i it is difficult to trace. Up to this time at least it has baffled myself. The passage seems to give us a cosmogony. * The TSlo produced One.* We have already seen that the T4o is * The One.' Are we to understand here that the TAo and the One were one and the same ? In this case what would be the significance of the ^ (* produced')? — that the Tio which had been pre- viously * non-existent ' now became ' existent,' or capable of being named ? This seems to be the view of Sze-niA Kwang(A. D. 1009-1086). The most singular form which this view assumes is in one of the treatises on our A'ing, attributed to the T^oist patriarch Lii (§ ^ ^ ^ jj^ ^), that *the One is Heaven, which was formed by the congealing of the Tfio.' According to another treatise, also assigned to the same Lii (M ^ ^ ^ ^ M)* ^^^ ^"^ was 'the primordial ether;' the Two, *the separation of that into its Yin and Yang constituents ; ' and the Three, * the production of heaven, earth, and man by these.* In quoting the paragraph Hw&i- nan ^zo omits j^ ^ — • , and commences with — » ^ ^, and his glossarist, K&o YCi, makes out the One to be the Tdo, the Two to be Spiritual Intelligences (||i^ Vf^), and the Three to be the Harmonising Breath. From the mention of the Yin and Yang that follows, I believe that L4o-jze intended by the Two these two qualities or ele- ments in the primordial ether, which would be * the One.' I dare not hazard a guess as to what * the Three ' were. CH. XLIV, THE TAO TEH JSTING. 87 43. I. The softest thing* in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest ; that which has no (substantial) existence enters where there is no crevice. I know hereby what advantage belongs to doing nothing (with a purpose). 2. There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without words, and the advantage arising from non-action. US ffl' * '^^^ Universal Use (of the action in weakness of the T4o).' The chapter takes us back to the lines of ch. 40, that * Weakness marks the course Of T^o's mighty deeds.' By * the softest thing in the world ' it is agreed that we are to understand * water/ which will wear away the hardest rocks- * Dashing against and overcoming ' is a metaphor taken from hunting. Ho-shang Kung says that 'what has no existence * is the TAo ; it is better to understand by it the unsubstantial air (^^ which penetrates everywhere, we cannot see how. Compare par. 2 with ch. 2, p?ir. 3, 44. I. Or fame or life, Which do you hold more dear ? Or life or wealth. To which would you adhere ? Keep life and lose those other things ; Keep them and lose your life: — ^which brings Sorrow and pain more near ? 2. Thus we may see. Who cleaves to fame Rejects what is more great ; Who loves large stores Gives up the richer state. 88 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. Ii. 3. Who is content Needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop Incurs no blame. From danger free Long live shall he. jfc ?S> * Cautions.' The chapter warns men to let nothing come into competition with the value which they set on the T4o. The TAo is not named, indeed, but the idea of it was evidently in the writer s mind. The whole chapter rhymes after a somewhat peculiar fashion ; familiar enough, however, to one who is acquainted with the old rhymes of the Book of Poetry. 45. I. Who thinks his great achievements poor Shall find his vigour long endure. Of greatest fulness, deemed a void. Exhaustion ne'er shall stem the tide. Do thou what's straight still crooked deem ; Thy greatest art still stupid seem, And eloquence a stammering scream. 2. Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven. ^ ^, * Great or Overflowing Virtue.* The chapter is another illustration of the working of the T4o by contraries. According to WCi ATAing, the action which overcomes cold is that of the Yang element in the developing primor- dial ether ; and the stillness which overcomes heat is that of the contrary Yin element. These may have been in L&o-jzc's mind, but the statements are so simple as hardly to need any comment. Wd further says that the purity and stillness are descriptive of the condition of non-action. 46. I. When the Tio prevails in the world, they send back their swift horses to (draw) the dung-carts. CH. XLVII. THE TAO TEH «NG. 89 When the Tdo is disregarded in the world, the war- horses breed in the border lands. 2. There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity g^reater than to be discon- tented with ones lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging suffi- ciency. ik Sit' ' The Moderating of Desire or Ambition.' The chapter shows how the practice of the T4o must conduce to contentment and happiness. In translating par. i I have, after Wfl A'ASng, admitted a ^ after the ^, his chief authority for doing so being that it is so found in a poetical piece by -STang Hang (a. D. 78- 139). Kd Hsl also adopted this reading (^ -^ ;^ ^, XVIII, 7 a). In par. o, Han Ying has a tempting variation of ^ ^ for "prl" ^, but I have not adopted it because the same phrase occurs elsewhere. 47. I. Without going outside his door, one under- stands (all that takes place) under the sky ; without looking out from his window, one sees the T&o of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows. 2. Therefore the sages got their knowledge with- out travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them ; and accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so. 1^, * Surveying what is Far-off/ The chapter is a lesson to men to judge of things according to their internal conviction of similar things in their own experience. Short as the chapter is, it is somewhat mystical. The phrase, * The Tio' or way of Heaven, occurs in it for the first time ; and it is difficult to lay down its precise meaning. Lio-jze would seem to teach that man is a microcosm ; and that^ if 90 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. !!• he understand the movements of his own mind, he can understand the movements of all other minds. There are various readings, of which it is not necessary to speak. I have translated par. 2 in the past tense, and perhaps the first should also be translated so. Most of it is found in Han Ying, preceded by * formerly ' or * anciently.' 48. I. He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase (his knowledge) ; he who devotes himself to the T4o (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing). 2. He diminishes it and again diminishes it, till he arrives at doing nothing (on purpose). Having arrived at this point of non-action, there is nothing which he does not do. 3. He who gets as his own all under heaven does so by giving himself no trouble (with that end). If one take trouble (with that end), he is not equal to getting as his own all under heaven. ]fe ^, * Forgetting Knowledge ; ' — the contrast between Learning and the Tclo, It is only by the T^o that the ; world can be won. 3i<io Hung commences his quotations of commentary on this chapter with the following from KumAra^iva on the second par. : — ' He carries on the process of diminishing till there is nothing coarse about him which is not put away. He puts it away till he has forgotten all that was bad in it. He then puts away all that is fine about him. He does so till he has forgotten all that was good in it But the bad was wrong, and the good is right. Having dimi- nished the wrong, and also diminished the right, the process is carried on till they are both forgotten. Passion and desire are both cut off; and his virtue and the T&o are in such union that he does nothing; but though he does nothing, he allows all things to do their own doing, and all things are done.' Such is a Buddhistic view of the passage, not very intelligible, and which I do not endorse. CH. XLIX. THE TAO TEH ZING. 9 1 In a passage in the ' Narratives of the School ' (Bk. IX, Art. 2), we have a Confucian view of the passage : — ' Let perspicacity, intelligence, shrewdness, and wisdom be guarded by stupidity, and the service of the possessor will affect the whole world; let them be guarded by com- plaisance, and his daring and strength will shake the age ; let them be guarded by timidity, and his wealth will be all within the four seas ; let them be guarded by humility, and there will be what we call the method of ** diminishing it, and diminishing it again." ' But neither do I endorse this. My own view of the scope of the chapter has been given above in a few words. The greater part of it is found in A^wang-gze. 49. I. The sage has no invariable mind of his own ; he makes the mind of the people his mind. 2. To those who are good (to me), I am good ; and to those who are not good (to me), I am also good ; — and thus (all) get to be good. To those who are sincere (with me), I am sincere ; and to those who are not sincere (with me), I am also sincere ; — and thus (all) get to be sincere. 3. The sage has in the world an appearance of j indecision, and keeps his mind in a state of indiffer- ence to all. The people all keep their eyes and ears directed to him, and he deals with them all as his children. ^ ^, * The Quality of Indulgence.' The chapter shows how that quality enters largely into the dealing of the sage with other men, and exercises over them a transforming influence, dominated as it is in him by the T4o. My version of par. 1 is taken from Dr. Chalmers. A good commentary on it was given by the last emperor but one of the earlier of the two great Sung dynasties, in the period A. D. I II i-i 1 17 : — * The mind of the sage is free from pre- occupation and able to receive ; still, and able to respond.* In par. 2 I adopt the reading of ^ (' to get ') instead of 92 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. II. the more common ^ (* virtue* or 'quality'). There is a passage in Han Ying (IX, 3 b, 4 a), the style of which, most readers will probably agree with me in thinking, was moulded on the text before us> though nothing is said of any connexion between it and the saying of LAo-jze. I must regard it as a sequel to the conversation between Confucius and some of his disciples about the principle (Lio's principle) that * Injury should be recompensed with Kindness/ as recorded in the Con. Ana., XIV, 36. We read : — * 3ze-10 said, " When men are good to me, I will also be good to them ; when they are not good to me, I w^ill also be not good to them." 3ze-kung said, ** When men are good to me, I will also be good to them ; when they are not good to me, I will simply lead them on, forwards it may be or backwards." Yen Hui said, " When men are good to me, I will also be good to them ; when they are not good to me, I will still be good to them." The views of the three disciples being thus different, they referred the point to the Master, who said, " The words of 3ze-10 are such as might be expected among the (wild tribes of) the Man and the Mo ; those of 3ze-kung, such as might be expected among friends ; those of Hui, such as might be expected among relatives and near connexions." ' This is all. The Master was still far from LAo-jze's standpoint, and that of his own favourite disciple, Yen Hui. 50. I. Men come forth and live ; they enter (again) and die. 2. Of every ten three are ministers of life (to them- selves) ; and three are ministers of death. 3. There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason ? Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life. 4. But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun rhinoceros or CH. LI. THE tAo TEH jnNG. 93 tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon a place to admit its point And for what reason ? Because there is in him no place of death. : , * The Value set on Life.' The chapter sets forth the T do as an antidote against decay and death. In par. i life is presented to us as intermediate between two non-existences. The words will suggest to many readers those in Job i. 21. In pars, a and 3 I translate the characters -f^ ^ ^ by ' three in ten/ instead of by * thirteen,' as Julien and other translators have done. The characters are suscep- tible of either translation according to the tone in which we read the ^. They were construed as I have done by Wang PI ; and many of the best commentators have followed in his wake. 'The ministers of life to them- selves ' would be those who eschewed all things, both in* ternal and external, tending to injure health ; ' the ministers of death/ those who pursued courses likely to cause disease and shorten life; the third three would be those who thought that by mysterious and abnormal courses they could prolong life, but only injured it. Those three classes being thus disposed of, there remains only one in ten rightly using the T&o, and he is spoken of in the next paragraph. This par. 4 is easy of translation, and the various read- ings in it are unimportant, diifering in this respect from those in par. 3. But the aim of the author in it is not clear. In ascribing such effects to the possession of the T&o, is he * trifling/ as Dr. Chalmers thinks ? or indulging the play of his poetical fancy? or simply saying that the T&oist will keep himself out of danger ? 51. I. All things are produced by the TAo, and nourished by its outflowing operation. They receive their forms according to the nature of each, and are 94 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT.II. completed according to the circumstances of their condition. Therefore all things without exception honour the Tio, and exalt its outflowing operation. 2. This honouring of the Tdo and exalting of its operation is not the result of any ordination, but always a spontaneous tribute. 3. Thus it is that the Tdo produces (all things), nourishes them, brings them to their full growth, nurses them, completes them, matures them, main- tains them, and overspreads them. 4. It produces them and makes no claim to the possession of them ; it carries them through their processes and does not vaunt its ability in doing so ; it brings them to maturity and exercises no control over them ; — this is called its mysterious operation. 'The Operation (of the T4o) in Nourishing Things.' The subject of the chapter is the quiet passionless operation of the T&o in nature, in the production and nourishing of things throughout the seasons of the year ; — a theme dwelt on by L&o-jze, in II, 4, X, 3, and other places. The TSlo is the subject of all the predicates in par. i, and what seem the subjects in all but the jfirst member should be construed adverbially. On par. 2 WQ ATAang says that the honour of the Son of Heaven is derived from his appointment by God, and that then the nobility of the feudal princes is derived from him ; but in the honour given to the T Ao and the nobility ascribed to its operation, we are not to think of any external ordina- tion. There is a strange reading of two of the members of par. 3 in Wang Pi, viz. ^ :^^ :tr ^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ This is quoted and predicated of * Heaven,* in the Nes-» torian Monument of Hsi-ari in the eighth century. 52. I. (The Tfio) which originated all under the sky is to be considered as the mother of them all. CH.LII. THE TAO TEH KING. 95 2. When the mother is found, we know what her children should be. When one knows that he is his mother s child, and proceeds to guard (the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his life he will be free from all peril. 3. Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion. Let him keep his mouth open, and (spend his breath) in the promotion of his affairs, and all his life there will be no safety * for him. 4. The perception of what is small is (the secret of) clear-sightedness ; the guarding of what is soft and tender is (the secret of) strength. 5. Who uses well his light. Reverting to its (source so) bright. Will from his body ward all blight, And hides the unchanging from men's sight. 1^ 7C> * Returning to the Source.* The meaning of the chapter is obscure, and the commentators give little help in determining it. As in the preceding chapter, L&o-jze treats of the operation of the Tdo on material things, he seems in this to go on to the operation of it in man, or how he, with his higher nature, should ever be maintaining it in himself. For the understanding of paragraph i we must refer to the first chapter of the treatise, where the TAo, 'having no name/ appears as * the Beginning ' or * First Cause ' of the world, and then, * having a name/ as its * Mother.' It is the same thing or concept in both of its phases, the ideal or absolute, and the manifestation of it in its passionless doings. The old Jesuit translators render this par. by * Mundus principium et causam suam habet in Divino ^, seu actione Divinae sapientiae quae dici potest ejus mater/ So far I may assume that they agreed with me in under- standing that the subject of the par. was the T&o. 96 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT.II. Par. 2 lays down the law of life for man thus derived from the T&o. The last clause of it is given by the same translators as equivalent to ' Unde fit ut post mortem nihil ei timendum sit/ — a meaning which the characters will not bear. But from that clause, and the next par., I am obliged to conclude that even in L4o-jze*s mind there was the germ of the sublimation of the material frame which issued in the asceticism and life-preserving arts of the later T&oism. Par. 3 seems to indicate the method of 'guarding the mother in man,' by watching over the breath, the proto- plastic ' one ' of ch. 42, the ethereal matter out of which all material things were formed. The organs of this breath in man are the mouth and nostrils (nothing else should be understood here by -^ and P^ ; — see the explanations of the former in the last par. of the fifth of the appendixes to the Yt in vol. xvi, p. 432) ; and the management of the breath is the mystery of the esoteric Buddhism and Taoism. In par. 4 * The guarding what is soft ' is derived from the use of * the soft lips ' in hiding and preserving the hard and strong teeth. Par. 5 g^ves the gist of the chapter : — Man's always keeping before him the ideal of the T&o, and, without purpose, simply doing whatever he finds to do; Tio-like and powerful in all his sphere of action. I have followed the reading of the last character but one, which is given by 3^^^ Hung instead of that found in Ho- shang Kung and Wang Pi. 53. I. If I were suddenly to become known, and (put into a position to) conduct (a government) according to the Great TAo, what I should be most afraid of would be a boastful display. 2. The great T4o (or way) is very level and easy ; but people love the by-ways. 3. Their court(-yards and buildings) shall be well kept, but their fields shall be ill-cultivated, and their granaries very empty. They shall wear elegant and CH. LlV. THE TAO TEH £ING. 97 ornamented robes, carry a sharp sword at their girdle, pamper themselves in eating and drinking, and have a superabundance of property and wealth ; — such (princes) may be called robbers and boasters. This is contrary to the Tio surely 1 * Increase of Evidence/ The chapter contrasts government by the T4o with that conducted in a spirit of ostentation and by oppression. In the *I' of paragraph i does Lfto-gze speak of himself? I think he does. Wd ATAang understands it of * any man,' i.e. any one in the exercise of government ; — which is possible. What is peculiar to my version is the pregnant meaning given to ^ ^, common enough in the mouth of Confu- cius. I have adopted it here because of a passage in Lidl Hsiang's Shwo-wan (XX, 13 b), where Ldo-jze is made to say * Excessive is the difficulty of practising the T4o at the present time,' adding that the princes of his age would not receive it from him. On the * Great TAo,' see chapters 25, 34, et al. From the twentieth book of Han Fei (12 b and 13 a) I conclude that he had the whole of this chapter in his copy of our A'ing, but he broke it up, after his fashion, into fragmentary utterances, confused and confounding. He gives also some remarkable various readings, one of which (^, instead of Ho-shang Kung and Wang Pfs ^, character 48) is now generally adopted. The passage is quoted in the Khang-hst dictionary under ^ with this reading. 54. I. What (TAo's) skilful planter plants Can never be uptorn ; What his skilful arms enfold, From him can ne'er be borne. Sons shall bring in lengthening line, Sacrifices to his shrine. 2. Tdo when nursed within one's self, His vigour will make true ; [39] H 98 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. II. And where the family it rules What riches will accrue ! The neighbourhood where it prevails In thriving will abound ; And when 'tis seen throughout the state, Good fortune will be found. Employ it the kingdom o'er, And men thrive all around. 3. In this way the effect will be seen in the person, by the observation of different cases ; in the family ; in the neighbourhood ; in the state ; and in tlie kingdom. 4. How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky ? By this (method of observation). ^ H, ' The Cultivation (of the Tdo), and the Observa- tion (of its Eflfects).' The sentiment of the first paragraph is found in the twenty-seventh and other previous chap- ters, — that the noiseless and imperceptible acting of the Tio is irresistible in its influence ; and this runs through to the end of the chapter with the additional appeal to the influence of its effects. The introduction of the subject of sacrifices, a religious rite, though not presented to the Highest Object, will strike the reader as peculiar in our King. The Teh mentioned five times in par. 2, is the 'virtue' of the Tdo embodied in the individual, and extending from him in all the spheres of his occupation, and is explained differently by Han Fei according to its application ; and his example I have to some extent followed. The force of pars. 3 and 4 is well given by Ho-shang Kung. On the first clause he says, * Take the person of one who cultivates the T4o, and compare it with that of one who does not cultivate it ; — which is in a state of decay ? and which is in a state of preservation ? ' CH, LV. THE TAO TEH JTING. 99 55. I. He who has in himself abundantly the attributes (of the TAo) is like an infant. Poison- ous insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him ; ' birds of prey will not strike him. 2. (The infant's) bones are weak and its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm. It knows not yet the union of male and female, and yet its virile member may be excited; — showing the perfection of its physical essence. All day long it will cry without its throat becoming hoarse ; — showing the harmony (in its constitution). 3. To him by whom this harmony is known, (The secret of) the unchanging (T do) is shown, And in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne. All life-increasing arts to evil turn ; Where the mind makes the vital breath to burn, (False) is the strength, (and o'er it we should mourn.) 4. When things have become strong, they (then) become old, which may be said to be contrary to the TAo. Whatever is contrary to the Tdo soon ends. 3^ j^, * The Mysterious Charm ; ' meaning, apparently, the entire passivity of the T4o. With pars, i and a, compare what is said about the in- fant in chapters 10 and 20, and about the immunity from dangers such as here described of the disciple of the T4o in ch. 50. My * evil' in the second triplet of par. 3 has been translated by * felicity ;' but a reference to the Khang-hsi dictionary will show that the meaning which I give to j^ is well authorised. It is the only meaning allowable here. The third and fourth Q in this par. appear in Ho-shang Kung s text as Q , and he comments on the clauses accord- H 2 lOO THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. ir. ingly ; but ^ is now the received reading. Some light is thrown on this paragraph and the next by an apocryphal conversation attributed to L4o-3ze in LiQ Hsiang's Shwo- wSn, X, 4 a. 56. I. He who knows (the T4o) does not (care to) speak (about it) ; he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it. 2. He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things ; he will attemper his brightness, and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called * the Mysterious Agreement.' 3. (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly ; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness : — ^he is the noblest man under heaven. ^ uSi* ' '^^^ Mysterious Excellence.* The chapter gives us a picture of the man of T&o, humble and retiring, obli- vious of himself and of other men, the noblest man under heaven. Par. I is found in ATwang-jze (XIII, aob), not expressly mentioned, as taken from L4o-jze, but at the end of a string of sentiments, ascribed to * the Master,' some of them, like the two clauses here, no doubt belonging to him, and the others, probably ATwang-jze's own. Par. 2 is all found in chapters 4 and 52, excepting the short clause in the conclusion. 57. I. A state may be ruled by (measures of) correction ; weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity; (but) the kingdom is made one's own (only) by freedom from action and purpose. 2. How do I know that it is so? By these CH. LVIII. THE tAo TEH KISG. lOI facts : — In the kingdom the mukiplication of prohibi- tive enactments increases the poverty of the people ; the more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder is there in the state and clan ; the more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess, the more do strange contrivances appear; the more display there is of legislation, the more thieves and robbers there are. 3. Therefore a sage has said, * I will do nothing (of purpose), and the people will be transformed of themselves ; I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct I will take no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich ; I will manifest no ambi- tion, and the people will of themselves attain to the primitive simplicity.' J^ JS(^ * The Genuine Influence.' The chapter shows how government by the T4o is alone effective, and of uni- versal application ; contrasting it with the failure of other methods. After the 'weapons of war' in par. i, one is tempted to take ' the sharp implements' in par. 2 as such weapons, but the meaning which I finally adopted, especially after studying chapters ^6 and 80, seems more consonant with Lclo-jze's scheme of thought. In the last member of the same par., Ho-shang Kung has the strange reading of ^ ^, and uses it in his commentary ; but the better text of ^ ^ is found both in Hwii-nan and Sze-m4 i^TAien, and in Wang PI. We do not know if the writer were quoting any par- ticular sage in par. 3, or referring generally to' the sages of the past ; — men like the ' sentence-makers ' of ch. 41. 58. I. The government that seems the most un- wise, Oft goodness to the people best supplies ; I02 THE TEXTS OF tAOISM. PT.it. That which is meddling, touching everything, Will work but ill, and disappointment bring. Misery! — ^happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness ! — misery lurks beneath it ! Who knows what either will come to in the end ? 2. Shall we then dispense with correction ? The (method of) correction shall by a turn become dis- tortion, and the good in it shall by a turn become evil. The delusion of the people (on this point) has indeed subsisted for a long time. 3. Therefore the sage is (like) a square which cuts no one (with its angles) ; (like) a corner which injures no one (with its sharpness). He is straightforward, but allows himself no license ; he is bright, but does not dazzle. ^ ^, 'Transformation according to Circumstances;* but this title does not throw light on the meaning of the chapter ; nor are we helped to an understanding of it by Han Fei, with his additions and comments (XI, 3 b, 4 b), nor by Hw^i-nan with his illustrations (XII, ai a, b). The difficulty of it is increased by its being separated from the preceding chapter of which it is really the sequel. It con- trasts still further government by the T4o, with that by the method of correction. The sage is the same in both chapters, his character and government both marked by the opposites or contraries which distinguish the procedure of the Tclo, as stated in ch. 40. 59. I. For regulating the human (in our consti- tution) and rendering the (proper) service to the heavenly, there is nothing like moderation. 2. It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return (to man's normal state). That early return is what I call the repeated accumu- lation of the attributes (of the T4o). With that CH. LX. THE tAo TEH «NG. I03 repeated accumulation of those attributes, there comes the subjugation (of every obstacle to such return). Of this subjugation we know not what shall be the limit ; and when one knows not what the limit shall be, he may be the ruler of a state. 3. He. who possesses the mother of the state may continue long. His case is Kke that (of the plant) of which we say that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm : — this is the way to secure that its endur- ing life shall long be seen. ^ ^, * Guarding the T4o.* The chapter shows how it is the guarding of the T&o that ensures a continuance of long life, with vigour and success. The abuse of it and other passages in our ^ing helped on, I must believe, the later Tioist dreams about the elixir vitae and life-pre- serving pills. The whole of it, with one or two various readings, is found in Han Fei (VI, 4 b-6 a), who speaks twice in his comments of * The Book.' Par. 1 has been translated, *In governing men and in serving Heaven, there is nothing like moderation/ But by * Heaven ' there is not intended * the blue sky ' above us, nor any personal Power above it, but the Tdo embodied in our constitution, the Heavenly element in our nature. The * moderation ' is the opposite of what we call * living fast,' 'burning the candle at both ends.' In par. a I must read ^, instead of the more com- mon JJ^. I find it in Ld Teh-ming, and that it is not a misprint in him appears from his subjoining that it is pro- nounced like JP[. Its meaning is the same as in ^ ^ ^ 1^ in ch. 5Z, par. 5. Teh is not ' virtue ' in our common meaning of the term, but 'the attributes of the T4o,' as almost always with L&o-)ze. In par. 3 'the mother of the state' is the Tdo as in ch. I, and especially in ch. 52, par. i. 60. I. Governing a great state is like cooking small fish. I04 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. II. 2. Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tio, and the manes of the departed will not mani- fest their spiritual energry. It is not that those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will not be employed to hurt men. It is not that it could not hurt men, but neither does the ruling sage hurt them. 3. When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge in the virtue (oftheTio). J§ "^j 'Occupying the Throne;' occupying it, that is, according to the T4o, noiselessly and purposelessly, so that the people enjoy their lives, free from all molestation seen and unseen. Par. I. That is, in the most quiet and easy manner. The whole of the chapter is given and commented on by Han Fei (VI, 6a-7b); but very unsatisfactorily. The more one thinks and reads about the rest of the chapter, the more does he agree with the words of Julien : — * It presents the frequent recurrence of the same characters, and appears as insignificant as it is unintelligible, if we give to the Chinese characters their ordinary meaning.' — The reader will observe that we have here the second mention of spirits (the manes; Chalmers, *the ghosts;' Julien, les demons). See ch. 39. Whatever Ldo-)ze meant to teach in par. 2, he laid in it a foundation for the superstition of the later and present Taoism about the spirits of the dead ; — such as appeared a few years ago in the 'tail-cutting* scare. 61. I. What makes a great state is its being (like) a low-lying, down*flowing (stream) ; — it becomes the centre to which tend (all the small states) under heaven. 2. (To illustrate from) the case of all females : — the female always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a sort of) abasement CH. LXII. THE TAO TEH KISG. T05 3. Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement leads to gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favour. 4. The great state only wishes to unite men to- gether and nourish them ; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself. ., 'The Attribute of Humility ;' — a favourite theme with L&o-jze ; and the illustration of it from the low-lying stream to which smaller streams flow is also a favourite subject with him. The language can hardly but recall the words of a greater than L&o-jze: — *He that humbleth him- self shall be exalted.' 62. I. TAo has of all things the most honoured place. No treasures give good men so rich a grace; Bad men it guards, and doth their ill efface* i. (Its) admirable words can purchase honour; (its) admirable deeds can raise their performer above others. Even men who are not good are not aban- doned by it. 3. Therefore when the sovereign occupies his place as the Son of Heaven, and he has appointed his three ducal ministers, though (a prince) were to send in a round symbol-of-rank large enough to fill both the hands, and that as the precursor of the team of horses (in the court-yard), such an offering would not be equal to (a lesson of) this TAo, which one might present on his knees. 4. Why was it that the ancients prized this T4o I06 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. pt. Ii. SO much ? Was it not because it could be got by seeking for it, and the guilty could escape (from the stain of their guilt) by it ? This is the reason why all under heaven consider it the most valuable thing. ^ 5^ > 'Practising the T4o.' -j^ ^, 'The value set on the T&o/ would have been a more appropriate title. The chapter sets forth that value in various manifestations of it Par. I. For the meaning of ^, see Confucian Analects, III, ch. 13. far. a. I am obliged to adopt the reading of the first sentence of this paragraph given by Hw&i-nan, ^|^ "^ "pj* iiii^Mf^^^li^ljttA 5— s^« especially his quotation of it in XVIII, 10 a, as from a superior man, I have not found his reading anywhere else. Par. 3 is not easily translated, or explained. See the rules on presenting offerings at the court of a ruler or the king, in vol. xxvii of the * Sacred Books of the East,' p. 84, note 3, and also a narrative in the 3o ATwan under the thirty-third year of duke Hst. 63. I. (It is the way of the Tio) to act without (thinking of) acting ; to conduct affairs without (feel- ing the) trouble of them ; to taste without discerning any flavour ; to consider what is small as great, and a few as many; and to recompense injury with kindness. 2. (The master of it) anticipates things that are difHcult while they are easy, and does things that would become great while they are small. All diffi- cult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things. CH. LXiv. THE tAo TEH TING. IO7 3. He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little faith; he who is continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult. Therefore the sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and so never has any difficulties. JB i&> * Thinking in the Beginning.' The former of these two characters is commonly misprinted j^, and this has led Chalmers to mistranslate them by * The Beginning of Grace.* The chapter sets forth the passionless method of the T&o, and how the sage accordingly accomplishes his objects easily by forestalling in his measures all difficulties. In par. i the clauses are indicative, and not imperative, and therefore we have to supplement the text in translat- ing in some such way, as I have done. They give us a cluster of aphorisms illustrating the procedure of the TSlo * by contraries,' and conclude with one, which is the chief glory of L&o-jze's teaching, though I must think that its value is somewhat diminished by the method in which he reaches it. It has not the prominence in the later teaching of T&oist writers which we should expect, nor is it found (so far as I know) in ATwang-jze, Han Fei, or Hw4i-nan. It is quoted, however, twice by Lift Hsiang ; — see my note on par. 2 of ch. 49. It follows from the whole chapter that the TAoistic 'doing nothing' was not an absolute quiescence and inac* tion, but had a method in it. 64. I . That which is at rest is easily kept hold of; before a thing has given indications of its presence, it is easy to take measures against it ; that which is brittle is easily broken ; that which is very small is easily dispersed. Action should be taken before a thing has made its appearance; order should be secured before disorder has begun. 2. The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout ; the tower of nine storeys rose from a Io8 THE TEXTS OF tAoISJT. PT.U. (small) heap of earth ; the journey of a thousand 11 commenced with a single step. 3. He who acts (with an ulterior purpose) does harm ; he who takes hold of a thing (in the same way) loses his hold. The sage does not act (so), and therefore does no harm ; he does not lay hold (so), and therefore does not lose his hold. (But) people in their conduct of affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on the eve of success. If they were careful at the end, as (they should be) at the begin- ning, they would not so ruin them. 4. Therefore the sage desires what (other men) do not desire, and does not prize things difficult to get ; he learns what (other men) do not learn, and turns back to what the multitude of men have passed by. Thus he helps the natural development of all things, and does not dare to act (with an ulterior purpose of his own). ^ tS^» * Guarding the Minute.' The chapter is a con- tinuation and enlargement of the last. WA A'Aang, indeed, unites the two, blending them together with some ingenious transpositions and omissions, which it is not necessary to discuss. Compare the first part of par. 3 with the last part of par. I, ch. 29. 65. I. The ancients who showed their skill in prac- tising the TAo did so, not to enlighten the people, but rather to make them simple and ignorant. 2, The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having much knowledge. He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a scourge to it ; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing. 3. He who knows these two things finds in them also his model and rule. Ability to know this CH.LXVI. THE tAo TEH KISG. I09 model and rule constitutes what we call the myste- rious excellence (of a governor). Deep and far- reaching is such mysterious excellence, showing indeed its possessor as opposite to others, but lead- ing them to a great conformity to him. J^ ^^, * Pure, unmixed Excellence/ The chapter shows the powerful and beneficent influence of the TSlo in govem- ment, in contrast with the applications and contrivances of human wisdom. Compare ch. 19. My * simple and igno- rant ^ is taken from Julien. More literally the translation would be * to make them stupid.* My * scourge ' in par. a is also after Julien's 'fldau.' 66. I. That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive the homage and tribute of all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower than they ; — it is thus that they are the kings of them all. So it is that -the sage (ruler), wishing to be above men, puts himself by his words below them, and, wishing to be before them, places his person behind them. 2. In this way though he has his place above them, men do not feel his weight, nor though he has his place before them, do they feel it an injury to them. 3. Therefore all in the world delight to exalt him and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive, no one finds it possible to strive with him. 2j, 'Putting one's self Last.' The subject is the power of the T4o, by its display of humility in attracting men. The subject and the way in which it is illustrated are frequent themes in the A'ing. See chapters 8, aa, 39, 4a, 61, et al. The last sentence of par. 3 is found also in ch. 22. There seem to be no quotations from the chapter in Han Fei or Hw&i-nan; but Wfi KAang quotes passages from Tung no THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. II, ATung-shQ (of the second century B.c), and Yang Hsiung (b.C. 53-A.D. 18), which seem to show that the phraseology of it was familiar to them. The former says : — * When one places himself in his qualities below others, his person is above them ; when he places them behind those of others, his person is before them ;' the other, * Men exalt him who humbles himself below them ; and give the precedence to him who puts himself behind them.' 67. I. All the world says that, while my T4o is great, it yet appears to be inferior (to other systems of teaching). Now it is just its greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it were like any other (system), for long would its smallness have been known ! 2. But I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness ; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence of others. 3. With that gentleness I can be bold ; with that economy I can be liberal ; shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour. Now-a-days they give up gentleness and are all for being bold ; economy, and are all for being liberal ; the hindmost place, and seek only to be foremost ; — (of all which the end is) death. 4. Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle, and firmly to maintain its ground. Heaven will save its possessor, by his (very) gentleness pro- tecting him^ ~^ ^, * The Three Precious Things.* This title is taken from par. a, and suggests to us how the early framer of these titles intended to express by them the subject-matter of their several chapters. The three things are the three distinguishing qualities of the possessor of the T&o, the CH-LXVIII. THE tAo TEH XING. Ill three great moral qualities appearing in its followers, the qualities, we may venture to say, of the TAo itself. The same phrase is now the common designation of Buddhism in China, — ^the Tri-ratna or Ratna-traya, * the Precious Buddha,' * the Precious Law/ and ' the Precious Priesthood (or rather Monkhood) or Church ;' appearing also in the * Tri-jara«a,* or * formula of the Three Refuges/ what Dr. Eitel calls 'the most primitive formula fidei of the early Buddhists, introduced before Southern and Northern Bud- dhism separated.' I will not introduce the question of whether Buddhism borrowed this designation from TAoism, after its entrance into China. It is in Buddhism the formula of a peculiar Church or Religion ; in TAoism a rule for the character, or the conduct which the T&o demands from all men. * My TAo ' in par. i is the reading of Wang Pi ; Ho-shang Kung's text is simply ^. Wang Pi's reading is now generally adopted. The concluding sentiment of the chapter is equivalent to the saying of Mencius (VII, ii, IV, a), * If the ruler of a state love benevolence, he will have no enemy under heaven/ * Heaven ' is equivalent to * the TAo/ the course of events, — Providence, as we should say. 68. He who in (Tic's) wars has skill Assumes no martial port ; He who fights with most good will To rage makes no resort. He who vanquishes yet still Keeps from his foes apart ; He whose bests men most fulfil Yet humbly plies his art Thus we say, * He ne'er contends, And therein is his might/ Thus we say, ' Men's wills he bends. That they with him' unite.' Thus we say, * Like Heaven's his ends, No sage of old more bright' 112 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. II. 6E 5C' ' Matching Heaven.' The chapter describes the work of the practiser of the T&o as accomplished like that of Heaven, without striving or crying. He appears under the figfure of a mailed warrior (i) of the ancient chariot. The chapter is a sequel of the preceding, and is joined on to it by Wd ATAang, as is also the next. 69. I . A master of the art of war has said, ' I do not dare to be the host (to commence the war) ; I prefer to be the guest (to act on the defensive). I do not dare to advance an inch ; I prefer to retire a foot.' This is called marshalling the ranks where there are no ranks ; baring the arms (to fight) where there are no arms to bare; grasping the weapon where there is no weapon to g^sp ; advancing against the enemy where there is no enemy. 2. There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing (the gentleness) which is so precious. Thus it is that when opposing weapons are (actually) crossed, he who deplores (the situation) conquers. iftr ^, *The Use of the Mysterious (Tdo).* Such seems to be the meaning of the title. The chapter teaches that, if war were carried on, or rather avoided, according to the T&o, the result would be success. L&o- jze's own statements appear as so many paradoxes. They are examples of the procedure of the TAo by 'contraries,* or opposites. We do not know who the master of the military art referred to was. Perhaps the author only adopted the style of quotation to express his own sentiments. 70. I . My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise ; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them. 2. There is an originating and all-comprehending CH. LXXI. THE tAo TEH JTING. II3 (principle) in my words, and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me. 3, They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth, while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom. ^ HI/ The Difficulty of being (rightly) Known.' The T&o comprehends and rules all L&o-jze*8 teaching, as the members of a clan were all in the loins of their first father (^), and continue to look up to him ; and the people of a state are all under the direction of their ruler ; yet the philosopher had to complain of not being known. Lio-jze's principle and rule or ruler was the T4o. His utterance here is very important. Compare the words of Confucius in the Analects, XIV, ch. 37, et al. Par. 2, is twice quoted by Hwdi-nan, though his text is not quite the same in both cases. 71. I. To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment) ; not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease. 2. It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it. ^ 1^, *The Disease of Knowing.' Here, again, we have the T4o working *by contraries,' — in the matter of knowledge. Compare par. i with Confucius's account of what knowledge is in the Analects, II, ch. 17. The par. 1 is found in one place in Hwdi-nan, lengthened out by the addition of particles; but the variation is unimportant. In another place, however, he seems to have had the correct text before him. Par. 7, is in Han Fei also lengthened out, but with an [39] I 114 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. PT. II. important variation (^ ^ for ^ ^), and I cannot construe his text. His "^ is probably a transcriber s error. 72. I. When the people do not fear what they ought to fear, that which is their great dread will come on them. 2. Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves in their ordinary life ; let them not act as if weary of what that life depends on. 3. It is by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not arise. 4. Therefore the sage knows (these things) of himself, but does not parade (his knowledge) ; loves, but does not (appear to set a) value on, himself. And thus he puts the latter alternative away and makes choice of the former. ^ Q> * Loving one's Self This title is taken from the expression in par. 4 ; and the object of the chapter seems to be to show how such loving should be manifested, and to enforce the lesson by the example of the ' sage,* the true master of the TAo. In par. i *the great dread' is death, and the things which ought to be feared and may be feared, are the indulgences of the appetites and passions, which, if not eschewed, tend to shorten life and accelerate the approach of death. Pars. 2 and 3 are supplementary to i. For jM^ the second character of Ho-shang Kung's text in par. a, Wang Pi reads ^, which has the same name as the other ; and according to the Khang-hsl dictionary, the two characters are interchangeable. I have also followed W6 KAsng in adopting ^ for the former of the two Jj^ in par. 3. Wii adopted this reading from a commentator LiQ of Lii-ling. It gives a good meaning, and is supported by the structure of other sentences made on similar lines. CH. LXXii. THE TAO TEH KTSG. II5 In par. 4 ' the sage ' must be ' the ruler who is a sage,' a master of the T4o, *the king' of ch. 25. He * loves himself/ i. e. his life, and takes the right measures to prolong his life, but without any demonstration that he is doing so. The above is, I conceive, the correct explanation of the chapter; but as to the Chinese critics and foreign trans- lators of it, it may be said, *Quot homines, tot sen- ten tiae.' In illustration of this I venture to subjoin what is found on it in the old version of the Jesuit missionaries, which has not been previously printed : — Prima explicatio juxta interpretes. 1. Populus, ubi jam principis iram non timet, nihil non audet ut jugum excutiat, resque communis ad extremum discrimen adducitur. 2. Ambitio principis non faciat terram angustiorem, et vectigalium magnitudine alendo populo insufficientem ; numquam populus patriae pertaesus alias terras quaeret. 3. Vitae si non taedet, neque patrii soli taedebit. 4. Quare sanctus sibi semper attentus potentiam suam non ostentat. 5. Quia vere se amat, non se pretiosum facit ; vel quia sibi recte consulit non se talem aestimat cujus felicitati et honori infelices populi unice servire debeant, immo potius eum se reputat qui populorum felicitati totum se debeat impendere. 6. Ergo illud resecat, istud amplectitur. Alia explicatio. I. Populus si non ita timet principis majestatem, sed facile ad eum accedit, majestas non minuitur, immo ad summum pervenit. a. Vectigalibus terra si non opprimitur, sui quisque contentus alias terras non quaeret, si se non vexari populus experitur. 3. Vitae si non taedet, nee patrii soli taedebit. 4. Quare sanctus majestatis fastum non aifectat, immo sinlilem se caeteris ostendit. I 2 Il6 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. TI. 5. Sibi recte consulens, populorum amans, non se pre- tiosum et inaccessibilem facit. 6. Quidquid ergo timorem incutere potest, hoc evitat; quod amorem conciliat et benignitatem, se demonstrat hoc eligi et ultro amplectitur. 73. I. He whose boldness appears in his daring (to do wrong, in defiance of the laws) is put to death ; he whose boldness appears in his not daring (to do so) lives on. Of these two cases the one appears to be advantageous, and the other to be injurious. But When Heaven's anger smites a man, Who the cause shall truly scan ? On this account the sage feels a diflSculty (as to what to do in the former case). 2. It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it skilfully overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is skilful in (obtaining) a reply ; does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves. Its demonstrations are quiet, and yet its plans are skilful and effective. The meshes of the net of Heaven are large ; far apart, but letting nothing escape. fi j^» 'Allowing Men to take their Course.' The chapter teaches that rulers should not be hasty to punish, especially by the infliction of death. Though they may seem to err in leniency, yet Heaven does not allow offenders to escape. While Heaven hates the ill-doer, yet we must not always conclude from Its judgments that everyone who suffers from them is an ill-doer ; and the two lines which rhyme, and illustrate this point, are equivalent to the sentiment in our Old Book, 'Clouds and darkness are round about Him.'- They are ascribed to L&o-jze by Lieh-jze (VI, 7 a); but, it has been said, that they are quoted by him Mn an entirely different connexion.' But the same text in two i-i J iil=^s^pa^9C^BC69^=SWia CH.LXXV. THE TAO TEH ZING. II7 different sermons may be said to be in different connexions. In Lieh-jze and our A'ing the lines have the same meaning, and substantially the same application. Indeed TiTang iiTan, of our fourth century, the commentator of Lieh-jze, quotes the comment of Wang Pt on this passage, condensing it into, * Who can know the mind of Heaven ? Only the sage can do so. 74. I. The people do not fear death; to what purpose is it to (try to) frighten them with death ? If the people were always in awe of death, and I could always seize those who do wrong, and put them to death, who would dare to do wrong ? 2. There is always One who presides over the in- fliction of death. He who would inflict death in the room of him who so presides over it may be de- scribed as hewing wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom is it that he who undertakes the hewing, instead of the great carpenter, does not cut his own hands ! ^ M' 'Restraining Delusion.' The chapter sets forth the inefficiency of capital punishment, and warns rulers against the infliction of it. Who is it that superintends the infliction of death ? The answer of Ho-shang Kung is very clear: — *It is Heaven, which, dwelling on high and ruling all beneath, takes note of the transgressions of men.' There is a slight variation in the readings of the second sentence of par. 2 in the texts of Ho-shang Kung and Wang Pi, and the reading adopted by 3i4o Hung differs a little from them both ; but the meaning is the same in them all. This chapter and the next are rightly joined on to the preceding by Wd KA^mg. 75. I. The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors^ It is through this that they suffer famine. 1 1 8 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. II. 2. The people are difficult to govern because of the (excessive) agency of their superiors (in govern- ing them). It is through this that they are difficult to govern. 3. The people make light of dying because of the greatness of their labours in seeking for the means of living. It is this which makes them think light of dying. Thus it is that to leave the subject of living altogether out of view is better than to set a high value on it. ^ ^, *How Greediness Injures.' The want of the nothing-doing T 4 o leads to the multiplication of exactions by the government, and to the misery of the people, so as to make them think lightly of death. The chapter is a warning for both rulers and people. It is not easy to determine whether rulers, or people, or both, are intended in the concluding sentence of par. 2. 76. I. Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle ; at their death, dry and withered. 2. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death ; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life. 3. Hence he who (relies on) the strength of his forces does not conquer ; and a tree which is strong will fill the out-stretched arms, (and thereby invites the feller.) 4. Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above. ^ ^, ' A Warning against (trusting in) Strength.' To trust in one's force is contrary to the T&o, whose strength is more in weakness and humility. In par. i the two characters which I have rendered by CH. LXXVii. THE TAO TEH JSTING. II9 * (so it is with) all things ' are found in the texts of both Ho-shang Kung and Wang P!, but WiH KhdiVvg and ^\ko Hung both reject them. I should also have neglected them, but they are also found in Lift Hsiang's Shwo Wan (X, 4 a), with all the rest of pars, i and a, as from Ldo-jze. They are an anakoluthon, such as is elsewhere found in our K\ng\ e.g. ^ T^ ^ 4fc ^^ ^^* ^^» P^^* ^" The * above * and * below ' in par. 4 seem to be merely a play on the words, as capable of meaning ' more and less honourable.' 77. I. May not the Way (or Tdo) of Heaven be compared to the (method of) bending a bow } The (part of the bow) which was high is brought low-, and what was low is raised up. (So Heaven) dimin- ishes where there is superabundance, and supple- ments where there is deficiency. 2. It is the Way of Heaven to diminish super- abundance, and to supplement deficiency. It is not so With the way of man. He takes away from those who have not enough to add to his own super- abundance. 3. Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under heaven ? Only he who is in possession of the Tfio ! 4. Therefore the (ruling) sage acts without claim- ing the results as his; he achieves his merit and does not rest (arrogantly) in it : — he does not wish to display his superiority. 3'C 5^» * '^^^ Way of Heaven ;' but the chapter contrasts that way, unselfish and magnanimous, with the way of man, selfish and contracted, and illustrates the point by the method of stringing a bow. This must be seen as it is done in China fully to understand the illustration. I have kpown great athletes in this country tasked to the utmost I 20 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. 11. of their strength to adjust and bend a large Chinese bow from Peking. The 'sage ' of par. 4 is the * King' of ch. 25. Compare what is said of him with ch. 2, par. 4, et al. 78. I. There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that afe firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it ; — for there is nothing (so effectual) for which it can be changed. 2. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice. 3. Therefore a sage has said, * He who accepts his state's reproach, Is hailed therefore its altars' lord ; To him who bears men's direful woes They all the name of King accord.' 4. Words that are strictly true seem to. be para- doxical. fi ig» ' Things to be Believed.' It is difficult to g^ve a short and appropriate translation of this title. The chapter shows how the most unlikely results follow from action according to the Tdo. Par. I. Water was LAo-jze's favourite emblem of the Tao. Compare chapters 8, 66, et al. Par. 2. Compare ch. 36, par. 2. Par. 3. Of course we do not know who the sage was from whom L4o-jze got the lines of this paragraph. They may suggest to some readers the lines of Bums, as they have done to me : — * The honest man, though e'er so poor, Is king o' men for a' that.' But the T4oist of Ldo-jze is a higher ideal than Bums's honest man. CH. LXXIX. THE TAO TEH JTING. 121 Par. 4 is separated from this chapter, and made to begin the next by VJd ATZ/Xng. 79. I. When a reconciliation is effected (between two parties) after a great animosity, there is sure to be a grudge remaining (in the mind of the one who was wrong). And how can this be beneficial (to the other) ? 2. Therefore (to guard against this), the sage keeps the left-hand portion of the record of the engagement, and does not insist on the (speedy) fulfilment of it by the other party. (So), he who has the attributes (of the T&o) regards (only) the conditions of the engagement, while he who has not those attributes regards only the conditions favour- able to himself. 3. In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love ; it is always on the side of the good man. ^ ^, * Adherence to Bond or Covenant.' The chapter shows, but by no means clearly, how he who holds fast to the T4o will be better off in the end than he who will rather try to secure his own interests. Par. I presents us with a case which the statements of the chapter are intended to meet: — two disputants, one good, and the other bad ; the latter, though apparently reconciled, still retaining a grudge, and ready to wreak his dissatisfaction, when he has an opportunity. The j^ =* for,' ' for the good of.' Par. 2 is intended to solve the question. The terms of a contract or agreement were inscribed on a slip of wood, which was then divided into two ; each party having one half of it At the settlement, if the halves perfectly fitted to each other, it was carried through. The one who had the right in the dispute has his part of the agreement, but does not insist on it, and is forbearing ; the other insists on the conditions being even now altered in his favour. The 122 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. pt. Ii. characters by which this last case is expressed, are very enigmatical, having reference to the satisfaction of the government dues of Ldo-jze's time, — ^a subject into which it would take much space to go. Par. 3 decides the question by the action of Heaven, which is only another name for the course of the TSlo, 80. I. In a little state with a small population, I would so order it, that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a hundred men, there should be no employment of them ; I would make the people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove elsewhere (to avoid it). 2. Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they should have no occasion to don or use them. 3. I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead of the written characters). 4. They should think their (coarse) food sweet ; their (plain) clothes beautiful ; their (poor) dwellings places of rest ; and their common (simple) ways sources of enjoyment. 5. There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it. ^ jJl, * Standing Alone.' The chapter sets forth what L&o-jze conceived the ancient government of simplicity was, and what he would have government in all time to be. He does not use the personal pronoun * I ' as the subject of the thrice-recurring ^, but it is most natural to suppose that he is himself that subject ; and he modestly supposes himself in charge of a little state and a small CH. Lxxxi. THE TAO TEH XING. 1 23 population. The reader can judge for himself of the con- summation that would be arrived at; — a people rude and uninstructed, using quippos, abstaining from war and all travelling, kept aloof from intercourse even with their neighbours, and without the appliances of what we call civilisation. The text is nearly all found in Sze-m4 Kki^n and A!'wang-jze. The first member of par. i, however, is very- puzzling. The old Jesuit translators, Julien, Chalmers, and V. von Strauss, all differ in their views of it. WCl -ATAang and ^\SiO Hung take what I have now rendered by ' abilities/ as meaning * implements of agriculture,' but their view IS based on a custom of the Han dynasty, which is not remote enough for the purpose, and on the suppression, after Wang Pt, of a ^ in Ho-shang Kung s text. 81. I. Sincere words are not fine ; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tdo) do not dispute (about it) ; the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the T&o) are not extensively learned ; the extensively learned do not know it. 2. The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own ; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself. 3. With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not ; with all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive. Ipl j^, * The Manifestation of Simplicity.' The chapter shows how quietly and effectivqly the TAo proceeds, and by contraries in a way that only the master of it can understand. The author, says Wdi A'Aang, 'sums up in this the subject-matter of the two Parts of his Treatise, showing that in all its five thousand characters, there is nothing beyond what is here said/ 124 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. PT. !!• Par. z suggests to Dr. Chalmers the well-known lines of Bunyan as an analogue of it : — 'A man there was, though some did count him mad, The more he gave away, the more he had.' "VJd KAdLTig brings together two sentences from A'wang-jze (XXXIII, ai b, 22 a), written evidently with the characters of this text in mind, which, as from a Tioist mint, are a still better analogue, and I venture to put them into rhyme : — * Amassing but to him a sense of need betrays; He hoards not, and thereby his affluence displays.' I have paused long over the first pair of contraries in par. 3 (5p|| and ^). Those two characters primarily mean * sharpness' and 'wounding by cutting;' they are also often used in the sense of 'being beneficial,' and 'being injurious;' — 'contraries/ both of them. Which ' contrary * had L4o-jze in mind ? I must think the former, though differing in this from all previous translators. The Jesuit version is, 'Celestis T&o natura ditat omnes, nemini nocet ; ' Julien's, * II est utile aux fitres, et ne leur nuit point;' Chalmers's, 'Benefits and does not injure;' and V. von Strauss's, 'Des Himmels Weise ist wolthun und nicht beschadigen/ THE WRITINGS OFi^WANG-3ZE. THE WRITINGS OF i^WANG-3ZE. INTRODUCTION. Brief Notices of the different Books. Book I. HsiAo-yao Yt. The three characters which form the title of this Book have all of them the ideagram ^ {^o), which gives the idea, as the Shwo W5n explains it, of *now walking, now halting.* We might render the title by 'Sauntering or Rambling at Ease ; ' but it is the untroubled enjoyment of the mind which the author has in view. And this enjoy- ment is secured by the T4o, though that character does not once occur in the Book. ATwang-gze illustrates his thesis first by the cases of creatures, the largest and the smallest, showing that however different they may be in size, they should not pass judgment on one another, but may equally find their happiness in the T4o. From this he advances to men, and from the cases of Yung-jze and Lieh-jze proceeds to that of one who finds his enjoyment in himself, independent of every other being or instru- mentality; and we have the three important definitions of the accomplished T4oist, as *the Perfect Man,' *the Spirit-like Man,' and * the Sagely Man.' Those definitions are then illustrated ;— the third in Y4o and Hsii Y(i, and the second in the conversation between Kien WA and Lien ShO. The description given in this conversation of the spirit- like man is very startling, and contains statements that are true only of Him who is a * Spirit,' * the Blessed and only Potentate,' * Who covereth Himself with light as with a garment, Who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, 128 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. II. Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who maketh the clouds His chariot, Who walketh on the wings of the wind/ * Who rideth on a cherub/ * Who inhabiteth eternity.' The most imaginative and metaphorical ex- pressions in the T4o Teh ATing about the power of the possessor of the T&o are tame, compared with the language of our author. I call attention to it here, as he often uses the same extravagant style. There follows an illustration of *the Perfect Man/ which is comparatively feeble, and part of it, so far as I can see, inappropriate, though Lin Hst->&ung says that all other interpretations of the sen- tences are ridiculous. In the seventh and last paragraph we have two illus- trations that nothing is really useless, if only used T&o- istically; 'to the same effect/ says d'^o Hung, 'as Confucius in the Analects, XVH, ii.' They hang loosely, however, from what precedes. An old view of the Book was that A'wang-jze intended himself by the great phang, 'which/ says Lft Shft-^ih, * is wide of the mark/ Book H. Kh\ WC Lun. Mr. Balfour has translated this title by ' Essay on the Uniformity of All Things ; ' and, the subject of the Book being thus misconceived, his translation of it could not fail to be very incorrect. The Chinese critics, I may say without exception, construe the title as I have done. The second and third characters, W6 Lun, are taken together, and mean 'Discussions about Things/ equivalent to our • Controversies.' They are under the government of the first character KhX^ used as a verb, with the signification of 'Harmonising,' or 'Adjusting/ Let me illustrate this by condensing a passage from the ' Supplementary Com- mentary of a Mr. ifang, a sub-secretary of the Imperial Chancery,' of the Ming dynasty (J^ ^ J; ^ gj). He says, ' What -ATwang-jze calls " Discussions about Things " has reference to the various branches of the numerous schools, each Of which has its own views, conflicting with BK, II. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 29 the views of the others.' He goes on to show that if they would only adopt the method pointed out by -/iTwang-jze, * their controversies would be adjusted (^ |^ ^)'* ^^^ using the first KM in the passive voice. This then was the theme of our author in this Book. It must be left for the reader to discover from the translation how he pursues it. I pointed out a peculiarity in the former Book, that though the idea of the Tdo underlies it all, the term itself is never allowed to appear. Not only does the same idea underlie this Book, but the name is frequently employed. The T4o is the panacea for the evils of controversy, the solvent through the use of which the different views of men may be made to disappear. That the T4o is not a Personal name in the conception of ^wang-jze is seen in several passages. We have not to go beyond the phenomena of nature to discover the reason of their being what they are ; nor have we to go beyond the bigoted ^oism and vaingloriousness of controversialists to find the explanation of their discussions, various as these are, and confounding like the sounds of the wind among the trees of a forest. To man, neither in nature nor in the sphere of knowledge, is there any other ' Heaven ' but what belongs to his own mind. That is his only *True Ruler.' If there be any other, we do not see His form, nor any traces of His acting. Things come about in their proper course. We cannot advance any proof of Creation. Whether we assume that there was something Mn the b^inning' or nothing, we are equally landed in contra- diction and absurdity. Let us stop at the limit of what we know, and not try to advance a step beyond it. Towards the end of the Book our author's agnosticism seems to reach its farthest point. All human experience is spoken of as a dream or as illusion.' He who calls another a dreamer does not know that he is not dreaming himself. One and another commentator discover in such utterances something very like the Buddhist doctrine that all life is but so much illusion (^)« This notion has its consummation in the story with which the Book concludes. [39] K 130 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. III. Al'wang-jze had dreamt that he was a butterfly. When he awoke, and was himself again, he did not know whether he, Kwang K^Uy had been dreaming that he was a butterfly, or was now a butterfly dreaming that it was -ATwang ATslu. And yet he adds that there must be a difference between Kku and a butterfly, but he does not say what that difference is. But had he ever dreamt that he was a butterfly, so as to lose the consciousness of his personal identity a? ATwang ATdu? I do not think so. One may, perhaps, lose that consciousness in the state of insanity ; but the language of Young is not sufficiently guarded when he writes of * Dreams, where thought, in fancy's maze, runs mad.' When dreaming, our thoughts are not conditioned by the categories of time and space ; but the conviction of our identity is never lost. Book III. Yang Shang ATO. * The Lord of Life * is the T&o. It is to this that we are indebted for the origin of life and for the preservation of it. Though not a Personal Being, it is here spoken of as if it were, — 'the Lord of Life;' just as in the preceding Book it is made to appear as *a True Governor,' and *a True Ruler.* But how can we nourish the T&o? The reply is, By avoiding all striving to do so ; by a passionless, unstraining performance of what we have to do in our position in life ; simply allowing the T4o to guide and nourish us, without doing anything to please ourselves or to counteract the tendency of our being to decay and death. Par. 1 exhibits the injury arising from not thus nourishing the life, and sets forth the rule we are to pursue. Par. 2 illustrates the observance of the rule by the perfect skill with which the cook of the ruler Win-hui of Wei cut up the oxen for his employer without trouble to himself, or injury to his knife. BK. IV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 3 1 Par. 3 illustrates the result of a neglect of one of the cautions in par. i to a certain master of the Left, who had brought on himself dismemberment in the loss of one of his feet. Par. 4 shows how even L&o-jze had failed in nourishing *the Lord of Life' by neglecting the other caution, and allowing in his good-doing an admixture of human feeling, which produced in his disciples a regard for him that was inconsistent with the nature of the Tdo, and made them wail for him excessively on his death. This is the most remarkable portion of the Book, and it is -followed by a sentence which implies that the existence of man's spirit continues after death has taken place. His body is intended by the * faggots ' that are consumed by the fire. That fire represents the spirit which may be transferred elsewhere. Some commentators dwell on the analogy between this and the Buddhistic transrotation of births; which latter teaching, however, they do not seem to understand. Others say that ' the nourishment of the Lord of Life ' is simply actii^ as Yu did when he conveyed away the flooded waters * by doing that which gave him no trouble ; ' — ^see Mencius, IV, ii, 26. In ATwang-gze there are various other stories of the same character as that about king Wan-hui's cook, — e.g. XIX, 3 and XXII, 9. They are instances of the dexterity acquired by habit, and should hardly be pressed into the service of the doctrine of the T4o. Book IV. ZAn A'jen Shih. A man has his place among other men in the world ; he is a member, while he lives, of the body of humanity. And as he has his place in society, so also he has his special duties to discharge^ according to his position, and his relation to others. T4oist writers refer to this Book as a proof of the practical character of the writings of A"wang-jze. K 2 132 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. IV. They are right to a certain extent in doing so ; but the cases of relationship which are exhibited and prescribed for are of so peculiar a character, that the Book is of little value as a directory of human conduct and duty. In the first two paragraphs we have the case of Yen Hui, who wishes to go to Wei, and try to reform the character and government of its oppressive ruler ; in the third and fourth, that of the duke of Sheh, who has been entrusted by the king of Kkh with a difficult mission to the court of KhX^ which is occasioning him much anxiety and apprehension ; and in the fifth, that of a Yen Ho, who is about to undertake the office of teacher to the son of duke Ling of Wei, a young man with a very bad natural disposition. The other four paragraphs do not seem to come in naturally after these three cases, being occupied with two immense and wonderful trees, the case of a poor deformed cripple, and the lecture for the benefit of Confucius by ' the madman of KhiX,^ In all these last paragpraphs, the theme is the usefulness, to the party himself at least, of being of no use. Confucius is the principal speaker in the first four para- graphs. In what he says to Yen Hui and the duke of Sheh there is much that is shrewd and good ; but Ve prefer the practical style of his teachings, as related by his own disciples in the Confucian Analects. Possibly, it was the object of A'wang-jze to exhibit his teaching, as containing, without his being aware of it, much of the mystical char- acter of the Tioistic system. His conversation with the duke of Sheh, however, is less obnoxious to this charge than what he is made to say to Yen Hui. The adviser of Yen Ho is a A'ii Po-yii, a disciple of Confucius, who still has a place in the sage's temples. In the conclusion, the Taoism of our author comes out in contrast with the methods of Confucius. His object in the whole treatise, perhaps, was to show how *the doing nothing, and yet thereby doing everything,* was the method to be pursued in all the intercourses of society. • JLL., »p _« Ulw-^ _ -,■ ■- . 1*-J»I«PIL^1_ ^, BIP— ^Hp^^^^^H BK. V. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 33 Book V. Teh ATmjNG FC. The f A (^) consisted in the earliest times of two slips of bamboo made with certain marks, so as to fit to each other exactly, and held by the two parties to any agree- ment or covenant. By the production and comparison of the slips, the parties verified their mutual relation ; and the claim of the one and the obligation of the other were sufficiently established. * Seal ' seems the best translation of the character in this title. By 'virtue' (^) we must understand the characteristics of the T4o. Where those existed in their full proportions in any individual, there was sure to be the evidence or proof of them in the influence which he exerted in all his intercourse with other men ; and the illustration of this is the subject of this Book, in all its five paragraphs. That influence is the ' Seal ' set on him, proving him to be a true child of the T4o. The heroes, as I may call them, of the first three para- graphs are all men who had lost their feet, having been reduced to that condition as a punishment, just or unjust, of certain oflences ; and those of the last two are distin- guished by their extraordinary ugliness or disgusting de- formity. But neither the loss of their feet nor their deformities trouble the serenity of their own minds, or interfere with the eff*ects of their teaching and character upon others ; so superior is their virtue to the deficiencies in their outward appearance. Various brief descriptions of the T4o are interspersed in the Book. The most remarkable of them are those in par. I, where it appears as 'that in which there is no element of falsehood,' and as ' the author bf all the Changes or Transformations' in the world. The sentences where these occur are thus translated by Mr. Balfour : — ' He seeks to know Him in whom is nothing false. He would not be affected by the instability of creation ; even if his life were involved in the general destruction, he would yet hold firmly to his faith (in God).' And he observes in a 134 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. note, that the first short sentence * is explained by the commentators as referring to K^n ^ki (;^ ^), the term used by the Tioist school for God/ But we met with that name and synonyms of it in Book II, par. 2, as appel- lations of the T4o, coupled with the denial of its per- sonality. ATan 3^i> *the True Governor or Lord,' may be used as a designation for god or God, but the T&oist school denies the existence of a Personal Being, to whom we are accustomed to apply that name. Hui-jze, the sophist and friend of A'wang-jze, is intro- duced in the conclusion as disputing with him the propriety of his representing the Master of the T&o as being still 'a man ;' and is beaten down by him with a repetition of his assertions, and a reference to some of Hui-jze's well-known peculiarities. What would /ifwang-jze have said, if his opponent had affirmed that his instances were all imaginary, and that no man had ever appeared who could appeal to his possession of such a * seal ' to his virtues and influence as he described ? Lil Fang-wang compares with the tenor of this Book what we find in Mencius, VII, i, 21, about the nature of the superior man. The analogy between them, however, is very faint and incomplete. Book VI. TA 3ung Shih. So I translate the title of this Book, taking 3ung as a verb, and 3ungShihas=* The Master who is Honoured.* Some critics take 3ung in the sense of * Originator,' in which it is employed in the T4o Teh A^ing, Ixx, a. Which- ever rendering be adopted, there is no doubt that the title is intended to be a designation of the T4o ; and no one of our author's Books is more important for the understanding of his system of thought The key to it is found in the first of its fifteen para- graphs. There are in man two elements ; — the Heavenly or Tdoistic, and the human. The disciple of the T4o, recognising them both, cultivates what he knows as a man BK.vi. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 35 SO as to become entirely conformed to the action of the T&o, and submissive in all the most painful experiences in his lot, which is entirely ordered by it A seal will be set on the wisdom of this course hereafter, when he has completed the period of his existence on earth, and re- turns to the state of non-existence, from which the Tdo called him to be bom as a man. In the meantime he may attain to be the True man possessing the True knowledge. Our author then proceeds to give his readers in five paragraphs his idea of the True Man. Mr. Balfour says that this name is to be understood ' in the esoteric sense, the partaking of the essence of divinity,* and he translates it by *the Divine Man.' But we have no right to intro- duce here the terms 'divine' and * divinity.' Nan-hw&i (VII, 5 b) gives a short definition of the name which is more to the point: — *What we call "the True Man" is one whose nature is in agreement with the T^o (^ ^ ^ /< ^ tt ^ "J^ 5^ "&»' and the commentator adds in a note, * Such men as Fii-hsl, Hwang-Ti, and L4o Tan.' The Khang-hsi dictionary commences its account of the character ^ or * True' by a definition of the True Man taken from the ShwoWan as a f(|| ^, *a recluse of the mountain, whose bodily form has been changed, and who ascends to heaven;' but when that earliest dictionary was made, T&oism had entered into a new phase, different from what it had in the time of our author. The most prominent characteristic of the True Man is that he is free from all exercise of thought and purpose^ a being entirely passive in the hands of the Tio. In par. 3 seven men are mentioned, good and worthy men, but inferior to the True. Having said what he had to say of the True Man, A'wang-jze comes in the seventh paragraph to speak directly of the T&o itself, and describes it with many wonderful pre- dicates which exalt it above our idea of God ; — a concept and not a personality. He concludes by mentioning a number of ancient personages who had got the T4o, and by it wrought wonders, beginning with a Shih-wei, who pre- ceded FCl-hsi, and ending with FCi Ytieh, the minister of 136. THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. Vli. Wii-ting, in the fourteenth century B.C., and who finally be- came a star in the eastern portion of the zodiac. Phang 3^ is also mentioned as living, through his possession of the Tio, from the twenty- third century B.c. to the seventh or later. The sun and moon and the constellation of the Great Bear are also mentioned as its possessors, and the fabulous Being called the Mother of the Western King. The whole passage is perplexing to the reader to the last degree. The remaining paragraphs are mostly occupied with instances of learning the TAo, and of its effects in making men superior to the infirmities of age and the most ter- rible deformities of person and calamities of penury; as ' Tranquillity ' under all that might seem most calculated to disturb it. Very strange is the attempt at the conclusion of par. 8 apparently to trace the genesis of the knowledge of the T4o. Confucius is introduced repeatedly as the ex- pounder of T&oism, and made to praise it as the ne plus ultra of human attainment. Book VII. Ying T! Wang. The first of the three characters in this title renders the translation of it somewhat perplexing. Ying has different meanings according as it is read in the first tone or in the third. In the first tone it is the symbol of what is right, or should be ; in the third tone of answering or responding to. I prefer to take it here in the first tone. As Kwo Hsiang says, * One who is free from mind or purpose of his own, and loves men to become transformed of themselves, is fit to be a Ruler or a King,' and as 31iui Al'wan, another early commentator, says, * He whose teaching is that which is without words, and makes men in the world act as if they were oxen or horses, is fit to be a Ruler or a King/ This then is the object of the Book — to describe that government which exhibits the T4o equally in the rulers and the ruled, the world of men all happy and good without purpose or effort. It consists of seven paragraphs. The first shows us the model ruler in him of the line of Th^li, whom I have not BK. VII. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 37 succeeded in identifying. The second shows us men under such a rule, uncontrolled and safe like the bird that flies high beyond the reach of the archer, and the mouse secure in its deep hole from its pursuers. The teacher in this portion is KAieh-yu, known in the Confucian school as * the madman of KAd/ and he delivers his lesson in opposition to the heresy of a Zah-^ung Shih, or *Noon Beginning.* In the third paragraph the speakers are ^ a nameless man,' and a Thien Kan, or * Heaven Root.' In the fourth para- graph L&o-}ze himself appears upon the stage, and lectures a Yang ^zt-iu^ the Yang KOl of Mencius. He concludes by saying that ' where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) nonentity.' The fifth paragraph is longer, and tells us of the defeat of a wizard, a physiognomist in A'ang, by Hii-jze, the master of the philosopher Lieh-jze, who is thereby delivered from the glamour which the cheat was throwing round him. I confess to not being able to understand the various pro- cesses by which H(i>jze foils the wizard and makes him run away. The whole story is told, and at greater length, in the second book of the collection ascribed to Lieh-3ze, and the curious student may like to look at the translation of that work by Mr. Ernst Faber (Der Naturalismus bei den alten Chinesen sowohl nach der Seite des Panthe- ismus als des Sensualismus, oder die Sammtlichen Werke des Philosophen Licius, 1877). The effect of the wizard's defeat on Lieh-jze was great. He returned in great humi- lity to his house, and did not go out of it for three years. He did the cooking for his wife, and fed the pigs as if he were feeding men. He returned to pure simplicity, and therein continued to the end of his life. But I do not see the connexion between this narrative and the government of the Rulers and Kings. The sixth paragraph is a homily by our author himself on * non-action.' It contains a good simile, comparing the mind of the perfect man to a mirror, which reflects faith- fully what comes before it, but does not retain any image of it, when the mind is gone. 138 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. viii. The last paragraph is aa ingenious and interesting alle- gory relating how the gods of the southern and northern seas brought Chaos to an end by boring holes in him. Thereby they destroyed the primal simplicity, and ac- cording to T&oism did Chaos an injury! On the whole I do not think that this Book, with which the more finished essays of ATwang-jze come to an end, is so successful as those that precede it. Book VIII. Phien MAu. This Book brings us to the Second Part of the writings of our author, embracing in all fifteen Books. Of the most important difTerence between the Books of the First and the other Parts some account has been given in the Introduc- tory Chapter. We have here to do only with the different character of their titles. Those of the seven preceding Books are so many theses, and are believed to have been prefixed to them by A'wang-jze himself; those of this Book and the others that follow are believed to have been pre- fixed by Kwo Hsiang, and consist of two or three charac- ters taken from the beginning, or near the beginning of the several Books, after the fashion of the names of the Books in the Confucian Analects, in the works of Mencius, and in our Hebrew Scriptures. Books VIII to XIII are considered to be supplementary to VII by Afi-yang Hsiil. The title of this eighth Book, Phien M4u, has been ren- dered by Mr. Balfour, after Dr. Williams, * Double Thumbs.' But the M4u, which may mean either the Thumb or the Great Toe, must be taken in the latter sense, being distin- guished in this paragraph and elsewhere from ATih, * a finger,' and expressly specified also as belonging to the foot. The character phien, as used here, is defined in the Khang-hsi dictionary as ' anything additional growing out as an ap- pendage or excrescence, a growing out at the side.' This would seem to justify the translation of it by 'double.' But in paragraph 3, while the extra finger increases the number of the fingers, this growth on the foot is represented as diminishing the number of the toes. I must consider BK.vni. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 39 the phien therefore as descriptive of an appendage by which the great toe was united to one or all of the other toes, and can think of no better rendering of the title than what I have given. It is told in the 3o AT wan (twenty-third year of duke Hsi) that the famous duke Wan of 3in had phien hsieh, that is, that his ribs presented the appear- ance of forming one bone. So much for the title. The subject-matter of the Book seems strange to us ; — that, according to the TAo, benevolence and righteousness are not natural growths of humanity, but excrescences on it, like the extra finger on the hand, and the membranous web of the toes. The weakness of the TAoistic system begins to appear. -ATwang-jze's arguments in support of his position must be pronounced very feeble. The ancient Shun is introduced as the first who called in the two great virtues to distort and vex the world, keeping society for more than a thousand years in a state of uneasy excite- ment. Of course he assumes that prior to Shun, he does not say for how long a time (and in other places he makes decay to have b^un earlier), the world had been in a state of paradisiacal innocence and simplicity, under the guidance of the T A o, untroubled by any consideration of what was right and what was wrong, men passively allowing their nature to have its quiet development, and happy in that condition. All culture of art or music is wrong, and so it is wrong and injurious to be striving to manifest benevolence and to maintain righteousness. He especially singles out two men, one of the twelfth cen- tury B.C., the famous Po-i, who died of hunger rather than acknowledge the dynasty of K&u ; and -one of a more recent age, the robber Shih, a great leader of brigands, who brought himself by his deeds to an untimely end ; and he sees nothing to choose between them. We must give our judgment for the teaching of Confucianism in preference to that of T&oism, if our author can be regarded as a fair expositor of the latter. He is ingenious in his statements and illustrations, but he was, like his master Lio-jze^ only a dreamer. A 140 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. ix. Book IX. MA ThI. * Horses * and * Hoofs ' are the first two characters of the Text, standing there in the relation of regent and regimen. The account of the teaching of the Book given by Lin Hst- ^ung is so concise that I will avail myself of it. He says : — 'Governing men is like governing horses. They may be governed in such a way as shall be injurious to them, just as Po-lAo governed the horse; — contrary to its true nature. His method was not different from that of the (first) potter and carpenter in dealing with clay and wood ; — contrary to the nature of those substances. Not- withstanding this, one age after another has celebrated the skill of those parties ; — not knowing what it is that constitutes the good and skilful government of men. Such government simply requires that men be made to fulfil their regular constant nature, — the quali- ties which they all possess in common, with which they are constituted by Heaven, and then be left to themselves. It was this which constituted the age of perfect virtue ; but when the sages insisted on the practice of benevo- lence, righteousness, ceremonies, ai^d music, then the people began to be without that perfect virtue. Not that they were in themselves different from what they had been, but those practices do not really belong to their regular nature ; they arose from their n^lecting the characteristics of the T4o, and abandoning their natural constitution ; — it was the case of the skilful artisan cutting and hacking his raw materials in order to form vessels from them. There is no ground for doubting that Po-lio's management of horses gave them that knowledge with which they went on to play the part of thieves, or that it was the sages* government of the people which made them devote them- selves to the pursuit of gain ; — it is impossible to deny the error of those sages. * There is but one idea in the Book from the beginning to the end ; — it is an amplification of the expression in the preceding Book that ** all men have their r^ular and con- BK. X. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I4I stant constitution," and is the most easily construed of all ATwang-jze's compositions. In consequence, however, of the wonderful touches of his pencil in describing the sym- pathy between men and other creatures in their primal state, some have imagined that there is a waste and em- bellishment of language, and doubted whether the Book is really his own, but thought it was written by some one in imitation of his style. I apprehend that no other hand would easily have attained to such a mastery of that style.' There is no possibility of adjudicating definitely on the suspicion of the genuineness of the Book thus expressed in Hsl-ihmg's concluding remarks. The same suspicion arose in my own mind in the process of translation. My surprise continues that our author did not perceive the absurdity of his notions of the primal state of men, and of his condem- nation of the sages. Book X. Kbv Khieh. It is observed by the commentator Kwei JiTan-^Auan that one idea runs through this Book : — that the most sage and wise men have ministered to theft and robbery, and that, if there were an end of sageness and wisdom, the world would be at rest. Between it and the previous Book there is a general agreement in argument and object, but in this the author expresses himself with greater vehemence, and almost goes to excess in his denunciation of the institu- tions of the sages. The reader will agree with these accounts of the Book. A'wang-jze at times becomes weak in his attempts to estab- lish his points. To my mind the most interesting portions of this Book and the last one are the full statements which we have in them of the happy state of men when the Tio maintained its undisputed sway in the world, and the names of many of the early TAoistic sovereigns. How can we suppose that anything would be gained by a return to the condition of primitive innocence and simplicity ? The antagonism between T«loism and Confucianism comes out in this Book very decidedly. 142 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. xr. The title of the Book is taken from two characters in the first clause of the first paragraph. Book XL 3Ai YO. The two characters of the title are taken from the first sentence of the Text, but they express the subject of the Book more fully than the other titles in this Part do, and almost entitle it to a place in Part I. It is not easy to translate them, and Mr. Balfour renders them by * Leniency towards Faults,* probably construing 3 ^ i ^ equivalent to our preposition * in,' which it often is. But ATwang-jze uses both 3«^i 2i^d Yd SLS verbs, or blends them together, the chief force of the binomial compound being derived from the significance of the 341 3^1 is defined by 3bun (^), which gives the idea of * preserving ' or * keeping intact,' and Yd by Khwan (^), * being indulgent ' or * forbearing.' The two characters are afterwards exchanged for other two, wA wei (^ ^), 'doing nothing,' * inaction,' a grand characteristic of the Tio. The following summary of the Book is taken from Hsiian Ying's explanations of our author: — *The two characters 34i YA express the subject-matter of the Book, and "govern- ing" points out the opposite error as the disease into which men are prone to fall. Let men be, and the tendencies of their nature will be at rest, and there will be no necessity for governing the world. Try to govern it, and the world will be full of trouble ; and men will not be able to rest in the tendencies of their nature. These are the sub- jects of the first two paragraphs. * In the third paragraph we have the erroneous view of 3hui KAil that by government it was possible to make men's minds good. He did not know that governing was a disturbing meddling with the minds of men ; and how L&o-)ze set forth the evil of such government, going on till it be irretrievable. This long paragraph vigorously attacks the injury done by governing. *In the fourth paragraph, when Hwang-Tt questions BK. xn. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I43 Kwang KAS.ng'ize, the latter sets aside his inquiry about the government of the world, and tells him about the government of himself; and in the fifth, when Yiin ATiang asks Hung Mung about governing men, the latter tells him about the nourishing of the heart. These two great para- graphs set forth clearly the subtlest points in the policy of Let-a-be. Truly it is not an empty name. ' In the two last paragraphs, ATwang in his own words and way sets forth, now by affirmation, and now by nega- tion, the meaning of all that precedes.' This summary of the Book will assist the reader in understanding it. For other remarks that will be helpful, I must refer him to the notes appended to the Text. The Book is not easy to understand or to translate ; and a remark found in the Al^-Ming edition of *the Ten Philosophers,' by LCl Hsi(i-fCl, who died in 1279, was wel- come to me, * If you cannot understand one or two sentences of -ff'wang-jze, it does not matter.' Book XII. Thien Tt. The first two characters of the Book are adopted as its name ; — Thien Tt, * Heaven and Earth.' These are em- ployed, not so much as the two greatest material forms in the universe, but as the Great Powers whose influences extend to all below and upon them. Silently and effec- tively, with entire spontaneity, their influence goes forth, and a rule and pattern is thus given to those on whom the business of the government of the world devolves. The one character * Heaven ' is employed throughout the Book as the denomination of this purposeless spontaneity which yet is so powerful. Ldi Sh(i-^ih says : — * This Book also sets forth clearly how the rulers of the world ought simply to act in accord- ance with the spontaneity of the virtue of Heaven ; abjuring sageness and putting away knowledge ; and doing nothing : — in this way the T4o or proper Method of Government will be attained to. As to the coercive methods of Mo T! 144 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK, Xlll. and Hui-jze, they only serve to distress those who follow them/ This object of the Book appears, more or less distinctly, in most of the illustrative paragraphs ; though, as has been pointed out in the notes upon it, several of them must be considered to be spurious. Paragraphs 6, 7, and 11 are thus called in question, and, as most readers will feel, with reason. From 13 to the end, the paragraphs are held to be one long paragraph where ATwang-jze introduces his own reflections in an unusual style ; but the genuineness of the whole, so far as I have observed, has not been called in question. Book XIII. Thien TAo. *Thien T4o,' the first two characters of the first paragraph, and prefixed to the Book as the name of it, are best translated by * The Way of Heaven,* meaning the noiseless spontaneity, which characterises all the operations of nature, proceeding silently, yet * perfecting all things.' As the rulers of the world attain to this same way in their government, and the sages among men attain to it in their teachings, both government and doctrine arrive at a corre- sponding perfection. * The joy of Heaven ' and * the joy of Men ' are both realised. There ought to be no purpose or will in the universe. * Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tasteless- ness, quietude, silence, and non-action ; this is the perfection of the T&o and its characteristics.' Our author dwells especially on doing-nothing or non- action as the subject-matter of the Book. But as the world is full of doing, he endeavours to make a distinction between the Ruling Powers and those subordinate to and employed by them, to whom doing or action and purpose, though still without the thought of self, are necessary; and by this distinction he seems to me to give up the peculiarity of his system, so that some of the critics, especially AO- yang Hsid, are obliged to confess that these portions of the Book are unlike the writing of /fwang-jze. Still the antagonism of T&oism to Confucianism is very apparent BK. XIV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 45 throughout. Of the illustrative paragraphs, the seventh, relating the churlish behaviour of Lio-jze to Confucius, and the way in which he subsequently argues with him and snubs him, is very amusing. The eighth paragraph, relating the interview between Ldo and Shih-M^ng Kh% is very strange. The allusions in it to certain incidents and peculiarities in Lio's domestic life make us wish that we had fuller accounts of his history ; and the way in which he rates his disciple shows him as a master of the language of abuse. The concluding paragraph about duke Hwan of KhX is interesting, but I can only dimly perceive its bearing on the argument of the Book. BOOK XIV. Thien Yun. The contrast between the movement of the heavens (^ 5M)> ^^^ ^^ resting of the earth (ij^ j^), requires the translation of the characters of the title by 'The Revolution of Heaven.' But that idea does not enter largely into the subject-matter of the Book. * The whole,' says Hsiian Ying, 'consists of eight paragraphs, the first three of which show that under the sky there is nothing which is not dominated by the T^o, with which the T!s and the Kings have only to act in accordance ; while the last five set forth how the TAo is not to be found in the material forms and changes of things, but in a spirit- like energy working imperceptibly, developing and con- trolling all phenomena.' I have endeavoured in the notes on th-e former three paragraphs to make their meaning less obscure and uncon- nected than it is on a first perusal. The five illustrative paragraphs are, we may assume, all of them factitious, and can hardly be received as genuine productions of JiTwang- )ze» In the sixth paragraph, or at least a part of it, Lin Hsi-^ng acknowledges the hand of the forger, and not less unworthy of credence are in my opinion the rest of it and much of the other four paragraphs. If they may be [39] L 146 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XV. taken as from the hand of our author himself, he was too much devoted to his own system to hold the balance of judgment evenly between L&o and Khung. Book XV. Kho I. I can think of no better translation for ^] j^, the two first characters of the Book, and which appear as its title, than our * Ingrained Ideas;' notions^ that is, held as firmly as if they were cut into the substance of the mind. They do not belong to the whole Book, however, but only to the first member of the first paragraph. That paragraph describes six classes of men, only the last of which are the right followers of the TSlo ; — the Sages, from the T^oistic point of view, who again are in the last sentence of the last paragraph identified with * the True Men ' described at length in the sixth Book. The fifth member of this first paragraph is interesting as showing how there was a class of T^oists who cultivated the system with a view to obtain lot^^evity by their practices in the management of the breath ; yet our author does not accord to them his full approbation^ while at the same time the higher Tioism Bp- pears in the last paragraph, as promoting longevity without the management of the breath. KAd Po-hsiQ, in his com- mentary on ATwang-jze, which was published in 12110, gives Po-t and ShU'iAi as instances of the first class spoken of here ; Confucius and Mencius, of the second ; 1 Yin and Fd Yueh, of the third ; KA&o Ffl and Hsii Yft, as instances of the fourth. Of the fifth class he gives no example, but that of PhSing 3^ mentioned in it. That which distinguishes the genuine sage, the True Man of T&oism, is his pure simplicity in pursuing the Way, as it is seen in the operation of Heaven and Earth, and nourishing his spirit accordingly, till there ensues an ethereal amalgamation between his Way and the orderly operation of Heaven. This subject is pursued to the end of the Book. The most remarkable predicate of the spirit so trained is that in the third paragraph^ — that ' Its name is the BK. XVI. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 47 same as Ti or God ; ' on which none of the critics has been able to throw any satisfactory light. Balfour's version is : — ' Its name is called " One with God ; " ' Giles's, * Its name is then " Of God," * the * then ' being in conse- quence of his view that the subject is 'man's spiritual existaice before he is bom into the world of mortals.' My own view of the meaning appears in my version. Lin Hsi-^ung, however, calls the genuineness of the whole Book into question, and thinks it may have proceeded from the same hand as Book XIII. They have certainly one peculiarity in common ; — many references to sayings which cannot be traced, but are introduced by the formula of quotation, ' Therefore, it is said.' Book XVI. Shan Hsing. * Rectifying or Correcting the Nature ' is the meaning of the title, and expresses sufficiently well the subject-matter of the Book. It was written to expose the * vulgar * learn- ing of the time as contrary to the principles of the true Tioism, that learning being, according to LO Sh(i-^ih, *the teachings of Hui-jze and Kung-sun Lung.' It is to be wished that we had fuller accounts of these. But see in Book XXXIII. Many of the critics are fond of comparing the Book with the 2ist chapter of the 7th Book of Mencius, part i, — where that philosopher sets forth * Man's own nature as the most important thing to him, and the source of his true enjoyment,' which no one can read without admiration. But we have more sympathy with Mencius's fundamental views about our human nature, than with those of ATwang- )ze and his T&oism. Lin Hs}->&ung is rather inclined to doubt the genuineness of the Book. Though he admires its composition, and admits the close and compact sequence of its sentences, there is yet something about it that does not smack of A'wang-jze's style. Rather there seems to me to underlie it the antagonism of L&o and KwRng to the learning of the Confucian school. The only characteristic L 2 148 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. xvii. of our author which I miss, is the illustrative stories of which he is generally so profuse. In this the Book agrees with the preceding. Book XVII. KniH Shui. Khiia Shui, or 'Autumn Waters/ the first two characters 6f the first paragraph of this Book, are adopted as its title. Its subject, in that paragraph, however, is not so much the waters of autumn, as the greatness of the T4o in its spon- taneity, when it has obtained complete dominion over man. No illustration of the Tio is so great a favourite with L4o-jze as water, but he loved to set it forth in its quiet, onward movement, always seeking the lowest place, and always exercising a beneficent influence. But water is here before ATwang-jze in its mightiest volume, — the inundated Ho and the all but boundless magnitude of the ocean ; and as he* takes occasion from those phenomena to deliver his lessons, I translate the title by * The Floods of Autumn.' To adopt the account of the Book given by L(i Shfl- ^ih : — * This Book,* he says, * shows how its spontaneity is the greatest characteristic of the Tdo, and the chief thing inculcated in it is that we must not allow the human element to extinguish in our constitution the Heavenly. ' First, using the illustrations of the Ho and the Sea, our author gives us to see the Five Tis and the Kings of the Three dynasties as only exhibiting the T&o in a small de-* gree, while its great development is not to be found in out« ward form and appliances so that it cannot be described in words, and it is difficult to find its point of commencement, which indeed appears to be impracticable, while still by doing nothing the human may be united with the Heavenly, and men may bring back their True condition. By means of the conversations between the guardian spirit of the Ho and Zo (the god) of the Sea this subject is exhaustively treated. *Next (in paragraph 8), the khwei, the millepede, and other subjects illustrate how the mind is spirit-like in its spontaneity and doing nothing. The case of Confucius (in par. 9) shows the same spontaneity, transforming violence. II 9^.^.- >_% Ki^^ ■!■ I ^ iiM ju U KJBBC^BWSa BK. XVIII. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 49 Kung-sun Lung (in par. 10), refusing to comply with that spontaneity, and seeking victory by his sophistical reason- ings, shows his wisdom to be only like the folly of the frog in the well. The remaining three paragraphs bring before us A'wang-jze by the spontaneity of his T4o, now isuperior to the allurements of rank ; then, like the phoenix flying aloft, as enjoying himself in perfect ease ; and finally, as like the fishes, in the happiness of his self-possession.' Such is a brief outline of this interesting chapter. Many of the critics would expunge the ninth and tenth paragraphs as unworthy of TiTwang-jze, the former as misrepresenting Confucius, the latter as extolling himself. I think they may both be allowed to stand as from his pencil. Book XVIII. Km Lo. The title of this Book, ATih Lo, or * Perfect Enjoyment/ may also be received as describing the subject-matter of it. But the author does not tell us distinctly what he means by ' Perfect Enjoyment' It seems to involve two elements, — freedom from trouble and distress, and freedom from the fear of death. What men seek for as their chief good would only be to him burdens. He does not indeed alto- gether condemn them, but his own quest is the better and more excellent way. His own enjoyment is to be obtained by means of doing nothing ; that is, by the Tdo ; of which passionless and purposeless action is a chief characteristic ; and is at the same time the most effective action, as is illus- trated in the operation of heaven and earth. Such is the substance of the first paragraph. The second is interesting as showing how his principle controlled iTwang-jze on the death of his wife. Paragraph 3 shows us two professors of TAoism delivered by it from the fear of their own death. Paragraph 4 brings our author be- fore us talking to a skull, and then the skull's appearance to him in a dream and telling him of the happiness of the state after death. Paragraph 5 is occupied with Con- fucius and his favourite disciple Yen Hui. It stands by itself, unconnected with the rest of the Book, and its 1 50 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XIX, genuineness is denied by some commentators. The last paragraph, found in an enlarged form in the Books ascribed to Lieh-jze, has as little to do as the fifth with the general theme of the Book, and is a strange anticipation in China of the transrotation or transformation system of Buddhism. Indeed, after reading this Book, we cease to wonder that T&oism and Buddhism should in many practices come so near each other. Book XIX. TA ShAng. I have been inclined to translate the title of this Book by * The Fuller Understanding of Life,' with reference to what is said in the second Book on * The Nourishment of the Lord of Life.' There the Life before the mind of the writer is that of the Body ; here he extends his view also to the Life of the Spirit. The one subject is not kept, however, with sufficient distinctness apart from the other, and the profusion of illustrations, taken, most of them, from the works of Lieh-jze, is perplexing. To use the words of Ld ShA-^ih : — * This Book shows how he who would skilfully nourish his life, must maintain his spirit complete, and become one with Heaven. These two ideas preside in it throughout. In par. 2, the words of the Warden Yin show that the spirit kept complete is beyond the reach of harm. In 3, the illustration of the hunchback shows how the will must be maintained free from all confusion. In 4, that of the ferryman shows that to the completeness of the spirit there is required the dis- regard of life or death. In 5 and 6, the words of Thien Khki-Hh convey a warning against injuring the life by the indulgence of sensual desires. In 7, the sight of a sprite by duke Hwan unsettles his spirit. In 8, the gamecock is trained so as to preserve the spirit unagitated. In 9, we see the man in the water of the cataract resting calmly in his appointed lot. In 10, we have the maker of the bell- stand completing his work as he did in accordance with the mind of Heaven. All these instances show how the BK. XXI. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I5I spirit is nourished. The reckless charioteering of Tung Yfi in par. 11, not stopping when the strength of his horses was exhausted, and the false pretext of Sun Hsiii, clear as at noon-day, are instances of a different kind ; while in the skilful Shui, hardly needing the application of his mind, and fully enjoying himself in all things, his movements testify of his harmony with Heaven, and his spiritual completeness.' Book XX. Shan MO. It requires a little effort to perceive that Shan MQ, the title of this Book, does not belong to it as a whole, but only to the first of its nine paragraphs. That speaks of a large tree which our author once saw on a mountain. The other paragraphs have nothing to do with mountain trees, lai^e or small. As the last Book might be considered to be supplementary to ' the Nourishment of Life,' discussed in Book III, so this is taken as having the same relation to Book IV, which treats of ' Man in the World, associated with other men.' It shows by its various narratives, some of which are full of interest, how by a strict observance of the principles and lessons of the Tilo a man may preserve his life and be happy, may do the right thing and enjoy himself and obtain the approbation of others in the various circumstances in which he may be placed. The themes both of Books I and IV blend together in it. Paragraph 8 has more the character of an apologue than most of ATwang-jze's stories. Book XXI. Thien 3ze-fang. Thien 3ze-fang is merely the name of one of the men who appear in the first paragraph. That he was a his- torical character is learned from the * Plans of the Warring States/ XIV, art. 6, where we find him at the court of the marquis Win of Wei (b. c. 424-387), acting as counsellor to that ruler. Thien was his surname ; 3ze-fang his designa- 152 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xxil. tion, and Wu-^i his name. He has nothing to do with any of the paragraphs but the first It is not easy to reduce all the narratives or stories in the Book to one category. The fifth, seventh, and eighth, indeed, are generally rejected as spurious, or unworthy of our author ; and the sixth and ninth are trivial, though the ninth bears all the marks of his graphic style. Paragraphs 3 and 4 are both long and important. A common idea in them and in i, 2, and 10 seems to be that the presence and power of the T&o cannot be communicated by words, and are independent of outward condition and circumstances. Book XXII. Km Pei YO. With this Book the Second Part of iTwang-jze's Essays or Treatises ends. * All the Books in it/ says LH Sh(i->&ih, * show the opposition of Tloism to the pursuit of know- ledge as enjoined in the Confucian and other schools ; and this Book may be regarded as the deepest, most vehement, and clearest of them all.' The concluding sentences of the last paragraph and Ldo-jze's advice to Confucius in par. 5, to * sternly repress his knowledge,* may be referred to as illustrating the correctness of hh^s remark. Book seventeenth is commonly considered to be the most eloquent of -ATwang-jze's Treatises, but this twenty-second Book is not inferior to it in eloquence, and it is more charac- teristic of his method of arg^ument. The way in which he runs riot in the names with which he personifies the attri- butes of the T&o, is a remarkable instance of the subtle manner in which he often brings out his ideas ; and in no other Book does he set forth more emphatically what his own idea of the T^o was, though the student often fails to be certain that he has exactly caught the meaning. The title, let it be observed, belongs only to the first paragraph. The ATih in it must be taken in the sense of * knowledge,* and not of * wisdom.* BK, XXlV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 53 Book XXIII. KAng-sang Kiit. It is not at all certain that there ever was such a per- sonage as Kang-sang A'^ii, who gives its name to the Book. In his brief memoir of A'wang-jze, Sze-m4 ATAien spells, as we should say, the first character of the surname differently, and for the Kang (^^, employs Khang (^fQt adding his own opinion, that there was nothing in reality corresponding to the account given of the characters in this and some other Books. They would be therefore the inventions of ATwang-jze, devised by him to serve his purpose in setting forth the teaching of Ldo-jze. It may have been so, but the value of the Book would hardly be thereby affected. Lfi Sh6-^ib gives the following very brief account of the contents. Borrowing the language of Mencius concerning Yen Hui and two other disciples of Confucius as compared with the sage, he says, * Kang-sang KhiX had all the mem- bers of Ldo-jze, but in small proportions. To outward appearance he was above such as abjure sagehood and put knowledge away, but still he was unable to transform Nan- yung Kh% whom therefore he sent to Lfto-jze; and he announced to him the doctrine of the T&o that everything was done by doing nothing.' The reader will see that this is a very incomplete sum- mary of the contents of the Book. We find in it the TAoistic ideal of the ' Perfect Man,' and the discipline both of body and mind through the depths of the system by means of which it is possible for a disciple to become such. Book XXIV. Hsu W^-kwei. This Book is named from the first three characters in it, the surname and name of Hsii Wft-kwei, who plays the most important part in the first two paragraphs, and does not further appear. He comes before us as a well-known recluse of Wei, who visits the court to offer his counsels to the marquis of the state. But whether there ever was such 154 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. xxv. a man, or whether he was only a creation of ATwang-jze, we cannot, so far as I know, tell. Scattered throughout the Book are the lessons so common with our author against sagehood and knowledge, and on the quality of doing nothing and thereby securing the doii^ of everything. The concluding chapter is one of the finest descriptions in the whole Work of the Tio and of the T&oistic idea of Heaven. 'There are in the Book,' says LO Fang, ' many dark and mysterious expressions. It is not to be read hastily ; but the more it is studied, the more flavour will there be found in it.' Book XXV. 3eh-yang. This Book is named from the first two characters in it, — *3eh-yang,' which again are the designation of a gentle- man of Ldl, called PhSng Yang, who comes before us in KkiX^ seeking for an introduction to the king of that state, with the view, we may suppose, of giving him good counsel. Whether he ever got the introduction which he desired we do not know. The mention of him only serves to bring in three other individuals, all belonging to KhiX^ and the characters of two of them ; but we hear no more of 3eh-yang. The second and third paragraphs are, probably, sequels to the first, but his name does not appear. The paragraphs from 4 to 9 have more or less interest in themselves ; but it is not easy to trace in them any sequence of thought. The tenth and eleventh are more important. The former deals with * the Talk of the Hamlets and Vil- lages,' the common sentiments of men, which, correct and just in themselves, are not to be accepted as a sufficient expression of the Tdo ; the latter sets forth how the name T&o itself is only a metaphorical term, used for the pur- pose of description ; as if the T4o were a thing, and not capable, therefore, from its material derivation of giving adequate expression to our highest notion of what it is. ' The Book,' says LA Shii-^tih, * illustrates how the Great T4o cannot be described by any name ; that men ought to BK.zxyii« BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 55 stop where they do not really know, and not try to find it in any phenomenon, or in any event or thing. They must forget both speech and silence, and then they may approxi- mate to the idea of the Great T4o.' Book XXVI. WAi WO. The first two characters of the first paragraph are again adopted as the title of the Book,— W4i Wa, 'External Things ;' and the lesson supposed to be taught in it is that expressed in the first sentence, that the influence of external things on character and condition cannot be determined beforehand. It may be good, it may be evil. Mr. Balfour has translated the two characters by * External Advantages.' Hil WSn-ying interprets them of * External Disadvantages.' The things may in fact be either of these. What seems useless may be productive of the greatest services ; and what men deem most advantageous may turn out to be most hurtful to them. What really belongs to man is the T4o. That is his own, sufficient for his happiness, and cannot be taken from him, if he prize it and cultivate it. But if he neglect it, and yield to external influences unfavourable to it, he may become bad, and sufler all that is most hateful to him and injurious. Readers must judge for themselves of the way in which the subject is illustrated in the various paragraphs. Some of the stories are pertinent enough ; others are wide of the mark. The second, third, and fourth paragraphs are gene- rally held to be spurious, * poor in composition, and not at all to the point.' If my note on the * six faculties of percep- tion ' in par. 9 be correct, we must admit in it a Buddhistic hand, modifying the conceptions of ATwang-jze after he had passed away. Book XXVII. Yt) Yen. Yu Yen, * Metaphorical Words,' stand at the commence- ment of the Book, and have been adopted as its name. 1 56 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xxvin. They might be employed to denote its first paragraph, but are not applicable to the Book as a whole. Nor let the reader expect to find even here any disquisition on the nature of the metaphor as a figure of speech. Translated literally, 'Yii Yen' are 'Lodged Words,' that is, Ideas that receive their meaning or character from their environ- ment, the narrative or description in which they are deposited. ATwang-jze wished, I suppose, to give some description of the style in which he himself wrote : — now metaphorical^ now abounding in quotations, and throughout moulded by his Taoistic views. This last seems to be the meaning of his A"ih Yen, — literally, * Cup, or Goblet, Words,* that is, words, common as the water constantly supplied in the cup, but all moulded by the T&oist principle, the element of and from Heaven blended in man's constitution and that should direct and guide his conduct. The best help in the interpretation of the paragraph is derived from a study of the difficult second Book, as suggested in the notes. Of the five paragraphs that follow the first, the second relates to the change of views, which, it is said, took place in Confucius ; the third, to the change of feeling in 3ang-jze in his poverty and prosperity ; the fourth, to changes of character produced in his disciple by the teachings of Tung- kwo ^ze-i/ii ; the fifth, to the changes in the appearance of the shadow produced by the ever-changing substance; and the sixth, to the change of spirit and manner produced in Yang Kh by the stem lesson of L4o-jze. Various other lessons, more or less appropriate and im- portant, are interspersed. Some critics argue that this Book must have originally been one with the thirty-second, which was made into two by the insertion between its Parts of the four spurious intervening Books, but this is uncertain and unlikely. Book XXVIII. Zang Wang. ZangWang, explaining the characters as I have done. BK. XXIX. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 57 fairly indicates the subject-matter of the Book. Not that we have a king in every illustration, but the personages adduced are always men of worth, who decline the throne, or gift, or distinction of whatever nature, proffered to them, and feel that they have something better to live for. A persuasion, however, is widely spread, that this Book and the three that follow are all spurious. The first critic of note to challenge their genuineness was SQ Shih (better known as SCi Tung-pho, A. D. 1036-1 loi); and now, some of the best editors, such as Lin Hst-^ng, do not admit them into their texts, while others who are not bold enough to exclude them altogether, do not think it worth their while to discuss them seriously. Hfl Wan-ying, for in- stance, says, * Their style is poor and mean, and they are, without doubt, forgeries. I will not therefore trouble myself with comments of praise or blame upon them. The reader may accept or reject them at his pleasure.' But something may be said for them. Sze-mi Khien seems to have been acquainted with them all. In his short biographical notice of ATwang-jze, he says, * He made the Old Fisherman, the Robber ATih, and the Cutting Open Satchels, to defame and calumniate the disciples of Confucius.' AT^ien does not indeed mention our present Book along with XXX and XXXI, but it is less open to objection on the ground he mentions than they are. I think if it had stood alone, it would not have been condemned. Book XXIX. TAo Km. It has been seen above that Sze-m4 Kkxen expressly ascribes the Book called * the Robber ATih * to ATwang- jze. KAien refers also in another place to Kih, adducing the facts of his history in contrast with those about Confucius' favourite disciple Yen Hui as inexplicable on the supposition of a just and wise Providence. We must conclude therefore that the Book existed in A!'Aien's time, and that he had read it. On the other hand it has been shown that Confucius could not have been on terms 1 58 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XXX. of friendship with LiO-hsi& ATt, and all that is related of his brother the robber wants substantiation. That such a man ever existed appears to me very doubtful. Are we to put down the whole of the first paragraph then as a jeu d* esprit on the part of A'wang-jze, intended to throw ridicule on Confucius and what our author considered his pedantic ways ? It certainly does so, and we are amused to hear the sage outcrowed by the robber. In the other two paragraphs we have good instances of ATwang-jze's 'metaphorical expressions,' his coinage of names for his personages, more or less ingeniously indi- cating their characters ; but in such cases the element of time or chronology does not enter ; and it is the anachro- nism of the first paragraph which constitutes its chief difficulty. The name of * Robber Kih * may be said to be a coinage ; and that a famous robber was popularly indicated by the name appears from its use by Mencius (III, ii, ch. 10, 3), to explain which the commentators have invented the story of a robber so-called in the time of Hwang-T!, in the twenty- seventh century B. C. I Was there really such a l^[end? and did ATwang-jze take advantage of it to apply the name to a notorious and disreputable brother of LiCi-hsiA ATt? Still there remain the anachronisms in the paragraph which have been pointed out. On the whole we must come to a conclusion rather unfavourable to the genuineness of the Book. But it must have been forged at a very early time, and we have no idea by whom. Book XXX. Yueh ATien. We need not suppose that anything ever occurred in ATwang-jze's experience such as is described here. The whole narrative is metaphorical; and that he himself is made to play the part in it which he describes, only shows how the style of writing in which he indulged was ingrained into the texture of his mind. We do not know that there ever was a ruler of Kko who indulged in the love of the BK, XXXI. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 59 sword-fight, and kept about him a crowd of vulgar bravoes such as the story describes. We may be assured that our author never wore the bravo's dress or girt on him the bravo's sword The whole is a metaphorical representation of the way in which a besotted ruler might be brought to a feeling of his degradation, and recalled to a sense of his duty and the way in which he might fulfil it. The narrative is full of interest and force. I do not feel any great difficulty in accepting it as the genuine composition of A'wang-jze. Who but himself could have composed it ? Was it a good- humoured caricature of him by an able Confucian writer to repay him for the ridicule he was fond of casting on the sage? Book XXXI. YO-Fifr. * The Old Fisherman ' is the fourth of the Books in the collection of the writings of A'wang-jze to which, since the time of Sa Shih, the epithet of ' spurious ' has been attached by many. My own opinion, however, has been already intimated that the suspicions of the genuineness of those Books have been entertained on insufficient grounds ; and so far as 'the Old Fisherman' is concerned, I am glad that it has come down to us, spurious or genuine. There may be a certain coarseness in ' the Robber ATih,' which makes us despise Confucius or laugh at him ; but the satire in this Book is delicate, and we do not like the sage the less when he walks up the bank from the stream where he has been lectured by the fisherman. The pictures of him and his disciples in the forest, reading and singing on the Apricot Terrace, and of the old man slowly impelling his skiff to the land and then as quietly impelling it away till it is lost among the reeds, are delicious ; there is nothing finer of its kind in the volume. What hand but that of ATwang-jze, so light in its touch and yet so strong, both incisive and decisive, could have delineated them ? l60 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xxzii. Book XXXII. Lieh YC-khAu. Lieh Yii-khdu, the surname and name of Lieh-jze, with which the first paragraph commences, have become current as the name of the Book, though they have nothing to do with any but that one paragraph, which is found also in the second Book of the writings ascribed to Lieh-jze. There are some variations in the two Texts, but they are so slight that we cannot look on them as proofs that the two passages are narratives of independent origin. Various difficulties surround the questions of the existence of Lieh-jze, and of the work which bears his name. They will be found distinctly and dispassionately stated and discussed in the 146th chapter of the Catalogue of the ATAien-lung Imperial Library. The writers seem to me to make it out that there was such a man, but they do not make it clear when he lived, or how his writings assumed their present form. There is a statement of Lid Hsiang that he lived in the time of duke Md of Kaxig (B.C. 627- 606); but in that case he must have been earlier than L&o-jze himself, whom he very frequently quotes. The writers think that Lid's ' Md of ATang ' should be Md of Ld (B.C. 409-377), which would make him not much anterior to Mencius and ATwang-jze ; but this is merely an ingenious conjecture. As to the composition of his chapters, they are evidently not at first hand from Lieh, but by some one of his disciples ; whether they were current in iC'wang-jze's days, and he made use of various passages from them, or those passages were ATwang-jze's originally, and taken from him by the followers of Lieh-)ze and added to what frag- ments they had of their master's teaching ; — these are points which must be left undetermined. Whether the narrative about Lieh be from A'wang-jze or not, its bearing on his character is not readily appre- hended ; but, as we study it, we seem to understand that his master W{i-5an condemned him as not having fully attained to the T&o, but owing his influence with others BK. XXXII, BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. l6l mainly to the manifestation of his merely human qualities. And this is the lesson which our author keeps before him, more or less distinctly, in all his paragraphs. As Lil ShCi-^ih says : — 'This Book also sets forth Doing Nothing as the essential condition of the T^o. Lieh-jze, frightened at the respect shown to him by the soup-vendors, and yet by his human doings drawing men to him, disowns the rule of the heavenly ; Hwan of A'ang, thinking himself different from other men, does not know that Heaven recompenses men according to their employment of the heavenly in them ; the resting of the sages in their proper rest shows how the ancients pursued the heavenly and not the human ; the one who learned to slay the Dragon, but afterwards did not exercise his skill, begins with the human, but afterwards goes on to the heavenly ; in those who do not rest in the heavenly, and perish by the inward war, we see how the small men do not know the secret of the Great Repose; 3hao Shang, glorying in the carriages which he had ac- quired, is still farther removed from the heavenly; when Yen Ho shows that the sage, in imparting his instructions, did not follow the example of Heaven in diffusing its benefits, we learn that it is only the Doing Nothing of the True Man which is in agreement with Heaven ; the difficulty of knowing the mind of man, and the various methods required to test it, show the readiness with which, when not under the rule of Heaven, it seems to go after what is right, and the greater readiness with which it again revolts from it; in Khao-fCl, the Correct, we have one indifferent to the distinctions of rank, and from him we advance to the man who understands the great condition appointed for him, and is a follower of Heaven ; then comes he who plays the thief under the chin of the Black Dragon, running the greatest risks on a mere peradventure of success, a resolute opponent of Heaven ; and finally we have ATwang-jze despising the ornaments of the sacrificial ox, looking in the same way at the worms beneath and the kites overhead, and regarding himself as quite independent [39] M 1 62 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. XXXTII. of them, thus giving us an example of the embodiment of the spiritual, and of harmony with Heaven.' So does this ingenious commentator endeavour to ex- hibit the one idea in the Book, and show the unity of its different paragraphs. Book XXXIII. Thien Hsia. TheThien Hsi4 with which this Book commences is in regimen, and cannot be translated, so as to give an adequate idea of the scope of the Book, or even of the first paragraph to which it belongs. The phrase itself means literally * under heaven or the sky,' and is used as a denomination of * the kingdom,* and, even more widely, of * the world ' or * all men.' 'Historical Phases of TAoist Teaching' would be nearly descriptive of the subject-matter of the Book ; but may be ob- jected to on two grounds: — first, that a chronological method is not observed, and next, that the concluding paragraph can hardly be said to relate to Taoism at all, but to the sophisti- cal teachers, which abounded in the age of AJ'wang-jze. Par. I sketches with a light hand the nature of Taoism and the forms which it assumed from the earliest times to the era of Confucius, as imperfectly represented by him and his school. Par. 2 introduces us to the system of Mo Tl and his school as an erroneous form of Tfioism, and departing, as it continued, farther and farther from the old model. Par. 3 deals with a modification of Mohism, advocated by scholars who are hardly heard of elsewhere. Par. 4 treats of a further modification of this modified Mohism, held by scholars * whose TSlo was not the true T 4 o, and whose " right " was really " wrong." ' Par. 5 goes back to the era of L4o-jze, and mentions him and Kwan Yin, as the men who gave to the system of T4o a grand development. Par. 6 sets forth ATwang-jze as following in their steps and going beyond them, the brightest luminary of the system. i BK.XXXIII. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 1 63 I Par. 7 leaves TSoism, and brings up Hui Shih and other sophists. Whether the Book should be received as from A'wang-jze himself or from some early editor of his writings is * a vexed question.' If it did come from his pencil, he certainly had a good opinion of himself. It is hard for a foreign student at this distant time to be called on for an opinion on the one side or the other. M 2 THE WRITINGS OF y^WANG-SZE. BOOK I. Part I. Section I. Hsiio-ydo Yd, or 'Enjojonent in Untroubled Ease \' I. In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, the name of which is Khwin^ — I do not know how many 11 in size. It changes into a bird with the name of Phing, the back of which is (also) — I do not know how many 11 in extent. When this bird rouses itself and flies, its wings are like clouds all round the sky. When the sea is moved (so as to bear it along), it prepares to remove to the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is the Pool of Heaven. * See notice on pp. 127, 128, on the Title and Subject-matter of the Book. ' The khwSLn and the ph^ng are both fabulous creatures, far transcending in size the dimensions ascribed by the yrildest fancy of the West to the kraken and the roc. AVang-jze represents them as so huge by way of contrast to the small creatures which he is intending to introduce ; — to show that size has nothing to do with the T&o, and the perfect enjoyment which the possession of it affords. The passage is a good specimen of the Yfl Yen fSt '^), metaphorical or parabolical narratives or stories, which are the chief characteristic of our author's writings ; but the reader must keep in mind that the idea or lesson in its ' lodging ' is gene- rally of a T&oistic nature. PT. I. SECT.I. THE WRITINGS OF ^WANG-BZE. 1 65 There is the (book called) Khi Hsieh \ — a record of marvels. We have in it these words : — * When the phang is removing to the Southern Ocean it flaps (its wings) on the water for 3000 l!. Then it ascends on a whirlwind 90,000 11, and it rests only at the end of six months/ (But similar to this is the movement of the breezes which we call) the horses of the fields, of the dust (which quivers in the sun- beams), and of living things as they are blown against one another by the air^ Is its azure the proper colour of the sky ? Or is it occasioned by its distance and illimitable extent ? If one were looking down (from above), the very same appearance would just meet his view. 2. And moreover, (to speak of) the accumulation of water ; — if it be not great, it will not have strength to support a large boat. Upset a cup of water in a cavity, and a straw will float on it as if it were a boat. Place a cup in it, and it will stick fast ; — the water is shallow and the boat is large. (So it is with) the accumulation of wind ; if it be not great, it will not have strength to support great wings. Therefore (the phang ascended to) the height of 90,000 11, and there was such a mass of wind be- neath it ; thenceforth the accumulation of wind was sufficient. As it seemed to bear the blue sky on its back, and there was nothing to obstruct or arrest its course, it could pursue its way to the South. ^ There may have been a book with this title, to which i^wang-jze appeals, as if feeling that what he had said needed to be substantiated. • This seems to be interjected as an afterthought, suggesting to the reader that the ph^ng, soaring along at such a height, was only an exaggerated form of the common phenomena with which he was familiar. ^mtm 1 66 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. i. A cicada and a little dove laughed at it, saying, ' We make an effort and fly towards an elm or sapan- wood tree ; and sometimes before we reach it, we can do no more but drop to the ground. Of what use is it for this (creature) to rise 90,000 11, and make for the South ? ' He who goes to the grassy suburbs ', returning to the third meal (of the day), will have his belly as full as when he set out ; he who goes to a distance of 100 U will have to pound his grain where he stops for the night ; he who goes a thou- sand 11, will have to carry with him provisions for three months. What should these two small crea- tures know about the matter ? The knowledge of that which is small does not reach to that which is great ; (the experience of) a few years does not reach to that of many. How do we know that it is so ? The mushroom of a morning does not know (what takes place between) the beginning and end of a month ; the short-lived cicada does not know (what takes place between) the spring and autumn. These are instances of a short term of life. In the south of KAd^ there is the (tree) called Ming-ling^ whose spring is 500 years, and its autumn the same ; in high antiquity there was that called TA-^Aun*, ^ In Chinese, Mang3hang; but this is not the name of any particular place. The phrase denotes the grassy suburbs (from their green colour), not far from any city or town. ' The great state of the South, having its capital Ying in the present H(i-pei, and afterwards the chief competitor with iT^in for the sovereignty of the kingdom. ' Taken by some as the name of a tortoise. * This and the Ming- ling tree, as well as the mushroom men- tioned above, together with the khwHn and phSlng, are all mentioned in the fifth Book of the writings of Lieh-jze; referred to in the next paragraph. PT. I. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. 1 67 whose Spring was 8000 years, and its autumn the same. And Phang ^t^ is the one man renowned to the present day for his length of life : — if all men were (to wish) to match him, would they not be miserable ? 3. In the questions put by Thang* to Ki we have similar statements : — * In the bare and barren north there is the dark and vast ocean, — the Pool of Heaven. In it there is a fish, several thousand It in breadth, while no one knows its length. Its name is the khwin. There is (also) a bird named the phSng; its back is like the Thii mountain, while its wings are like clouds all round the sky. On a whirlwind it mounts upwards as on the whorls o a goat's horn for 90,000 11, till, far removed from the cloudy vapours, it bears on its back the blue sky, and then it shapes its course for the South, and pro- ceeds to the ocean there.' A quail by the side of a marsh laughed at it, and said, * Where is it going to ? I spring up with a bound, and come down again when I have reached but a few fathoms, and then fly about among the brushwood and. bushes; and * Or 'the patriarch Phing/ Confucius compared himself to him (Analects, VII, i) ;— * our old Ph&ng ; ' and Kft Hsi thinks he was a worthy officer of the Shang dynasty. Whoever he was, the legends about him are a mass of T&oistic fables. At the end of the Shang dynasty (b.c. 1123) he was more than 767 years old, and still in unabated vigour. We read of his losing 49 wives and 54 sons ; and that he still left two sons, W(^ and t, who died in Fii-^en, and gave their names to the W(i-$, or £{i-t hills, from which we get our Bohea tea I See Mayers' ' Chinese Reader's Manual,' p. 175. * The founder of the Shang dynasty (b.c. i 766-1 754). Ii Lieh-jze his interlocutor is called Hsii Ko, and Qze-kl, l68 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. I. this is the perfection of flying. Where is that crea- ture going to ? ' This shows the difference between the small and the great Thus it is that men, whose wisdom is sufficient for the duties of some one office, or whose conduct will secure harmony in some one district, or whose virtue is befitting a ruler so that they could efficiently govern some one state, are sure to look on them- selves in this manner (like the quail), and yet Yung- jze ^ of Sung * would have smiled and laughed at them. (This Yung-jze), though the whole world should have praised him, would not for that have stimulated himself to greater endeavour, and though the whole world should have condemned him, would not have exercised any more repression of his course ; so fixed was he in the difference between the internal (judgment of himself) and the external (judgment of others), so distinctly had he marked out the bounding limit of glory and disgrace. Here, however, he stopped. His place in the world indeed had become indifferent to him, but still he had not planted himself firmly (in the right position). There was Lieh-jze ^, who rode on the wind and pursued his way, with an admirable indifference (to > ^ We can hardly tell who this Yung-jze was. Sung was a duchy, comprehending portions of the present provinces of Ho- nan, An-hui, and Alang-sft. * See note on the title of Book XXXII. Whether there ever was a personage called Lieh-jze or Lieh Ytl-kh&u, and what is the real character of the writings that go under his name, are questions that cannot be more than thus alluded to in a note. He is often introduced by Awang-jze, and many narratives are common to their books. Here he comes before us, not as a thinker and writer, but as a semi-supernatural being, who has only not yet attained to the highest consummations of the T&o. PT.I. SECT.I* THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-BZE. 1 69 all external things), returning, however, after fifteen days, (to his place). In regard to the things that (are supposed to) contribute to happiness, he was free from all endeavours to obtain them ; but though he had not to walk, there was still something for which he had to wait. But suppose one who mounts on (the ether of) heaven and earth in its normal operation, and drives along the six elemental ener- gies of the changing (seasons), thus enjoying himself in the illimitable, — what has he to wait for^ ? There- fore it is said, ' The Perfect man has no (thought of) self; the Spirit-like man, none of merit; the Sagely- minded man, none of fame \' 4. Yao^ proposing to resign the throne to Hsu Yft^ said, 'When the sun and moon have come forth, if the torches have not been put out, would it not be difficult for them to give light ? When the seasonal rains are coming down, if we still keep watering the ground, will not our toil be labour lost for all the good it will do ? Do you. Master, stand forth (as sovereign), and the kingdom will (at once) be well governed. If I still (continue to) preside over it, I must look on myself as vainly occupying the place ; — I beg to resign the throne to you/ Hsu * The description of a master of the Tao, exalted by it, unless the predicates about him be nothing but the ravings of a wild ex- travagance, above mere mortal man. In the conclusion, however, he is presented under three different phrases, which the reader will do well to keep in mind. * The great sovereign with whom the documents of the Sh& Alng commence : — b. c. 2357-2257. * A counsellor of Ydo, who is once mentioned by Sze-mi A'^ien in his account of Po-t, — in the first Book of his Biographies (^J 'ft)' ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ instance of * the Sagely man,' with whom the desire of a name or fame has no influence. 170 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. I. Yd said, 'You, Sir, govern the kingdom, and the kingdom is well governed. If I in these circum- stances take your place, shall I not be doing so for the sake of the name ? But the name is but the guest of the reality; — ^shall I be playing the part of the guest? The tailor-bird makes its nest in the deep forest, but only uses a single branch ; the mole ^ drinks from the Ho, but only takes what fills its belly. Return and rest in being ruler, — I will have nothing to do with the throne. Though the cook were not attending to his kitchen, the representative of the dead and the officer of prayer would not leave their cups and stands to take his place.' 5. ATien WO ^ asked Lien ShA ■, saying, ' I heard JCAieh-yu ^ talking words which were gfreat, but had nothing corresponding to them (in reality) ; -once gone, they could not be brought back. I was fright- ened by them ; — they were like the Milky Way * which cannot be traced to its beginning or end. They had no connexion with one another, and were not akin to the experiences of men.' ' What were his words ? ' asked Lien ShA, and the other replied, (He said) that 'Far away on the hill of KA-shih* there dwelt a Spirit-like man whose flesh and skin * Some say the tapir. * Known to us only through Awang-jze. ' • The madman ofJ^Ad* of the Analects, XVIII, 5, who eschews intercourse with Confucius. See Hwang-fii Mf s account of him, under the surname and name of LQ Thung, in his Notices of Emi- nent Tdoists, I, 25. * Literally, 'the Ho and the Han;' but the name of those rivers combined was used to denote * the Milky Way.' ' See the Khang-hst Thesaurus under the character fff. All which is said about the hill is that it was ' in the North Sea.' PT. I. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. I7I were (smooth) as ice and (white) as snow ; that his manner was elegant and delicate as that of a virgin ; that he did not eat any of the five grains, but in- haled the wind and drank the dew ; that he mounted on the clouds, drove along the flying dragons, ram- bling and enjoying himself beyond the four seas; that by the concentration of his spirit-like powers he could save men from disease and pestilence, and secure every year a plentiful harvest/ These words appeared to me wild and incoherent and I did not believe them. * So it is,' said Lien Sh6. * The blind have no perception of the beauty of elegant figures, nor the deaf of the sound of bells and drums. But is it only the bodily senses of which deafness and blindness can be predicated ? There is also a simi- lar defect in the intelligence ; and of this your words supply an illustration in yourself. That man, with those attributes, though all things were one mass of confusion, and he heard in that condition the whole world crying out to him to be rectified, would not have to address himself laboriously to the task, as if it were his business to rectify the world. Nothing could hurt that man ; the gp-eatest floods, reaching to the sky, could not drown him, nor would he feel the fervour of the greatest heats melting metals and stones till they flowed, and scorching all the ground and hills. From the dust and chaff of himself, he could still mould and fashion YSlos and Shuns ^ ; — how should he be willing to occupy himself with things*?' ^ Shun was the successor of Y&o in the ancient kingdom. * All this description is to give us an idea of the 'Spirit-like man.' We have in it the results of the T&o in its fullest em- bodiment. A 172 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. I. 6. A man of Sung, who dealt in the ceremonial caps (of Yin)^, went with them to Ylieh*, the people of which cut off their hair and tattooed their bodies, so that they had no use for them. Ydo ruled the people of the kingdom, and maintained a perfect government within the four seas. Having gone to see the four (Perfect) Ones * on the distant hill of KA-shih, when (he returned to his capital) on the south of the Fin water*, his throne appeared no more to his deep-sunk oblivious eyes *. 7. Hui-jze* told ATwang-jze, saying, *The king of Wei ^ sent me some seeds of a large calabash, which I sowed. The fruit, when fully grown, could contain five piculs (of anything). I used it to contain water, * See the Lt ITi, IX, iii, 3. * A state, part of the present province of Aleh-^ang. ' Said to have been HsCl Yft mentioned above, with Nieh JTAtteh, Wang 1, and Phi-f, who will by and by come before us. * A river in Shan-hsi, on which was the capital of Ydo ; — a tribu- tary of the Ho. * This paragraph is intended to give us an idea of * the Perfect man,' who has no thought of himself. The description, however, is brief and tame, compared with the accounts of Hsti Yd and of * the Spirit-like man.' * Or Hui Shih, the chief minister of ' king Hui of Liang (or Wei), (b. c. 370-333)/ with an interview between whom and Men- cius the works of that philosopher commence. He was a friend of ATwang-jze, and an eccentric thinker; and in Book XXXIII there is a long account of several of his views. I do not think that the conversations about ' the great calabash ' and * the great tree ' really took place ; A'wang-jze probably invented them, to illustrate his point that size had nothing to do with the Tao, and that things which seemed useless were not really so when righdy used. ' Called also Liang from the name of its capital. Wei was one of the three states (subsequently kingdoms), into which the great fief of 3^1^ was divided about b. c. 400. PT.I. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 1 73 but it was so heavy that I could not lift it by myself. I cut it in two to make the parts into drinking vessels; but the dried shells were too wide and unstable and would not hold (the liquor); nothing but large useless things ! Because of their useless- ness I knocked them to pieces.' ATwang-jze replied, ' You were indeed stupid, my master, in the use of what was large. There was a man of Sung who was skilful at making a salve which kept the hands from getting chapped ; and (his family) for genera- tions had made the bleaching of cocoon-silk their business. A stranger heard of it, and proposed to buy the art of the preparation for a hundred ounces of silver. The kindred all came together, and con- sidered the proposal. " We have," said they, " been bleaching cocoon-silk for generations, and have only gained a little money. Now in one morning we can sell to this man our art for a hundred ounces ; — let him have it." The stranger accordingly got it and went away with it to give counsel to the king of Wfl*,whowas then engaged in hostilities with Yiieh. The king gave him the command of his fleet, and in the winter he had an engagement with that of Yiieh, on which he inflicted a great defeat ^, and was invested with a portion of territory taken from Yiieh. The keeping the hands from getting chapped was the same in both cases; but in the one case it led to the investiture (of the possessor of the salve), and * A great and ancient state on the sea-board, north of Ytieh. The name remains in the district of Wd-^iang in the prefecture of Sii-^u. * The salve gave the troops of WA a great advantage in a war on the JTvajig, especially in winter. 174 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. I- in the other it had only enabled its owners to con- tinue their bleaching. The difference of result was owing to the different use made of the art. Now you, Sir, had calabashes large enough .to hold five piculs; — why did you not think of making large bottle-gourds of them, by means of which you could have floated over rivers and lakes, instead of giving yourself the sorrow of finding that they were useless for holding anything. Your mind, my master, would seem to have been closed against all intelligence !* Hui-jze said to Awang-jze, * I have a large tree, which men call the Ailantus ^ Its trunk swells out to a large size, but is not fit for a carpenter to apply his line to it ; its smaller branches are knotted and crooked, so that the disk and square cannot be used on them. Though planted on the wayside, a builder would not turn his head to look at it. Now your words. Sir, are great, but of no use ; — ^all unite in putting them away from them.* A^vang-jze replied, * Have you never seen a wild cat or a weasel ? There it lies, crouching and low, till the wanderer ap- proaches ; east and west it leaps about, avoiding neither what is high nor what is low, till it is caught in a trap, or dies in a net Again there is the Yak ^, so large that it is like a cloud hanging in the sky. It is large indeed, but it cannot catch mice. You, Sir, have a large tree and are troubled because it is of no use ; — why do you not plant it in a tract where there is nothing else, or in a wide and barren wild ? ^ The Ailantus glandulosa, common in the north of China, called * the fetid tree,' from the odour of its leaves. ' The bos grunniens of Thibet, the long tail of which is in great demand for making standards and chowries. PT. I. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE, 1 75 There you might saunter idly by its side, or in the enjoyment of untroubled ease sleep beneath it. Neither bill nor axe would shorten its existence; there would be nothing to injure it. What is there in its uselessness to cause you distress ? ' 176 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. II. BOOK II. Part I. Section II. Khi Wfi Lun, or 'The Adjustment of Controversies ^' I. Nan-kwo ^z^-khi * was seated, leaning for- ward on his stool. He was looking up to heaven and breathed gently, seeming to be in a trance, and to have lost all consciousness of any companion. (His disciple), Yen Kh^ng ^z^-yii *, who was in attendance and standing before him, said, * What is this ? Can the body be made to become thus like a withered tree, and the mind to become like slaked lime ? His appearance as he leans forward on the stool to-day is such as I never saw him have before in the same position.* ^z^-khi said, 'Yen, you do well to ask such a question, I had just now lost myself*; but how should you understand it? You * See pp. 128-130. • Nan-kwo, 'the southern suburb,' had probably been the quarter where ^ze-kh\ had resided, and is used as his surname. He is introduced several times by ATwang-jze in his writings : — Books IV, 7 ; XXVII, 4, and perhaps elsewhere. ^ We have the surname of this disciple. Yen (j^); his name, Yen (j^); his honorary or posthumous epithet (iST^^ng); and his ordinary appellation, ^zt-yt. The use of the epithet shows that he and his master had lived before our author. ^ ' He had lost himself;' that is, he had become unconscious of all aroilhd him, and even of himself, as if he were about to enter PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF inVANG-3ZE. 1 77 may have heard the notes ^ of Man, but have not heard those of Earth ; you may have heard the notes of Earth, but have not heard those of Heaven.' 3ze-yft said, ' I venture to ask from you a descrip- tion of all these/ The reply was, 'When the breath of the Great Mass (of nature) comes strongly, it is called Wind. Sometimes it does not come so; but when it does, then from a myriad apertures there issues its excited noise ; — have you not heard it in a prolonged gale ? Take the projecting bluff of a mountain forest; — in the great trees, a hundred spans round, the apertures and cavities are like the nostrils, or the mouth, or the ears ; now square, now round like a cup or a mortar ; here like a wet foot- print, and there like a large puddle. (The sounds issuing from them are like) those of fretted water, of the arrowy whizz, of the stern command, of the in- haling of the breath, of the shout, of the gruff note, of the deep wail, of the sad and piping note. The first notes are slight, and those that follow deeper, but in harmony with them. Gentle winds produce a small response ; violent winds a great one. When the fierce gusts have passed away, all the apertures into the state of ' an Immortal/ a mild form of the Buddhistic samddhi. But his attitude and appearance were intended by JTwang-jze to indicate what should be the mental condition in reference to the inquiry pursued in the Book; — a condition, it appears to me, of agnosticism. See the account of Ldo-jze in a similar trance in Book XXI, par. 4. * The Chinese term here (Idi) denotes a reed or pipe, with three holes, by a combination of which there was formed the rudimentary or reed organ. Our author uses it for the sounds or notes heard in nature, various as the various opinions of men in their discussions about things. [39] N 178 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. 11. are empty (and still) ; — have you not seen this in the bending and quivering of the branches and leaves ? ' 3ze-y6 said, ' The notes of Earth then are simply those which come from its myriad apertures ; and the notes of Man may just be compared to those which (are brought from the tubes of) bamboo ; — allow me to ask about the notes of Heaven ^' 3ze- khi replied, * When (the wind) blows, (the sounds from) the myriad apertures are different, and (its cessation) makes them stop of themselves. Both of these things arise from (the wind and the apertures) themselves : — should there be any other agency that excites them ? ' 2. Great knowledge is wide and comprehensive ; small knowledge is partial and restricted. Great speech is exact and complete ; small speech is (merely) so much talk *. When we sleep, the soul communicates with (what is external to us) ; when we awake, the body is set free. Our intercourse with others then leads to various activity, and daily there is the striving of mind with mind. There are hesitancies; deep difficulties; reservations; small apprehensions causing restless distress, and great ^ The sounds of Earth have been described fully and graphic- ally. Of the sounds of Man very little is said, but they form the subject of the next paragraph. Nothing is said in answer to the disciple's inquiry about the notes of Heaven, It is intimated, how- ever, that there is no necessity to introduce any foreign Influence or Power like Heaven in connexion with the notes of Earth. The term Heaven, indeed, is about to pass with our author into a mere synonym of Tdo, the natural ' course' of the phenomena of men and things. ' Words are the ' sounds ' of Man ; and knowledge is the ' wind' by which they are excited. PT. I. SECT. II . THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 1 79 apprehensions producing endless fears. Where their utterances are like arrows from a bow, we have those who feel it their charge to pronounce what is right and what is wrong ; where they are given out like the conditions of a covenant, we have those who maintain their views, determined to overcome. (The weakness of their arguments), like the decay (of things) in autumn and winter, shows the failing (of the minds of some) from day to day ; or it is like their water which, once voided, cannot be gathered up again. Then their ideas seem as if fast bound with cords, showing that the mind is become like an old and dry moat, and that it is nigh to death, and cannot be restored to vigour and brightness. Joy and anger, sadness and pleasure, anticipation and regret, fickleness and fixedness, vehemence and indolence, eagerness and tardiness; — (all these moods), like music from an empty tube, or mush- rooms from the warm moisture, day and night succeed to one another and come before us, and we do not know whence they sprout. Let us stop ! Let us stop ! Can we expect to find out suddenly how they are produced ? If there were not (the views of) another, I should not have mine ; if there were not I (with my views), his would be uncalled for : — this is nearly a true state- ment of the case, but we do not know what it is that makes it be so. It might seem as if there would be a true Governor ^ concerned in it, but we do not find * * A true Governor ' would be a good enough translation for * the true God/ But -S^vang-jze did not admit any supernatural Power or Being as working in man. His true Governor was the TSo; and this will be increasingly evident as we proceed with the study of his Books. N 2 l8o THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. II. any trace (of his presence and acting). That such an One could act so I believe ; but we do not see His form. He has affections, but He has no form. Given the body, with its hundred parts, its nine openings, and its six viscera, all complete in their places, which do I love the most ? Do you love them all equally ? or do you love some more than others ? Is it not the case that they all perform the part of your servants and waiting women ? All of them being such, are they not incompetent to rule one another ? or do they take it in turns to be now ruler and now servants ? There must be a true Ruler (among them) ^ whether by searching you can find out His character or not, there is neither advan- tage nor hurt, so far as the truth of His operation is concerned. When once we have received the bodily form complete, its parts do not fail to perform their functions till the end comes. In conflict with things or in harmony with them, they pursue their course to the end, with the speed of a galloping horse which cannot be stopped ; — is it not sad ? To be constantly toiling all one s lifetime, without see- ing the fruit of one's labour, and to be weary and worn out with his labour, without knowing where he is going to : — is it not a deplorable case ? Men may say, * But it is not death ;* yet of what advan- tage is this ? When the body is decomposed, the mind will be the same along with it : — must not the case be pronounced very deplorable ^? Is the life * The name * Ruler ' is different from * Governor ' above ; but they both indicate the same concept in the author's mind. The proper reply to this would be that the mind is not dis- solved with the body; and Alwang-jze's real opinion, as we shall find, was that life and death were but phases in the phenomenal PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. l8l of man indeed enveloped in such darkness ? Is it I alone to whom it appears so ? And does it not appear to be so to other men ? 3. If we were to follow the judgments of the pre- determined mind, who would be left alone and without a teacher ^ ? Not only would it be so with those who know the sequences (of knowledge and feeling) and make their own selection among them, but it would be so as well with the stupid and unthinking. For one who has not this determined mind, to have his affirmations and negations is like the case described in the saying, * He went to YUeh to-day, and arrived at it yesterday *.' It would be making what was not a fact to be a fact But even the spirit-like Yu • could not have known how to do this, and how should one like me be able to do it ? But speech is not like the blowing (of the wind) ; the speaker has (a meaning in) his words. If, how- ever, what he says, be indeterminate (as from a mind not made up), does he then really speak or not ? He thinks that his words are different from the chirpings of fledgelings ; but is there any distinction between them or not ? But how can the T & o be so obscured, that there should be ' a True ' and * a False ' in it ? How can speech be so obscured that there should be * the Right ' and * the Wrong ' about them ? Where shall the T4o go to that it will not development But the course of his argument suggests to us the question here, * Is life worth living ? ' » This 'teacher' is *the TSo.' • Expressing the absurdity of the case. This is one of the sayings of Hui-jze; — see Book XXXIII, par. 7. ' The successor and counsellor of Shun, who coped with and remedied the flood of Ydo, 1 82 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. n. be found ? Where shall speech be found that it will be inappropriate? TSo becomes obscured through the small comprehension (of the mind), and speech comes to be obscure through the vain-glori- ousness (of the speaker). So it is that we have the contentions between the Literati ^ and the Mohists *, the one side affirming what the other denies, and vice versA. If we would decide on their several affirmations and denials, no plan is like bringing the (proper) light (of the mind) ^ to bear on them. All subjects may be looked at from (two points of view), — from that and from this. If I look at a thing from another's point of view, I do not see it ; only as I know it myself, do I know it. Hence it is said, * That view comes from this ; and this view is a consequence of that : ' — which is the theory that that view and this — (the opposite views) — produce each the other *. Although it be so, there is affirmed now life and now death ; now death and now life ; now the admissibility of a thing and now its inadmis- sibility ; now its inadmissibility and now its admis- sibility. (The disputants) now affirm and now deny; now deny and now affirm. Therefore the sagely man does not pursue this method, but views things in the light of (his) Heaven* (-ly nature), and hence forms his judgment of what is right. * The followers of Confucius. * The disciples of Mih-jze, or Mih Tt, the heresiarch, whom Mencius attacked so fiercely ; — see Mencius, V, i, 5, et al. His era must be assigned between Confucius and Mencius. ' That is, the perfect mind, the principle of the Tdo. * As taught by Hui-jze ;— see XXXIII, 7 ; but it is doubtful if the quotation from Hui's teaching be complete. ' Equivalent to the Tdo. See on the use in I4o-jze and AVang-jze of the term * Heaven,' in the Introduction, pp. 16-18. PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 1 83 This view is the same as that, and that view is the same as this. But that view involves both a right and a wrong ; and this view involves also a right and a wrong : — are there indeed, or are there not the two views, that and this ? They have not found their point of correspondency which is called the pivot of the T4o. As soon as one finds this pivot, he stands in the centre of the ring (of thought), where he can respond without end to the changing views ; — ^without end to those affirming, and without end to those denying. Therefore I said, * There is nothing like the proper light (of the mind).' 4. By means of a finger (of my own) to illustrate that the finger (of another) is not a finger is not so good a plan as to illustrate that it is not so by means of what is (acknowledged to be) not a finger ; and by means of (what I call) a horse to illustrate that (what another calls) a horse is not so, is not so good a plan as to illustrate that it is not a horse, by means of what is (acknowledged to be) not a horse \ (All things in) heaven and earth may be (dealt with as) a finger ; (each of) their myriads may be (dealt with as) a horse. Does a thing seem so to me ? (I say that) it is so. Does it seem not so to me ? (I say that) it is not so. A path is formed by (constant) * The language of our author here is understood to have refer- ence to the views of Kung-sun Lung, a contemporary of Hui-jze, and a sophist like him. One of his treatises or arguments had the title of * The White Horse,' and another that of * Pointing to Things.' If these had been preserved, we might have seen more clearly the appropriateness of the text here. But the illustration of the monkeys and their actions shows us the scope of the whole paragraph to be that controversialists, whose views are substantially the same, may yet differ, and that with heat, in words. 184 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. 114 treading on the ground. A thing is called by its name through the (constant) application of the name to it. How is it so ? It is so because it is so. How is it not so ? It is not so, because it is not so* Everything has its inherent character and its proper capability. There is nothing which has not these* Therefore, this being so, if we take a stalk of grain * and a (large) pillar, a loathsome (leper) and (a beauty like) Hsl Sliih ^ things large and things insecure, things crafty and things strange ; — they may in the light of the T4o all be reduced to the same category (of opinion about them). It was separation that led to completion; from completion ensued dissolution. But all things, with- out regard to their completion and dissolution, may again be comprehended in their unity; — it is only the far reaching in thought who know how to comprehend them in this unity. This being so, let us give up our devotion to our own views, and occupy ourselves with the ordinary views. These ordinary views are grounded on the use of things. (The study of that) use leads to the comprehensive judgment, and that judgment secures the success (of the inquiry). That success gained, we are near (to the object of our search), and there we stop. When we stop, and yet we do not know how it is so, we have what is called the TAo. When we toil our spirits and intelligence, obstin- ^ The character in the text means both ' a stalk of grain ' and ' a horizontal beam.' Each meaning has its advocates here. - A famous beauty, a courtezan presented by the king of YQeh to his enemy, the king of Wi^, and who hastened on his progress to ruin and death, she herself perishing at the same time, PT.I. SKCT.n. THE WRITINGS OF JrWANG-3ZE. 1 85 ately determined (to establish our own view), and do not know the agreement (which underlies it and the views of others), we have what is called * In the morning three/ What is meant by that ' In the morning three ? ' A keeper of monkeys, in giving them out their acorns, (once) said, * In the morning I will give you three (measures) and in the evening four/ This made them all angry, and he said, * Very welL In the morning I will give you four and in the evening three/ His two proposals were substan- tially the same, but the result of the one was to make the creatures angry, and of the other to make them pleased : — ^an illustration of the point I am insisting on. Therefore the sagely man brings together a dispute in its affirmations and denials, and rests in the equal fashioning of Heaven ^ Both sides of the question are admissible. 5. Among the men of old their knowledge reached the extreme point. What was that extreme point ? Some held that at first there was not anything. This is the extreme point, the utmost point to which nothing can be added \ A second class held that there was something, but without any responsive recognition ' of it (on the part of men). A third class held that there was such recognition, but there had not begun to be any expression of different opinions about it. * Literally, * the Heaven-Mould or Moulder,' — another name for the Tdo, by which all things are fashioned. * See the same passage in^ook XXIII, par. 10. » The ordinary reading here is fin g (^), 'a boundary ' or 'dis- tinctive limit' Lin Hsi-/hing adopts the reading ^, * a response,' and I have followed him. 1 86 THE TEXTS OF tAoiSM. bk. n. It was through the definite expression of different opinions about it that there ensued injury to (the doctrine of) the Tio. It was this injury to the (doctrine of the) T&o which led to the formation of (partial) preferences. Was it indeed after such pre- ferences were formed that the injury came ? or did the injury precede the rise of such preferences ? If the injury arose after their formation, KSlo's method of playing on the lute was natural. If the injury arose before their formation, there would have been no such playing on the lute as Ktos \ K&.0 Wan's playing on the lute, Shih Kwang's indicating time with his staff, and Hui-jzes (giving his views), while leaning against a dryandra tree (were all extraordinary). The knowledge of the three men (in their several arts) was nearly perfect, and therefore they practised them to the end of their lives. They loved them because they were different from those of others. They loved them and wished to make them known to others. But as they could not be made clear, though they tried to make them so, they ended with the obscure (discussions) about ' the hard ' and ' the white.' And their sons ^ moreover, with all the threads of their fathers com- positions, yet to the end of their lives accomplished nothing. If they, proceeding in this way, could be said to have succeeded, then am I also successful ; * K^o Win and Shih Kwang were both musicians of the state of 3in« Shih, which appears as Kwang's surname, was his denomi- nation as * music-master.' It is difficult to understand the reason why JTwang-jze introduces these men and their ways, or how it helps his argument. ' Perhaps we should read here * son,' with special reference to the son of Hui-jze. PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF J?WANG-8ZE. 1 87 if they cannot be pronounced successful, neither I nor any other can succeed. Therefore the scintillations of light from the midst of confusion and perplexity are indeed valued by the sagely man ; but not to use one's own views and to take his position on the ordinary views is what is called using the (proper) light 6. But here now are some other sayings ^ : — I do not know whether they are of the same character as those which I have already given, or of a different character. Whether they be of the same character or not when looked at along with them, they have a character of their own, which cannot be distinguished from the others. But though this be the case, let me try to explain myself. There was a beginning. There was a beginning before that beginning^. There was a beginning previous to that beginning before there was the beginning. There was existence ; there had been no existence. There was no existence before the beginning of that no existence \ There was no existence previous to the no existence before there was the beginning of the no existence. If suddenly there was non- existence, we do not know whether it was really anything existing, or really not existing. Now I have said what I have said, but I do not know whether what I have said be really anything to the point or not. ^ Referring, I think, to those below commencing ' There was a beginning/ ' That is, looking at things from the standpoint of an original non-existence, and discarding all considerations of space and time. 1 88 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. II. Under heaven there is nothing greater than the tip of an autumn down, and the Thii mountain is small. There is no one more long-lived than a child which dies prematurely, and PhJlng 3^ did not live out his time. Heaven, Earth, and I were produced together, and all things and I are one. Since they are one, can there be speech about them ? But since they are spoken of as one, must there not be room for speech ? One and Speech are two ; two and one are three. Going on from this (in our enumeration), the most skilful reckoner cannot reach (the end of the necessary numbers), and how much less can ordinary people do so ! Therefore from non-existence we proceed to existence till we arrive at three ; proceeding from existence to exist- ence, to how many should we reach ? Let us abjure such procedure, and simply rest here \ 7. The Tdo at first met with no responsive recog- nition. Speech at first had no constant forms of expression. Because of this there came the demar- cations (of different views). Let me describe those demarcations : — they are the Left and the Right * ; the Relations and their Obligations*; Classifications* ^ On this concluding clause, 3i^o Hung says : — 'Avoiding such procedure, there will be no affirmations and denials (no contraries). The phrase f^ ^^ Q occurs in the Book several times, and in- terpreters have missed its meaning from not observing that -^ Q serve merely as a final particle, and often have the ^ added to them, without affecting its meaning.' See also Wang Yin on the usages of ^ in the ^ ]j^ j|^ ^, ch. 1208, art. 6. ' That is, direct opposites. Literally, • righteousnesses ; * the proper way of dealing with the relations. * Literally, * separations/ PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 1 89 and their Distinctions ; Emulations and Contentions. These are what are called * the Eight Qualities/ Outside the limits of the world of men^ the sage occupies his thoughts, but does not discuss about anything; inside those limits he occupies his thoughts, but does not pass any judgments. In the A'i^un -Oifl^, which embraces the history of the former kings, the sage indicates his judgments, but does not argue (in vindication of them). Thus it is that he separates his characters from one another without appearing to do so, and argues without the form of argument How does he do so ? The sage cherishes his views in his own breast, while men generally state theirs argumentatively, to show them to others. Hence we have the saying, * Disputation is a proof of not seeing clearly/ The Great Tfio ^ does not admit of being praised. The Great Argument does not require words. Great Benevolence is not (officiously) benevolent. Great Disinterestedness does not vaunt its humility. Great Courage is not seen in stubborn bravery. The Tio that is displayed is not the T4o. Words that are argumentative do not reach the point Benevolence that is constantly exercised does not accomplish its object Disinterestedness that vaunts its purity is not genuine. Courage that is most stub- ' Literally, 'the six conjunctions,' meaning the four cardinal points of space, with the zenith and nadir ; sometimes a name for the universe of space. Here we must restrict the meaning as I have done. * * The Spring and Autumn;' — Confucius's Annals of Lfl, here complimented by iTwang-jze. See in Mencius, IV, ii, 21, • Compare the T4o Teh -^mg, ch. 25, et al. I90 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. IT. bom is ineffectual These five seem to be round (and complete), but they tend to become square (and immovable) ^ Therefore the knowledge that stops at what it does not know is the greatest Who knows the argument that needs no words, and the Way that is not to be trodden ^ ? He who is able to know this has what is called •The Heavenly Treasure-house®.' He may pour into it without its being filled ; he may pour from it without its being exhausted; and all the while he does not know whence (the supply) comes. This is what is called * The Store of Light \' Therefore of old Ydo asked Shun, saying, * I wish to smite (the rulers of) 3ung, Kwei, and HsU-4o *. Even when standing in my court, I cannot get them out of my mind. How is it so?' Shun replied, * Those three rulers live (in their little states) as if they were among the mugwort and other brushwood ; — how is it that you cannot get them out of your mind ? Formerly, ten suns came out together, and all things were illuminated by them; — how much should (your) virtue exceed (all) suns ! ' 8. Nieh -Oiieh* asked Wang 1*, saying, * Do you know, Sir, what all creatures agree in approving and * Compare the use of ^ in the Shii Alng, I, iii, ii. The classic of Ldo, in chaps, i, 2. ' Names for the Tdo. * Three small states. Is Yio's wish to smite an instance of the * quality ' of * emulation ' or jealousy ? ^ Both Tdoistic worthies of the time of Ydo, supposed to have been two of the Perfect Ones whom Yio visited on the distant hill of Kft-shih (I, par. 6). According to Hwang Mf, Wang 1 was the teacher of Nieh iOQeh, and he again of HsU Yt. PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF Jf WANG-3ZE. 1 9 1 affirming ?* * How should I know it ? ' was the reply. * Do you know what it is that you do not know ? ' asked the other again, and he got the same reply. He asked a third time, — * Then are all creatures thus without knowledge ?' and Wang 1 answered as before, (adding however), * Notwithstanding, I will try and explain my meaning. How do you know that when I say ** I know it," I really (am showing that) I do not know it, and that when I say " I do not know it," I really am showing that I do know it \' And let me ask you some questions : — * If a man sleep in a damp place, he will have a pain in his loins, and half his body will be as if it were dead ; but will it be so with an eel ? If he be living in a tree, he will be frightened and all in a tremble ; but will it be so with a monkey ? And does any one of the three know his right place ? Men eat animals that have been fed on grain and grass ; deer feed on the thick- set grass ; centipedes enjoy small snakes ; owls and crows delight in mice ; but does any one of the four know the right taste ? The dog-headed monkey finds its mate in the female gibbon ; the elk and the axis deer cohabit; and the eel enjoys itself with other fishes. MSo Shiang* and Ll ATl^ were ac- counted by men to be most beautiful, but when fishes saw them, they dived deep in the water from them ; when birds, they flew from them aloft ; and ' Compare par. i of Book XXII. ^ Two famous beauties; — the former, a contemporary of Hst Shih (par. 4, note 2), and like her also, of the state of Yaeh ; the latter, the daughter of a barbarian chief among the Western Jung. She was captured by duke Hsien of 3i^> in b. c. 672. He subse- quently made her his wife, — to the great injury of his family and state. A 192 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. ir. when deer saw them, they separated and fled away ^, But did any of these four know which in the world is the right female attraction ? As I look at the matter, the first principles of benevolence and right- eousness and the paths of approval and disapproval are inextricably mixed and confused together : — how is it possible that I should know how to discriminate among them ?' Nieh /CAiieh said (further), * Since you, Sir, do not know what is advantageous and what is hurtful, is the Perfect man also in the same way without the knowledge of them ?' Wang I replied, * The Perfect man is spirit-like. Great lakes might be boiling about him, and he would not feel their heat ; the Ho and the Han might be frozen up, and he would not feel the cold ; the hurrying thunderbolts might split the mountains, and the wind shake the ocean, without being able to make him afraid. Being such, he mounts on the clouds of the air, rides on the sun and moon, and rambles at ease beyond the four seas. Neither death nor life makes any change in him, and how much less should the considerations of advantage and injury do so * ! ' 9. KAii 3hi^ojze ' asked KAsLUg-vni ^ze ', saying, ^ Not thinking them beautiful, as men did, but frightened and repelled by them. * Compare Book I, pars. 3 and 5. • We know nothing of the former of these men, but what is mentioned here ; the other appears also in Book XXV, 6, q. v. If ' the master ' that immediately follows be Confucius they must have been contemporary with him. The IlAiH in iPAang-wii's reply would seem to make it certain 'the master' was Confucius, but the oldest critics, and some modem ones as well, think that A^^ang- wti's name was also IChid. But this view is attended with more PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-SZE. I93 * I heard the Master (speaking of such language as the following) : — " The sagely man does not occupy himself with worldly affairs. He does not put him- self in the way of what is profitable, nor try to avoid what is hurtful ; he has no pleasure in seeking (for anything from any one) ; he does not care to be found in (any established) Way ; he speaks without speak- ing ; he does not speak when he speaks ; thus finding his enjoyment outside the dust and dirt (of the world)." The Master considered all this to be a shoreless flow of mere words, and I consider it to describe the course of the Mysterious Way. — What do you, Sir, think of it ? ' /CAsing-vfd 3ze replied, * The hearing of such words would have perplexed even Hwang-Tl, and how should KAiH be competent to understand them ? And you, moreover, are too hasty in forming your estimate (of their meaning). You see the eggy and (immediately) look out for the cock (that is to be hatched from it) ; you see the bow, and (immediately) look out for the dove (that is to be brought down by it) being roasted. I will try to explain the thing to you in a rough way ; do you in the same way listen to me. * How could any one stand by the side of the sun and moon, and hold under his arm all space and all time ? (Such language only means that the sagely man) keeps his mouth shut, and puts aside questions that are uncertain and dark; making his inferior capacities unite with him in honouring (the One Lord). Men in general bustle about and toil ; the difficulties than the other. By the clause interjected in the trans- lation after the first 'Master,' I have avoided the incongruity of ascribing the long description of Tdoism to Confucius. [39] O 1 94 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. II. sagely man seems stupid and to know nothing ^ He blends ten thousand years together in the one (con- ception of time) ; the myriad things all pursue their spontaneous course, and they are all before him as doing so. * How do I know that the love of life is not a delusion ? and that the dislike of death is not like a young person's losing his way, and not knowing that he is (really) going home ? LI A^l * was a daugh- ter of the border Warden of Ai. When (the ruler of) the state of S'm first got possession of her, she wept till the tears wetted all the front of her dress. But when she came to the place of the king', shared with him his luxurious couch, and ate his grain-and- grass-fed meat, then she regretted that she had wept How do I know that the dead do not repent of their former craving for life ? * Those who dream of (the pleasures of) drinking may in the morning wail and weep ; those who dream of wailing and weeping may in the morning be going out to hunt. When they were dreaming they did not know it was a dream ; in their dream they may even have tried to interpret it*; but when they awoke they knew that it was a dream. And ^ Compare LSo-jze's account of himself in his Work, ch. 20. ' See note 2 on page 191. The lady is there said to have been the daughter of a barbarian chief ; here she appears as the child of the border Warden of Ai. But her maiden surname of AT (fj^) shows her father must have been a scion of the royal family of J^&\i, Had he forsaken his wardenship, and joined one of the Ti tribes, which had adopted him as its chief? ' Qm was only a marquisate. How does ATwang-jze speak of its ruler as ' a king ? ' * This could not be; a man does not come to himself in his dream, and in that state try to interpret it PT. I. SECT. 11. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. 1 95 there is the great awaking, after which we shall know that this life was a great dream ^. All the while, the stupid think they are awake, and with nice discrimination insist on their knowledge ; now play- ing the part of rulers, and now of grooms. Bigoted was that J^Aid ! He and you are both dreaming. I who say that you are dreaming am dreaming myself. These words seem very strange ; but if after ten thousand ages we once meet with a great sage who knows how to explain them, it will be as if we met him (unexpectedly) some morning or evening. ID. * Since you made me enter into this discussion with you, if you have got the better of me and not I of you, are you indeed right, and I indeed wrong ? If I have got the better of you and not you of me, am I indeed right and you indeed wrong ? Is the one of us right and the other wrong ? are we both right or both wrong ? Since we cannot come to a mutual and common understanding, men will cer- tainly continue in darkness on the subject. * Whom shall I employ to adjudicate in the matter? If I employ one who agrees with you, how can he, agreeing with you, do so correctly ? And the same may be said, if I employ one who agrees with me. It will be the same if I employ one who differs from us both or one who agrees with us both. In this way I and you and those others would all not be able to come to a mutual understanding; and shall we then wait for that (great sage) ? (We need not do so.) To wait on others to learn how con- flicting opinions are changed is simply like not so * Compare XVIII, par. 4. O 2 196 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. II. waiting at all. The harmonising of them is to be found in the invisible operation of Heaven, and by following this on into the unlimited past. It is by this method that we can complete our years (without our minds being disturbed) K *What is meant by harmonising (conflicting opi- nions) in the invisible operation of Heaven ? There is the affirmation and the denial of it ; and there is the assertion of an opinion and the rejection of it. If the affirmation be according to the reality of the fact, it is certainly different from the denial of it : — there can be no dispute about that. If the assertion of an opinion be correct, it is certainly different from its rejection: — ^neither can there be any dispute about that. Let us forget the lapse of time ; let us forget the conflict of opinions. Let us make our appeal to the Infinite, and take up our position there*.' II. The Penumbra asked the Shadow ^ saying, * Formerly you were walking on, and now you have stopped; formerly you were sitting, and now you have risen up : — how is it that you are so without stability ? ' The Shadow replied, * I wait for the movements of something else to do what I do, and that something else on which I wait waits further * See this passage again in Book XXVII, par. i, where the phrase which I have called here * the invisible operation of Heaven,' is said to be the same as * the Heavenly Mould or Moulder/ that is, the Heavenly Fashioner, one of the Tdoistic names for the T&o. • That is, all things being traced up to the unity of the T do, we have found the pivot to which all conflicting opinions, all affirma- tions, all denials, all positions and negatives converge, and bring to bear on them the proper light of the mind. Compare paragraph 3. ' A story to the same effect as this here, with some textual varia- tions, occurs in Book XXVII, immediately after par. i referred to above. PT. I. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-3ZE. 1 97 on another to do as it does \ My waiting, — is it for the scales of a snake, or the wings of a cicada^? How should I know why I do one thing, or do not do another ^ ? * Formerly, I, A^vang jfifiu, dreamt that I was a butterfly, a butterfly flying about, feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not know that it was ATSu. Suddenly I awoke, and was myself again, the veri- table jfCSiVL. I did not know whether it had formerly been K&a dreaming that he was a butterfly, or it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was K&u. But between K&u and a butterfly there must be a differ- ence*. This is a case of what is called the Trans- formation of Things*/ ^ The mind cannot rest in second causes, and the first cause, if there be one, is inscrutable. * Even these must wait for the will of the creature ; but the case of the shadow is still more remarkable. * I have put this interrogatively, as being more graphic, and because of the particle ^, which is generally, though not neces- sarily, interrogative. * Hsfian Ying, in his remarks on these two sentences, brings out the force of the story very successfully : — ' Looking at them in their ordinary appearance, there was necessarily a difference between them, but in the delusion of the dream each of them appeared the other, and they could not distinguish themselves I ATiu could be a butterfly, and the butterfly could be I^iu ; — we may see that in the world all traces of that and this may pass away, as they come under the influence of transformations.' For the phrase, ' the transforma- tion of things,' see in Book XI, par. 5, et al. But the TSoism here can hardly be distinguished from the Buddhism that holds that all human experience is merely so much mdya or illusion. 198 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. III. BOOK III. Part I. Section III. YangShang KiX, or * Nourishing the Lord of Life'.' 1. There is a limit to our life, but to knowledge there is no limit. With what is limited to pursue after what is unlimited is a perilous thing ; and when, knowing this, we still seek the increase of our know- ledge, the peril cannot be averted ^ There should not be the practice of what is good with any thought of the fame (which it will bring), nor of what is evil with any approximation to the punish- ment (which it will incur) * : — an accordance with the Central Element (of our nature) * is the regular way to preserve the body, to maintain the life, to nourish our parents, and to complete our term of years. 2. His cook* was cutting up an ox for the ruler WSn-hui*. Whenever he applied his hand, leaned forward with his shoulder, planted his foot, and em- ^ See pp. 130, 131. ' Under what is said about knowledge here there lies the objection of Tioists to the Confucian pursuit of knowledge as the means for the right conduct of life, instead of the quiet simplicity and self-suppression of their own system. ' This is the key to the three paragraphs that follow. But the text of it is not easily construed. The 'doing good' and the * doing evil ' are to be lighdy understood. * A name for the Tdo. • ' The ruler WJln-hui ' is understood to be * king Hui of Liang (or Wei),' with the account of an interview betw^een whom and Mencius the works of that philosopher commence. PT.I.SECT. III. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 1 99 ployed the pressure of his knee, in the audible rip- ping off of the skin, and slicing operation of the knife, the sounds were all in regular cadence. Move- ments and sounds proceeded as in the dance of ' the Mulberry Forest ^ ' and the blended notes of * the Alng Shiu ^' The ruler said, ' Ah ! Admirable ! That your art should have become so perfect ! ' (Having finished his operation), the cook laid down his knife, and replied to the remark, 'What your servant loves is the method of the Tdo, something in advance of any art When I first began to cut up an ox, I saw nothing but the (entire) carcase. After three years I ceased to see it as a whole. Now I deal with it in a spirit-like manner, and do not look at it with my eyes. The use of my senses is dis- carded, and my spirit acts as it wills. Observing the natural lines, (my knife) slips through the great crevices and slides through the great cavities, taking advantage of the facilities thus presented. My art avoids the membranous ligatures, and much more the great bones. *A good cook changes his knife every year; — (it may have been injured) in cutting ; an ordinary cook changes his every month ; — (it may have been) broken. Now my knife has been in use for nine- teen years ; it has cut up several thousand oxen, and yet its edge is as sharp as if it had newly come from the whetstone. There are the interstices of the joints, and the edge of the knife has no (appreciable) thickness ; when that which is so thin enters where the interstice is, how easily it moves along 1 The * Two pieces of music, ascribed to K^Sjig Thang and Hwang- Tt. 200 THE TEXTS OF TAoISM. BK. ill. blade has more than room enough. Nevertheless, whenever I come to a complicated joint, and see that there will be some difficulty, I proceed anxiously and with caution, not allowing my eyes to wander from the place, and moving my hand slowly. Then by a very slight movement of the knife, the part is quickly separated, and drops like (a clod of) earth to the ground. Then standing up with the knife in my hand, I look all round, and in a leisurely manner, with an air of satisfaction, wipe it clean, and put it in its sheath.' The ruler W4n-hui said, * Excellent ! I have heard the words of my cook, and learned from them the nourishment of (our) life.' 3. When Kung-wSn Hsien^ saw the Master of the Left, he was startled, and said, * What sort of man is this ? How is it he has but one foot ? Is it from Heaven ? or from Man ? ' Then he added \ * It must be from Heaven, and not from Man. Heavens making of this man caused him to have but one foot In the person of man, each foot has its marrow. By this I know that his peculiarity is from Heaven, and not from Man. A pheasant of the marshes has to take ten steps to pick up a mouthful of food, and thirty steps to get a drink, but it does not seek to be nourished in a coop. Though its spirit would (there) enjoy a royal abundance, it does not think (such confinement) good.' * There was a family in Wei with the double surname Kung-wlUi. This would be a scion of it. ' This is Hsien still speaking. We have to understand his reasoning ad sensum and not ad verbum. The master of the Left had done ' evil,' so as to incur the punishment from which he suffered; and had shown himself less wise than a pheasant. PT. I. SECT. III. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 20I 4. When Ulo Tan died ^ KAin Shih * went to con- dole (with his son), but after crying out three times, he came out The disciples* said to him, *Were you not a friend of the Master ? ' 'I was,' he re- plied, and they said, * Is it proper then to offer your condolences merely as you have done ? ' He said, ' It is. At first I thought he was the man of men, and now I do not think so. When I entered a little ago and expressed my condolences, there were the old men wailing as if they had lost a son, and the young men wailing as if they had lost their mother. In his attracting and uniting them to him- self in such a way there must have been that which made them involuntarily express their words (of condolence), and involuntarily wail, as they were doing. And this was a hiding from himself of his Heaven (-nature), and an excessive indulgence of his (human) feelings ; — a forgetting of what he had re- ceived (in being bom) ; what the ancients called the punishment due to neglecting the Heaven (-nature) *. When the Master came *, it was at the proper time ; when he went away, it was the simple sequence (of his coming). Quiet acquiescence in what happens at its proper time, and quietly submitting (to its ceasing) afford no occasion for grief or for joy •. The ancients described (death) as the loosening of the ^ Then the account that Ldo-jze went westwards, and that nothing is known as to where he died, must be without foundation. ^ Nothing more is known of this person. ' Probably the disciples of Ldo-jze. * Lio had gone to an excess in his ' doing good,' as if he were seeking reputation. • Into the world. ' See ATwang-jze's remarks and demeanour on the death of his wife, in Book XVIII. 202 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. Ill, cord on which God suspended (the life) \ What we can point to are the faggots that have been con- sumed ; but the fire is transmitted (elsewhere), and we know not that it is over and ended *. ^ This short sentence is remarkable by the use of the character Ti (»j^), ' God,' in it, a usage here ascribed to the ancients. * The concluding sentence might stand as a short paragraph by itself. The 'faggots ' are understood to represent the body, and the ' fire ' the animating spirit. The body perishes at death as the faggots are consumed by the fire. But the fire may be transmitted to other faggots, and so the spirit may migrate, and be existing elsewhere. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 2O3 BOOK IV. Part I. Section IV. ZSn -^ien Shih, or * Man in the World, Associated with other Men ^' I. Yen Hui^ went to see Aung-nl^ and asked leave to take his departure. * Where are you going to ? ' asked the Master. ' I will go to Wei * ' was the reply. * And with what object ? ' * I have heard that the ruler of Wei ^ is in the vigour of his years, and consults none but himself as to his course. He deals with his state as if it were a light matter, and has no perception of his errors. He thinks lightly of his peoples dying; the dead are lying all over the country as if no smaller space could contain them ; on the plains • and about the marshes, they are as thick as heaps of fuel. The people know not where to turn to. I have heard you, Master, say, "Leave the state that is well * See pp. 131, 13a. * The favourite disciple of Confucius, styled also 3ze-y0an. * Of course, Confucius; — his designation or married name. * A feudal state, embracing portions of the present provinces of Ho-nan, ATih-lt, and Shan-tung. There was another state, which we must also call Wei in English, though the Chinese characters of them are dififerent ; — one of the fragments of the great state of Bin* more to the west. ' At this time the marquis Ytian, known to us by his post- humous tide of duke Ling ; — see Book XXV, 9. * Adopting Lin's reading of ^ instead of the common -3^. 204 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. IV. governed ; go to the state where disorder prevaik *." At the door of a physician there are many who are ill, I wish through what I have heard (from you) to think out some methods (of dealing with Wei), if perad venture the evils of the state may be cured/ A'ung-nl said, 'Alas! The risk is that you will go only to suffer in the punishment (of yourself) ! The right method (in such a case) will not admit of any admixture. With such admixture, the one method will become many methods. Their multi- plication will embarrass you. That embarrassment will make you anxious. However anxious you may be, you will not save (yourself). The perfect men of old first had (what they wanted to do) in them- selves, and afterwards they found (the response to it) in others. If what they wanted in themselves was not fixed, what leisure had they to go and interfere with the proceedings of any tyrannous man.^ * Moreover, do you know how virtue is liable to be dissipated, and how wisdom proceeds to display itself? Virtue is dissipated in (the pursuit of) the name for it, and wisdom seeks to display itself in the striving with others. In the pursuit of the name men overdirow one another ; wisdom becomes a weapon of contention. Both these things are instruments of evil, and should not be allowed to have free course in one's conduct. Supposing one's virtue to be great and his sincerity firm, if he do not comprehend the spirit of those (whom he wishes to influence); and supposing he is free from the * Compare in the Analects, VIII, xiii, a, where a different lesson is given ; but Confucius may at another time have spoken as Hui says. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 20$ disposition to strive for reputation, if he do not comprehend their minds ; — when in such a case he forcibly insists on benevolence and righteousness, setting them forth in the strongest and most direct language, before the tyrant, then he, hating (his reprover s) possession of those excellences, will put him down as doing him injury. He who injures others is sure to be injured by them in return. You indeed will hardly escape being injured by the man (to whom you go) ! * Further, if perchance he takes pleasure in men of worth and hates those of an opposite character, what is the use of your seeking to make yourself out to be different (from such men about him) ? Before you have begun to announce (your views), he, as king and ruler, will take advantage of you, and immediately contend with you for victory. Your eyes will be dazed and full of perplexity; you will try to look pleased with him ; you will frame your words with care ; your demeanour will be conformed to his; you will confirm him in his views. In this way you will be adding fire to fire, and water to water, increasing, as we may express it, the evils (which you deplore). To these signs of deferring to him at the first there will be no end. You will be in danger, seeing he does not believe you, of making your words more strong, and you are sure to die at the hands of such a tyrant. 'And formerly A'ieh^ killed Kwan Lung-feng*, and IC&u^ killed the prince Pl-kan*. Both of ' The tyrant with whom the dynasty of Hsid ended. • A worthy minister of ATieh. • The tyrant with whom the dynasty of Shang or Yin ended. • A half-brother of Alu, the tyrant of the Yin dynasty. 206 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. iv. these cultivated their persons, bending down in sympathy with the lower people to comfort them suffering (as they did) from their oppressors, and on their account opposing their superiors. On this account, because they so ordered their conduct, their rulers compassed their destruction: — such regard had they for their own fame. (Again), Yio anciently attacked (the states of) S^ung-^h ^ and Hsti-Ao \ and Yli attacked the ruler of H(i ^. Those states were left empty, and with no one to continue their population, the people being exterminated. They had engaged in war without ceasing; their craving for whatever they could get was insatiable. And this (ruler of Wei) is, like them, one who craves after fame and greater substance ; — ^have you not heard it ? Those sages were not able to over- come the thirst for fame and substance ; — how much less will you be able to do so ! Nevertheless you must have some ground (for the course which you wish to take) ; pray try and tell it to me.' Yen Hui said, ' May I go, doing so in uprightness and humility, using also every endeavour to be uniform (in my plans of operation) ? ' * No, indeed ! ' was the reply. * How can you do so ? This man makes a display* of being filled to overflowing (with virtue), and has great self-conceit. His feelings are not to be determined from his countenance. Ordinary men do not (venture to) oppose him, and he proceeds from the way in which he affects them ^ See in par. 7, Book II, where Hsti-do is mentioned, though not Qhung'kih. See the Shfi, III, ii. * I take ^ here as = ^^; — a meaning given in the Khang-hsi dictionary. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-BZE. 207 to seek still more the satisfaction of his own mind. He may be described as unaffected by the (small lessons of) virtue brought to bear on him from day to day ; and how much less wilt he be so by your great lessons ? He will be obstinate, and refuse to be converted. He may outwardly agree with you, but inwardly there will be no self-condemna- tion ; — how can you (go to him in this way and be successful) ? * (Yen Hui) rejoined, 'Well then; while inwardly maintaining my straightforward intention, I will outwardly seem to bend to him. I will deliver (my lessons), and substantiate them by appealing to antiquity. Inwardly maintaining my straightforward intention, I shall be a co-worker with Heaven. When I thus speak of being a co-worker with Heaven, it is because I know that (the sovereign, whom we style) the son of Heaven, and myself, are equally regarded by Heaven as Its sons. And should I then, as if my words were only my own, be seeking to find whether men approved of them, or disapproved of them ? In this way men will pronounce me a (sincere and simple^) boy. This is what is called being a co-worker with Heaven. 'Outwardly bending (to the ruler), I shall be a co-worker with other men. To carry (the memo- randum tablet to court) ^, to kneel, and to bend the body reverentially: — these are the observances of ministers. They all employ them, and should I presume not to do so ? Doing what other men do, they would have no occasion to blame me. This ^ Entirely unsophisticated^ governed by the T&o. • SeetheLl^f, XI, ii, 16,17. 208 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.iv. is what is called being a fellow-worker with other men. ' Fully declaring my sentiments and substantiat- ing them by appealing to antiquity, I shall be a co-worker with the ancients. Although the words in which I convey my lessons may really be con- demnatory (of the ruler), they will be those of antiquity, and not my own. In this way, though straightforward, I shall be free from blame. This is what is called being a co-worker with antiquity. May I go to Wei in this way, and be successful ? ' * No indeed ! ' said Aung-nl. * How can you do so ? You have too many plans of proceeding, and have not spied out (the ruler s character). Though you firmly adhere to your plans, you may be held free from transgression, but this will be all the result How can you (in this way) produce the trans- formation (which you desire) ? All this only shows (in you) the mind of a teacher ! ' 2. Yen Hui said, * I can go no farther ; I venture to ask the method from you.' A'ung-n! replied, * It is fasting \ (as) I will tell you. (But) when you have the method, will you find it easy to practise it? He who thinks it easy will be disapproved of by the bright Heaven.' Hui said, * My family is poor. For months together we have no spirituous drink, nor do we taste the proscribed food or any strong-smelling vegetables ^ ; — can this be regarded as fasting ? ' The reply was, ' It is the fasting appropriate to sacrificing, but it is not the fasting ' The term is emphatic, as Confucius goes on to explain. ' Such as onions and garlic, with horse, dog, cow, goose, and pigeon. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF jnVANG-3ZE. 20g of the mind.' ' I venture to ask what that fasting of the mind is,' said Hui, and 7ifung-nl answered, 'Maintain a perfect unity in every movement of your will. You will not wait for the hearing of your ears about it, but for the hearing of your mind. You will not wait even for the hearing of your mind, but for the hearing of the spirit ^ Let the hearing (of the ears) rest with the ears. Let the mind rest in the verification (of the rightness of what is in the will). But the spirit is free from all pre-occupation and so waits for (the appearance of) things. Where the (proper) course is*, there is freedom from all pre-occupation; — such freedom is the fasting of the mind.' H ui said ^ * Before it was possible for me to employ (this method), there I was, the Hui that I am ; now, that I can employ it, the Hui that I was has passed away. Can I be said to have obtained this freedom from pre-occupation ? ' The Master replied, * Entirely. I tell you that you can enter and be at ease in the enclosure (where he is), and not come into collision with the reputation (which belongs to him). If he listen to your counsels, let him hear your notes; if he will not listen, be silent. Open no (other) door ; employ no other medicine; dwell with him (as with a friend) in the same apartment, and as if you had no other option, and you will not be far from success in your object Not to move a step is easy; to walk without treading on the ground is difficult. In acting after the manner of men, it is easy to fall ^ The character in the text for 'spirit' here is ^, 'the breath.' « The TSo. * ' Said; ' probably, after having made trial of this fasting. [39] P 2IO THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. IV. into hypocrisy; in acting after the manner of Heaven, it is difficult to play the h)rpocrite. I have heard of flying with wings; I have not heard of flying without them, I have heard of the know- ledge of the wise; I have not heard of the knowledge of the unwise. Look at that aperture (left in the wall); — the empty apartment is filled with light through it. Felicitous influences rest (in the mind thus emblemed), as in their proper resting place. Even when they do not so rest, we have what is called (the body) seated and (the mind) galloping abroad. The information that comes through the ears and eyes is comprehended in- ternally, and the knowledge of the mind becomes something external : — (when this is the case), the spiritual intelligences will come, and take up their dwelling with us, and how much more will other men do so! All things thus undergo a trans- forming influence. This was the hinge on which Yii and Shun moved ; it was this which FA-hsl ^ and Ki-khX ^ practised all their lives : how much more should other men follow the same rule ! ' 3. 3ze-kfio ^ duke of Sheh, being about to proceed on a mission to Khi^ asked Aung-nl, saying, ' The king is sending me, A^ft-liang^ on a mission which * Often spoken of as Fo-ht, the founder of the Chinese kingdom. His place in chronology should be assigned to him more than B.C. 3000 rather than under that date. ' A predecessor of Ffl-hst, a sovereign of the ancient para- disiacal time. ' The name of Sheh remains in Sheh-hsien, a district of the department Nan-yang, Ho-nan. Its governor, who is the subject of this narrative, was a Sh&n ^fi-liang, styled Sz^-l^o- He was PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 211 is very important. Kh\ will probably treat me as his commissioner with great respect, but it will not be in a hurry (to attend to the business). Even an ordinary man cannot be readily moved (to action), and how much less the prince of a state! I am very full of apprehension. You, Sir, once said to me that of all things, great or small, there were few which, if not conducted in the proper way*, could be brought to a happy conclusion; that, if the thing were not successful, there was sure to be the evil of being dealt with after the manner of men*; that, if it were successful, there was sure to be the evil of constant anxiety^; and that, whether it succeeded or not, it was only the virtuous man who could secure its not being fol- lowed by evil. In my diet I take what is coarse, and do not seek delicacies, — a man whose cookery does not require him to be using cooling drinks. This morning I received my charge, and in the evening I am drinking iced water; — am I not feeling the internal heat (and discomfort) ? Such is my state before I have actually engaged in the affair; — I am already suffering from conflicting anxieties. And if the thing do not succeed, (the king) is sure to deal with me after the manner of men. The evil is twofold ; as a minister, I am not able to bear the burden (of the mission). Can not a duke, but as the counts of Kh^ had usurped the name of king, they gave high-soimding names to all their ministers and officers. * Or, 'according to the T&o.' ' As a criminal ; punished by his sovereign. • Anxiety 'night and day,' or 'cold and hot' fits of trouble; — a peculiar usage of Yin Yang. P 2 212 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. iv. you, Sir, tell me something (to help me in the case) ? ' ' A^mg-nl replied, * In all things under heaven there are two great cautionary considerations : — the one is the requirement implanted (in the nature)* ; the other is the conviction of what is right The love of a son for his parents is the implanted require- ment, and can never be separated from his heart ; the service of his ruler by a minister is what is right, and from its obligation there is no escaping anywhere between heaven and earth. These are what are called the great cautionary considerations. Therefore a son finds his rest in serving his parents without reference to or choice of place ; and this is the height of filial duty. In the same way a subject finds his rest in serving his ruler, without reference to or choice of the business; and this is the fullest discharge of loyalty. When men are simply obeying (the dictates of) their hearts, the considerations of grief and joy are not readily set before them. They know that there is no alterna- tive to their acting as they do, and rest in it as what is appointed ; and this is the highest achieve- ment of virtue. He who is in the position of a minister or of a son has indeed to do what he cannot but do. Occupied with the details of the business (in hand), and forgetful of his own person; what leisure has he to think of his pleasure in living or his dislike of death ? You, my master, may well proceed on your mission. 'But let me repeat to you what I have heard : — In ^ The Ming of the text here is that in the first sentence of the A'ung Yung. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. 2 1 3 all intercourse (between states), if they are near to each other, there should be mutual friendliness, veri- fied by deeds ; if they are far apart, there must be sincere adherence to truth in their messages. Those messages will be transmitted by internuncios. But to convey messages which express the complacence or the dissatisfaction of the two parties is the most difficult thing in the world* If they be those of mutual complacience, there is sure to be an overflow of expressions of satisfaction ; if of mutual dissatis- faction, an overflow of expressions of dislike. But all extravagance leads to reckless language, and such language fails to command belief. When this distrust arises, woe to the internuncio ! Hence the Rules for Speech^ say,'* Transmit the message exactly as it stands ; do not transmit it with any overflow of language ; so is (the internuncio) likely to keep him- self whole." 4. * Moreover, skilful wrestlers begin with open trials of strength, but always end with masked attempts (to gain the victory) ; as their excitement grows excessive, they display much wonderful dex- terity. Parties drinking according to the rules at first observe good order, but always end with dis- order ; as their excitement grows excessive, their fun becomes uproarious *. In all things it is so. People are at first sincere, but always end with becoming rude ; at the commencement things are treated as trivial, * Probably a Collection of Directions current at the time ; and which led to the name of Yang Hsiung's Treatise with the same name in our first century. See the Shih, II, vii, 6. 214 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. iv. but as the end draws near, they assume great pro- portions. Words are (like) the waves acted on by the wind ; the real point of the matters (discussed by them) is lost The wind and waves are easily set in motion ; the success of the matter of which the real point is lost is easily put in peril. Hence quarrels are occasioned by nothing so much as by artful words and one-sided speeches. The breath comes angrily, as when a beast, driven to death, wildly bellows forth its rage. On this animosities arise on both sides. Hasty examination (of the case) eagerly proceeds, and revengeful thoughts arise in their minds ; — ^they do not know how. Since they do not know how such thoughts arise, who knows how they will end ? Hence the Rules for Speech ^ say, " Let not an in- ternuncius depart from his instructions. Let him not urge on a settlement. If he go beyond the regular rules, he will complicate matters. Departing from his instructions and urging on a settlement im- perils negotiations. A good settlement is proved by its lasting long, and a bad settlement cannot be altered ; — ought he not to be careful ? " ' Further still, let your mind find its enjoyment in the circumstances of your position ; nourish the cen- tral course which you pursue, by a reference to your unavoidable obligations. This is the highest object for you to pursue ; what else can you do to fulfil the charge (of your father and ruler) K The best thing you can do is to be prepared to sacrifice your life ; and this is the most difficult thing to do.' ' See above, on preceding page. ' Not meaning the king of J^Ati; but the T&o, whose will was to be found in his nature and the conditions of his lot. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. 2 1 5 5. Yen Ho \ being about to undertake the office of Teacher of the eldest son of duke Ling of Wei, con- sulted Km Po-yii^. ' Here/ said he, *is this (young) man, whose natural disposition is as bad as it could be. If I allow him to proceed in a bad way, it will be at the peril of our state ; if I insist on his proceed- ing in a right way, it will be at the peril of my own person. His wisdom is just sufficient to know the errors of other men, but he does not know how he errs himself. What am I to do in such a case ? ' Ku Po-yii replied, * Good indeed is your ques- tion ! Be on your guard ; be careful ; see that you keep yourself correct ! Your best plan will be, with your person to seek association with him, and with your mind to try to be in harmony with him ; and yet there are dangers connected with both of these things. While seeking to keep near to him, do not enter into his pursuits ; while cultivating a harmony of mind with him, do not show how superior you are to him. If in your personal association you enter into his pursuits, you will fall with him and be ruined, you will tumble down with a crash. If in maintaining a harmony with his mind, you show how different you are from him, he will think you do so for the reputation and the name, and regard you as a creature of evil omen \ If you find him to be a mere boy, be you with him as another boy ; if you find him one of those who will not have their ground marked out in the ordinary way, do you humour ' A member of the Yen family of LO. We shall meet with him again in Books XIX, XXVIU, and XXXII. * A minister of Wei; a friend and favourite of Confucius. ' Compare in the JTung Yung, ii, ch. 24. 2 1 6 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. iv. him in this characteristic ^ ; if you find him to be free from lofty airs, show yourself to be the same ; — (ever) leading him on so as to keep him free from faults. *Do you not know (the fate of) the praying mantis ? It angrily stretches out its arms, to arrest the progress of the carriage, unconscious of its in- ability for such a task, but showing how much it thinks of its own powers. Be on your guard ; be careful. If you cherish a boastful confidence in your own excellence, and place yourself in collision with him, you are likely to incur the fate (of the mantis). * Do you not know how those who keep tigers proceed ? They do not dare to supply them with living creatures, because of the rage which their killing of them will excite. They do not (even) dare to give them their food whole, because of the rage which their rending of it will excite. They watch till their hunger is appeased, (dealing with them) from their knowledge of their natural ferocity. Tigers are different from men, but they fawn on those who feed them, and do so in accordance with their nature. When any of these are killed by them, it is because they have gone against that nature. * Those again who are fond of horses preserve their dung in baskets, and their urine in jars. If musquitoes and gadflies light on them, and the grooms brush them suddenly away, the horses break their bits, injure (the ornaments on) their heads, and smash those on their breasts. The more care that is taken of them, the more does their fond- ^ Equivalent to ' Do not cross him in his peculiarities.' PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF inVANG-3ZE. 2 1 7 — - I " — — — ness (for their attendants) disappear. Ought not caution to be exercised (in the management of them) ? ' 6. A (master) mechanic, called Shih, on his way to I^M, came to A'M-yuan \ where he saw an oak-tree, which was used as the altar for the spirits of the land. It was so large that an ox standing behind it could not be seen. It measured a hundred spans round, and rose up eighty cubits on the hill before it threw out any branches, after which there were ten or so, from each of which a boat could be hollowed out People came to see it in crowds as in a market place, but the mechanic did not look round at it, but held on his way without stopping. One of his work- men, however, looked long and admiringly at it, and then ran on to his master, and said to him, * Since I followed you with my axe and bill, I have never seen such a beautiful mass of timber as this. Why would you, Sir, not look round at it, but went on without stopping?' 'Have done,' said Mr. Shih, * and do not speak about it. It is quite useless. A boat made from its wood would sink ; a coffin or shell would quickly rot ; an article of furniture would soon go to pieces ; a door would be covered with the exuding sap ; a pillar would be riddled by insects; the material of it is good for nothing, and hence it is that it has attained to so great an age V ^ The name of a place; of a road; of a bend in the road; of a hill. All these accounts of the name are found in different editions of our author, showing that the locality had not been identified. * No one has thought it worth cutting down. 2l8 THE TEXTS OP tAoISM. BK. iv. When Mr. Shih was returning, the altar-oak appeared to him in a dream, and said, ' What other tree will you compare with me ? Will you compare me to one of your ornamental trees ? There are hawthorns, pear-trees, orange-trees, pummelo-trees, gourds and other low fruit-bearing plants. When their fruits are ripe, they are knocked down from them, and thrown among the dirt^. The large branches are broken, and the smaller are torn away. So it is that their productive ability makes their lives bitter to them ; they do not complete their natural term of existence, but come to a premature end in the middle of their time, bringing on them- selves the destructive treatment which they ordin- arily receive. It is so with all things. I have sought to discover how it was that I was so useless ; — I had long done so, till (the effort) nearly caused my death ; and now I have learned it : — it has been of the greatest use to me. Suppose that I had possessed useful properties, should I have become of the great size that I am ? And moreover you and I are both things ; — how should one thing thus pass its judgment on another ? how is it that you a use- less man know all this about me a useless tree ? ' When Mr. Shih awoke, he kept thinking about his dream, but the workman said, * Being so taken with its uselessness, how is it that it yet acts here as the altar for the spirits of the land ? ' * Be still,' was the master s reply, * and do not say a word. It simply happened to grow here ; and thus those who do not know it do not speak ill of it as an evil thing. If it were not used as the altar, would it be in danger of m ^ This is the indignity intended. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF -B:WANG-3ZE. 2 1 9 being cut down ? Moreover, the reason of its being preserved is different from that of the preservation of things generally ; is not your explaining it from the sentiment which you have expressed wide of the mark ? ' . 7. Nan-po 3ze-Mt * in rambling about the Heights of Shang ^, saw a large and extraordinary tree. The teams of a thousand chariots might be sheltered under it, and its shade would cover them all ! 3ze- kk\ said, * What a tree is this I It must contain an extraordinary amount of timber I When he looked up, however, at its smaller branches, they were so twisted and crooked that they could not be made into rafters and beams ; when he looked down to its root, its stem was divided into so many rounded por- tions that neither coffin nor shell could be made from them. He licked one of its leaves, and his mouth felt torn and wounded. The smell of it would make a man frantic, as if intoxicated, for more than three whole days together. ' This, indeed,' said he, * is a tree good for nothing, and it is thus that it has attained to such a size. Ah ! and spirit-like men acknowledge this worthlessness (and its result) ^' In Sung there is the district of Alng-shih *, in which catalpae, cypresses, and mulberry trees grow well. Those of them which are a span or two or rather more in circumference * are cut down by per- sons who want to make posts to which to tie their * Probably the Nan-kwo 3ze-M! at the beginning of the second BooL * In the present department of Kwei-teh, Ho-nan. ' A difficult sentence to construe. * In what part of the duchy we do not know. * See Mencius, VI, i, 13. 220 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. iv. monkeys ; those which are three or four spans round are cut down by persons who want beams for their lofty and famous houses ; and those of seven or eight spans are cut down by noblemen and rich merchants who want single planks for the sides of their coffins. The trees in consequence do not complete their natural term of life, and come to a premature end in the middle of their growth under the axe and bill ; — this is the evil that befalls them from their supplying good timber. In the same way the Al'ieh ^ (book) specifies oxen that have white foreheads, pigs that have turned-up snouts, and men that are suffering from piles, and forbids their being sacrificed to the Ho. The wizards know them by these peculiarities and con- sider them to be inauspicious, but spirit-like men consider them on this account to be very fortunate. 8. There was the deformed object Sh6*. His chin seemed to hide his navel ; his shoulders were higher than the crown of his head; the knot of his hair pointed to the sky; his five viscera were all com- pressed into the upper part of his body, and his two thigh bones were like ribs. By sharpening needles and washing clothes he was able to make a living. By sifting rice and cleaning it, he was able to support ten individuals. When the government was calling out soldiers, this poor ShA would bare his arms among the others ; when it had any great service to be undertaken, because of his constant ailments, none of the work was assigned to him ; when it was ^ Probably the name of an old work on sacrifices. But was there ever a time in China when human sacrifices were offered to the Ho, or on any altar ? * One of Awang-jze's creations. PT. I. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 221 giving out grain to the sick, he received three iung, and ten bundles of firewood. If this poor man, so deformed in body, was still able to support him- self, and complete his term of life; how much more may they do so, whose deformity is that of their faculties * ! 9. When Confucius went to Khii^^ -Oieh-yfi, the madman of A^^^Cl^, as he was wandering about, passed by his door, and said, ' O Phoenix, O Phoenix, how is your virtue degenerated ! The future is not to be waited for ; the past is not to be sought again ! When good order prevails in the world, the sage tries to accomplish all his service ; when disorder prevails, he may preserve his life; at the present time, it is enough if he simply escape being punished. Happiness is lighter than a feather, but no one knows how to support it ; calamity is heavier than the earth, and yet no one knows how to avoid it. Give over ! give over approaching men with the lessons of your virtue ! You are in peril ! you are in peril, hurrying on where you have marked out the ground against your advance ! I avoid publicity, I avoid publicity, that my path may not be injured. I pursue my course, now going backwards, now crookedly, that my feet may not be hurt *. * The deficiency of their faculties— here mental faculties— would assimilate them to the useless trees in the last two paragraphs, whose uselessness only proved useful to them. ' The great state of the south, having its capital in the present m-pei. » See the Analects, XVIII, v. ^ The madman would seem to contrast his own course with that of Confucius; but the meaning is very uncertain, and the text cannot be discussed fully in these short notes. There is a jingle 222 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. IV. *The mountain by its trees weakens itself ^ The grease which ministers to the fire fries itself. The cinnamon tree can be eaten, and therefore it is cut down. The varnish tree is useful, and therefore incisions are made in it. All men know the advan- tage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage of being useless.* of rhyme also in the sentence, and some critics find something like this in them : *Ye ferns, ye thorny ferns, O injure not my way! To save my feet, I backward turn, or winding stray!' ^ Literally, *robs itself;' — exhausts its moisture or productive strength. PT. I. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF ^WANG-8ZE. 223 BOOK V. Part I. Section V. Teh KAung F£k, or 'The Seal of Virtue Completed' I. In LA* there was a Wang Th^P who had lost both his feet * ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those of jfiTung-nl. KA^LTig Ki * asked A!ung-nl about him, saying, ' Though Wang Thii is a cripple, the dis- ciples who follow him about divide LA equally with you, Master. When he stands, he does not teach them ; when he sits, he does not discourse to them. But they go to him empty, and come back full. Is there indeed such a thing as instruction without words* ? and while the body is imperfect, may the mind be complete ? What sort of man is he ? ' -ATung-nl replied, * This master is a sage. I have * See pp. 133, 134. * The native state of Confiicius, part of the present Shan-tung. ' A T&oist of complete virtue ; but probably there was not really such a person. Our author fabricates him according to his fashion. ^ The character uh (TC) ^^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ feet, but I suppose that such is the meaning, because of what is said of Toeless below that * he walked on his heels to see Confucius.' The feet must have been amputated, or mutilated rather (justly or unjustly), as a punishment ; but iTwang-jze wished to say nothing on that point. ' Perhaps a disciple of Confucius ; — ^not elsewhere mentioned as such. * See the Tfto Teh JTing, ch. 2. 2 24 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. V. only been too late in going to him. I will make him my teacher ; and how much more should those do so who are not equal to me! Why should only the state of LA follow him ? I will lead on all under heaven with me to do so.' A^^^ang Al re- joined, ' He is a man who has lost his feet, and yet he is known as the venerable Wang ^ ; — he must be very different from ordinary men. What is the peculiar way in which he employs his mind ? ' The reply was, ' Death and life are great considerations, but they could work no change in him. Though heaven and earth were to be overturned and fall, they would occasion him no loss. His judgment is fixed regarding that in which there is no element of falsehood * ; and, while other things change, he changes not. The transformations of things are to him the developments prescribed for them, and he keeps fast hold of the author of them \' KMng Ki said, * What do you mean ? ' ' When we look at things,' said A^ing-nl, ' as they differ, we see them to be different, (as for instance) the liver and the gall, or KhA and YUeh ; when we look at them, as they agree, we see them all to be a unity. So it is with this (Wang Th&i). He takes no know- ledge of the things for which his ears and eyes are the appropriate organs, but his mind delights itself in the harmony of (all excellent) qualities. He looks at the unity which belongs to things, and does not perceive where they have suffered loss. He looks * Literally, * the Senior ; ' often rendered * Teacher/ ' 'That in which there is no element of falsehood' is the T&o, which alsQ is the 'Author' of all the changes that take place in time and space. See the Introductory Note on the tide and subject of the Book* PT. I. SECT.V. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. 225 on the loss of his feet as only the loss of so much earth.' Ajiang Ki said, * He is entirely occupied with his (proper) self ^ By his knowledge he has discovered (the nature of) his mind, and to that he holds as what is unchangeable ^ ; but how is it that men make so much of him ? ' The reply was, * Men do not look into running water as a mirror, but into still water ; — it is only the still water that can arrest them all, and keep them (in the contemplation of their real selves), Of things which are what they are by the influence of the earth, it is only the pine and cypress which are the best instances ; — in winter as in summer brightly green *. Of those which were what they were by the influence of Heaven*, the most correct examples were Ydo and Shun; for- tunate in (thus) maintaining their own life correct, and so as to correct the lives of others, ' As a verification of the (power of) the original endowment, when it has been preserved, take the result of fearlessness, — how the heroic spirit of a single brave soldier has been thrown into an army of nine hosts *. If a man only seeking for fame and able in this way to secure it can produce such an effect, how much more (may we look for a greater ^ Wang Th&i saw all things in the T do, and the T&o in all things. Comp. Book XI, par. 7, et al. • Notwithstanding his being a cripple. He forgets that circum- stance himself, and all others forget it, constrained and won by his embodiment of the Tdo. What follows is an illustration of this, exaggerated indeed, but not so extravagantly as in many other passages. ' In the Tdoistic meaning of the term. ^ The royal army consisted of six hosts ; that of a great feudal prince of three. * Nine hosts '=a very great army. [39] Q 226 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. v. result) from one whose rule is over heaven and earth, and holds all things in his treasury, who simply has his lodging in the six members ^ of his body, whom his ears and eyes serve but as convey- ing emblematic images of things, who comprehends all his knowledge in a unity, and whose mind never dies 1 If such a man were to choose a day on which he would ascend far on high, men would (seek to) follow him there. But how should he be willing to occupy himself with other men ? ' 2. Sh&n-th(i Aid" was (another) man who had lost his feet Along with ^ze-kA&n^ of ATSlng* he studied under the master Po-hw&n WCk-^in *. ^zerkA&n said to him (one day), * If I go out first, do you remain behind ; and if you go out first, I will remain be- hind.' Next day they were again sitting together on the same mat in the hall, when ^z^-kh&xi spoke the same words to him, adding, * Now I am about to go out; will you stay behind or not? Moreover, when you see one of official rank (like myself), you do not try to get out of his way ; — do you consider yourself equal to one of official rank ? ' Sh3,n-th(i K\k replied, * In our Master s school is there indeed such recognition required of official rank ? You are one. Sir, whose pleasure is in your official rank, and would therefore take precedence of other men. I ^ The arms, legs, head, and trunk. • Another cripple introduced by our author to serve his purpose. ' Kung-sun Khiio\ a good and able minister of i^ng, an earldom forming part of the present Ho-nan. He was a con- temporary of Confucius, who wept when he heard of his death in B.C. 522. He was a scion of the ruling house, which again was a branch of the royal family of Kk\x, * A Taoist teacher. See XXI, par. 9; XXXII, par. i. PT. INSECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF |rWANG-3ZE. 227 have heard that when a mirror is bright, the dust does not rest on it ; when dust rests on it the mirror is not bright. When one dwells long with a man of ability and virtue, he comes to be without error. There now is our teacher whom you have chosen to make you greater than you are ; and when you still talk in this way, are you not in error ? ' 3ze-^^4n rejoined, 'A (shattered) object as you are, you would still strive to make yourself out as good as Y4o ! If I may form an estimate of your virtue, might it not be sufficient to lead you tq the examination of yourself ?' The other said, * Most criminals, in describing their offences, would make it out that they ought not to have lost (their feet) for them ; few would describe them so as to make it appear that they should not have preserved their feet. They are only the virtuous who know that such a calamity was unavoidable, and therefore rest in it as what was appointed for them. When men stand before (an archer like) 1 ^ with his bent bow, if they are in the middle of his field, that is the place where they should be hit ; and if they be not hit, that also was appointed. There are many with their feet entire who laugh at me be- cause I have lost my feet, which makes me feel vexed and angry. But when I go to our teacher, I throw off that feeling, and return (to a better mood) ; — he has washed, without my knowing it, the other from me by (his instructions in) what is good. I have attended him now for nineteen years, and have not known that I am without my feet. Now, you. Sir, and I have for the object of our study the * A famous archer of antiquity in the twenty-second century B.C.9 or perhaps earlier. Q2 228 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. v. (virtue) which is internal, and not an adjunct of the body, and yet you are continually directing your attention to my external body; — ^are you not wrong in this ? ' 3ze->fc4&n felt uneasy, altered his manner and looks, and said, * You need not, Sir, say any- thing more about it' 3. In LA there was a cripple, called Shd-shan the Toeless^, who came on his heels to see ATung-nl. A'ung-nl said to him, * By your want of circumspec- tion in the past. Sir, you have incurred such a cala- mity; — of what use is your coming to me now?' Toeless said, * Through my ignorance of my proper business and taking too little care of my body, I came to lose my feet But now I am come to you, still possessing what is more honourable than my feet, and which therefore I am anxious to preserve entire. There is nothing which Heaven does not cover, and nothing which Earth does not sustain ; you, Master, were regarded by me as doing the part of Heaven and Earth; — how could I know that you would receive me in such a way ? ' Confucius re- joined, * I am but a poor creature. But why, my master, do you not come inside, where I will try to tell you what I have learned ? ' When Toeless had gone out, Confucius said, ' Be stimulated to effort, my disciples. This toeless cripple is still anxious to learn to make up for the evil of his former conduct ; — how much more should those be so whose conduct has been unchallenged ! ' Mr. Toeless, however, told L&o Tan (of the inter- ^ 'Toeless' is a sort of nickname. Shd-shan or Shd bill was, probably, where he dwelt : — * Toeless of Shii hill/ I J..LW I J ..^ I IM I I JM I IJ II U WgBa^^ M^— ^^i^^^^y^ip^^i^ PT. I. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-BZE. 229 view), saying, ' Khung ICAid, I apprehend, has not yet attained to be a Perfect man. What has he to do with keeping a crowd of disciples around him ? He is seeking to have the reputation of being an extra- ordinary and marvellous man, and does not know that the Perfect man considers this to be as handcuffs and fetters to him.' Ldo Tan said, * Why did you not simply lead him to see the unity of life and death, and that the admissible and inadmissible belong to one category, so freeing him from his fetters ? Would this be possible ? ' Toeless said, * It is the punishment inflicted on him by Heaven K How can he be freed from it ? ' 4. Duke Ai of hd^ asked A\ing-nl, saying,* There was an ugly man in Wei, called Ai-thdi Tho \ His father-in-law, who lived with him, thought so much of him that he could not be away from him. His wife, when she saw him (ugly as he was), represented to her parents, saying, ** I had more than ten times rather be his concubine than the wife of any other man *." He was never heard to take the lead in dis- cussion, but always seemed to be of the same opinion with others. He had not the position of a ruler, so as to be able to save men from death. He had no revenues, so as to be able to satisfy men s craving for food. He was ugly enough, moreover, to scare * * Heaven* here is a synonym of TSo. Perhaps the meaning is * unavoidable ; ' it is so in the Tioistic order of things. • It was in the sixteenth year of duke Ai that Confucius died. Ai was marquis of lA from b.c. 494 to 468. • The account of Ai-thdi Tho is of course AVang-jze's own fabrication. Ai-thii is understood to be descriptive of his ugliness, and Tho to be his name. * Perhaps this was spoken by his wife before their marriage^ 230 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk.v. the whole world. He agreed with men instead of trying to lead them to adopt his views ; his know- ledge did not go beyond his immediate neighbour- hood \ And yet his father-in-law and his wife were of one mind about him in his presence (as I have said) ; — he must have been different from other men. I called him, and saw him. Certainly he was ugly enough to scare the whole world. He had not lived with me, however, for many months, when I was drawn to the man ; and before he had been with me a full year, I had confidence in him. The state being without a chief minister, I (was minded) to commit the government to him. He responded to my proposal sorrowfully, and looked undecided as if he would fain have declined it I was ashamed of myself (as inferior to him), but finally gave the government into his hands. In a little time, how- ever, he left me and went away. I was sorry and felt that I had sustained a loss, and as if there were no other to share the pleasures of the kingdom with me. What sort of man was he ? ' A\ing-nl said, * Once when I was sent on a mission to KAti, I saw some pigs sucking at their dead mother. After a little they looked with rapid glances, when they all left her, and ran away. They felt that she did not see them, and that she was no longer like themselves. What they had loved in their mother was not her bodily figure, but what had given anima- tion to her figure. When a man dies in battle, they do not at his interment employ the usual appendages - — — ^ - — - - ^ One sees dimly the applicability of this iilustration to the case in hand. What made Ai-thii Tho so much esteemed was his mental power, quite independent of his ugly person. PT. I. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 23 1 of plumes ^ : as to supplying shoes to one who has lost his feet, there is no reason why he should care for them ; — in neither case is there the proper reason for their use ^ The members of the royal harem do not pare their nails nor pierce their ears ^ ; when a man is newly married, he remains (for a time) absent from his official duties, and unoccupied with them \ That their bodies might be perfect was sufficient to make them thus dealt with ; — how much greater results should be expected from men whose mental gifts are perfect I This Ai-th&i Tho was believed by men, though he did not speak a word; and was loved by them, though he did no special service for them. He made men appoint him to the government of their states, afraid only that he would not accept the appointment He must have been a man whose powers * were perfect, though his realisation of them ^ was not manifested in his person.' Duke Ai said, * What is meant by saying that his powers were complete ? ' Aung-nl replied, * Death and life, preservation and ruin, failure and success, poverty and wealth, superiority and inferiority, iDlame and praise, hunger and thirst, cold and heat ; — these are the changes of circumstances, the operation of our appointed lot. Day and night they succeed to one another before us, but there is no wisdom * See the Li jKt, VIII, i, 7 ; but the applicability of these two illustrations is not so clear. * These two have force as in * reasoning from the less to the greater.' With the latter of the two compare the mosaical provision in Deuteronomy xxiv. 5. ' * Powers' are the capacities of the nature, — the gift of the Tio. * Virtue' is the realisation or carrying out of those capacities. 232 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. V. able to discover to what they owe their origination. They are not sufficient therefore to disturb the har- mony (of the nature), and are not allowed to enter into the treasury of intelligence. To cause this harmony and satisfaction ever to be diffused, while the feeling of pleasure is not lost from the mind ; to allow no break to arise in this state day or night, so that it is always spring-time* in his relations with external things ; in all his experiences to realise in his mind what is appropriate to each season (of the year) * : — these are the characteristics of him whose powers are perfect' *And what do you mean by the realisation of these powers not being manifested in the person?' (pursued further the duke). The reply was, * There is nothing so level as the surface of a pool of still water. It may serve as an example of what I mean. All within its circuit is preserved (in peace), and there comes to it no agitation from without. The virtuous efficacy is the perfect cultivation of the harmony (of the nature). Though the realisation of this be not manifested in the person, things cannot separate themselves (from its influence).' Some days afterwards duke Ai told this conversa- tion to Min-jze^, saying, ' Formerly it seemed to me the work of the sovereign to stand in court with his face to the south, to rule the kingdom, and to pay good heed to the accounts of the people concerned, lest any should come to a (miserable) death ; — this * Specially the season of complacent enjoyment So, in Lin Hst-^ng ; but the meaning has to be forced out of the text. ' The disciple Min Sun or Min Qze-Mien, PT. I. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF i:WANG-3ZE. 233 I considered to be the sum (of his duty). Now that I have heard that description of the Perfect man, I fear that my idea is not the real one, and that, by employing myself too lightly, I may cause the ruin of my state. I and Khung KK\^ are not on the footing of ruler and subject, but on that of a virtuous friendship/ 5. A person who had no lips, whose legs were bent so that he could only walk on his toes, and who was (otherwise) deformed ^ addressed his counsels to duke Ling of Wei, who was so pleased with him, that he looked on a perfectly formed man as having a lean and small neck in comparison with him. Another who had a large goitre like an earthenware jar ^ addressed his counsels to duke Hwan of Kh\ *, who was so pleased with him that he looked on a perfectly formed man as having a neck lean and small in comparison with him ^ So it is that when one's virtue is extraordinary, (any deficiency in) his bodily form maybe forgottm. When men do not forget what is (easily) forgotten, and forget what is not (easily) forgotten, we have a case of real oblivion. Therefore the sagely man has that in which his mind finds its enjoyment, and (looks on) wisdom as (but) the shoots from an old stump; agreements with others are to him but so much glue ; kindnesses are • These two men are undoubtedly inventions of jffwang-jze. They are brought before us, not by surnames and names, but by their several deformities. • The first of the five presiding chiefs ; marquis of KHi from B.C. 685 to 643. • Lin Hst->hing wonders whether the story of the man who was so taken with the charms of a one-eyed courtesan, that he thought other women all had an eye too many, was taken from this I 234 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. v. (but the arts of) intercourse ; and great skill is (but as) merchants' wares. The sagely man lays no plans ; — of what use would wisdom be to him ? He has no cutting and hacking to do; — of what use would glue be to him ? He has lost nothing ; — of what use would arts of intercourse be to him ? He has no goods to dispose of; — what need has he to play the merchant ? (The want of) these four things are the nourishment of (his) Heavenly (nature) ; that nourishment is its Heavenly food. Since he receives this food from Heaven, what need has he for anything of man's (devising) ? He has the bodily form of man, but not the passions and desires of (other) men. He has the form of man, and therefore he is a man. Being without the passions and desires of men, their approvings and disapprovings are not to be found in him. How insignificant and small is (the body) by which he belongs to humanity ! How grand and great is he in the unique perfection of his Heavenly (nature) ! Hui-jze said to AVang-jze, ' Can a man indeed be without desires and passions ? ' The reply was, * He can.' ' But on what grounds do you call him a man, who is thus without passions and desires ? ' ATwang-jze said, * The Tio ^ gives him his personal appearance (and powers) ; Heaven ^ gives him his bodily form ; how should we not call him a man ?' Hui-jze rejoined, * Since you call him a man, how ^ Lii Sh(i-iHh maintains here that 'the T&o' and ' Heaven' have the same meaning; nor does he make any distinction between m&o (^^\ 'the personal appearance/ and hsing (^)i *the figure,' or * bodily form.' * Compare in the T&o Teh ATing expressions in li, 2, and Iv, 5. PT. I. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 235 can he be without passions and desires ? * The reply was, * You are misunderstanding what I mean by passions and desires. What I mean when I say that he is without these is, that this man does not by his likings and dislikings do any inward harm to his body ; — he always pursues his course without effort, and does not (try to) increase his (store of) life.' Hui-jze rejoined, * If there were not that increasing of (the amount) of life, how would he get his body ^ ?* ATwang-jze said, * The T3,o gives him his personal appearance (and powers) ; Heaven gives him his bodily form ; and he does not by his likings and dis- likings do any internal harm to his body. But now you, Sir, deal with your spirit as if it were something external to you, and subject your vital powers to toil. You sing (your ditties), leaning against a tree ; you go to sleep, grasping the stump of a rotten dryandra tree. Heaven selected for you the bodily form (of a man), and you babble about what is strong and what is white *.' * Apparently a gross meaning attached by Hui- jze to JSTwang-jze's words. * Awang-)ze beats down his opponent, and contemptuously refers to some of his well-known peculiarities ; — as in II, par. 5, XXXIII, par. 7, and elsewhere. 236 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. BOOK VL Part I. Section VI. TA 3ung Shih, or 'The Great and Most Honoured Master V I. He who knows the part which the Heavenly^ (in him) plays,and knows (also) that which the Human * (in him ought to) play, has reached the perfection (of knowledge). He who knows the part which the Heavenly plays (knows) that it is naturally born with him ; he who knows the part which the Human ought to play (proceeds) with the knowledge which he possesses to nourish it in the direction of what he does not (yet) know ' : — to complete one's natural term of years and not come to an untimely end in the middle of his course is the fulness of knowledge. Although it be so, there is an evil (attending this condition). Such knowledge still awaits the con- firmation of it as correct ; it does so because it is not yet determined \ How do we know that what * See pp. 134-136. " Both * Heaven ' and * Man ' here are used in the Tioistic sense ; — the meaning which the terms commonly have both witli lAo and i^wang. ' The middle member of this sentence is said to be the practical outcome of all that is said in the Book ; conducting the student of the Tdo to an unquestioning submission to the experiences in his lot, which are beyond his comprehension, and approaching nearly to what we understand by the Christian virtue of Faith. * That is, there may be the conflict, to the end of life, between PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 237 we call the Heavenly (in us) is not the Human ? and that what we call the Human is not the Heavenly ? There must be the True manS and then there is the True knowledge. 2. What is meant by 'the True Man*?' The True men of old did not reject (the views of) the few; they did not seek to accomplish (their ends) like heroes (before others) ; they did not lay plans to attain those ends^ Being such, though they might make mistakes, they had no occasion for repentance; though they might succeed, they had no self-complacency. Being such, they could ascend the loftiest heights without fear; they could pass through water without being made wet by it ; they could go into fire without being burnt; so it was faith and fact, so graphically exhibited in the Book of Job, and com- pendiously described in the seventy-third Psalm. * Here we meet with the True Man, a Master of the Tdo. He is the same as the Perfect Man, the Spirit-like Man, and the Sagely Man (see pp. 127, 128), and the designation is some- times interchanged in the five paragraphs that follow with ' the Sagely Man/ Mr. Balfour says here that this name ' is used in the esoteric sense, — " partaking of the essence of divinity; " ' and he accordingly translates ^ K by ' the divine man.' But he might as well translate any one of the other three names in the same way. The Sh wo W2Ln dictionary defines the name by "f^ ^, ' a recluse of the mountain, whose bodily form has been changed, and who ascends to heaven ; ' but when this account was made, Tdoism had entered into a new phase, difierent from what it had in the time of our author. * In this description of 'the True Man,' and in what follows, there is what is grotesque and what is exaggerated (see note on the title of the first Book, p. 127). . The most prominent charac- teristic of him was his perfect comprehension of the T&o and participation of it ^^ has here the sense of A. 238 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. VI. that by their knowledge they ascended to and reached the T 4 o ^ The True men of old did not dream when they slept, had no anxiety when they awoke, and did not care that their food should be pleasant Their breathing came deep and silently. The breathing of the true man comes (even) from his heels, while men generally breathe (only) from their throats. When men are defeated in argument, their words come from their gullets as if they were vomiting. Where lusts and desires are deep, the springs of the Heavenly are shallow. The True men of old knew nothing of the love of life or of the hatred of death. Entrance into life occasioned them no joy ; the exit from it awakened no resistance. Composedly they went and came. They did not forget what their beginning had been, and they did not inquire into what their end would be. They accepted (their life) and rejoiced in it; they forgot (all fear of death), and returned (to their state before life) \ Thus there was in them what is called the want of any mind to resist the Tio, and of all attempts by means of the Human to assist the Heavenly. Such were they who are called the True men. 3. Being such, their minds were free from all thought ^ ; their demeanour was still and unmoved ; * Was not this the state of non-existence ? We cannot say of Pantaoism. However we may describe that, the Tio operates in nature, but is not identical with it. * f(^ jS ^PP^^^ ^" ^^ common editions as f(^ ^, which must have got into the text at a very early time. *The mind forgetting,' or * free from all thought and purpose,' appears every- PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 239 their foreheads beamed simplicity. Whatever cold- ness came from them was like that of autumn ; whatever warmth came from them was like that of spring. Their joy and anger assimilated to what we see in the four seasons. They did in regard to all things what was suitable, and no one could know how far their action would go. Therefore the sagely man might, in his conduct of war, destroy a state without losing the hearts of the people ^ ; his benefits and favours might extend to a myriad generations without his being a lover of men. Hence he who tries to share his joys with others is not a sagely man ; he who manifests affection is not benevolent ; he who observes times and seasons (to regulate his conduct) is not a man of wisdom ; he to whom profit and injury are not the same is not a superior man ; he who acts for the sake of the name of doing so, and loses his (proper) self is not the (right) scholar ; and he who throws away his person in a way which is not the true (way) cannot command the service of others. Such men as HA Pft->§ieh, WA Kwang, Po-1, ShA-Ml, the count of Ki, Hsu-yU, Ki Tha, and ShXn-thA Tf, all did service for other men, and sought to secure for them what they desired, not seeking their own pleasure ^. where in the Book as a characteristic of the True Man. Not a few critics contend that it was this, and not the Tdo of which it is a quality, that ^wang-jze intended by the ' Master ' in the tide. ^ Such antithetic statements are startling, but they are common with both L&o-jze and our author. * The seven men mentioned here are all adduced, I must sup- pose, as instances of good and worthy men, but still inferior to the True Man. Of Hft Pii-i^eh all that we are told is that he was ' an ancient worthy.' One account of Wii Kwang is that he was of the time of Hwang-Ti, with ears seven inches long ; another, that he 240 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. 4. The True men of old presented the aspect of judging others aright, but without being partisans ; of feeling their own insufficiency, but being without flattery or cringing. Their peculiarities were natural to them, but they were not obstinately attached to them; their humility was evident, but there was nothing of unreality or display about it. Their placidity and satisfaction had the appearance of joy; their every movement seemed to be a necessity to them. Their accumulated attractiveness drew men's looks to them ; their blandness fixed men s attach- ment to their virtue. They seemed to accommodate themselves to the (manners of their age), but with a certain severity ; their haughty indifference was be- yond its control. Unceasing seemed their endea- vours to keep (their mouths) shut ; when they looked down, they had forgotten what they wished to say. They considered punishments to be the substance (of government, and they never incurred it) ; cere- monies to be its supporting wings (and they always observed them) ; wisdom (to indicate) the time (for action, and they always selected it) ; and virtue to be accordance (with others), and they were all-accordant Considering punishments to be the substance (of government), yet their generosity appeared in the (manner of their) infliction of death. Considering ceremonies to be its supporting wings, they pursued was of the time of Thang, of the Shang dynasty. Po-t and Shft- kh\ are known to us from the Analects ; and also the count of Kh% whose name, it is said, was Hs(i-yii. I can find nothing about K\ Thi ;— his name in 3i&o Hung's text is j|^ ^ */!g. Sh&n-thii Tt was of the Yin dynasty, a contemporary of Thang. He drowned himself in the Ho. Most of these are referred to in other places. PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-BZE. 24 1 by means of them their course in the world. Con- sidering wisdom to indicate the time (for action), they felt it necessary to employ it in (the direction of) affairs. Considering virtue to be accordance (with others), they sought to ascend its height along with all who had feet (to climb it). (Such were they), and yet men really thought that they did what they did by earnest effort ^ 5. In this way they were one and the same in all their likings and dislikings. Where they liked, they were the same ; where they did not like, they were the same. In the former case where they liked, they were fellow-workers with the Heavenly (in them) ; in the latter where they disliked, they were co- workers with the Human in them. The one of these elements (in their nature) did not overcome the other. Such were those who are called the True men. Death and life are ordained, just as we have the constant succession of night and day ; — in both cases from Heaven. Men have no power to do anything in reference to them ; — such is the constitution of things*. There are those who specially regard Heaven' as their father, and they still love It (distant as It is) ^; — how much more should they love ^ All this paragraph is taken as illustrative of the True man's freedom from thought or purpose in his course. * See note 3 on par. i, p. 236. ' Love is due to a parent, and so such persons should love Heaven. There is in the text here, I think, an unconscious refer- ence to the earliest time, before the views of the earliest Chinese diverged to Theism and T&oism. We cannot translate the ^ here. [39] R 242 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. vi. That which stands out (Superior and Alone) M Some specially regard their ruler as superior to them- selves, and will give their bodies to die for him ; — how much more should they do so for That which is their true (Ruler) ^ ! When the springs are dried up, the fishes collect together on the land. Than that they should moisten one another there by the damp about them, and keep one another wet by their slime, it would be better for them to forget one another in the rivers and lakes ^ And when men praise Y4o and condemn Aleh, it would be better to forget them both, and seek the renovation of the T4o. 6. There is the great Mass (of nature) ; — I find the support of my body on it ; my life is spent in toil on it ; my old age seeks ease on it ; at death I find rest in it ; — what makes my life a good makes my death also a good \ If you hide away a boat in the ravine of a hill, and hide away the hill in a lake, you will say that (the boat) is secure ; but at midnight there shall come a strong man and carry it off on his back, while you in the dark know nothing about it You may hide away anything, whether small or great, in the most suitable place, and yet it shall disappear from it. But if you could hide the world in the world *, so that there was nowhere to which it could be removed, this would be the grand reality of the * The great and most honoured Master, — the Tao. * This sentence contrasts the cramping effect on the mind of Confucianism with the freedom given by the doctrine of the Tio. ' The T&o does this. The whole paragraph is an amplification of the view given in the preceding note. . * The Tdo cannot be taken away. It is with its possessor, an ' ever-during thing.' PT.i. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JrWANG-32E. 243 ever-during Thing ^ When the body of man comes from its special mould 2, there is even then occasion for joy; but this body undergoes a myriad trans- formations, and does not immediately reach its per- fection ; — does it not thus afford occasion for joys incalculable ? Therefore the sagely man enjoys himself in that from which there is no possibility of separation, and by which all things are preserved. He considers early death, or old age, his beginning and his ending, all to be good, and in this other men imitate him; — how much more will they do so in regard to That Itself on which all things depend, and from which every transformation arises ! 7. This is the Tdo; — there is in It emotion and sincerity, but It does nothing and has no bodily form^ It may be handed down (by the teacher), but may not be received (by his scholars). It may be apprehended (by the mind), but It cannot be seen. It has Its root and ground (of existence) in Itself. Before there were heaven and earth, from of old, there It was, securely existing. From It came the mysterious existences of spirits, from It the mysterious existence of God *. It produced heaven ; It produced earth. It was before the Thfii-^l *, and ' See p. 242, note 4. ' Adopting the reading of ^ff for :^Pj, supplied by Hwii-nan 3ze. " Our author has done with * the True Man,' and now brings in the Tdo itself as his subject. Compare the predicates of It here with Bk, II, par. 2. But there are other, and perhaps higher, things said of it here. * Men at a very early time came to believe in the existence of their spirits after death, and in the existence of a Supreme Ruler or God. It was to the T do that those concepts were owing. • The primal ether out of which ail things were fashioned by the interaction of the Yin and Yang. This was something like the R 2 244 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. yet could not be considered high ^ ; It was below all space, and yet could not be considered deep \ It was produced before heaven and earth, and yet could not be considered to have existed long^; It was older than the highest antiquity, and yet could not be considered old ^ Shih-wei got It ^, and by It adjusted heaven and earth. FO-hsl got It, and by It penetrated to the mystery of the maternity of the primary matter. The Wei-tfiu * got It, and from all antiquity has made no eccentric movement. The Sun and Moon got It, and from all antiquity have not intermitted (their bright shining). Khan-pei got It, and by It became lord of KhwSn-lun *• Fang-1 * got It, and by It enjoyed himself in the Great River. Alen Wd • got It, and by It dwelt on mount Thii. Hwang-Tl^ got It, and by It ascended the cloudy sky. A'wan-hsu* current idea of protoplasm ; but while protoplasm lies down in the lower parts of the earth, the Thii->tt was imagined to be in the higher regions of space. ' The Tio is independent both of space and time. ' A prehistoric sovereign. ' A name for the constellation of the Great Bear. • Name of the spirit of the Khw&n-lun mountains in Thibet, the fairy-land of Tdoist writers, very much in Tdoism what mount Sum6ru is in Buddhism. " The spirit presiding over the Yellow River; — see Mayers's Manual, pp. 54, 55. • Appears here as the spirit of mount ThAi, the great eastern mountain ; we met with him in I, 5, but simply as one of JTwang- ;;ze*s fictitious personages. ' Appears before in Bk. II; the first of Sze-mi ^Aiens * Five Tf s ; ' no doubt a very early sovereign, to whom many imp)ortant discoveries and inventions are ascribed ; is placed by many at the head of Tdoism itself • The second of the 'Five Tts;' a grandson of Hwang-Tt. I do not know what to say of his * Dark Palace.' PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF i:WANG-3ZE. 245 got It, and by It dwelt in the D^rk Palace. Yu-^^iang^ got It, and by It was set on the North Pole. Hsl Wang-mii^ got It, and by It had her seat in (the palace of) Shio-kwang. No one knows Its beginning ; no one knows Its end. Phing 3<i got It, and lived on from the time of the lord of Yti to that of the Five Chiefs \ F{1 Yueh * got It, and by It became chief minister to Wfi-ting*, (who thus) in a trice became master of the kingdom. (After his death), FH Yiieh mounted to the eastern portion of the Milky Way, where, riding on Sagittarius and Scorpio, he took his place among the stars. 8. Nan-po 3ze-khwei * asked NU Yu «, saying, * You are old, Sir, while your complexion is like that of a child ; — how is it so ? ' The reply was, * I have become acquainted with the Tdo/ The other said, *Can I learn the Tdo ?' NU Yii said, * No. How can you ? You, Sir, are not the man to do so. There was Pfi-liang I ^ who had the abilities of a sagely man, but not the Tio, while I had the Tio, but not the abilities. I wished, however, to teach him, if, peradventure, he might * The Spirit of the Northern regions, with a man's face, and a bird's body, &c. * A queen of the Genii on mount Khw^n-lun. See Mayers's Manual, pp. 178, 179. ' Phing 3^ has been before us in Bk. I. Shun is intended by * the Lord of Ya.' The five Chiefs ; — see Mencius,Vl, ii, 7. * See the Shfi, IV, \'iii ; but we have nothing there of course about the Milky Way and the stars. — This passage certainly lessens our confidence in Awang-jze's statements. * Perhaps the same as Nan-po Qze-kM in Bk. IV, par. 7. * Must have been a great TSoist. Nothing more can be said of him or her. ' Only mentioned here. 246 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. Vl. become the sagely man indeed. If he should not do so, it was easy (I thought) for one possessing the T4o of the sagely man to communicate it to another possessing his abilities. Accordingly, I proceeded to do so, but with deliberation \ After three days, he was able to banish from his mind all worldly (matters). This accomplished, I continued my intercourse with him in the same way; and in seven days he was able to banish from his mind all thought of men and things. This accomplished, and my instructions continued, after nine days, he was able to count his life as foreign to himself. ^ This accomplished, his mind was afterwards clear as the morning ; and after this he was able to see his own individuality*. That individuality per- ceived, he was able to banish all thought of Past or Present Freed from this, he was able to pene- trate to (the truth that there is no difference be- tween) life and death ; — (how) the destruction of life is not dying, and the communication of other life is not living. (The TAo) is a thing which accompanies all other things and meets them, which is present when they are overthrown and when they obtain their completion. Its name is Tran- quillity amid all Disturbances, meaning that such Disturbances lead to Its Perfection '.' * And how did you, being alone (without any teacher), learn all this ? ' * I learned it,* was the reply, * from the son of F6-mo * ; he learned it from ' So the -5J* is explained. ' ' Standing by himself, as it were face to face with the TSo. ' Amid all changes, in life and death, the possessor of the Tao has peace. * Meaning writings ; literally, * the son of the assisting pigment/ PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. 2/^^ the grandson of Lo-sung ; he learned it from Shan- ming; he learned it from Nieh-hsu; he, from Hsli-yi ; he, from WA-Ao ; he, from Hsiian-ming ; he, from 3han-li4o ; and he learned it from i-shih.' 9. 3ze-sze*, 3ze-yu^, ^ze-M^, and 3ze-ldiS these four men, were talking together, when some one said, *Who can suppose the head to be made from nothing, the spine from life, and the rump-bone from death ? Who knows how death and birth, living on and disappearing, compose the one body ? • — I would be friends with him^* The four men looked at one another and laughed, but no one seized with his mind the drift of the questions. All, however, were friends together. Not long after 3ze-yu fell ill, and 3ze-sze went to inquire for him. * How great,' said (the sufferer), ' is the Creator ^ ! That He should have made me the deformed object that I am ! ' He was a crooked hunchback ; his five viscera were squeezed into the We are not to suppose that by this and the other names that follow individuals are intended. JTwang-jze seems to have wished to give, in his own fashion, some notion of the genesis of the idea of the Tdo from the first speculations about the origin of things. * We need not suppose that these are the names of real men. They are brought on the stage by our author to serve his purpose. Hwii-nan makes the name of the first to have been 3ze-shui * Compare the same representation in Bk. XXIII, par. 10. K^ Teh-^ih says on it here, * The head, the spine, the rump-bone mean simply the head and tail, the beginning and end. All things begin from nothing and end in nothing. Their birth and their death are only the creations of our thought, the going and coming of the primary ether. When we have penetrated to the non-reality of life and death, what remains of the body of so many feet ? ' » The ' Creator' or ' Maker' (^ ^ %) is the Tdo. 248 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. vi. Upper part of his body; his chin bent over his navel ; his shoulder was higher than his crown ; on his crown was an ulcer pointing to the sky; his breath came and went in gasps ^ : — yet he was easy in his mind, and made no trouble of his con- dition. He limped to a well, looked at himself in it, and said, *Alas that the Creator should have made me the deformed object that I am!' 3^^ said, * Do you dislike your condition ? * He replied, * No, why should I dislike it ? If He were to transform my left arm into a cock, I should be watching with it the time of the night ; if He were to transform my right arm into a cross-bow, I should then be looking for a hsiio to (bring down and) roast ; if He were to transform my rump-bone into a wheel, and my spirit into a horse, I should then be mounting it, and would not change it for another steed. Moreover, when we have got (what we are to do), there is the time (of life) in which to do it ; when we lose that (at death), submission (is what is required). When we rest in what the time requires, and manifest that submission, neither joy nor sorrow can find entrance (to the mind)*. This would be what the ancients called loosing the cord by which (the life) is suspended. But one hung up cannot loose himself; — he is held fast by his bonds ^ And that creatures cannot overcome ^ Compare this description of 3ze-yU's deformity with that of the poor Shii, in IV, 8. ' Such is the submission to one's lot produced by the teaching of Tdoism. ' Compare the same phraseology in III, par. 4, near the end. In correcting Mr. Balfour*s mistranslation of the text, Mr. Giles him- self falls into a mistranslation through not observing that the f^ w PT. !• SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. 249 Heaven (the inevitable) is a long-acknowledged fact ; — why should I hate my condition ? ' 10. Before long 3ze-l&i fell ill, and lay gasping at the point of death, while his wife and children stood around him wailing ^ 3ze-ll went to ask for him, and said to them, * Hush ! Get out of the way! Do not disturb him as he is passing through his change/ Then, leaning against the door, he said (to the dying man), * Great indeed is the Creator! What will He now make you to become ? Where will He take you to ? Will He make you the liver of a rat, or the arm of an insect*?' 3ze-l3.i replied, 'Wherever a parent tells a son to go, east, west, south, or north, he simply follows the command. The Yin and Yang are more to a man than his parents are. If they are hastening my death, and I do not quietly submit to them, I shall be obstinate and rebellious. There is the great Mass (of nature) ; — I find the support of my body in it; my life is spent in toil on it; my old age seeks ease on it ; at death I find rest on it : — what has made my life a good will make my death also a good. * Here now is a great founder, casting his metal. If the metal were to leap up (in the pot), and say, " I must be made into a (sword like the) Mo-yeh ^" is passive, having the ^^ that precedes as its subject (observe the force of the -^ after ^ in the best editions), and not active, or governing the ^ that follows. * Compare the account of the scene at Lao-jze's death, in III, par. 4. • Here comes in the belief in transformation. ' The name of a famous sword, made for Ho-lfl, the king of 250 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi, the great founder would be sure to regard it as uncanny. So, again, when a form is being fashioned in the mould of the womb, if it were to say, " I must become a man ; I must become a man," the Creator would be sure to regard it as uncanny. When we once understand that heaven and earth are a great melting-pot, and the Creator a g^eat founder, where can we have to go to that shall not be right for us ? We are bom as from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awaking.' II. 3ze-sang Hft\ M&ng 3ze-fan ^ and ^ze-khin A^ang^, these three men, were friends together. (One of them said), 'Who can associate together without any (thought of) such association, or act together without any (evidence of) such co-opera- tion } Who can mount up into the sky and enjoy himself amidst the mists, disporting beyond the utmost limits (of things) ^, and forgetting all others as if this were living, and would have no end ? * The three men looked at one another and laughed, not perceiving the drift of the questions ; and they continued to associate together as friends. Suddenly, after a time^, 3ze-sang H<i died. Before he was buried, Confucius heard of the event, and Wii (b. c. 514-494). See the account of the forging of it in the J^ ^ ^J Bi ^» ^^' '4* ^^^ mention of it would seem to indicate that 3ze-lai and the other three men were of the time of Confucius. * These three men were undoubtedly of the time of Confucius, and some would identify them with the 3ze-sang Po-^ze of Ana. VI, I, Ming Alh-fan of VI, 13, and the lAo of IX, vi, 4. This is very unlikely. They were Taoists. Or, ' without end/ ' Or, * Some time went by silently, and/ PT. I. SECT. VI, THE WRITINGS OF iCWANG-SZE. 25 1 sent 3ze-kung to go and see if he could render any assistance. One of the survivors had com- posed a ditty, and the other was playing on his lute. Then they sang together in unison, 'Ah! come, Sang HA! ah! come, Sang Hft! Your being true youVe got again. While we, as men, still here remain Ohone * ! ' 3ze-kung hastened forward to them, and said, * I venture to ask whether it be according to the rules to be singing thus in the presence of the corpse ? ' The two men looked at each other, and laughed, saying, * What does this man know about the idea that underlies (our) rules ? ' 3ze-kung returned to Confucius, and reported to him, saying, * What sort of men are those ? They had made none of the usual preparations ^ and treated the body as a thing foreign to them. They were singing in the presence of the corpse, and there was no change in their countenances. I cannot describe them; — what sort of men are they."^' Confucius replied, * Those men occupy and enjoy themselves in what is outside the (common) ways (of the world), while I occupy and enjoy myself in what lies within those ways. There is no common ground for those of such different ways ; and when I sent you to condole with those men, I was acting stupidly. They, moreover, make man to be the fellow of the ^ In accordance with the ancient and modem practice in China of calling the dead back. But these were doing so in a song to the lute. ' Or, ' they do not regulate their doings (in the usual way).' 252 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vr. Creator, and seek their enjoyment in the formless condition of heaven and earth. They consider life to be an appendage attached, an excrescence annexed to them, and death to be a separation of the appendage and a dispersion of the contents of the excrescence. With these views, how should they know wherein death and life are to be found, or what is first and what is last ? They borrow different substances, and pretend that the common form of the body is composed of them^ They dismiss the thought of (its inward constituents like) the liver and gall, and (its outward constituents), the ears and eyes. Again and again they end and they begin, having no knowledge of first principles. Thej^ occupy themselves ignorantly and vaguely with what (they say) lies outside the dust and dirt (of the world), and seek their enjoyment in the business of doing nothing. How should they confusedly address themselves to the cere- monies practised by the common people, and exhibit themselves as doing so to the ears and eyes of the multitude ? ' 3ze-kung said, *Yes, but why do you, Master, act according to the (common) ways (of the world) ? ' The reply was, * I am in this under the condemning sentence of Heaven*. Nevertheless, I will share ^ The idea that the body is composed of the elements of earth, wind or air, fire, and water. • A strange description of himself by the sage. Literally, * I am (one of) the people killed and exposed to public view by Heaven;' referring, perhaps, to the description of a living man as ' suspended by a string from God' Confucius was content to accept his life, and used it in pursuing the path of duty, according to his con- ception of it, without aiming at the transcendental method of the Tioists. I can attach no other or better meaning to the expression. PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-3ZE. 253 with you (what I have attained to)/ 3ze-kung re- joined, * I venture to ask the method which you pursue ;' and Confucius said, 'Fishes breed and grow in the water; man developes in the Tdo. Growing in the water, the fishes cleave the pools, and their nourishment is supplied to them. Developing in the Tdo, men do nothing, and the enjoyment of their life is secured. Hence it is said, " Fishes for- get one another in the rivers and lakes ; men forget one another in the arts of the Tio." ' 3ze-kung said, ' I venture to ask about the man who stands aloof from others^.' The reply was, ' He stands aloof from other men, but he is in accord with Heaven ! Hence it is said, " The small man of Heaven is the superior man among men ; the superior man among men is the small man of HeavenM"' 12. Yen Hui asked A'ung-n!, saying, * When the mother of M&ng-sun 3hii ® died, in all his wailing for her he did not shed a tear ; in the core of his heart he felt no distress ; during all the mourning rites, he exhibited no sorrow. Without these three things, he (was considered to have) discharged his mourn- ing well ; — is it that in the state of LA one who has not the reality may yet get the reputation of having it? I think the matter very strange.' -^ung-nl * Misled by the text of HsUang Ying, Mr. Balfour here reads !f^ instead of 0^. * Here, however, he aptly compares with the language of Christ in Matthew vii. 28. — Awang-jze seems to make Confucius praise the system of Tdoism as better than his own I ' Must have been a member of the M^ng or MS,ng-sun family of Lt, to a branch of which Mencius belonged. 254 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. said, * That MSng-sun carried out (his views) to the utmost. He was advanced in knowledge ; but (in this case) it was not possible for him to appear to be negligent (in his ceremonial observances)^, but he succeeded in being really so to himself. M3.ng-sun does not know either what purposes life serves, or what death serves ; he does not know which should be first sought, and which last \ If he is to be trans- formed into something else, he will simply await the transformation which he does not yet know. This is all he does. And moreover, when one is about to undergo his change, how does he know that it has not taken place ? And when he is not about to un- dergo his change, how does he know that it has taken place ' ? Take the case of me and you : — ^are we in a dream from which we have not begun to awake * ? ' Moreover, M&ng-sun presented in his body the appearance of being agitated, but in his mind he was conscious of no loss. The death was to him like the issuing from one's dwelling at dawn, and no (more terrible) reality. He was more awake than others were. When they wailed, he also wailed, having in himself the reason why he did so. And we all have our individuality which makes us what we are as compared together; but how do we know that we ' The people set such store by the mourning rites, that MSng- sun felt he must present the appearance of observing them. This would seem to show that Taoism arose after the earlier views of the Chinese. ' I adopt here, with many of the critics, the reading of gjljt instead of the more common Sf . ' This is to me very obscure. * Are such dreams possible ? See what I have said on II, par. 9. PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JS:WANG-3ZE. 255 determine in any case correctly that individuality ? Moreover you dream that you are a bird, and seem to be soaring to the sky ; or that you are a fish, and seem to be diving in the deep. But you do not know whether we that are now speaking are awake or in a dreamt It is not the meeting with what is pleasurable that produces the smile; it is not the smile suddenly produced that produces the arrange- ment (of the person). When one rests in what has been arranged, and puts away all thought of the transformation, he is in unity with the mysterious Heaven.' 13- i-^ 3ze^ having gone to see Hsii YA, the latter said to him, * What benefit have you received from Y4o?' The reply was, *Y4o says to me, You must yourself labour at benevolence and righteous- ness, and be able to tell clearly which is right and which wrong (in conflicting statements).' HsU Y<i rejoined, ' Why then have you come to me ? Since Y4o has put on you the brand of his benevolence and righteousness, and cut off your nose with his right and wrong ^, how will you be able to wander in the way of aimless enjoyment, of unregulated contemplation, and the ever-changing forms (of dis- pute) ? ' t-r 3ze said, * That may be ; but I should ^ This also is obscure ; but Confucius is again made to praise the Tioistic system. * t-r is said by Lt t to have been * a worthy scholar ; ' but t-r is an old name for the swallow, and there is a legend of a being of this name appearing to king Mii, and then flying away as a swallow; — see the Khang-hsi Thesaurus under jifjj. The per- sonage is entirely fabulous. ' Dismembered or disfigured you. 256 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. vi. like to skirt along its hedges/ * But/ said the other, * it cannot be. Eyes without pupils can see nothing of the beauty of the eyebrows, eyes, and other features ; the blind have nothing to do with the green, yellow, and variegated colours of the sacri- ficial robes.' t-r ^ze rejoined, * Yet, when WA- >6wang^ lost his beauty, ATu-liang^ his strength, and Hwang-Tt his wisdom, they all (recovered them) ^ under the moulding (of your system) ; — ^how do you know that the Maker will not obliterate the marks of my branding, and supply my dismember- ment, so that, again perfect in my form, I may follow you as my teacher ? ' Hsli Yd said, * Ah ! that can- not yet be known. I will tell you the rudiments. O my Master 1 O my Master ! He gives to all things their blended qualities, and does not count it any righteousness; His favours reach to all genera- tions, and He does not count it any benevolence ; He is more ancient than the highest antiquity, and does not count Himself old ; He overspreads heaven and supports the earth ; He carves and fashions all bodily forms, and does not consider it any act of skill ;— this is He in whom I find my enjoyment.' 14. Yen Hui said, * I am making progress.' ATung- nl replied, * What do you mean ? ' * I have ceased to think of benevolence and righteousness,' was the reply. * Very well ; but that is not enough.' Another day, Hui again saw Aung-nl, and said. *I am making progress/ *What do you mean?' * Names of parties, of whom we know nothing. It is implied, we must suppose, that they had suffered as is said by their own inadvertence. We must suppose that they had done so. PT. I. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JSWANG-SZE. 257 * I have lost all thought of ceremonies and music' * Very well, but that is not enough.' A third day, Hui again saw (the Master), and said, * I am making progress/ * What do you mean ? ' * I sit and forget everything ^' ATung-nt changed countenance, and said, * What do you mean by say- ing that you sit and forget (everything) ? ' Yen Hui replied, ' My connexion with the body and its parts is dissolved; my perceptive organs are discarded. Thus leaving my material form, and bidding fare- well to my knowledge, I am become one with the Great Pervader ^. This I call sitting and forgetting all things.' A'ung-nl said, ' One (with that Pervader), you are free from all likings ; so transformed, you are become impermanent. You have, indeed, be- come superior to me ! I must ask leave to follow in your steps*.' 15. 3ze-yU * and 3ze-sang * were friends. (Once), when it had rained continuously for ten days, 3ze-yU said, * I fear that 3ze-sang may be in distress.' So he wrapped up some rice, and went to give it to him to eat. When he came to 3ze-sangs door, there issued from it sounds between singing and wailing ; * 'I sit and forget;' — ^generally thus supplemented (^ J^ ^\ J^^). Hui proceeds to set forth the meaning he himself attached to the phrase. * Another denomination, I think, of the Tdo. The ^ ^^ is also explained as meaning, * the great void in which there is no obstraction (^SiM^M ?^)-' * Here is another testimony, adduced by our author, of Confu- dus's appreciation of Tdoism ; to which the sage would, no doubt, have taken exception. * Two of the men in pars. 9, 10. [39] s 258 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. vi. a lute was struck, and there came the words, ' O Father ! O Mother ! O Heaven ! O Men ! ' The voice could not sustain itself, and the line was hur- riedly pronounced. 3ze-yii entered and said, ' Why are you singing, Sir, this line of poetry in such a way?' The other replied, ' I was thinking, and think- ing in vain, how it was that I was brought to such extremity. Would my parents have wished me to be so poor ? Heaven overspreads all without any par- tial feeling, and so does Earth sustain all ; — ^would Heaven and Earth make me so poor with any un- kindly feeling ? I was trying to find out who had done it, and I could not do so. But here I am in this extremity ! — it is what was appointed for me^!' ^ Here is the highest issue of TSoism ; — ^unquestioning sub- mission to what is beyond our knowledge and controL PT. I. SECT.vii. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-3ZE. 259 BOOK VII. Part I. Section VII. Ying Tl Wang\ or *The Normal Course for Rulers and Kings ^' I . N ieh A^i^iieh ^ put four questions to Wang 1 2, not one of which did he know (how to answer). On this Nieh A^^iieh leaped up, and in great delight walked away and informed Phfl-1-jze ^ of it, who said to him, * Do you (only) now know it ?' He of the line of Yii * was not equal to him of the line of Thii *. He of Yii still kept in himself (the idea of) bene- volence by which to constrain (the submission of) men ; and he did win men, but he had not begun to proceed by what did not belong to him as a man. He of the line of Thii would sleep tranquilly, and awake in contented simplicity. He would consider himself now (merely) as a horse, and now (merely) as an ox •. His knowledge was real and untroubled * See pp« 136-138. * See p. 190, note 5. * An ancient TSoist, of the time of Shun. So, Hwang-ftt Mt, who adds that Shun served him as his master when he was eight years old. I suppose the name indicates that his clothes were made of rushes. * Shun. See p. 245, note 3. ° An ancient sovereign, earlier, no doubt, than Fft-hst; but nothing is known of him. ' He thought nothing about his being, as a man, superior to the lower creatures. Shun in governing employed his acquired know- ledge ; Thdi had not begun to do so. S 2 260 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.VII. by doubts ; and his virtue was very true : — he had not begun to proceed by what belonged to him as a man. » 2. ATien WA* went to see the mad (recluse), TTAieh-yu *, who said to him, ' What did Zih-z^ung Shih^ tell you ?' The reply was, * He told me that when rulers gave forth their regulations according to their own Views and enacted righteous measures, no one would venture not to obey them, and all would be transformed/ A'-Aieh-yli said, * That is but the hypocrisy of virtue. For the right ordering of the world it would be like trying to wade through the sea and dig through the Ho, or employing a mus- quito to carry a mountain on its back. And when a sage is governing, does he govern men's out- ward actions ? He is (himself) correct, and so (his government) goes on ;— this is the simple and certain way by which he secures the success of his affairs. Think of the bird which flies high, to avoid being hurt by the dart on the string of the archer, and the little mouse which makes its hole deep under Shin- khiil * to avoid the danger of being smoked or dug out ; — are (rulers) less knowing than these two little creatures ?' 3. Thien Kin*, rambling on the south of (mount) Yin ®, came to the neighbourhood of the Lido-water. ^ See p. 1 70, note 2. * See p. 170, note 3. ' A name ; — ' a worthy,' it is said. ^ Name of some hill, or height. * A name (' Root of the sky'), but probably mythical. There is a star so called. * Probably the name of a mountain, though this meaning of Yin is not given in the dictionary. PT, I. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-3ZE. 26l Happening there to meet with the man whose name is not known \ he put a question to him, saying, ' I beg to ask what should be done ^ in order to (carry on) the government of the world.' The nameless man said, ' Go away ; you are a rude borderer. Why do you put to me a question for which you are unprepared ^ ? I would simply play the part of the Maker of (all) things*. When wearied, I would mount on the bird of the light and empty air, proceed beyond the six cardinal points, and wander in the region of non- entity, to dwell in the wilderness of desert space. What method have you, moreover, for the govern- ment of the world that you (thus) agitate my mind ?' (Thien Kin), however, again asked the question, and the nameless man said, ' Let your mind find its enjoyment in pure simplicity; blend yourself with (the primary) ether in idle indifference; allow all things to take their natural course; and admit no personal or selfish consideration : — do this and the world will be governed/ 4. Yang 3ze-M^ having an interview with Ldo Tan, said to him, * Here is a man, alert and vigorous * Or, *a nameless man.' We cannot tell whether ^wang-gze had any particular Being, so named, in view or not. • The objectionable point in the question is the supposition that ' doing ' was necessary in the case. • Or, *I am unprepared.' But as Thien K^n repeats the question, it seems better to supply the second pronoun. He had thought on the subject * See the same phraseology in VI, par. 11. What follows is merely our author's way of describing the non-action of the Tao. ' The Yang JTii, whom Mencius attacked so fiercely. He was, perhaps, a contemporary and disciple of Ldo-jze. 262 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. vir. in responding to all matters^, clearsighted and widely intelligent, and an unwearied student of the T4o ; — can he be compared to one of the intelligent kings ? ' The reply was, * Such a man is to one of the intelligent kings but as the bustling underling of a court who toils his body and distresses his mind with his various contrivances-. And moreover, it is the beauty of the skins of the tiger and leopard which makes men hunt them ; the agility of the monkey, or (the sagacity of) the dog that catches the yak, which make men lead them in strings; but can one similarly endowed be compared to the intelligent kings ? ' Yang 3ze-^ looked discomposed and said, * I venture to ask you what the government of the intelligent kings is/ Ldo Tan replied, * In the governing of the intelligent kings, their services overspread all under the sky, but they did not seem to consider it as proceeding from themselves ; their transforming influence reached to all things, but the people did not refer it to them with hope. No one could tell the name of their agency, but they made men and things be joyful in themselves. Where they took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) nonentity.' 5. In A^ng there was a mysterious wizard® called ^ The IqI may be taken as == |n| , in which case we must understand a j^ as its object ; or as = ^, ' an echo,' indicating the quickness of the man's response to things. » Compare the language of Ldo Tan, in Bk. XII, par. 8, near the beginning. ' ^ is generally feminine, meaning ' a witch.' We must take PT. I, SECT. vii. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-SZE. 263 ATi-hsien. He knew all about the deaths and births of men, their preservation and ruin, their misery and happiness, and whether their lives would be long or short, foretelling the year, the month, the decade and the day like a spirit. When the people of A^ng saw him, they all ran out of his way. Lieh-jze went to see him, and was fascinated* by him. Returning, he told Hd-gze of his interview, and said, ' I con- sidered your doctrine, my master, to be perfect, but I have found another which is superior to it.* Hft-jze^ replied, * I have communicated to you but the out- ward letter of my doctrine, and have not communi- cated its reality and spirit ; and do you think that you are in possession of it ? However many hens there be, if there be not the cock among them, how should they lay (real) eggs * ? When you con- front the world with your doctrine, you are sure to show in your countenance (all that is in your mind) *, and so enable (this) man to succeed in inter- preting your physiognomy. Try and come to me with him, that I may show myself to him.' On the morrow, accordingly, Lieh-jze came with the man and saw HA-jze. When they went out, the it here as masculine (=S^), The general meaning af the cha- racter is ' magical,' the antics of such perfonners to bring down the spirits. * Literally, * intoxicated.' * The teacher in Tdoism of Lieh-jze, called also H^ -OiCl, with the name Lin (>fek)« ^^ the remarks on the whole paragraph in the Introductory Notice of the Book. * * The hens ' signify the letter of the doctrine ; ' the cock,' its spirit ; ' the eggs,' a real knowledge of it. ^ ^ is here in the first tone, and read as ^, meaning ' to stretch,' ' to set forth.' 264 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. vii. wizard said, * Alas 1 your master is a dead man. He will not live ; — not for ten days more ! I saw some- thing strange about him ; — I saw the ashes (of his life) all slaked with water!' When Lieh-jze re- entered, he wept till the front of his jacket was wet with his tears, and told H{^-)ze what the man had said. Hd'^ze said, * I showed myself to him with the forms of (vegetation beneath) the earth. There were the sprouts indeed, but without (any appearance of) growth or regularity: — ^he seemed to see me with the springs of my (vital) power closed up. Try and come to me with him again.' Next day, accordingly, Lieh-jze brought the man again and saw Hd-jze. When they went out, the man said, ' It is a fortunate thing for your master that he met with me» He will get better ; he has all the signs of living ! I saw the balance (of the springs of life) that had been stopped (inclining in his favour).' Lieh-jze went in, and reported these words to his master, who said, * I showed myself to him after the pattern of the earth (beneath the) sky. Neither semblance nor reality entered (into my ex- hibition), but the springs (of life) were issuing from beneath my feet; — ^he seemed to see me with the springs of vigorous action in full play. Try and come with him again.' Next day Lieh-jze came with the man again, and again saw Hd-jze with him. When they went out, the wizard said, 'Your master is never the same. I cannot understand his physiognomy. Let him try to steady himself, and I will again view him.' Lieh-jze went in and reported this to HA-jze, who said, * This time I showed myself to him after the pattern of the grand harmony (of the two elemental PT. I. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 265 forces), with the superiority inclining to neither. He seemed to see me with the springs of (vital) power in equal balance. Where the water wheels about from (the movements of) a dugong \ there is an abyss ; where it does so from the arresting (of its course), there is an abyss ; where it does so, and the water keeps flowing on, there is an abyss. There are nine abysses with their several names, and I have only exhibited three of them. Try and come with him again.' Next day they came, and they again saw Hii-jze. But before he had settled himself in his position, the wizard lost himself and ran away. * Pursue him,' said Hd-jze, and Lieh-jze did so, but could not come up with him. He returned, and told HA-jze, saying, 'There is an end of him; he is lost ; I could not find him.* HA-jze rejoined, * I was showing him myself after the pattern of what was before I began to come from my author. I con- fronted him with pure vacancy, and an easy in- difference. He did not know what I meant to represent. Now he thought it was the idea of ex- hausted strength, and now that of an onward flow, and therefore he ran away.' After this, Lieh-jze considered that he had not yet begun to learn (his master's doctrine). He returned to his house, and for three years did not go out He did the cooking for his wife. He fed the pigs as if he were feeding men. He took no part ^ One of the dugong. It has various names in Chinese, one being ^ j^, 'the Man-Fish,' from a fancied resemblance of its head and face to a human being ; — the origin perhaps of the idea of the mermaid. 266 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. Vll. or interest in occurring affairs. He put away the carving and sculpture about him, and returned to pure simplicity. Like a clod of earth he stood there in his bodily presence. Amid all distractions he was (silent) and shut up in himself And in this way he continued to the end of his life. 6. Non-action (makes its exemplifier) the lord of all fame ; non-action (serves him as) the treasury of all plans ; non-action (fits him for) the burden of all offices ; non-action (makes him) the lord of all wisdom \ The range of his action is inexhaustible, but there is nowhere any trace of his presence. He fulfils all that he has received from Heaven*, but he does not see that he was the recipient of anything. A pure vacancy (of all purpose) is what characterises him. When the perfect man employs his mind, it is a mirror. It conducts nothing and anticipates no- thing ; it responds to (what is before it), but does not retain it. Thus he is able to deal successfully with all things, and injures none. 7. The Ruler* of the Southern Ocean was ShA*, the ^ The four members of this sentence occasion the translator no small trouble. They are constructed on the same lines, and seem to me to be indicative and not imp>erative. Lin Hst-^ung observes that all the explanations that had been offered of them were inap- propriate. My own version is substantially in accordance with his interpretations. The chief difficulty is with the first member, which seems anti-TSoistic ; but our author is not speaking of the purpose of any actor, but of the result of his non-action. J^ is to be taken in the sense of^, Mord,' 'exercising lordship/ The ZM! in the third sentence indicates a person or persons in the author's mind in what precedes. * = the Heavenly or self-determining nature. ' Perhaps ' god ' would be a better translation. * Meaning * Heedless.' PT. I. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF JPWANG-3ZE. 267 Ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hd^ and the Ruler of the Centre was Chaos. Shd and Hd were continu- ally meeting in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, * Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him.' Accord- ingly they dug one orifice in him every day ; and at the end of seven days Chaos died ^ * Meaning * Sudden.' ^ The litUe allegozy is ingenious and amusing. ' It indicates,' says Lin, * how action (the opposite of non-inaction) injures the first condition of things.' More especially it is in harmony with the Tioistic opposition to the use of knowledge in government. One critic says that an ' alas ! ' might well follow the concluding ' died.' But surely it was better that Chaos should give place to another state. * Heedless ' and ' Sudden' did not do a bad work. 268 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. vill. BOOK VIII. Part II. Section I. Phien M4u, or * Webbed Toes V !• A ligament uniting the big toe with the other toes and an extra finger may be natural * growths, but they are more than is good for use. Excres- cences on the person and hanging tumours are growths from the body, but they are unnatural additions to it There are many arts of benevolence and righteousness, and the exercise of them is dis- tributed among the five viscera * ; but this is not the correct method according to the characteristics of the TSlo. Thus it is that the addition to the foot is but the attachment to it of so much useless flesh, and the addition to the hand is but the planting on it of a useless finger. (So it is that) the connecting (the virtues) with the five viscera renders, by excess or restraint, the action of benevolence and righteous- ness bad, and leads to many arts as in the employ- ment of (great) powers of hearing or of vision. 2. Therefore an extraordinary power of vision * See pp. 138, 139. ' ' Come out from the nature,' but ' nature ' must be taken here as in the translation. The character is not T&o. ' The five viscera are the heart, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, and the kidneys. To the liver are assigned the element ' wood,' and the virtue of benevolence ; to the lungs, the element ' metal,' and the virtue of righteousness. PT. II. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF JHVANG-SZE. 269 leads to the confusion of the five colours ^ and an excessive use of ornament (Its possessor), in the resplendence of his green and yellow, white and black, black and green, will not stop till he has be- come a LI Kti ^ An extraordinary power of hear- ing leads to a confusion of the five notes ®, and an excessive use of the six musical accords*. (Its possessor), in bringing out the tones from the instru- ments of metal, stone, silk, and bamboo, aided by the Hwang->5ung* and Tfi-lii* (tubes), will not stop till he has become a Shih Khwang^ (So), excessive benevolence eagerly brings out virtues and restrains its (proper) nature, that (its possessor) may acquire a famous reputation, and cause all the organs and drums in the world to celebrate an un- attainable condition ; and he will not stop till he has become a 3ang (Shin)* or a Shih (3hi£l)''. An ex- * Black, red, azure (green, blue, or black), white, and yellow. • The same as the L! L4u of Mencius (IV, i, i), — of the time of Hwang-Tt. It is not easy to construe the text here, and in the analogous sentences below, Hsiian Ying, having read on to the i^ ^^ ^ ^^^ uninterrupted predicate of the sharp seer, says, ' Is not this a proof of the extraordinary gift ? ' What follows would be, ' But it was exemplified in Li J^d/ The meaning that is given in the version was the first that occurred to myself. ^ The five notes of the Chinese musical scale. * There are twelve of these musical notes, determined by the twelve regulating tubes; six, represented here by Hwang-^ung, the liame of the first tube, giving the sharp notes ; and six, repre- sented by T&'liX, giving the flat notes. ' See in II, par. 5. • The famous S^Uig-jze, or QSing ShSn, one of Confucius's ablest disciples. ^ An officer of Wei in the sixth century b. c. He belonged to a family of historiographers, and hence the surname Shih (^). Confucius mentions him in the most honourable terms in the 270 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk.viii. traordinary faculty in debating leads to the piling up of arguments like a builder with his bricks, or a net- maker with his string. (Its possessor) cunningly contrives his sentences and enjoys himself in dis- cussing what hardness is and what whiteness is, where views agree and where they differ, and pressing on, though weary, with short steps, with (a multitude of) useless words to make good his opinion ; nor will he stop till he has become a Yang {/^(JlY or Mo (Tl)\ But in all these cases the parties, with their re- dundant and divergent methods, do not proceed by that which is the correct path for all under the sky. That which is the perfectly correct path is not to lose the real character of the nature with which we are endowed. Hence the union (of parts) should not be considered redundance, nor their divergence superfluity ; what is long should not be considered too long, nor what is short too short. A duck's legs, for instance, are short, but if we try to lengthen them, it occasions pain ; and a crane s legs are long, but if we try to cut off a portion of them, it produces grief. Where a part is by nature long, we are not to amputate, or where it is by nature short, we are not to lengthen it. There is no occasion to try to remove any trouble that it may cause. 3. The presumption is that benevolence and right- eousness are not constituents of humanity ; for to how much anxiety does the exercise of them give rise ! Moreover when another toe is united to the Analect XV, vi, by the name Shih Ya. * Righteousness ' was his great attribute. ^ The two heresiarchs so much denounced by Mencius. Both have appeared in previous Books. PT. II. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. 2 7 1 great toe, to divide the membrane makes you weep ; and when there is an extra finger, to gnaw.it off makes you cry out. In the one case there is a member too many, and in the other a member too few ; but the anxiety and pain which they cause is the same. The benevolent men of the present age look at the evils of the world, as with eyes full of dust, and are filled with sorrow by them, while those who are not benevolent, having violently altered the character of their proper nature, greedily pursue after riches and honours. The presumption there- fore is that benevolence and righteousness are con- trary to the nature of man : — how full of trouble and contention has the world been ever since the three dynasties ^ began ! And moreover, in employing the hook and line, the compass and square, to give things their correct form you must cut away portions of what naturally belongs to them ; in employing strings and fasten- ings, glue and varnish to make things firm, you must violently interfere with their qualities. The bendings and stoppings in ceremonies and music, and the fac- titious expression in the countenance of benevolence and righteousness, in order to comfort the minds of men : — these all show a failure in observing the regular principles (of the human constitution). All men are furnished with such regular principles ; and according to them what is bent is not made so by the hook, nor what is straight by the line, nor what is round by the compass, nor what is square by the carpenter's square. Nor is adhesion effected by * Those of Hsi&, Shang, and JElu;— from the twenty-third century b. c. to our author's own time. 2/2 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK.viil. the use of glue and varnish, nor are things bound together by means of strings and bands. Thus it is that all in the world are produced what they are by a certain guidance, while they do not know how they are produced so ; and they equally attain their several ends while they do not know how it is that they do so. Anciently it was so, and it is so now ; and this constitution of things should not be made of none effect. Why then should benevolence and righteousness be employed as connecting (links), or as glue and varnish, strings and bands, and the enjoyment arising from the Tio and its character- istics be attributed to them ? — it is a deception prac- tised upon the world. Where the deception is small, there will be a change in the direction (of the objects pursued) ; where it is great, there will be a change of the nature itself. How do I know that it is so ? Since he of the line of Yii called in his benevolence and righteousness to distort and vex the world, the world has not ceased to hurry about to execute their commands ; — has not this been by means of benevolence and righteousness to change (men s views) of their nature ? 4. I will therefore try and discuss this matter. From the commencement of the three dynasties downwards, nowhere has there been a man who has not under (the influence of external) things altered (the course of) his nature. Small men for the sake of gain have sacrificed their persons; scholars for the sake of fame have done so ; great officers, for the sake of their families; and sagely men, for the sake of the kingdom. These several classes, with different occupations, and different repu- PT, 11. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-8ZE. 273 tations, have agreed in doing injury to their nature and sacrificing their persons. Take the case of a male and female slave* ; — they have to feed the sheep together, but they both lose their sheep. Ask the one what he was doing, and you will find that he was holding his bamboo tablets and reading. Ask the other, and you will find that she was amusing herself with some game ^ They were differently occupied, but they equally lose their sheep. (So), Po-1 ^ died at the foot of Sh&u-yang * to maintain his fame, and the robber A!lh* died on the top of Tung- ling • in his eagerness for gain. Their deaths were occasioned by different causes, but they equally shortened their lives and did violence to their nature ; — ^why must we approve of Po-!, and condemn the robber A^h ? In cases of such sacrifice all over the world, when one makes it for the sake of bene- volence and righteousness, the common people style him * a superior man,' but when another does it for the sake of goods and riches, they style him * a small man.' The action of sacrificing is the same, and yet we have * the superior man ' and * the small man ! * In the matter of destroying his life, and doing injury to his nature, the robber A^'ih simply did the same as Po-1 ; — ^why must we make the distinction of * superior man ' and ' small man ' between them ? * See the Khang-hst dictionary under the character »^, ' Playing at some game with dice. ' See VI, par. 3. * A mountain in the present Shan-hst, probably in the depart- ment of Phft-i^u. ^ A strange character, but not historical, represented as a brother of Liii-hsia HuL See Bk. XXIX. * * The Eastern Height,' = the Th&i mountain in the present Shan-tung. [39] T 274 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.viii. 5. Moreover, those who devote their nature to (the pursuit) of benevolence and righteousness, though they should attain to be like 3^ng (ShJln) and Shih (3hi<l), I do not pronounce to be good; those who devote it to (the study of) the five flavours, though they attain to be like Shd-r ^ I do not pronounce to be good ; those who devote it to the (discrimination of the) five notes, though they attain to be like Shih Khwang, I do not pronounce to be quick of hearing ; those who devote it to the (appreciation of the) five colours, though they attain to be like L! Ajii, I do not pronounce to be clear of vision. When I pronounce men to be good, I am not speaking of their benevolence and right- eousness ; — the goodness is simply (their possession of) the qualities (of the Tdo), When I pronounce them to be good, I am not speaking of what are called benevolence and righteousness ; but simply of their allowing the nature with which they are endowed to have its free course. When I pronounce men to be quick of hearing, I do not mean that they hearken to anything else, but that they hearken to themselves ; when I pronounce them to be clear of vision, I do not mean that they look to anything else, but that they look to themselves. Now those who do not see themselves but see other things, who do not get possession of themselves but get possession of other things, get possession of what belongs to others, and not of what is their own ; and they reach forth to what attracts others, and not to that in themselves which should attract them. But * Different from Yih-ya, the famous cook of duke Hwan of iTAt. This is said to have been of the time of Hwang-TL But there are different readings of the name. PT. II. SECT. I. THE WRITINGS OF ifWANG-SZE. 275 thus reaching forth to what attracts others and not to what should attract them in themselves, be they like the robber ^h or like Po-1, they equally err in the way of excess or of perversity. What I am ashamed of is erring in the characteristics of the Tdo, and therefore, in the higher sphere, I do not dare to insist on the practice of benevolence and righteousness, and, in the lower, I do not dare to allow myself either in the exercise of excess or perversity. T 2 2/6 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. IX, BOOK IX. Part II. Section II. Ma Thl,or 'Horses's Hoofs V I. Horses can with their hoofs tread on the hoar- frost and snow, and with their hair withstand the wind and cold ; they feed on the grass and drink water ; they prance with their legs and leap : — this is the true nature of horses. Though there were made for them grand towers ^ and large dormitories, they would prefer not to use them. But when Po- Ido * (arose and) said, * I know well how to manage horses/ (men proceeded) * to singe and mark them, to clip their hair, to pare their hoofs, to halter their heads, to bridle them and hobble them, and to con- fine them in stables and corrals. (When subjected to this treatment), two or three in every ten of them died. (Men proceeded further) to subject them to hunger and thirst, to gallop them and race them, * See pp. 140, 141. * Literally, ' righteous towers;' but ^s is very variously applied, and there are other readings. Compare the name of ling thii, given by the people to the tower built by king Win ; Shih, III, i, 8. * A mythical being, the first tamer of horses. The name is given to a star, where he is supposed to have his seat as sup>erin- tendent of the horses of heaven. It became a designation of Sun Yang, a famous charioteer of the later period of the ^u dynasty, but it could not be he whom iSTwang-jze had in view. * Po-ldo set the example of dealing with horses as now de- scribed; but the supplement which I have introduced seems to bring out better our author's meaning. P.T.II. SECT. II, THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-3ZE. 277 and to make them go together in regular order. In front were the evils of the bit and ornamented breast- bands, and behind were the terrors of the whip and switch. (When so treated), more than half of them died. The (first) potter said, * I know well how to deal with clay;' and (men proceeded) to mould it into circles as exact as if made by the compass, and into squares as exact as if formed by the measuring square. The (first) carpenter said, * I know well how to deal with wood ; ' and (men proceeded) to make it bent as if by the application of the hook, and straight as if by the appUcation of the plumb-line. But is it the nature of clay and wood to require the application of the compass and square, of the hook and line ? And yet age after age men have praised Po-l4o, saying, * He knew well how to manage horses/ and also the (first) potter and carpenter, saying, * They knew well how to deal with clay and wood.' This is just the error committed by the governors of the world. 2. According to my idea, those who know well to govern mankind would not act so. The people had their regular and constant nature ^ : — they wove and made themselves clothes ; they tilled the ground and got food ^ This was their common faculty. They were all one in this, and did not form themselves into separate classes ; so were they constituted and left to their natural tendencies ^. Therefore in the ^ Compare the same language in the previous Book, par. 3. ' But the weaver's or agriculturist's art has no more title to be called primitive than the potter's or carpenter's. ' A difficult expression; but the translation, probably, gives its 278 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. Br. IX. age of perfect virtue men walked along with slow and grave step, and with their looks steadily directed forwards. At that time, on the hills there were no foot-paths, nor excavated passages ; on the lakes there were no boats nor dams ; all creatures lived in companies ; and the places of their settlement were made close to one another. Birds and beasts multi- plied to flocks and herds ; the grass and trees grew luxuriant and long. In this condition the birds and beasts might be led about without feeling the con- straint ; the nest of the magpie might be climbed to, and peeped into. Yes, in the age of perfect virtue, men lived in common with birds and beasts, and were on terms of equality with all creatures, as forming one family ; — how could they know among themselves the distinctions of superior men and small men ? Equally without knowledge, they did not leave (the path of) their natural virtue ; equally free from desires, they were in the state of pure simplicity. In that state of pure simplicity, the nature of the people was what it ought to be. But when the sagely men appeared, limping and wheeling about in (the exercise of) benevolence, pressing along and standing on tiptoe in the doing of right- eousness, then men universally began to be per- plexed. (Those sages also) went to excess in their performances of music, and in their gesticulations in the practice of ceremonies, and then men began to be separated from one another. If the raw materials true significance. ' Heaven' here is synonymous with ^the Tio ;' but its use shows how readily the minds, even of JAo and iTwang, had recourse to the earliest term by which the Chinese fathers had expressed their recognition of a Supreme and Controlling Power and Government. PT. II. SECT. II. THE WRITINGS OF r\VANG-3ZE. 2 79 had not been cut and hacked, who could have made a sacrificial vase from them ? If the natural jade had not been broken and injured, who could have made the handles for the libation-cups from it ? If the attributes of the T&o had not been disallowed, how should they have preferred benevolence and righteousness ? If the instincts of the nature had not been departed from, how should ceremonies and music have come into use ? If the five colours had not been confused, how should the ornamental figures have been formed ? If the five notes had not been confused, how should they have supplemented them by the musical accords.^ The cutting and hacking of the raw materials to form vessels was the crime of the skilful workman ; the injury done to the characteristics of the Tdo in order to the practice of benevolence and righteousness was the error of the sagely men. 3. Horses, when living in the open country, eat the grass, and drink water ; when pleased, they intertwine their necks and rub one another; when enraged, they turn back to back and kick one another; — this is all that they know to do. But if we put the yoke on their necks, with the moon- like frontlet displayed on all their foreheads, then they know to look slily askance, to curve their necks, to rush viciously, trying to get the bit out of their mouths, and to filch the reins (from their driver) ; — this knowledge of the horse and its ability thus to act the part of a thief is the crime of Po-14o. In the time of (the Tl) Ho-hsu ^ the people occupied ^ An ancient sovereign ; but nothing more definite can be said about him. Most of the critics identify him with ShiUi-nSlng, the 28o THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.iX. their dwellings without knowing what they were doing, and walked out without knowing where they were going. They filled their mouths with food and were glad ; they slapped their stomachs to ex- press their satisfaction. This was all the ability which they possessed. But when the sagely men appeared, with their bendings and stoppings in cere- monies and music to adjust the persons of all, and hanging up their benevolence and righteousness to excite the endeavours of all to reach them, in order to comfort their minds, then the people began to stump and limp about in their love of knowledge, and strove with one another in their pursuit of gain, so that there was no stopping them : — this was the error of those sagely men. Father of Husbandry, who occupies the place in chronological tables after F(i-hst, between him and Hwang-Tf. In the Tables of the Dynastic Histories, published in 1817, he is placed seventh in the list of fifteen reigns, which are placed without any specifica- tion of their length between Fft-hst and Shin-ning. The name is written as >^ ^ and ^ ^. PT. n. SECT. III. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-SZE. 281 BOOK X. Part II. Section III. KhM Khithj or ' Cutting open Satchels^' I. In taking precautions against thieves who cut open satchels, search bags, and break open boxes, people are sure to cord and fasten them well, and to employ strong bonds and clasps ; and in this they are ordinarily said to show their wisdom. When a great thief comes, however, he shoulders the box, lifts up the satchel, carries off the bag, and runs away with them, afraid only that the cords, bonds, and clasps may not be secure ; and in this case what was called the wisdom (of the owners) proves to be nothing but a collecting of the things for the great thief. Let me try and set this matter forth. Do not those who are vulgarly called wise prove to be collectors for the great thieves ? And do not those who are called sages prove to be but guardians in the interest of the great thieves } How do I know that the case is so ? Formerly, in the state of Kki, the neighbouring towns could see one another ; their cocks and dogs never ceased to answer the crowing and barking of other cocks and dogs (between them). The nets were set (in the water and on the land) ; and the ploughs and hoes were employed over more than a space of two thou- sand 11 square. All within its four boundaries, the ^ See pp. 141, 142. 282 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. X. establishment of the ancestral temples and of the altars of the land and grain, and the ordering of the hamlets and houses, and of every corner in the districts, large, medium, and small, were in all parti- culars according to the rules of the sages \ So it was ; but yet one morning, Thien -Oing-jze ^ killed the ruler of J^Ai, and stole his state. And was it only the state that he stole ? Along with it he stole also the regulations of the sages and wise men (observed in it). And so, though he got the name of being a thief and a robber, yet he himself con- tinued to live as securely as Yfio and Shun had done. Small states did not dare to find fault with him; great states did not dare to take him off; for twelve generations (his descendants) have possessed the state of KM \ Thus do we not have a case in which not only did (the party) steal the state of KM, ^ The meaning is plain ; but to introduce the various geograph- ical terms would make the translation cumbrous. The concluding {H} is perplexing. * This event is mentioned in the Analects, XIV, xxii, where the perpetrator of the murder is called KASin ATi^Slng-jze, and AT/iln HSbig. H^ng was his name, and Acting the honorary title given to him after his death. The family to which he belonged had origin- ally taken refuge in I^hi from the state of A'Mn in b. c. 67a. Why and when its chiefs adopted the surname Thien instead of J^^&a is not well known. The murder took place in 482. Hiing did not immediately usurp the marquisate ; but he and his successors dis- posed of it at their pleasure among the representatives of the old House till 386, when Thien Ho was recognised by the king ot ATdu as the marquis; and his next successor but one took the title of king. ' The kingdom of ICM came to an end in b. c. 221, the first year of the dynasty of J^Mn, after it had lasted through five reigns. How ATwang-jze made out his * twelve generations ' we cannot tell. There may be an interpolation in his text made in the time of iTAin, or subsequently. PT. n. SECT. in. THE WRITINGS OF ^WANG-3ZE. 283 but at the same time the regulations of its sages and wise men, which thereby served to guard the person of him, diief and robber as he was ? 2. Let me try to set forth this subject (still fur- ther). Have not there been among those vulgarly styled the wisest, such as have collected (their wealth) for the g^eat chief? and among those styled the most sage such as have guarded it for him ? How do I know that it has been so ? Formerly, Lung-ftng^ was beheaded; Pl-kan^ had his heart torn out ; -Oang Hung' was ripped open ; and 3ze- hsii * was reduced to pulp (in the ^ang). Worthy as those four men were, they did not escape such dreadful deaths. The followers of the robber Alh * asked him, saying, * Has the robber also any method or principle (in his proceedings)?' He replied, ' What profession is there which has not its principles? That the robber in his recklessness comes to the conclusion that there are valuable de- posits in an apartment shows his sageness ; that he is the first to enter it shows his bravery ; that he is the last to quit it shows his righteousness ; that he knows whether (the robbery) may be attempted or not shows his wisdom ; and that he makes an equal * See on Book IV, par. i, See on Book IV, par. i. ^ * A historiographer of AHu, with whom Confucius is said to have studied music. He was weaklj and unjustly put to death, as here described by king AUng, in b. c. 492. * Wd 3ze-hstl, the hero of revenge, who fled from JWft to Wft, which he long served. He was driven at last to commit suicide, and his body was then put into a leathern wine-sack, and thrown into the iTiang near the present SA-^u ; — about b. c. 475. * See on Book VIII, par. 4. 284 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. X. division of the plunder shows his benevolence. With- out all these five qualities no one in the world has ever attained to become a great robber.* Looking at the subject in this way, we see that good men do not arise without having the principles of the sages, and that Alh could not have pursued his course without the same principles. But the good men in the world are few, and those who are not good are many ; — it follows that the sages benefit the world in a few instances and injure it in many. Hence it is that we have the sayings, * When the lips are gone the teeth are cold^ ;' *The poor wine of LA gave occa- sion to the siege of Han-tan 2;' * When sages are bom great robbers arise ^.' When the stream is dried, the valley is empty; when the mound is levelled, the deep pool (beside it) is filled up. When the sages have died, the great robbers will not arise; the world would be at peace, and there would be no more troubles. While the sagely men have not died, great robbers will not cease to appear. The more right that is attached to (the views of) the sagely men for the government of the world, the more advantage will accrue to (such men as) the robber jfifih. If we make for men pecks and bushels * This is an instanpe of cause and effect naturally happening. * At a meeting of the princes, presided over by king Hsiian of Khd (b. c. 369-340), the ruler of Lt brought very poor wine for the king, which was presented to him as wine of ICio^ in conse- quence of a grudge against that kingdom by his officer of wines. In consequence of this king HsUan ordered siege to be laid to Han-tan, the capital of ATdo. This is an instance oi cause and effect occurring irregularly. ' There seems to be no connexion of cause and effect here ; but JTwang-jze goes on in his own way to make out that there is such a connexion. PT. n. SECT. III. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 285 to measure (their wares), even by means of those pecks and bushels should we be teaching them to steal * ; if we make for them weights and steelyards to weigh (their wares), even by means of those weights and steelyards shall we be teaching them to steal. If we make for them tallies and seals to secure their good faith, even by means of those tallies and seals shall we be teaching them to steal. If we make for them benevolence and righteousness to make their doings correct, even by means of bene- volence and righteousness shall we be teaching them to steal. How do I know that it is so ? Here is one who steals a hook (for his girdle) ; — he is put to death for it : here is another who steals a state ; — he becomes its prince. But it is at the gates of the princes that we find benevolence and righteousness (most strongly) professed ; — is not this stealing bene- volence and righteousness, sageness and wisdom ? Thus they hasten to become great robbers, carry off princedoms, and steal benevolence and righteous- ness, with all the gains springing from the use of pecks and bushels, weights and steelyards, tallies and seals : — even the rewards of carriages and coronets have no power to influence (to a different course), and the terrors of the axe have no power to restrain in such cases. The giving of so great gain to robbers (like) -A^'ih, and making it impossible to restrain them ; — ^this is the error committed by the sages. 3. In accordance with this it is said, 'Fish should ^ The verb 'to steal' is here used transitively, and with a hiphil force. 286 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK, X, not be taken from (the protection of) the deep waters ; the agencies for the profit of a state should not be shown to men \' But those sages (and their teachings) are the agencies for the profit of the world, and should not be exhibited to it Therefore if an end were put to sageness and wisdom put away, the great robbers would cease to arise. If jade were put away and pearls broken to bits, the small thieves would not appear. If tallies were burned and seals broken in pieces, the people would become simple and unsophisticated. If pecks were destroyed and steelyards snapped in two, the people would have no wrangling. If the rules of the sages were entirely set aside in the world, a beginning might be made of reasoning with the people. If the six musical accords were reduced to a state of utter confusion, organs and lutes all burned, and the ears of the (musicians like the) blind Khwang * stopped up, all men would begin to possess and employ their (natural) power of hearing. If elegant ornaments were abolished, the five embellishing colours disused, and the eyes of (men like) Lt KOl^ glued up, all men would begin to possess and employ their (natural) power of vision. If the hook and line were destroyed, the compass and square thrown away, and the fingers of men (like) the artful Ajftui * smashed, all men would begin to possess and employ their (natural) skill ; — as it is said, * The greatest art is ^ See the Tdo Teh iTing, ch. 36, Our author's use of it throws light on its meaning. • Note I, p. 186. ^ Note 2, p. 269. * A skilful maker of arrows of the time of Y&o, — ^the Kung- kung of the Shii, II, i, 21 ; V, xxii, 19. PT. !!• SECT, in, THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-3ZE. 287 like Stupidity \' If conduct such as that of 3Sng (Shin) 2 and Shih (A'^iO)^ were discarded, the mouths of Yang (A^ti)* and Mo (Tl) gagged, and bene- volence and righteousness seized and thrown aside, the virtue of all men would begin to display its mysterious excellence. When men possessed and employed their (natural) power of vision, there would be no distortion in the world. When they possessed and employed their (natural) power of hearing, there would be no distractions in the world. When they possessed and employed their (natural) faculty of knowledge, there would be no delusions in the world. When they possessed and employed their (natural) virtue, there would be ijo depravity in the world. Men like Sing (Shan), Shih {Kkiix), Yang (Affi), Mo (Tl), Shih Khwang (the musician), the artist Kh\i\, and Ll KiX, all display their qualities outwardly, and set the world in a blaze (of admiration) and confound it ; — a method which is of no use ! 4. Are you, Sir, unacquainted with the age of perfect virtue ? Anciently there were Yung-^^Sng, Td-thing, Po-hwang, A!ang-yang, Ll-lfl, lA-kkiH, Hsien-jriian, Ho-hsii, 3un-l6, AjCl-yung, Ffl-hsl, and Shin-nang*. In their times the people made * The TSo Teh King, ch. 45. * Note 6, p. 269, " Note 7, p. 269. * Note 5, p. 261. ^ Of the twelve names mentioned here the reader is probably familiar with those of Fii-hsi and Sh^n-n^ng, the first and second of the Tt in chronology. Hsien-ytlan is another name for Hwang- Tt, the third of them. KiSryvJig was, perhaps, a minister of Hwang- Ti. Ho-hsti has occurred before in Book IV. Of the other seven, five occur among the fifteen sovereigns placed in the * Compendium 288 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. . BK. X. knots on cords in carrying on their affairs. They thought their (simple) food pleasant^ and their (plain) clothing beautiful. They were happy in their (simple) manners, and felt at rest in their (poor) dwellings. (The people of) neighbouring states might be able to descry one another; the voices of their cocks and dogs might be heard (all the way) from one to the other ; they might not die till they were old ; and yet all their life they would have no communication together ^ In those times perfect good order prevailed. Now-a-days, however, such is the state of things that you shall see the people stretching out their necks, and standing on tiptoe, while they say, * In such and such a place there is a wise and able man.' Then they carry with them whatever dry provisions they may have left, and hurry towards it, abandoning their parents in their homes, and neglecting the service of their rulers abroad. Their footsteps may be traced in lines from one state to another, and the ruts of their chariot-wheels also for more than a thousand 1 1. This is owing to the error of their superiors in their (inordinate) fondness for knowledge. When those superiors do really love knowledge, but do not follow the (proper) course, the whole world is thrown into great confusion. How do I know that the case is so ? The know- ledge shown in the (making of) bows, cross-bows, hand-nets, stringed arrows, and contrivances with springs is great, but the birds are troubled by them of History ' between Fii-hst and ShSLn-nSing. The remaining two may be found, I suppose, in the Lft Shih of Lo Pi. * See the eightieth chapter of the Tio Teh A'ing. PT. II. SECT. III. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 289 above; the knowledge shown in the hooks, baits, various kinds of nets, and bamboo traps is great, but the fishes are disturbed by them in the waters ; the knowledge shown in the arrangements for setting nets, and the nets and snares themselves, is great, but the animals are disturbed by them in the marshy grounds. (So), the versatility shown in artful deceptions becoming more and more pernicious, in ingenious discussions as to what is hard and what is white, and in attempts to disperse the dust and reconcile different views, is great, but the common people are perplexed by all the sophistry. Hence there is great disorder continually in the world, and the guilt of it is due to that fondness for knowledge. Thus it is that all men know to spek for the knowledge that they have not attained to ; and do not know to seek for that which they already have (in themselves) ; and that they know to condemn what they do not approve (in others), and do not know to condemn what they have allowed in themselves; — it is this which occasions the great confusion and disorder. It is just as if, above, the brightness of the sun and moon were darkened ; as if, beneath, the productive vigour of the hills and streams were dried up; and as if, between, the operation of the four seasons were brought to an end : — in which case there would not be a single weak and wriggling insect, nor any plant that grows up, which would not lose its proper nature. Great indeed is the disorder produced in the world by the love of knowledge. From the time of the three dynasties downwards it has been so. The plain and honest-minded people are neglected, and the plausible representations of restless spirits [39] u 2gO THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk, X. received with pleasure; the quiet and unexciting method of non-action is put away, and pleasure taken in ideas garrulously expressed It is this garrulity of speech which puts the world in dis- order. PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF jnVANG-8ZE. 29 1 BOOK XI. Part II. Section IV^ 3^1 Ytl, or 'Letting Be, and Exercising For- bearance \' I. I have heard of letting the world be, and exercising forbearance ; I have not heard of govern- ing the world. Letting be is from the fear that men, (when interfered with), will carry their nature beyond its normal condition ; exercising forbearance is from the fear that men, (when not so dealt with), will alter the characteristics of their nature. When all men do not carry their nature beyond its normal condition, nor alter its characteristics, the good government of the world is secured. Formerly, YAo's government of the world made men look joyful ; but when they have this joy in their nature, there is a want of its (proper) placidity. The government of the world by A'ieh, (on the contrary), made men look distressed; but when their nature shows the symptoms of distress, there is a want of its (proper) contentment. The want of placidity and the want of contentment are contrary to the character (of the nature) ; and where this obtains, it is impossible that any man or state should anywhere abide long. Are men exceedingly joyful ? — the Yang or element of expansion in them is too much developed. Are they exceedingly ^ See pp. 142, 143. U 2 A 292 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM, BK. XI. irritated? — the Yin or opposite element is too much developed. When those elements thus pre- dominate in men, (it is as if^) the four seasons were not to come (at their proper times), and the harmony of cold and heat were not to be main- tained ; — would there not result injury to the bodies of men ? Men's joy and dissatisfaction are made to arise where they ought not to do so ; their move- ments are all uncertain ; they lose the mastery of their thoughts ; they stop short midway, and do not finish what they have begun. In this state of things the world begins to have lofty aims, and jealous dislikes, ambitious courses, and fierce ani- mosities, and then we have actions like those of the robber A^ih, or of Sing (Shin) and Shih (3hi6)^ If now the whole world were taken to reward the' good it would not suflfice, nor would it be possible with it to punish the bad. Thus the world, great as it is, not sufficing for rewards and punishments, from the time of the three dynasties downwards, there has been nothing but bustle and excitement Always occupied with rewards and punishments, what leisure have men had to rest in the instincts of the nature with which they are endowed ? 2. Moreover, delight in the power of vision leads ^ I supply the * it is as if/ after the example of the critic Lft Shil- ^h, who here introduces a 3|^ in his commentary (3|^ DQ Q^ ^ Wii ^ K J? 23r 77)' What the text seems to state as a fact is only an illustration. Compare the concluding paragraphs in all the Sections and Parts of the fourth Book of the Lt AT. * Our moral instincts protest against T&oism which thus places in the same category such sovereigns as Y4o and ^eh, and such men as the brigand ATih and 3^ng and Shih. PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANGr-SZE. 293 to excess in the pursuit of (ornamental) colours; delight in the power of hearing, to excess in seeking (the pleasures of) sound; delight in benevolence tends to disorder that virtue (as proper to the nature); delight in righteousness sets the man in opposition to what is right in reason ; delight in (the practice of) ceremonies is helpful to artful forms; delight in music leads to voluptuous airs ; delight in sageness is helpful to ingenious contrivances; delight in knowledge contributes to fault-finding. If all men were to rest in the instincts of their nature, to keep or to extinguish these eight delights might be a matter of indifference ; but if they will not rest in those instincts, then those eight delights begin to be imperfectly and unevenly developed or violently suppressed, and the world is thrown into disorder. But when men begin to honour them, and to long for them, how great is the deception practised on the world! And not only, when (a performance of them) is once over, do they not have done with them, but they prepare themselves (as) with fasting to describe them, they seem to kneel reverentially when they bring them forward, and they go through them with the excitements of music and singing; and then what can be done (to remedy the evil of them).** Therefore the superior man, who feels himself constrained to en- gage in the administration of the world will find it his best way to do nothing \ In (that policy of) doing nothing, he can rest in the instincts of the nature with which he is endowed. Hence he who will administer (the government of) the world ^ Here is the T&oistic meaning of the title of this Book. 294 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM, BK. XI. honouring it as he honours his own person, may have that government committed to him, and he who will administer it loving it as he loves his own' person, may have it entrusted to him K Therefore, if the superior man will keep (the faculties lodged in) his five viscera unemployed, and not display his powers of seeing and hearing, while he is motionless as a representative of the dead, his dragon-like presence will be seen ; while he is profoundly silent, the thunder (of his words) will resound; while his movements are (unseen) like those of a spirit, all heavenly influences will follow them; while he is (thus) unconcerned and does nothing, his genial influence will attract and gather all things round him : — ^what leisure has he to do anything more for the government of the world ? 3. 3hui KAiX^ asked Lio Tan, saying,, * If you do not govern the world, how can you make men's minds good ? ' The reply was, * Take care how you meddle with and disturb men's minds. The mind, if pushed about, gets depressed ; if helped forward, it gets exalted. Now exalted, now depressed, here it appears as a prisoner, and there as a wrathful fury. (At one time) it becomes pliable and soft, yielding to what is hard and strong ; (at another), it is sharp as the sharpest corner, fit to carve or chisel (stone or jade). Now it is hot as a scorching fire, and anon it is cold as ice. It is so swift that while one is bending down and lifting up his head, it shall twice ^ A quotation, but without any indication that it is so, from the Tio Teh -ATing, ch. 13. ' Probably an imaginary personage. PT. n. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 295 have put forth a soothing hand beyond the four seas. Resting, it is still as a deep abyss ; moving, it is like one of the bodies in the sky ; in its resolute haughti- ness, it refuses to be bound ; — such is the mind of man^ V Anciently, H wang-Tl was the first to meddle with and disturb the mind of man with his benevolence and righteousness \ After him, Ydo and Shun wore their thighs bare and the hair off the calves of their legs, in their labours to nourish the bodies of the people. They toiled painfully with all the powers in their five viscera at the practice of their benevo- lence and righteousness ; they tasked their blood and breath to make out a code of laws ; — and after all they were unsuccessful. On this Ydo sent away Hwan TAu to KAung hill, and (the Chiefs of) the Three Miio to San-wei, and banished the Minister of Works to the Dark Capital ; so unequal had they been to cope with the world \ Then we are carried on to the kings of the Three (dynasties), when the world was in a state of great distraction. Of the lowest type of character there were ATieh and -^ih ; of a higher type there were 33^i^g (ShSn) and Shih (3hift). At the same time there arose the classes of ^ I must suppose that the words of L&o-jze stop here, and that what follows is from iTnrang-jze himself, down to the end of the paragraph. We cannot have Ldo-jze referring to men later than himself, and quoting from his own Book. * Hitherto Y£o and Shun have appeared as the first disturbers of the rule of the T4o by their benevolence and righteousness. Here that innovation is carried further back to Hwang-Ti. * See these parties, and the way they were dealt with, in the Sh6 King, Part II, Book I, 3. The punishment of them is there ascribed to Shun ; but Ydo was still alive, and Shun was acting as his viceroy. 296 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. xi. the Literati and the Mohists. Hereupon, compla- cency in, and hatred of, one another produced mutual suspicions ; the stupid and the wise imposed on one another; the good and the bad condemned one another; the boastful and the sincere interchanged their recriminations ; — and the world fell into decay. Views as to what was greatly virtuous did not agree, and the nature with its endowments became as if shrivelled by fire or carried away by a flood. All were eager for knowledge, and the people were exhausted with their searchings (after what was good). On this the axe and the saw were brought into play ; guilt was determined as by the plumb-line and death inflicted ; the hammer and gouge did their work. The world fell into great disorder, and presented the appearance of a jagged mountain ridge. The crime to which all was due was the meddling with and disturbing men's minds. The effect was that men of ability and worth lay concealed at the foot of the crags of mount Th4i, and princes of ten thousand chariots were anxious and terrified in their ancestral temples. In the present age those who have been put to death in various ways lie thick as if pillowed on each other ; those who are wearing the cangue press on each other (on the roads) ; those who are suffer- ing the bastinado can see each other (all over the land). And now the Literati and the Mohists begin to stand, on tiptoe and with bare arms, among the fettered and manacled crowd ! Ah ! extreme is their shamelessness, and their failure to see the disgrace ! Strange that we should be slow to recognise their sageness and wisdom in the bars of the cangue, and their benevolence and righteousness in the rivets of the fetters and handcuffs I How do we know that PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 297 3ing and Shih are not the whizzing arrows of Aleh and Alh ^ ? Therefore it is said, ' Abolish sageness and cast away knowledge, and the world will be brought to a state of great order *.' 4. Hwang-Tl had been on the throne for nineteen years ^ and his ordinances were in operation all through the kingdom, when he heard that Kwang A'Mng-jze* was living on the summit of Khung- thung *, and went to see him. ' I have heard,' he said, 'that you, Sir, are well acquainted with the perfect Tdo. I venture to ask you what is the essential thing in it. I wish to take the subtlest influences of heaven and earth, and assist with them the (growth of the) five cereals for the (better) nourishment of the people. I also wish to direct the (operation of the) Yin and Yang, so as to secure the comfort of all living beings. How shall I proceed to accomplish those objects ? ' Kwang Afliang-jze replied, *What you wish to ask about is the original substance of all things ® ; what you ^ Compare this picture of the times after Yio and Shun with that given by Mencius in III, ii, ch. 9 et al. But the conclusions arrived at as to the causes and cure of their evils by him and our author are very different • A quotation, with the regular formula, from the T4o Teh iHng, ch. 19, with some variation of the text • ? in B. c. 2678. * Another imaginary personage ; apparendy, a personification of the T do. Some say he was LSo-jze, — ^in one of his early states of existence; others that he was * a True Man,' the teacher of Hwang-Tt. See Ko Hung's ' Immortals,' I, i. * Equally imaginary is the mountain Khung-thung. Some critics find a place for it in the province of Ho-nan ; the majority say it is the highest point in the constellation of the Great Bear. ' The original ether, undivided, out of which aU things were formed. 1^98 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. B«. XI. wish to have the direction of is that substance as it was shattered and divided^. According to your government of the world, the vapours of the clouds, before they were collected, would descend in rain ; the herbs and trees would shed their leaves before they became yellow ; and the light of the sun and moon WQuld hasten to extinction. Your mind is that of a flatterer with his plausible words ; — it is not fit that I should tell you the perfect T4o.' Hwang-Tl withdrew, gave up (his government of) the kingdom, built himself a solitary apartment, spread in it a mat of the white mdo grass, dwelt in it unoccupied for three months, and then went again to seek an interview with (the recluse). Kwang KASmg- jze was then lying down with his head to the south* Hwang-T!, with an air of deferential submission, went forward on his knees, twice bowed low with his face to the ground, and asked him, saying, * I have heard that you. Sir, are well acquainted with the perfect Tdo; — I venture to ask how I should rule my body, in order that it may continue for a long time/ Kwang -Oing-jze hastily rose, and said, ' A good question ! Come and I will tell you the per- fect T4o. Its essence is (surrounded with) the deepest obscurity ; its highest reach is in darkness and silence. There is nothing to be seen ; nothing to be heard. When it holds the spirit in its arms in stillness, then the bodily form of itself will become correct. You must be still ; you must be pure ; not subjecting your body to toil, not agitating your vital force; — ^then you may live for long. When ^ The same ether, now in motion, now at rest, divided into the Yin and Yang. PT. II, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. ^99 your eyes see nothing, your ears hear nothing, and your mind knows nothing, your spirit will keep your body, and the body will live long. Watch over what is within you, shut up the avenues that connect yoU with what is external ; — much knowledge is perni- cious^ I (will) proceed with you to the summit of the Grand Brilliance, where we come to the source of the bright and expanding (element) ; I will enter with you the gate of the Deepest Obscurity, where we come to the source of the dark and repressing (element). There heaven and earth have their con- trollers ; there the Yin and Yang have their Reposi- tories. Watch over and keep your body, and all things will of themselves give it vigour. I maintain the (original) unity (of these elements), and dwell in the harmony of them. In this way I have cultivated myself for one thousand and two hundred years, and my bodily form has undergone no decay \* Hwang-Tl twice bowed low with his head to the ground, and said, * In Kwang KASmg-ize we have an example of what is called Heaven *.' The other said, ' Come, and I will tell you : — (The perfect Tio) is something inexhaustible, and yet men all think it has an end ; it is something unfathomable, and yet men all think its extreme limit can be reached. He who attains to my T4o, if he be in a high position, will be one of the August ones, and in a low posi- tion, will be a king. He who fails in attaining it, in his highest attainment will see the light, but will ^ It seems very clear here that the earliest Tdoism taught that the cultivation of the T&o tended to prolong and preserve the bodily life. * A remarkable, but not a singular, instance of iTwang-jze's appli* cation of the name * Heaven.' 300 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XI. descend and be of the Earth. At present all things are produced from the Earth and return to the Earth. Therefore I will leave you, and enter the gate of the Unending, to enjoy myself in the fields of the Illi- mitable. I will blend my light with that of the sun and moon, and will endure while heaven and earth endure. If men agree with my views, I will be unconscious of it ; if they keep far apart from them, I will be unconscious of it ; they may all die, and I will abide alone ^ ! ' 5. Yiin Alang*, rambling to the east, having been borne along on a gentle breeze *, suddenly encoun- tered Hung Mung *, who was rambling about, slap- ping his buttocks * and hopping like a bird. Amazed at the sight, Yiin Alang stood reverentially, and said to the other, * Venerable Sir, who are you ? and why are you doing this?' Hung Mung went on slapping his buttocks and hopping like a bird, but replied, ' I am enjoying myself.' YUn Alang said, ' I ^ A very difficult sentence, in interpreting which there are great differences among the critics. ' I have preferred to retain Yfln Alang and Hung Mung as if they were the surnames and names of two personages here intro- duced. Mr. Balfour renders them by ' The Sjnrit of the Clouds,' and * Mists of Chaos.' The Spirits of heaven or the sky have still their place in the Sacrificial Canon of China, as 'the Cloud- Master, the Rain-Master, the Baron of the Winds, and the Thunder Master.' Hung Mung, again, is a name for * the Great Ether,' or, as Dr. Medhurst calls it, * the Primitive Chaos.' Literally, < passing by a branch of Fft-y$o;' but we find fft- y&o in Book I, meaning 'a whirlwind.' The term 'branch' has made some critics explain it here as ' the name of a tree,' which is inadmissible. I have translated according to the view of LA Sha->Hh. * Or ' stomach,' — according to another reading. PT. 11. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF i^VANG-SZE. 3OI wish to ask you a question.' Hung Mung lifted up his head, looked at the stranger, and said, * Pooh ! ' Yun Alang, however, continued, 'The breath of heaven is out of harmony; the breath of earth is bound up ; the six elemental influences ^ do not act in concord; the four seasons do not observe their proper times. Now I wish to blend together the essential qualities of those six influences in order to nourish all living things ; — how shall I go about it ? ' Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head, saying, * I do not know ; I do not know ! ' Yun ATiang could not pursue his question ; but three years afterwards, when (again) rambling in the east, as he was passing by the wild of Sung, he happened to meet Hung Mung. Delighted with the ren-% contre, he hastened to him, and said, * Have you forgotten me, O Heaven ? Have you forgotten me, Heaven*.^' At the same time, he bowed twice with his head to the ground, wishing to receive his instructions. Hung Mung said, * Wandering listlessly about, I know not what I seek ; carried on by a wild impulse, I know not where I am going. I wander about in the strange manner (which you have seen), and see that nothing proceeds without method and order*; — ^what more should I know?' Yiin A'iang replied, * I also seem carried on by an aimless influ- ence, and yet the people follow me wherever I go. 1 cannot help their doing so. But now as they thus * Probably, they in, the yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light; — see Mayers, p. 323. ' See Introduction, pp. 17, 18. " Compare in Book XXIII, par. i. 302 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XI, imitate me, I wish to hear a word from you (in the case)/ The other said, ' What disturbs the regular method of Heaven, comes into collision with the nature of things, prevents the accomplishment of the mysterious (operation of) Heaven, scatters the herds of animals, makes the birds all sing at night, is calamitous to vegetation, and disastrous to all insects ; — ^all this is owing, I conceive, to the error of governing men/ ' What then,' said Yiin Alang, 'shall I do?* 'Ah/ said the other, *you will only injure them ! I will leave you in my dancing way, and return to my place/ Ylin Al'iang rejoined, * It has been a difficult thing to get this meeting with you, O Heaven ! I should like to hear from you a word (more)/ Hung Mung said, ' Ah ! your mind ^needs to be) nourished. Do you only take the position of doing nothing, and things will of them- selves become transformed. Neglect your body; cast out from you your power of hearing and sight ; forget what you have in common with things ; cul- tivate a grand similarity with the chaos of the plastic ether ; unloose your mind ; set your spirit free ; be still as if you had no soul. Of ^11 the multitude of things every one returns to its root Every one re- turns to its root, and does not know (that it is doing so). They all are as in the state of chaos, and during all their existence they do not leave it ^ If * They never show any will of their own. — On the names Yto Alang and Hung Mung, LH Shft-^h makes the foUowing re- marks : — * These were not men, and yet they are introduced here as questioning and answering each other; showing us that our author frames and employs his surnames and names to serve his own purpose. Those names and the speeches made by the parties are all from him. We must believe that he introduces Confucius, Y&o, and Shun just in the same way.' PT. n. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF ifWANG-SZE. 303 they knew (that they were returning to their root), they would be (consciously) leaving it. They do not ask its name ; they do not seek to spy out their nature; and thus it is that things come to life of themselves.' Yiin Alang said, ' Heaven, you have conferred on me (the knowledge of) your operation, and revealed to me the mystery of it All my life I had been seeking for it, and now I have obtained it.' He then bowed twice, with his head to the ground, arose, took his leave, and walked away. 6. The ordinary men of the world ^ all rejoice in men's agreeing with themselves, and dislike men's being different from themselves. This rejoicing and this dislike arise from their being bent on making themselves distinguished above all others. But have they who have this object at heart so risen out above all others ? They depend on them to rest quietly (in the position which they desire), and their knowledge is not equal to the multitude of the arts of all those others ^ ! When they wish again to ad- minister a state for its ruler, they proceed to employ all the methods which the kings of the three dynasties considered profitable without seeing the evils of such a course. This is to make the state depend on the peradventure of their luck. But how seldom it is that that peradventure does not issue in the ruin of the state ! Not once in ten thousand instances will such men preserve a state. Not once will they suc- ceed, and in more than ten thousand cases will they ^ Meaning eccentric thinkers not Twists, like Hui-jze, Kung- £un Lung, and others. ' The construing and connexion of this sentence are puzzling. 304 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XI. ruin it. Alas that the possessors of territory, — (the rulers of states), — should not know the danger (of employing such men) ! Now the possessors of terri- tory possess the greatest of (all) things. Possessing the greatest of all things, — possessing, that is, men), — they should not try to deal with them as (simply) things. And it is he who is not a thing (himself) that is therefore able to deal with (all) things as they severally require. When (a ruler) clearly under- stands that he who should so deal with all things is not a thing himself, will he only rule the kingdom ? He will go out and in throughout die universe (at his pleasure) ; he will roam over the nine regions \ alone in going, alone in coming. Him we call the sole possessor (of this ability) ; and the sole possessor (of this ability) is what is called the noblest of all. The teaching of (this) great man goes forth as the shadow from the substance, as the echo responds to the sound. When questioned, he responds, ex- hausting (from his own stores) all that is in the (enquirer's) mind, as if front to front with all under heaven. His resting-place gives forth no sound ; his sphere of activity has no restriction of place. He conducts every one to his proper goal, proceed- ing to it and bringing him back to it as by his own movement. His movements have no trace; his going forth and his re-enterings have no deviation ; his course is like that of the sun without beginning (or ending). * * The nine regions ' generally means the nine provinces into which the Great Yii divided the kingdom. As our author is here describing the grand Tdoist ruler after his fashion in his relation to the universe, we must give the phrase a wider meaning; but I have not met with any attempt to define ic PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 305 If you would praise or discourse about his per- sonality, he is united with the great community of existences. He belongs to that great community, and has no individual self. Having no individual self, how should he have anything that can be called his ? If you look at those who have what they call their own, they are the superior men of former times ; if you look at him who has nothing of the kind, he is the friend of heaven and earth. 7. Mean, and yet demanding to be allowed their free course; — such are Things. Low, and yet re- quiring to be relied on ; — such are the People. Hidden (as to their issues), and yet requiring to be done ; — such are Affairs. Coarse, and yet necessary to be set forth ; — such are Laws. Remote, and yet necessary to have dwelling (in one's self) ; — such is Righteousness. Near, and yet necessary to be widely extended ; — such is Benevolence. Restrictive, and yet necessary to be multiplied ; — such are Cere- monies. Lodged in the centre, and yet requiring to be exalted ; — such is Virtue. Always One, and yet requiring to be modified ; — such is the Tdo. Spirit- like, and yet requiring to be exercised; — such is Heaven ^ Therefore the sages contemplated Heaven, but did not assist It. They tried to perfect their virtue, but did not allow it to embarrass them. They pro- ceeded according to the TAo, but did not lay any plans. They associated benevolence (with all their doings), but did not rely on it They pursued right- * All these sentences are understood to show that even in the non-action of the Master of the Tdo there are still things he must do. [39] X 306 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM, BK. XI. eousness extensively, but did not try to accumulate it They responded to ceremonies, but did not con- ceal (their opinion as to the troublesomeness of them). They engaged in affairs as they occurred, and did not decline them. They strove to render their laws uniform, but (feared that confusion) might arise from them. They relied upon the people, and did not set light by them. They depended on things as their instruments, and did not discard them \ They did not think things equal to what they em- ployed them for, but yet they did not see that they could do without employing them. Those who do not understand Heaven are not pure in their virtue. Those who do not comprehend the Tdo have nq course which they can pursue successfully. Alas for them who do not clearly understand the Tdo ! What is it that we call the Tfio ^ ."^ There is the TAo, or Way of Heaven; and there is the Tio, or Way of Man. Doing nothing and yet attracting all honour is the Way of Heaven ; Doing and being embarrassed thereby is the Way of Man. It is the Way of Heaven that plays the part of the Lord ; it is the Way of Man that plays the part of the Servant. The Way of Heaven and the Way of Man are far apart. They should be clearly dis- tinguished from each other, ^ Antithetic to the previous sentences, and showing that what such a Master does does not interfere with his non-action. This question and what follows shows clearly enough that, even with ATwang-jze, the character T&o (j^) retained its proper meaning of the Way or Course, PT, n. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-BZE. 307 BOOK XII. Part II. Section V, Thien T!, or * Heaven and Earth V I . Notwithstanding the greatness of heaven and earth, their transforming power proceeds from one lathe; notwithstanding the number of the myriad things, the government of them is one and the same ; notwithstanding the multitude of mankind, the lord of them is their (one) ruler*. The rulers (course) should proceed from the qualities (of the Tdo) and be perfected by Heaven ^ when it is so, it is called 'Mysterious and Sublime/ The ancients ruled the world by doing nothing ; — simply by this attribute of Heaven*. If we look at their words* in the light of the Tfio, (we see that) the appellation for the ruler of the * See pp. 143, 144. * Implying that that ruler, ' the Son of Heaven,' is only one. ' ' Heaven ' is here defined as meaning ' Non-action, what is of itself (^ j^ g ^); ' the teh (^) is the virtue, or qualities of the T do ; — see the first paragraph of the next Book. * This sentence gives the thesis, or subject-matter of the whole Book, which the author never loses sight of. * Perhaps we should translate here, 'They looked at their words,' referring to ' the ancient rulers.' So Gabelentz construes : — * Dem T&o gemass betrachteten sie die reden.* The meaning that I have given is substantially the same. The term 'words' occasions a difficulty. I understand it here, with most of the critics, as ^ ^ , * the words of appellation/ X 2 308 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.XII. world ^ was correctly assigned ; if we look in the same light at the distinctions which they instituted, (we see that) the separation of ruler and ministers was right ; if we look at the abilities which they called forth in the same light, (we see that the duties of) all the offices were well performed ; and if we look generally in the same way at all things, (we see that) their response (to this rule) was com- plete ^ Therefore that which pervades (the action of) Heaven and Earth is (this one) attribute ; that which operates in all things is (this one) course ; that by which their superiors govern the people is the business (of the various departments) ; and that by which aptitude is given to ability is skill. The skill was manifested in all the (departments of) business ; those departments were all administered in righteousness ; the righteousness was (the outflow of) the natural virtue ; the virtue was manifested according to the Tio; and the T4o was according to (the pattern of) Heaven. Hence it is said^ *The ancients who had the nourishment of the world wished for nothing and the world had enough ; they did nothing and all things were transformed ; their stillness was abysmal, and the people were all composed.' The Record says *, ^ When the one (Tfio) pervades it, all business * Meaning, probably, his appellation as Thien 3ze, ' the Son of Heaven/ " That is, ' they responded to the Tdo,' without any constraint but the example of their rulers. * Here there would seem to be a quotation which I have not been able to trace to its source. * This * Record ' is attributed to L&o-jjze ; but we know nothing of it. In illustration of the sentiment in the sentence, the critics PT. II. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE^ 309 is completed. When the mind gets to be free from all aim, even the Spirits submit.' 2. The Master said\ 'It is the TAo that over- spreads and sustains all things. How great It is in Its overflowing influence ! The Superior man ought by all means to remove from his mind (all that is con- trary to It). Acting without action is what is called Heaven(-like). Speech coming forth of itself is what is called (a mark of) the (true) Virtue. Loving men and benefiting things is what is called Benevo- lence. Seeing wherein things that are different yet agree is what is called being Great. Conduct free from the ambition of being distinguished above others is what is called being Generous. The pos- session in himself of a myriad points of difference is what is called being Rich. Therefore to hold fast the natural attributes is what is called the Guiding Line (of government) ^ ; the perfecting of those attributes is what is called its Establishment ; accordance with the T&o is what is called being Complete; and not allowing anything external to affect the will is what is called being Perfect. When the Superior man understands these ten things, he keeps all matters as it were sheathed in himself, showing the greatness of his mind; and through the outflow of his doings, all things move (and come to him). Being such, he lets the gold lie hid in the hill, and the pearls in the deep; he considers not refer to par. 34 in the fourth Appendix to the Yi King ; but it is not to the point. * Who is * the Master ' here ? Confucius ? or LSo- jze ? I think the latter, though sometimes even our author thus denominates Confucius ; — see par. 9. « ? the Tto. 3IO THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XU. property or money to be any gain ; he keeps aloof from riches and honours ; he rejoices not in long life, and grieves not for early death ; he does not account prosperity a glory, nor is ashamed of indigence ; he would not grasp at the gain of the whole world to be held as his own private portion; he would not desire to rule over the whole world as his own private distinction. His distinction is in under- standing that all things belong to the one treasury, and that death and life should be viewed in the same way ^.' . 3. The Master said, * How still and deep is the place where the Tdo resides! How limpid is its purity! Metal and stone without It would give forth no sound. They have indeed the (power of) sound (in them), but if they be not struck, they do not emit it. Who can determine (the qualities that are in) all things ? 'The man of kingly qualities holds on his way unoccupied, and is ashamed to busy himself with (the conduct of) affairs. He establishes himself in (what is) the root and source (of his capacity), and his wisdom grows to be spirit-like. In this way his attributes become more and more great, and when his mind goes forth, whatever things come in his way, it lays hold of them (and deals with them). Thus, if there were not the Tfio, the bodily form would not have life, and its life, without the attri- butes (of the Tdo), would not be manifested. Is not he who preserves the body and gives the fullest development to the life, who establishes the attri- * Balfour : — * The difference between life and death exists no more ; ' Gabelentz :-*' Sterben und Leben haben gleiche Ersch* einung/ PT. n. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF jrWANG-3ZE. 3 1 1 butes of the T4o and clearly displays It, possessed of kingly qualities ? How majestic is he in his sudden issuings forth, and in his unexpected move- ments, when all things follow him! — This we call the man whose qualities fit him to rule. * He sees where there is the deepest obscurity ; he hears where there is no sound. In the midst of the deepest obscurity, he alone sees and can distinguish (various objects) ; in the midst of a soundless (abyss), he alone can hear a harmony (of notes). Therefore where one deep is succeeded by a greater, he can people all with things ; where one mysterious range is followed by another that is more so, he can lay hold of the subtlest character of each. In this way in his intercourse with all things, while he is farthest from having anything, he can yet give to them what they seek ; while he is always hurrying forth, he yet returns to his resting-place ; now large, now small ; now long, now short ; now distant, now near ^.' 4. Hwang-Tl, enjoying himself on the north of the Red-water, ascended to the height of the Khwin-lun (mountain), and having looked towards the south, was returning home, when he lost his dark-coloured pearP. He employed Wisdom to search for it, but he could not find it. He employed (the clear-sighted) Lf KiX to search for it, but he * I can hardly follow the reasoning of Awang-jze here. The whole of the paragraph is obscure. I have translated the two concluding characters j^ ^^ as if they were |^ ^, after the example of Lin Hsi-yt, whose edition of iSTwang-jze was first published in 1261. " Meaning the TSo. This is not to be got or learned by wisdom, or perspicacity, or man's reasoning. It is instinctive to man, as the Heavenly gift or Truth (^ ^). 3 1 2 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK, XII. could not find it. He employed (the vehement debater) A'Aieh Kkkn^ to search for it, but he could not find it. He then employed Purposeless S who found it ; on which Hwang-Tt said, * How strange that it was Purposeless who was able to find it ! ' 5. The teacher of YAo was HsU Y6"; of Hsu Yd, Nieh KkM^h^] of Nieh Kk\it\ Wang t*; of Wang 1, Phel-1«. Yio asked HsU Yu, saying, * Is Nieh A^^Ueh fit to be the correlate of Heaven*? (If you think he is), I will avail myself of the services of Wang 1 to constrain him (to take my place).' HsU Y6 replied, 'Such a measure would be hazardous, and full of peril to the kingdom ! The character of Nieh KhM^ is this ; — he is acute, perspicacious, shrewd and knowing, ready in reply, sharp in retort, and hasty ; his natural (endowments) surpass those of other men, but by his human qualities he seeks to obtain the Heavenly gift ; he exercises his discrimination in suppressing his errors, but he does not know what is the source from which his errors arise. Make him the corre- late of Heaven! He would employ the human qualities, so that no regard would be paid to the Heavenly gift. Moreover, he would assign different functions to the different parts of the one person *. ^ The meaning of the characters shows what is the idea emblemed by this name ; and so with Hsiang Wang, — * a Semblance,' and * Nonentity ; '=' Mindless,' ' Purposeless.' * All these names have occurred, excepting that of Phet-t, who heads Hwang-fQ Mi's list of eminent Tdoists. We shall meet with him again. He is to be distinguished from Ph(l-t. ' 'Match Heaven;' that is, be sovereign below, as Heaven above ruled all. * We are referred for the meaning of this characteristic to ^^ J|^ ^ i&} *^ ^^' V» par. I. PT. II. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF JnVANOSZE. 313 Moreover, honour would be given to knowledge, and he would have his plans take effect with the speed of fire. Moreover, he would be the slave of everything he initiated. Moreover, he would be embarrassed by things. Moreover, he would be looking all round for the response of things (to his measures). Moreover, he would be responding to the opinion of the multitude as to what was right. Moreover, he would be changing as things changed, and would not begin to have any principle of con- stancy. How can such a man be fit to be the correlate of Heaven ? Nevertheless, as there are the smaller branches of a family and the common ancestor of all its branches, he might be the father of a branch, but not the father of the fathers of all the branches'. Such government (as he would conduct) would lead to disorder. It would be calamity in one in the position of a minister^ and ruin if he were in the position of the sovereign.' 6. Y4o was looking about him at Hwi^ the border-warden of which said, ' Ha ! the sage ! Let me ask blessings on the sage ! May he live long ! ' * That is, Nieh might be a minister, but could not be the sovereign. The. phraseology is based on the niles for the rise of sub-surnames in the same clan, and the consequent division of clans under different ancestors ; — see the LtiPf, Bk. XIII, i, 10-14, and XIV, 8. " 'Hwd' is evidently intended for the name of a place, but where it was can hardly be determined. The genuineness of the whole paragraph is called in question; and I pass it by, merely calling attention to what the border-warden is made to say about the close of the life of the sage (Tdoist), who after living a thousand years, ascends among the Immortals (^ = f|I|)y and arrives at the place of God, and is free from the three evds of disease, old age, and death ; or as some say, after the Buddhists, water, fire, and wind I 314 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XII. Y4o said, * Hush !/ but the other went on, * May the sage become rich ! ' Yio (again) said, ' Hush ! ' but (the warden) continued, * May the sage have many sons ! ' When Y4o repeated his ' Hush,' the warden said, ^Long life, riches, and many sons are what men wish for ; — ^how is it that you alone do not wish for them ? ' Yio replied, * Many sons bring many fears ; riches bring many troubles; and long life gives rise to many obloquies. These three things do not help to nourish virtue; and therefore I wish to decline them.' The warden rejoined, 'At first I considered you to be a sage ; now I see in you only a Superior man. Heaven, in producing the myriads of the people, is sure to have appointed for them their several offices. If you had many sons, and gave them (all their) offices, what would you have to fear ? If you had riches, and made other men share them with you, what trouble would you have ? The sage finds his dwelling like the quail (without any choice of its own), and is fed like the fledgling ; he is like the bird which passes on (through the air), and leaves no trace (of its flight). When good order prevails in the world, he shares in the general prosperity. When there is no such order, he culti- vates his virtue, and seeks to be unoccupied. After a thousand years, tired of the world, he leaves it, and ascends among the immortals. He mounts on the white clouds, and arrives at the place of God. The three forms of evil do not reach him, his person is always free from misfortune ; — what obloquy has he to incur?' With this the border-warden left him. YAo fol- lowed him, saying, * I beg to ask — ; ' but the other said, * Begone ! ' PT. 11. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF KWA^G-SZE. 3 1 5 7- When YAo was ruling the world, Fo-^ASing 3ze- kdo^ was appointed by him prince of one of the states. From Ydo (afterwards) the throne passed to Shun, and from Shun (again) to Yu ; and (then) Po- ^^ng 3ze-kdo resigned his principality- and began to cultivate the ground. Yu went to see him, and found him ploughing in the open country. Hurry- ing to him, and bowing low in acknowledgment of his superiority, Yu then stood up, and asked him, saying, ' Formerly, when Yfio was ruling the world, you, Sir, were appointed prince of a state. He gave his sovereignty to Shun, and Shun gave his to me, when you, Sir, resigned your dignity, and are (now) ploughing (here) ; — I venture to ask the rea- son of your conduct.' 3ze-kdo said, *When Y&o ruled the world, the people stimulated one another (to what was right) without his offering them re- wards, and stood in awe (of doing wrong) without his threatening them with punishments. Now you employ both rewards and punishments, and the people notwithstanding are not good. Their virtue will from this time decay ; punishments will from this time prevail ; the disorder of future ages will from this time begin. Why do you, my master, not go away, and not interrupt my work?' With this he resumed his ploughing with his head bent down, and did not (again) look round 8. In the Grand Beginning (of all things) there was nothing in all the vacancy of space ; there was nothing that could be named ^ It was in this state ^ Some legends say that this Po-/&^ng 3ze-k&o was a pre-incar- nation of L4o- jze ; but this paragraph is like the last, and cannot be received as genuine. ' This sentence is differently un>ierstood, according as it is 3 1 6 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM, BK. Xll. that there arose the first existence ^ ; — the first exis- tence, but still without bodily shape. From this things could then be produced, (receiving) what we call their proper character*. That which had no bodily shape was divided ' ; and then without inter- mission there was what we call the process of con- ferring *. (The two processes) continuing in opera- tion, things were produced. As things were com- pleted, there were produced the distinguishing lines of each, which we call the bodily shape. That shape was the body preserving in it the spirit *, and each had its peculiar manifestation, which we call its Nature. When the Nature has been cultivated, it returns to its proper character ; and when that has been fully reached, there is the same condition as at the Beginning. That sameness is pure vacancy, and the vacancy is great. It is like the closing of the beak and silencing the singing (of a bird). That closing and silencing is like the union of heaven and earth (at the beginning) •. The union, effected, as it punctuated;-^ M Mf ^ M ^f "^'^ M^ M^ M ^. Each punctuation has its advocates. For myself, 1 can only adopt the former; the other is contrary to my idea of Chinese composition. If the author had wished to be understood so, he would have written differently, as, for instance, ^ ^ >& ^. * Probably, the primary ether, what is called the Thii JTih. * This sentence is anticipatory. ' Into what we call the yin and the yang; — the same ether, now at rest, now in motion. * The conferring of something more than what was material By whom or what? By Heaven; the T&oist understanding by that term the T&o. ' So then, man consists of the material body and the immaterial spirit. " The potential heaven and earth, not yet fashioned from the primal ether. PT. II, SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-BZE. 3 1 7 is, might seem to indicate stupidity or darkness, but it is what we call the * mysterious quality' (existing at the beginning) ; it is the same as the Grand Sub- mission (to the Natural Course). 9. The Master ^ asked Ldo Tan, saying, * Some men regulate the Tfio (as by a law), which they have only to follow ; — (a thing, they say,) is admissible or it is inadmissible ; it is so, or it is not so. (They are like) the sophists who say that they can dis- tinguish what is hard and what is white as clearly as if the objects were houses suspended in the sky. Can such men be said to be sages ^ ?' The reply was, * They are like the busy underlings of a court, who toil their bodies and distress their minds with their various artifices ; — dogs, (employed) to their sorrow to catch the yak, or monkeys^ that are brought from their forests (for their tricksiness). Kh\^, I tell you this ; — it is what you cannot hear, and what you cannot speak of: — Of those who have their heads and feet, and yet have neither minds nor ears, there are multitudes ; while of those who have their bodies, and at the same time preserve that which has no bodily form or shape, there are really none. It is not in their movements or stoppages, their dying or living, their falling and rising again, that this is to be found. The regulation of the course lies in (their dealing with) the human element in them. When they have forgotten external things, ^ This * Master ' is without doubt Confucius. ' The meaning and point of Confucius's question are not clear. Did he mean to object to L&o-jze that all his disquisitions about the Tio as the one thing to be studied and followed were unnecessary ? • Compare in Bk. VII, par. 4. 3l8 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XII. and have also forgotten the heavenly element in them, they may be named men who have forgotten themselves. The man who has forgotten himself is he of whom it is said that he has become identified with Heaven \' 4 ID. At an interview with Ki A'i^^h *, Alang-lu Mien^ said to him, 'Our ruler of LA asked to receive my instructions. I declined, on the ground that I had not received any message ^ for him. After- wards, however, I told him (my thoughts). I do not know whether (what I said) was right or not, and I beg to repeat it to you, I said to him, " You must strive to be courteous and to exercise self-restraint ; you must distinguish the public-spirited and loyal, and repress the cringing and selfish ; — ^who among the people will in that case dare not to be in har- mony with you ? " ' Ki Khth laughed quietly and said, * Your words, my master, as a description of the right course for a Tl or King, were like the threaten- ing movement of its arms by a mantis which would thereby stop the advance of a carriage ; — inadequate to accomplish your object. And moreover, if he guided himself by your directions, it would be as if he were to increase the dangerous height of his towers ^ Their action is like that of Heaven, silent but most effective, without motive from within or without, simply from the impulse of the Tdo. • These two men are only known by the mention of them here. They must have been officers of Lfl, K\ KfAh. a member of the great K\ or A!l-sun family of that state. He would appear also to have been the teacher of the other ; if, indeed, they were real personages, and not merely the production of iSTwang-jze's imagination. ' That is any lessons or instructions from you, my master, which I should communicate to him« PT. IT. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-3ZE. 3 1 9 and add to the number of his valuables collected in them ; — the multitudes (of the people) would leave their (old) ways, and bend their steps in the same direction/ A^'iang-lu Mien was awe-struck, and said in his fright, * I am startled by your words, Master, never- theless, I should like to hear you describe the in- fluence (which a ruler should exert)/ The other said, * If a great sage ruled the kingdom, he would stimulate the minds of the people, and cause them to carry out his instructions fully, and change their manners ; he would take their minds which had be- come evil and violent and extinguish them, carrying them all forward to act in accordance with the (good) will belonging to them as individuals, as if they did it of themselves from their nature, while they knew not what it was that made them do so. Would such an one be willing to look up to Yio and Shun in their instruction of the people as his elder brothers ? He would treat them as his juniors, belonging himself to the period of the original plas- tic ether ^ His wish would be that all should agree with the virtue (of that early period), and quietly rest in it/ II. 3ze-kung had been rambling in the south in KMi, and was returning to 3^^^- As he passed (a place) on the north of the Han, he saw an old man who was going to work on his vegetable garden. He had dug his channels, gone to the well, and was bringing from it in his arms a jar of water to pour into them. Toiling away, he expended a great deal ^ The Chinese phrase here is explained by Dr. Williams : — ^ A vivifying influence, a vapour or aura producing things/ 320 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. Xii. of strength, but the result which he accomplished was very small. 3ze-kung said to him, * There is a contrivance here, by means of which a hundred plots of ground may be irrigated in one day. With the expenditure of a very little strength, the result accomplished is great. Would you, Master, not like (to try it) ? ' The gardener looked up at him, and said, * How does it work ? * S^^-kung said, * It is a lever made of wood, heavy behind, and light in front. It raises the water as quickly as you could do with your hand, or as it bubbles over from a boiler. Its name is a shadoof.' The gardener put on an angry look, laughed, and said, * I have heard from my teacher that, where there are ingenious contri- vances, there are sure to be subtle doings ; and that, where there are subtle doings, there is sure to be a scheming mind. But, when there is a scheming mind in the breast, its pure simplicity is impaired. When this pure simplicity is impaired, the spirit becomes unsettled, and the unsettled spirit is not the proper residence of the T4o. It is not that I do not know (the contrivance which you mention), but I should be ashamed to use it.' (At these words) 3ze-kung looked blank and ashamed; he hung down his head, and made no reply. After an interval, the gardener said to him, ' Who are you, Sir ? ' 'A disciple of Khung KAiu,' was the reply. The other continued, * Are you not the scholar whose great learning makes you com- parable to a sage, who make it your boast that you surpass all others, who sing melancholy ditties all by yourself, thus purchasing a famous reputation throughout the kingdom ? If you would (only) for- get the energy of your spirit, and neglect the care of PT. 11. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 321 your body, you might approximate (to the T&o). But while you cannot regulate yourself, what leisure have you to be regulating the world ? Go on your way, Sir, and do not interrupt my work.' 3ze-kung shrunk back abashed, and turned pale. He was perturbed, and lost his self-possession, nor did he recover it, till he had walked a distance of thirty 11. His disciples then said, * Who was that man ? Why, Master, when you saw him, did you change your bearing, and become pale, so that you have been all day without returning to yourself?' He replied to them, ' Formerly I thought that there was but one man ^ in the world, and did not know that there was this man. I have heard the Master say that to seek for the means of conducting his under- takings so that his success in carrying them out may be complete, and how by the employment of a little strength great results may be obtained, is the way of the sage. Now (I perceive that) it is not so at all. They who hold fast and cleave to the Tfio are complete in the qualities belonging to it. Com- plete in those qualities, they are complete in their bodies. Complete in their bodies, they are com- plete in their spirits. To be complete in spirit is the way of the sage. (Such men) live in the world in closest union with the people, going along with them, but they do not know where they are going. Vast and complete is their simplicity ! Success, gain, and ingenious contrivances, and artful clever- ness, indicate (in their opinion) a forgetfulness of the (proper) mind of man. These men will not go where their mind does not carry them, and will do ^ Confucius. [39] Y 322 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xil. nothing of which their mind does not approve. Though all the world should praise them, they would (only) get what they think should be loftily disregarded ; and though all the world should blame them, they would but lose (what they think) fortuitous and not to be received; — the world s blame and praise can do them neither benefit nor injury. Such men may be described as possess- ing all the attributes (of the T4o), while I can only be called one of those who are like the waves carried about by the wind.' When he returned to L6, {^ze- kung) reported the interview and conversation to Confucius, who said, ' The man makes a pretence of cultivating the arts of the Embryonic Age^. He knows the first thing, but not the sequel to it He regulates what is internal in himself, but not what is external to himself. If he had intelligence enough to be entirely unsophisticated, and by doing nothing to seek to return to the normal simplicity, embody- ing (the instincts of) his nature, and keeping his spirit (as it were) in his arms, so enjoying himself in the common ways, you might then indeed be afraid of him ! But what should you and I find in the arts of the embryonic time, worth our knowing ? ' 12. A!un M4ng*, on his way to the ocean, met with Ylian Fung * on the shore of the eastern sea, and ^ The 'arts of the Embryonic Age' suggests the idea of the earliest men in their struggles for support; not the T&o of Heaven in its formation of the universe. But the whole of the paragraph, not in itself uninteresting, is believed to be a spurious introduction, and not the production of JTwang-jze. * These are not names of men, but like Ydn ^ang and Hung Mung in the fifth paragraph of the last Book. By iTun Ming, it is said, we are to understand ' the great primal ether,' and by Ytian PT. II. SECT.v. THE WRITINGS OF JCWANG-SZE. 323 was asked by him where he was going. ' I am going/ he replied, * to the ocean ; ' and the other again asked, * What for ? ' Aun Ming said, * Such is the nature of the ocean that the waters which flow into it can never fill it, nor those which flow from it exhaust it I will enjoy myself, rambling by it' Yuan Fung replied, * Have you no thoughts about mankind ^ ? I should like to hear from you about sagely government.' ATun Ming said, * Under the government of sages, all offices are distributed according to the fitness of their nature ; all appoint- ments are made according to the ability of the men ; whatever is done is after a complete survey of all circumstances ; actions and words proceed from the inner impulse, and the whole world is transformed. Wherever their hands are pointed and their looks directed, from all quarters the people are all sure to come (to do what they desire) : — this is what is called government by sages.' ' I should like to hear about (the government of) the kindly, virtuous men ^' (continued YUan Fung). The reply was, ' Under the government of the vir- tuous, when quietly occupying (their place), they have no thought, and, when they act, they have no anxiety; they do not keep stored (in their minds) what is right and what is wrong, what is good and Fung, ' the east wind/ Why these should discourse together as they are here made to do, only ^wang-jze himself could tell. ^ Literally, ' men with their cross eyes ;' .an appellation for man- kind, men having their eyes set across their face more on the same plane than other animals ; — ' an extraordinary application of the characters,' says Lin Hsi->hing. • The text is simply * ^rtuous men ; * but the reply justifies us in giving the meaning as 'kindly' as well. ^H has often this signification. Y 2 324 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XII. what IS bad. They share their benefits among all within the four seas, and this produces what is called (the state of) satisfaction ; they dispense their gifts to all, and this produces what is called (the state of) rest (The people) grieve (on their death) like babies who have lost their mothers, and are per- plexed like travellers who have lost their way. They have a superabundance of wealth and all necessaries, and they know not whence it comes; they have a sufficiency of food and drink, and they know not from whom they get it : — ^such are the appearances (under the government) of the kindly and virtuous.' * I should like to hear about (the government of) the spirit-like men,' (continued YUan Fung once more). The reply was, * Men of the highest spirit-like qualities mount up on the light, and (the limitations of) the body vanish. This we call being bright and ethereal. They carry out to the utmost the powers with which they are endowed, and have not a single attribute unexhausted. Their joy is that of heaven and earth, and all embarrassments of affairs melt away and disappear; all things return to their proper nature : — and this is what is called (the state of) chaotic obscurity ^* 13. Man W6-kwei * and KAih-hing Man-M! * had been looking at the army of king W6, when the latter said, * It is because he was not born in the time of the Lord of Yii', that therefore he is in- ^ When no human element had come in to mar the development of the Tdo. ' If these be the names of real personages, they must have been of the time of king Wft, about b. c. 1122. ' Generally understood to mean < He is not equal to the Lord of PT. II. SECT.V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 325 volved in this trouble (of war)/ M&n W6-kwei replied, 'Was it when the kingdom was in good order, that the Lord of Yu governed it ? or was it after it had become disordered that he governed it ? ' The other said, * That the kingdom be in a condition of good order, is what (all) desire, and (in that case) what necessity would there be to say any- thing about the Lord of Yu ? He had medicine for sores ; false hair for the bald ; and healing for those who were ill : — ^he was like the filial son carrying in the medicine to cure his kind father, with every sign of distress in his countenance. A sage would be ashamed (of such a thing) *. * In the age of perfect virtue they attached no value to wisdom, nor employed men of ability. Superiors were (but) as the higher branches of a tree ; and the people were like the deer of the wild. They were upright and correct, without knowing that to be so was Righteousness ; they loved one another, without knowing that to do so was Benevolence ; they were honest and leal-hearted, without knowing that it was Lojralty; they fulfilled their engage- ments, without knowing that to do so was Good Faith ; in their simple movements they employed the services of one another, without thinking that they were conferring or receiving any gift There- fore their actions left no trace, and there was no record of their affairs.' 14. The filial son who does not flatter his father, Y%* or Shun. The meaning which I have given is that propounded by Hft Wan-ying, and seems to agree better with the general pur- port of the paragraph. ^ Ashamed that he had not been able to keep his father from getting sick, and requiring to be thus attended to. 326 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XII. and the loyal minister who does not fawn on his ruler, are the highest examples^ of a minister and a son. When a son assents to all that his father says, and approves of all that his father does, common opinion pronounces him an unworthy son ; when a minister assents to all that his ruler says, and ap- proves of all that his ruler does, common opinion pronounces him an unworthy minister. Nor does any one reflect that this view is necessarily correct \ But when common opinion (itself) affirms anything and men therefore assent to it, or counts anything good and men also approve of it, then it is not said that they are mere consenters and flatterers; — is common opinion then more authoritatiye than a father, or more to be honoured than a ruler ? Tell a man that he is merely following (the opinions) of another, or that he is a flatterer of others, and at once he flushes with anger. And yet all his life he is merely following others, and flattering them. His illustrations are made to agree with theirs ; his phrases are glossed : — to win the approbation of the multi- tudes. From first to last, from beginning to end, he finds no fault with their views. He will let his robes hang down*, display the colours on them, and arrange his movements and bearing, so as to win the favour of his age, and yet not call himself a flatterer. He is but a follower of those others, approving and dis- ^ We can hardly tell whether this paragraph should be under- stood as a continuation of jOih-^ang's remarks, or as from iTwang- jze himself. The meaning here is that eveiy one feels that this opinion is right, without pausing to reason about it. • See the Yt King, Appendix III, ii, 15, where this letting his robes hang down is attributed to Shun. Ought we to infer from this that in this paragraph we have ITAih-^ng still speaking about and against the common opinion of Shun's superioritj to king Wd? PT. II. SECT.V. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-BZE. 327 approving as they do, and yet he will not say that he is one of them. This is the height of stupidity. He who knows his stupidity is not very stupid ; he who knows that he is under a delusion is not greatly deluded. He who is greatly deluded will never shake the delusion off; he who is very stupid will all his life not become intelligent. If three men be walking together, and (only) one of them be under a delusion (as to their way), they may yet reach their goal, the deluded being the fewer ; but if two of them be under the delusion, they will not do so, the deluded being the majority. At the pre- sent time, when the whole world is under a delusion, though I pray men to go in the right direction, I cannot make them do so ; — is it not a sad case ? Grand music does not penetrate the ears of vil- lagers ; but if they hear * The Breaking of the Wil- low,' or * The Bright Flowers \' they will roar with laughter. So it is that lofty words do not remain in the minds of the multitude, and that perfect words are not heard, because the vulgar words predomi- nate. By two earthenware instruments the (music of) a bell will be confused, and the pleasure that it would afford cannot be obtained. At the present time the whole world is under a delusion, and though I wish to* go in a certain direction, how can I succeed in doing so ? Knowing that I cannot do so, if I were to try to force my way, that would be another de- lusion. Therefore my best course is to let my pur- pose go, and no more pursue it. If I do not pursue it, whom shall I have to share in my sorrow ^ ? ^ The names of two songs, favourites with the common people. * I shall only feel the more that I am alone vrithoat any to sym- pathise with me, and be the more sad. 328 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xii. If an ugly man ^ have a son bom to him at mid- night, he hastens with a light to look at it Very eagerly he does so, only afraid that it may be like himself. 15*. From a tree a hundred years old a portion shall be cut and fashioned into a sacrificial vase, with the bull figured on it, which is ornamented further with green and yellow, while the rest (of that portion) is cut away and thrown into a ditch. If now we compare the sacrificial vase with what was thrown into the ditch, there will be a difference between them as respects their beauty and ugliness ; but they both agree in having lost the (proper) nature of the wood. So in respect of their practice of righteousness there is a difference between (the robber) Alh on the one hand, and ^SLtig (Shin) or Shih (3hi<i) on the other; but they all agree in having lost (the proper qualities of) their nature. Now there are five things which produce (in men) the loss of their (proper) nature. The first is (their fondness for) the five colours which disorder the eye, and take from it its (proper) clearness of vision ; the second is (their fondness for) the five notes (of music), which disorder the ear and take from it its ^ should perhaps be translated * a leper/ The illustra- tion is edited by JTiio Hung and others as a paragraph by itself. They cannot tell whether it be intended to end the paragraph that precedes or to introduce the one that follows. * This paragraph must be our author's own. JPhih-kaxig, of the time of king W(i, could not be criticising the schemes of life pro- pounded by Mo and Yang, whose views were so much later in time. It breathes the animosity of Lio and ^wang against all schemes of learning and culture, as contrary to the simplicity of life according to the Tio. PT. II. SECT. V. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-BZE. 329 (proper) power of hearing; the third is (their fond- ness for) the five odours which penetrate the nos- trils, and produce a feeling of distress all over the forehead ; the fourth is (their fondness for) the five flavours, which deaden the mouth, and pervert its sense of taste ; the fifth is their preferences and dislikes, which unsettle the mind, and cause the nature to go flying about. These five things are all injurious to the life ; and now Yang and Mo begin to stretch forward from their different standpoints, each thinking that he has hit on (the proper course for men). But the courses they have hit on are not what I call the proper course. What they have hit on (only) leads to distress; — can they have hit on what is the right thing ? If they have, we may say that the dove in a cage has found the right thing for it. Moreover, those preferences and dislikes, that (fond- ness for) music and colours, serve but to pile up fuel (in their breasts) ; while their caps of leather, the bonnet with kingfishers' plumes, the memorandum tablets which they carry, and their long girdles, serve but as restraints on their persons. Thus in- wardly stuff'ed full as a hole for fuel, and outwardly fast bound with cords, when they look quietly round from out of their bondage, and think they have got all they could desire, they are no better than criminals whose arms are tied together, and their fingers sub- jected to the screw, or than tigers and leopards in sacks or cages, and yet thinking that they have got (all they could wish). 330 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. XIII. BOOK XIII. Part II. Section VI. Thien Tic, or ' The Way of Heaven ^' I. The Way of Heaven operates (unceasingly), and leaves no accumulation * (of its influence) in any particular place, so that all things are brought to perfection by it; so does the Way of the Tls operate, and all under the sky turn to them (as their directors); so also does the Way of the Sages operate, and all within the seas submit to them. Those who clearly understand (the Way of) Heaven, who are in sympathy with (that of) the sages, and familiar through the universe and in the four quarters (of the earth) with the work of the Tls and the kings, yet act spontaneously from themselves : — ^with the appearance of being ignorant they are yet entirely still. The stillness of the sages does not belong to them as a consequence of their skilful ability ' ; all things are not able to disturb their minds ; — it is on tliis account that they are still. When water is still, its clearness shows the beard and eyebrows (of him * See pp. 144, 145. * That is, its operation is universal. The Chinese critics gene- rally explain * accumulation ' here by ' rest/ iK^hich is not quite the idea. ' Such is the meaning here of the ^, as in the Tfio Teh Al'ing, chaps. 2, 8, and often. PT. II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF jrWANG-3ZE. 33 1 who looks into it). It is a perfect Level ^ and the greatest artificer takes his rule from it. Such is the clearness of still water, and how much greater is that of the human Spirit! The still mind of the sage is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of all things. Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, quietude, silence, and non-action ; — this is the Level of heaven and earth, and the perfection of the Tdo and its characteristics*. Therefore theTls, Kings, and Sages found in this their resting-place ^ Resting here, they were vacant ; from their vacancy came fullness ; from their fullness came the nice distinctions (of things). From their vacancy came stillness ; that stillness was followed by movement ; their move- ments were successful. From their stillness came their non-action. Doing-nothing, they devolved the cares of office on their employes. Doing-nothing was accompanied by the feeling of satisfaction. Where there is that feeling of satisfaction, anxieties and troubles find no place; and the years of life are many. Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, quietude, silence, and doing-nothing are the root of all things. When this is understood, we find such a ruler on the throne as Y4o, and such a minister as Shun. When with this a high position is occupied, we find the attri- butes of the Tls and kings, — the sons of Heaven ; with this in a low position, we find the mysterious rjp here, is contracted in many editions into j^, which some have mistaken for )f^. * Such are the natural characteristics of the T&oistic mind. ' Implying cessation from all thought and purpose. 332 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XIII. sages, the uncrowned kings, with their ways. With this retiring (from public life), and enjoying themselves at leisure, we find the scholars who dwell by the rivers and seas, among the hills and forests, all sub- missive to it ; with this coming forward to active life and comforting their age, their merit is great, and their fame is distinguished ; — ^and all the world becomes united in one. 2. (Such men) by their stillness become sages ; and by their movement, kings. Doing-nothing, they are honoured ; in their plain simplicity, no one in the world can strive with them (for the palm of) excel- lence. The clear understanding of the virtue of Heaven and Earth is what is called 'The Great Root,* and ' The Great Origin ; ' — they who have it are in harmony with Heaven, and so they produce all equable arrangements in the world ; — ^they are those who are in harmony with men. Being in harmony with men is called the Joy of men ; being in harmony with Heaven is called the Joy of Heaven. Awang-jze said, * My Master ! my Master ! He shall hash and blend all things in mass without being cruel ; he shall dispense his favours to all ages with- out being benevolent. He is older than the highest antiquity, and yet is not old. He overspreads the heavens and sustains the earth; from him is the carving of all forms without any artful skill ^ ! This is what is called the Joy of Heaven. Hence it is said, " Those who know the Joy of Heaven during their life, act like Heaven, and at death undergo transformation like (other) things * ; in their stillness * Compare in Bk.VI, pars. 13 and 7. * They do not cease to be, but only become transformed or changed. PT. II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JCWANG-SZE. 333 they possess the quality of the Yin, and in their movement they flow abroad as the Yang. There- fore he who knows the Joy of Hear en has no mur- muring against Heaven, nor any fault-finding with men; and suffers no embarrassment from things, nor any reproof from ghosts. Hence it is said, * His movements are those of Heaven ; his stillness is that of Earth ; his whole mind is fixed, and he rules over the world. The spirits of his dead do not come to scare him ; he is not worn out by their souls. His words proceeding from his vacancy and stillness, yet reach to heaven and earth, and show a communi- cation with all things : — this is what is called the Joy of Heaven. This Joy of Heaven forms the mind of the sage whereby he nurtures all under the sky ^* " ' 3. It was the Way^ of the Tls and Kings to regard Heaven and Earth as their Author, the Tio and its characteristics as their Lord, and Doing- nothing as their constant rule. Doing-nothing, they could use the whole world in their service and might have done more ; acting, they were not sufficient for the service required of them by the world. Hence the men of old held non-inaction in honour. When superiors do nothing and their inferiors also do nothing, inferiors and superiors possess the same virtue ; and when inferiors and superiors possess the same virtue, there are none to act as ministers. When inferiors act, and their superiors also act, then superiors and inferiors possess the same Tdo ; and when superiors and inferiors possess the same * I suppose that from 'It is said' to this is all quotation, but from what book we do not know. • * The virtue,' or attribute ;=the way. 334 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XIII. T4o, there is none to preside as Lord. But that the superiors do nothing and yet thereby use the world in their service, and that the inferiors, while acting, be employed in the service of the world, is an unchangeable principle. Therefore the ancient kings who presided over the world, though their knowledge embraced (all the operations of) Heaven and Earth, took no thought of their own about them ; though their nice discrimination appreciated the fine fashioning of all things, they said not a word about it ; though their power comprehended all within the seas, they did nothing themselves. Heaven produces nothing, yet all things experience their transformations ; Earth effects no growth, yet all things receive their nurture ; the Tls and Kings did nothing, yet all the world testified their effective ser- vices. Hence it is said, * There is nothing more spirit- like than Heaven; there is nothing richer than Earth ; there are none greater than the Tis and Kings.' Hence it is said (further), * The attributes of the Tls and kings corresponded to those of Heaven and Earth.' It was thus that they availed themselves of (the operations of) Heaven and Earth, carried all things on unceasingly (in their courses), and employed the various classes of men in their service. 4. Originating belongs to those in the higher position ; details (of work) to those who are in the lower. The compendious decision belongs to the lord; the minutiae of execution, to his ministers. The direction of the three hosts ^ and their men with the five weapons is but a trifling quality ; rewards ^ ' Three hosts ' constituted the militarj force of one of the largest states. " The bow, the club, the spear, the lance, the javelin. Other PT. II, SECT, VI. THE WRITINGS Ol'' JCWANG-SZE, 335 and penalties with their advantages and sufferings, and the inflictions of the five punishments ^ are but trivial elements of instruction ; ceremonies, laws, measures, and numbers, with all the minutiae of jurisprudence *, are small matters in government ; the notes of bells and drums, and the display of plumes and flags are the slightest things in music, and the various grades of the mourning garments are the most unimportant manifestations of grief. These five unimportant adjuncts required the operation of the excited spirit and the employment of the arts of the mind, to bring them into use. The men of old had them indeed, but they did not give them the first place. The ruler precedes, and the minister follows ; the father precedes, and the son follows ; the elder brother precedes, and the younger follows; the senior precedes, and the junior follows; the male precedes, and the female follows ; the husband pre- cedes, and the wife follows. This precedence of the more honourable and se- quence of the meaner is seen in the (relative) action of heaven and earth, and hence the sages took them as their pattern. The more honourable position of heaven and the lower one of earth are equivalent to a designation of their spirit-like and intelligent qualities. The precedence of spring and summer and the sequence of autumn and winter mark the enumerations of them are given. See the ' Officers of Ki\x* Bk. XXXII. ^ Branding, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, castra- tion, death. • I read here JpJ (not ^) ;g. 336 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xiil. order of the four seasons. In the transformations and growth of all things, every bud and feature has its proper form ; and in this we have their gradual maturing and decay, the constant flow of transforma- tion and change. Thus since Heaven and Earthy which are most spirit-like, are distinguished as more honourable and less, and by precedence and sequence, how much more must we look for this in the ways of men ! In the ancestral temple it is to kinship that honour is given ; in court, to rank ; in the neigh- bourhoods and districts, to age ; in the conduct of affairs, to wisdom ; such is the order in those great ways. If we speak of the course (to be pursued in them), and do not observe their order, we violate their course. If we speak of the course, and do not observe it, why do we apply that name to it ? 5. Therefore the ancients who clearly understood the great Tdo first sought to apprehend what was meant by Heaven ^, and the Tio and its characteris- tics came next. When this was apprehended, then came Benevolence and Righteousness. When these were apprehended, then came the Distinction of duties and the observance of them. This accomplished, there came objects and their names. After objects and their names, came the employment of men according to their qualities: on this there followed the examination of the men and of their work. This led to the approval or disapproval of them, which again was succeeded by the apportioning of rewards and penalties. After this the stupid and the intelli- gent understood what was required of them, and the honourable and the mean occupied their several posi- ^ The meaning, probably, is < spontaneity/ PT. II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF ^WANG-8ZE. 337 tions. The good and the able, and those inferior to them, sincerely did their best. Their ability was distributed ; the duties implied in their official names were fulfilled. In this way did they serve their superiors, nourish their inferiors, regulate things, and cultivate their persons. They did not call their knowledge and schemes into requisition ; they were required to fall back upon (the method of) Heaven : — this was what is called the Perfection of the Rule of Great Peace. Hence it is said in the Book ^, 'There are objects and there are their names.' Objects and their names the ancients had ; but they did not put them in the foremost place. When the ancients spoke of the Great Tdo, it was only after four other steps that they gave a place to ' Objects and their Names,' and after eight steps that they gave a place to * Rewards and Penalties.' If they had all at once spoken of 'Objects and their Names,' they would have shown an ignorance of what is the Root (of government) ; if they had all at once spokenof* Rewards and Penalties,' they would have shown an ignorance of the first steps of it. Those whose words are thus an in- version of the (proper) course, or in opposition to it, are (only fit to be) ruled by others ; — how can they rule others ? To speak all at once of ' Objects and their Names,' and of * Rewards and Penalties,' only shows that the speaker knows the instruments of government, but does not know the method of it, is fit to be used as an instrument in the world, but not fit to use others as his instruments : — he is what we call a mere sophist, a man of one small idea. * We cannot tell what book or books. [39] z 338 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. Xlll. Ceremonies, laws, numbers, measures, with all the minutiae of jurisprudence, the ancients had ; but it is by these that inferiors serve their superiors ; it is not by them that those superiors nourish the world. 6. Anciently, Shun asked YSo, saying, 'In what way does your Majesty by the Grace of Heaven^ exercise your mind ? ' The reply was, * I simply show no arrogance towards the helpless ; I do not neglect the poor people ; I grieve for those who die ; I love their infant children ; and I compassionate their widows/ Shun rejoined, * Admirable, as far as it goes ; but it is not what is Great/ ' How then/ asked Yfio, ' do you think I should do ? ' Shun re- plied, 'When (a sovereign) possesses the virtue of Heaven, then when he shows himself in action, it is in stillness. The sun and moon (simply) shine, and the four seasons pursue their courses. So it is with the regular phenomena of day and night, and with the movement of the clouds by which the rain is distributed.' Ydo said, * Then I have only been persistently troubling myself! What you wish is to be in harmony with Heaven, while I wish to be in harmony with men/ Now (the Way of) Heaven and Earth was much thought of of old, and Hwang-Tt, Ydo, and Shun united in admiring it. Hence the kings of the world of old did nothing, but tried to imitate that Way. 7. Confucius went to the west to deposit (some) writings in the library of K&u ^, when 3ze-lii coun- * So, in the * Spring and Autumn * Chronicle, the rightful reign- ing sovereign is ordinarily designated, ' Heaven's King.' It is not a Tdoistic mode of speaking of him. * It is supposed diat Confucius, disappointed by his want of PT. II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF iTWANG-SZE. 339 selled him, saying, * I have heard that the officer in charge of this Aang ^ Repository of AjIu was one Lio Tan, who has given up his office, and is living in his own house. As you. Master, wish to deposit these writings here, why not go to him, and obtain his help (to accomplish your object) ^' Confucius said, * Good ; ' and he went and saw LAo Tan, who refused his assistance. On this he proceeded to give an abstract of the Twelve Classics ^ to bring the other over to his views *. L4o Tan, however, interrupted him while he was speaking, and said, * This is too vague ; let me hear the substance of them in brief.' Confucius said, * The substance of them is occupied with Benevolence and Righteous- ness.' The other said, * Let me ask whether you consider Benevolence and Righteousness to con- stitute the nature of man ? ' * I do,' was the answer. * If the superior man be not benevolent, he will not fulfil his character ; if he be not righteous, he might as well not have been bom. Benevolence and Righteousness are truly the nature of man.' L&o Tan continued, ' Let me ask you what you mean by Benevolence and Righteousness.' Confucius said, *To be in one's inmost heart in kindly sympathy success, wished to deposit the writings or books which he prized so much in the Royal Library, that they might not be lost, and be available for some future teacher, more fortimate than himself. * The name of the Royal Library (^) ; meaning, perhaps, * Approved.' * That is, help him to get his books deposited in the Library. ' Meaning, perhaps, the 'Spring and Autimin,' containing a chronicle of twelve marquises of L6. We know of no collection in the time of Confucius which could be styled the * Twelve Classics.' is to be read shui. Z 2 340 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. Xin^ with all things ; to love all men ; and to allow no selfish thoughts ; — this is the nature of Benevolence and Righteousness/ Ldo Tan exclaimed, ' Ah ! you almost show your inferiority by such words ! " To love all men ! " is not that vague and extravagant ? " To be seeking to allow no selfish thoughts ! " — that is selfishness * ! If you, Master, wish men not to be without their (proper) shepherding, think of Heaven and Earth, which certainly pursue their invariable course ; think of the sun and moon, which surely maintain their brightness ; think of the stars in the zodiac, which preserve their order and courses ; think of birds and beasts, which do not fail to collect together in their flocks and herds; and think of the trees, which do not fail to stand up (in their places). Do you, Master, imitate this way and carry it into practice ; hurry on, following this course, and you will reach your end. Why must you further be vehement in putting forward your Benevolence and Righteousness, as if you were beating a drum, and seeking a fugitive son, (only making him run away the more) ? Ah ! Master, you are introducing dis- order into the nature of man ! ' 8. Shih-^//ing KM^, having an interview with Lio-jze, asked him, saying, ' I heard, Master, that you were a sage, and I came here, wishing to see you, without grudging the length of the journey. During the stages of the hundred days, the soles of my feet became quite callous, but I did not dare to stop and rest. Now I perceive that you are not ^ The unselfishness was not spontaneous. We know nothing of this personage, but what is related here ; nor does the whole paragraph serve to advance the argument of the Book. PT, II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-BZE. 34I a sage. Because there was some rice left about the holes of the rats, you sent away your younger sister, which was unkind; when your food, whether raw or cooked, remains before you not all consumed, you keep on hoarding it up to any extent \' Ldo- jze looked indifferent, and gave him no answer. Next day Khi again saw Ldo-jze, and said, ' Yesterday I taunted you ; but to-day I have gone back to a better mood of mind. What is the cause (of the change) * ? ' Lfio-jze replied, ' I consider that I have freed myself from the trammels of claiming to be artfully knowing, spirit-like, and sage. Yesterday if you had called me an ox, you might have done so ; or if you had called me a horse, you might have^ done so ^ If there be a reality (corre- sponding to men's ideas), and men give it a name, which another will not receive, he will in the sequel suffer the more. My manner was what I constantly observe ; — I did not put it on for the occasion.' Shih-^Mng Kh\ sidled away out of L&o's shadow ; then he retraced his steps, advanced forward, and asked how he should cultivate himself. The reply was, *Your demeanour is repelling; you stare with your eyes; your forehead is broad and yet tapering ; you bark and growl with your mouth ; your appearance is severe and pretentious ; you are like a horse held by its tether, you would move, but are restrained, and (if let go) would start off like an ^ These seem strange charges to bring against L&o-jze, and no light is thrown on them from other sources. * The change had been produced by the demeanour of Ldo-jze ; the other could not tell how. Other explanations of the question are given by some of the critics. ' Compare in the first paragraph of Book VIL 342 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM* BK. XIII. arrow from a bow ; you examine all the minutiae of a thing ; your wisdom is artful, and yet you try to look at ease. All these are to be considered proofs of your want of sincerity. If on the borders one were to be found with them, he would be named a Thief 9. The Master^ said, * The Tio does not exhaust itself in what is greatest, nor is it ever absent from what is least ; and therefore it is to be found com- plete and diffused in all things. How wide is its universal comprehension! How deep is its un- fathomableness ! The embodiment of its attributes in benevolence and righteousness is but a small result of its spirit-like (working) ; but it is only the perfect man who can determine this. The perfect man has (the charge of) the world; — is not the charge great ? and yet it is not sufficient to em- barrass him. He wields the handle of power over the whole world, and yet it is nothing to him. His discrimination detects everything false, and no con- sideration of gain moves him. He penetrates to the truth of things, and can guard that which is fundamental. So it is that heaven and earth are ex- ternal to him, and he views all things with indifference, and his spirit is never straitened by them. He has comprehended the TSlo, and is in harmony with its characteristics; he pushes back benevolence and righteousness (into their proper place), and deals with ceremonies and music as (simply) guests: — yes, the mind of the perfect man determines all things aright.' * No doubt, LSo-jze. In the * Complete Works of the Ten Philosophers,' the text is ^ -T* and not ^ •^, PT. II. SECT. VI. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-3ZE. 343 lo. What the world thinks the most valuable ex- hibition of the Tio is to be found in books. But books are only a collection of words. Words have what is valuable in them ; — what is valuable in words is the ideas they convey. But those ideas are a sequence of something else ; — and what that something else is cannot be conveyed by words. When the world, because of the value which it attaches to words, commits them to books, that for which it so values them may not deserve to be valued ; — because that which it values is not what is really valuable. Thus it is that what we look at and can see is (only) the outward form and colour, and what we listen to and can hear is (only) names and sounds. Alas ! that men of the world should think that form and colour, name and sound, should be sufficient to give them the real nature of the TAo. The form and colour, the name and sound, are certainly not sufficient to convey its real nature ; and so it is that * the wise do not speak and those who do speak are not wise.' How should the world know that real nature ? Duke Hwan', seated above in his hall, was (once) reading a book, and the wheelwright Phien was making a wheel below it^ Laying aside his hammer and chisel, Phien went up the steps, and said, * I venture to ask your Grace what words you are reading ? ' The duke said, * The words of the sages.' 'Are those sages alive?' Phien con- * No doubt, duke Hwan of -ffXt, the first of the five presiding chiefs of the AHu dynasty. ' See in Mencius I, i, vii, 4 a similar reference to the hall and the courtyard below it 344 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM, BK. XIII. tinued. * They are dead/ was the reply. * Then/ said the other, ' what you, my Ruler, are reading are only the dregs and sediments of those old men/ The duke said, * How should you, a wheelwright, have anything to say about the book which I am reading? If you can explain yourself, very well; if you cannot, you shall die!' The wheelwright said, * Your servant will look at the thing from the point of view of his own art. In making a wheel, if I proceed gently, that is pleasant enough, but the workmanship is not strong ; if I proceed violently, that is toilsome and the joinings do not fit. If the movements of my hand are neither (too) gentle nor (too) violent, the idea in my mind is realised. But I cannot tell (how to do this) by word of mouth ; — there is a knack in it. I cannot teach the knack to my son, nor can my son learn it from me. Thus it is that I am in my seventieth year, and am (still) making wheels in my old age ^. But these ancients, and what it was not possible for them to convey, are dead and gone : — so then what you, my Ruler, are reading is but their dregs and sediments ! ' * Compare the story in Book III about the ruler W2Ln-hui and his butcher; and other passages. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF JCWANG-SZE. 345 BOOK XIV. Part II. Section VII. Thien Yun, or * The Revolution of Heaven ^' I. How (ceaselessly) heaven revolves! How (constantly) earth abides at rest! And do the sun and moon contend about their (respective) places ? Who presides over and directs these (things) ? Who binds and connects them together ? Who is it that, without trouble or exertion on his part, causes and maintains them ? Is it, perhaps, that there is some secret spring, in consequence of which they cannot be but as they are ? Or is it, perhaps, that they move and turn as they do, and cannot stop of themselves ? * (Then) how the clouds become rain ! And how the rain again forms the clouds! Who diffuses them so abundantly ? Who is it that, without trouble or exertion on his part, produces this ele- mental enjoyment, and seems to stimulate it ? The winds rise in the north ; one blows to the west, and another to the east ; while some rise upwards, uncertain in their direction. By whose breathing are they produced ? Who is it that, without any trouble and exertion of his own, effects all their undulations } I venture to ask their cause ^ * See pp. 145, 146. ' Down to this we have a description of the phenomena of heaven and earth and of nature generally as proceeding regularly 346 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XIV, W6-hsien Thi^o^ said, *Come, and I will tell you. To heaven there belong the six Extreme Points, and the five Elements ^ When the Tls and Kings acted in accordance with them, there was good govern- ment ; when they acted contrary to them, there was evil. Observing the things (described) in the nine divisions (of the writing) of Lo ^, their government was perfected and their virtue was complete. They inspected and enlightened the kingdom beneath them, and all under the sky acknowledged and sus- tained them. Such was the condition under the august (sovereigns*) and those before them.' 2. Tang*, the chief administrator of Shang^ asked Awang-jze about Benevolence*, and the answer was, * Wolves and tigers are benevolent.' * What do you mean ? ' said Tang. A^vang-jze replied, ' Father and son (among them) are affectionate to one an- other. Why should they be considered as not bene- and noiselessly, without any apparent cause; which is the chief subject of the Book. As the description is not assigned to any one, we must suppose it to be from JTwang-jze himself; and that it is he who asks the question in the last three characters. ^ This is said by the critics to have been a minister of the Shang dynasty, under Th&i-m&u in the seventeenth century b.c. ; but even A'wang-gze would hardly so violate the unity of time. * Generally means 'the Five Regular Virtues;' supposed to mean here ' the Five Elements.' Probably the * Nine Divisions of the Great Plan,' in the Shfi King, V, iv, fancied to be derived from the writing, which a tortoise from the Lo river exhibited to the great Y(i. * Possibly FA-hsl, Shin Nang, and Hwang-T{. ' ' Shang ' must be taken as the duchy of Sung, assigned by king Wft to the representative of the kings of the dynasty of Shang. ' Tang ' would be a principal- minister of it in the time of Awang-jze. * The chief of all the virtues according to Confucianism. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF ITWANG-SZE. 347 volent ?' 'Allow me to ask about perfect benevo- lence/ pursued the other, -^wang-jze said, * Perfect benevolence ^ does not admit (the feeling) of affec- tion.' The minister said, ' I have heard that, with- out (the feeling of) affection there is no love, and without love there is not filial duty ; — is it permis- sible to say that the perfectly benevolent are not filial ? ' A'wang-jze rejoined, * That is not the way to put the case. Perfect Benevolence is the very highest thing ; — filial duty is by no means sufficient to describe it. The saying which you quote is not to the effect that (such benevolence) transcends filial duty; — it does not refer to such duty at all. One, travelling to the south, comes (at last) to Ying^, and there, standing with his face to the north, he does not see mount Ming^ Why does he not see it? Because he is so far from it Hence it is said, " Filial duty as a part of reverence is easy, but filial duty as a part of love is difficult. If it be easy as a part of love, yet it is difficult to forget* ones parents. It may be easy for me to forget my parents, but it is difficult to make my parents forget me. If it were easy to make my parents forget me, it is difficult for me to forget all men in the world. If it were easy to forget all men in the world, it is difficult to make them all forget me." * This virtue might make one think light of Y^o and Shun, and not wish to be they*. The profit * A denomination here for the T&o, employed by JTwang-jze for the purpose of his argument. The capital of the state of ITMl in the south. * Name of a hill in the extreme north. * The Tdo requires such forgetfulness on the part of both giver and receiver ; it is a part of its ' doing-nothing.' ' I think this is the meaning. 348 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK, XIV. and beneficial influences of it extend to a myriad ages, and no one in the world knows whence they come. How can you simply heave a great sigh, and speak (as you do) of benevolence and filial duty ? Filial duty, fraternal respect, benevolence, righteous- ness, loyalty, sincerity, firmness, and purity; — all these may be pressed into the service of this virtue, but they are far from sufficient to come up to it. Therefore it is said, " To him who has what is most noble \ all the dignities of a state are as nothing* ; to him who has what is the greatest riches, all the wealth of a state is as nothing; to him who has all that he could wish, fame and praise are as nothing." It is thus that the Tio admits of no substitute. ' 3. Pei-min KASing^ asked Hwang-Tl, saying, * You were celebrating, O Tt, a performance of the music of the Hsien-i^ih *, in the open country near the Thung-thing lake. When I heard the first part of it, I was afraid ; the next made me weary ; and the last perplexed me. I became agitated and un^^ able to speak, and lost my self-possession.' The Tl said, * It was likely that it should so affect you 1 It was performed with (the instruments of) men, and all attuned according to (the influences of) Heaven. It » The Tio. ' This free version takes ^^ as = ^p. So the Khang-hst dictionary explains it. ' Only heard of, so far as I know, in this passage. * The name of Hwang-Ti's music ; I do not venture to translate it. In his elaborate description of it, our author intended to give an idea of the Tdo, and the effect which the study of it was calculated to produce on the mind ; as appears from the concluding sentence of the paragraph. PT. II. SECT. VII, THE WRITINGS OF XWANG-8ZE, 349 proceeded according to (the principles of) propriety and righteousness, and was pervaded by (the idea of) the Grand Purity. * The Perfect Music first had its response in the affairs of men, and was conformed to the principles of Heaven ; it indicated the action of the five virtues, and corresponded to the spontaneity (apparent, in nature). After this it showed the blended distinc- tions of the four seasons, and the grand harmony of all things ; — the succession of those seasons one after another, and the production of things in their proper order. Now it swelled, and now it died away, its peaceful and military strains clearly distinguished and given forth. Now it was clear, and now rough, as if the contracting and expanding of the elemen- tal processes blended harmoniously (in its notes). Those notes then flowed away in waves of light, till, as when the hibernating insects first begin to move, I commanded the terrifying crash of thunder. Its end was marked by no formal conclusion, and it began again without any prelude. It seemed to die away, and then it burst into life ; it came to a close, and then it rose again. So it went on regularly and inexhaustibly, and without the intervention of any pause : — it was this which made you afraid. * I n the second part (of the performance), I made it describe the harmony of the Yin and Yang, and threw round it the brilliance of the sun and moon. Its notes were now short and now long, now soft and now hard. Their changes, however, were marked by an unbroken unity, though not domi- nated by a fixed regularity, They filled every valley and ravine ; you might shut up every crevice, and guard your spirit (against their entrance)i yet 350 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XI v. there was nothing but gave admission to them. Yea, those notes resounded slowly, and might have been pronounced high and clear. Hence the shades of the dead kept in their obscurity ; the sun and moon, and all the stars of the zodiac, pursued their several courses. I made (my instruments) leave off, when (the performance) came to an end, and their (echoes) flowed on without stopping. You thought anxiously about it, and were not able to understand it ; you looked for it, and were not able to see it ; you pursued it, and were not able to reach it. All- amazed, you stood in the way all open around you, and then you leant against an old rotten dryandra- tree and hummed. The power of your eyes was ex- hausted hy what you wished to see ; your strength failed in your desire to pursue it, while I myself could not reach it. Your body was but so much empty vacancy while you endeavoured to retain your self-possession * : — it was that endeavour which made you weary. * In the last part (of the performance), I employed notes which did not have that wearying effect. I blended them together as at the command of spon- taneity. Hence they came as if following one an- other in confusion, like a clump of plants springing from one root, or like the music of a forest pro- duced by no visible form. They spread themselves all around without leaving a trace (of their cause) ; and seemed to issue from deep obscurity where there was no sound. Their movements came from nowhere ; their home was in the deep darkness ; — ^ See the usage of the two characters ^ ^^ in the Shih King, I, ii, Ode 3. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF jrWANG-8ZE. 35 1 conditions which some would call death, and some life ; some, the fruit, and some, (merely) the flower. Those notes, moving and flowing on, separating and shifting, and not following any regular sounds, the world might well have doubts about them, and refer them to the judgment of a sage, for the sages under- stand the nature of this music, and judge in accord- ance with the prescribed (spontaneity). While the spring of that spontaneity has not been touched, and yet the regulators of the five notes are all prepared ; — this is what is called the music of Heaven, delighting the mind without the use of words. Hence it is said in the eulogy of the Lord of PiAo ^ " You listen for it, and do not hear its sound ; you look for it, and do not perceive its form ; it fills heaven and earth ; it envelopes all within the universe." You wished to hear it, but could not take it in ; and therefore you were perplexed. ' I performed first the music calculated to awe ; and you were frightened as if by a ghostly visita- tion. I followed it with that calculated to weary ; and in your weariness you would have withdrawn. I concluded with that calculated to perplex ; and in your perplexity you felt your stupidity. But that stupidity is akin to the T&o; you may with it convey the T4o in your person, and have it (ever) with you.' 4. When Confucius was travelling in the west in Wei, Yen Ylian asked the music-master Aln *, say- ' Some sovereign of antiquity, of whom it is difficult to find any other mention but this. Even in the Lt Shih I have not discovered him. The name is said to be pronounced Pido; in which case it should consist of three ^, and not of three j^, Only heard of here. A 352 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XIV. ing, * How is it, do you think, with the course of the Master ? * The. music-master replied, * Alas ! it is all over with your Master ! ' * How so ? ' asked Yen Yiian ; and the other said, * Before the grass-dogs^ are set forth (at the sacrifice), they are deposited in a box or basket, and wrapt up with elegantly embroidered cloths, while the representative of the dead and the officer of prayer prepare themselves by fasting to present them. After they have been set forth, however, passers-by trample on their heads and backs, and the grass-cutters take and burn them in cooking. That is all they are good for. If one should again take them, replace them in the box or basket, wrap them up with embroidered cloths, and then in rambling, or abiding at the spot, should go to sleep under them, if he do not get (evil) dreams, he is sure to be often troubled with the nightmare. Now here is your Master in the same way taking the grass-dogs, presented by the ancient kings, and lead- ing his disciples to wander or abide and sleep under them. Owing to this, the tree (beneath which they were practising ceremonies) in Sung was cut down*; he was obliged to leave Wei * ; he was reduced to extremities in Shang ^ and K&u * : — were not those experiences like having (evil) dreams ? He was kept in a state of siege between K/&a and 3hii ^, so that for seven days he had no cooked food to eat, and was in a situation between life and death : — were not those experiences like the nightmare ? ^ See the Tio Teh jK^ing, ch. 5. • Analects III, xxii. ' In consequence of the dissoluteness of the court; Analects VI, xxvi; IX, 17. * Meaning Sung and Wei. " Analects XI, ii, i. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-BZE. 353 * If you are travelling by water, your best plan is to use a boat ; if by land, a carriage. Take a boat, which will go (easily) along on the water, and try to push it along on the land, and all your lifetime it will not go so much as a fathom or two : — are not ancient time and the present time like the water and the dry land ? and are not A^du and Ld like the boat and the carriage ? To seek now to practise (the old ways of) ATdu in LA is like pushing along a boat on the dry land. It is only a toilsome labour, and has no success ; he who does so is sure to meet with calamity. He has not learned that in handing down the arts (of one time) he is sure to be reduced to extremity in endeavouring to adapt them to the conditions (of another). * And have you not seen the working of a shadoof ? When (the rope of) it is pulled, it bends down ; and when it is let go, it rises up. It is pulled by a man, and does not pull the man ; and so, whether it bends down or rises up, it commits no offence against the man. In the same way the rules of propriety, righteousness, laws, and measures of the three Hwangs ^ and five Tls ^ derived their excellence, not from their being the same as those of the pre- sent day, but from their (aptitude for) government. We may compare them to haws *, pears, oranges. ^ It is impossible to speak definitely of who these three Hwangs (Augustuses) and five T!s were, or whom the speaker intended by them. The former would seem to lead us to the purely fabulous ages, when twelve (or thirteen) Heavenly Hwangs, eleven Earthly, and nine Human ruled over the young world, for a period of 576,000 years. There is a general agreement of opinion that the five Tts ended with Ydo and Shun. * See Williams's Dictionary, sub voc. He says it is the Cra- [39] A a 354 '^HS TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xiy. and pummeloes, which are different in flavour, but all suitable to be eaten. Just so it is that the rules of propriety, righteousness, laws, and measures, change according to the time. ' If now you take a monkey, and dress it in the robes of the duke of ATiu, it will bite and tear them, and will not be satisfied till it has got rid of them altogether. And if you look at the difference between antiquity and the present time it is as great as that between the monkey and the duke of Hl&u. In the same way, when Hs! Shih ^ was troubled in mind, she would knit her brows and frown on all in her neighbourhood. An ugly woman of the neigh- bourhood, seeing and admiring her beauty, went home, and also laying her hands on her heart pro- ceeded to stare and frown on all around her. When the rich people of the village saw her, they shut fast their doors and would not go out ; when the poor people saw her, they took their wives and children and ran away from her. The woman knew how to admire the frowning beauty, but she did not know how it was that she, though frowning, was beautiful. Alas ! it is indeed all over with your Master * ! ' 5. When Confucius was in his fifty-first year', he had not heard of the T io, and went south to Phei ^ taegus cuneata and pinnatifida, common in China, and much esteemed for its acidity. **A famous beauty, — ^the concubine of king Ftt-kMi of Wft. * The comparisons in this paragraph are not complimentary to Confucius. Of course the conversation never took place, and must have been made up to ridicule the views of the sage. * This would be in B.c. 503 or 502, and Lfto-jze would be more than a hundred years old. * Probably in what is now the district of Phei, department of Hstt-^u, JTiang-s^ PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 355 to see L4o Tan, who said to him, ' You have come, Sir ; have you ? I have heard that you are the wisest man of the North ; have you also got the TAo .^ ' ' Not yet,' was the reply ; and the other went on, * How have you sought it ? ' Confucius said, ' I sought it in measures and numbers, and after five years I had not got it/ *And how then did you seek it?' 'I sought it in the Yin and Yang, and after twelve years I have not found it' LAo-jze said, *Just so! If the Tio could be presented (to another), men would all present it to their rulers ; if it could be served up (to others), men would all serve it up to their parents ; if it could be told (to others), men would all tell it to their brothers ; if it could be given to others, men would all give it to their sons and grandsons. The reason why it cannot be transmitted is no other but this, — ^that if, within, there be not the presiding prin- ciple, it will not remain there, and if, outwardly, there be not the correct obedience, it will not be carried out When that which is given out from the mind (in possession of it) is not received by the mind without, the sage will not give it out ; and when, entering in from without, there is no power in the receiving mind to entertain it, the sage will not permit it to lie hid there ^ Fame is a possession common to all; we should not seek to have much of it Benevolence and righteousness were as the lodging-houses of the former kings ; we should only rest in them for a night, and not occupy them for * That is, the sage will not deposit it, where it will lie hidden ; — compare Analects XVI, vi. A a 2 356 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XIV. long. If men see us doing so, they will have much to say against us. * The perfect men of old trod the path of benevo- lence as a path which they borrowed for the occasion, and dwelt in Righteousness as in a lodging which they used for a night Thus they rambled in the vacancy of Untroubled Ease, found their food in the fields of Indifference, and stood in the gardens which they had not borrowed. Untroubled Ease requires the doing of nothing ; Indifference is easily supplied with nourish- ment ; not borrowing needs no outlay. The ancients called this the Enjoyment that Collects the True. * Those who think that wealth is the proper thing for them cannot give up their revenues ; those who seek distinction cannot give up the thought of fame ; those who cleave to power cannot give the handle of it to others. While they hold their grasp of those things, they are afraid (of losing them). When they let them go, they are grieved ; and they will not look at a single example, from which they might perceive the (folly) of their restless pursuits : — such men are under the doom of Heaven ^ ' Hatred and kindness; taking and giving; reproof and instruction ; death and life : — ^these eight things are instruments of rectification, but only those are able to use them who do not obstinately refuse to comply with their great changes. Hence it is said, ** Correction is Rectification." When the minds of ^ See the same expression used in Book VI, par. 11, used by Confucius of himself. Comparing the two passages together, I must doubt the correctness of my note there (2, p. 252), that 'Heaven' is used in the Confucian sense of Ti, or God. The men here pursued and toiled afler the pleasures of the world, rather than the quiet satisfactions of the Tdo. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 357 some do not acknowledge this, it is because the gate of Heaven ^ (in them) has not been opened.' 6. At an interview with LAo Tan, Confucius spoke to him of benevolence and righteousness. LAo Tan said, * If you winnow chaff, and the dust gets into your eyes, then the places of heaven and earth and of the four cardinal points are all changed to you. If musquitoes or gadflies puncture your skin, it will keep you all the night ^ from sleeping. But this painful iteration of benevolence and righteousness excites my mind and produces in it the greatest con- fusion. If you, Sir, would cause men not to lose their natural simplicity, and if you would also imitate the wind in its (unconstrained) movements, and stand forth in all the natural attributes belonging to you ! —why must you use so much energy, and carry a great drum to seek for the son whom you have lost ' ? The snow-goose does not bathe every day to make itself white, nor the crow blacken itself every day to make itself black. The natural simplicity of their black and white does not afford any ground for con- troversy ; and the fame and praise which men like to contemplate do not make them greater than they naturally are. When the springs (supplying the pools) are dried up, the fishes huddle together on the dry land. Than that they should moisten one another there by their gasping, and keep one another wet by their milt, it would be better for them to forget one another in the rivers and lakes *.' » See Book XXIII, par. 9. The phrase = ^ )|^. * The common reading ^ is a mistake for ' Compare the same illustration in the preceding Book, par. 7. * This illustration is from Book VI, par. 5. 358 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. Ziv. From this interview with L4o Tan, Confucius returned home, and for three days did not speak. His disciples (then) asked him, saying, ' Master, you have seen L4o Tan; in what way might you ad- monish and correct him ?' Confucius said, ' In him (I may say) that I have now seen the dragon. The dragon coils itself up, and there is its body; it unfolds itself and becomes the dragon complete. It rides on the cloudy air, and is nourished by the Yin and Yang. I kept my mouth open, and was unable to shut it ; — how could I admonish and correct LAo Tan?' 7. 3ze-kung ^ said, * So then, can (this) man indeed sit still as a representative of the dead, and then appear as the dragon ? Can his voice resound as thunder, when he is profoundly still ? Can he exhibit himself in his movements like heaven and earth ? May I , S^ze, also get to see him ? ' Accord- ingly with a message from Confucius he went to see Ulo Tan. L&o Tan was then about to answer (his salutation) haughtily in the hall, but he said in a low voice, * My years have rolled on and are passing away, what do you, Sir, wish to admonish me about ? ' ^ze- kung replied, *The Three Kings and Five Tls * ruled ^ 3ze-kung would seem to have undertaken this expedition to maintain the reputation of the Master and his school ; — only to be defeated by L&o-jze more signally than Confucius had been. * These are different probably, though the text is not quite certain, from the three Hwangs and five T!s of par. 3. The Hwangs (or August Sovereigns) preceded the Tfs; the Kings (Wangs) came after them. The Three Kings are the three lines of kings commencing with the dynasty of Hsi&, and following Shun. From the names mentioned by 32e-kung, we ought certainly so to understand the designation here. PT. II. SECT. VII. THE WRITINGS OF JrWANG-3ZE. 359 the world not in the same way, but the fame that has accrued to them is the same. How is it that you alone consider that they were not sages ? * ' Come forward a little, my son. Why do you say that (their government) was not the same?' *Ydo,' was the reply, * gave the kingdom to Shun, and Shun gave it to Yti. YU had recourse to his strength, and Thang to the force of arms. King Win was obedient to ATdu (-hsin), and did not dare to rebel ; king Wii rebelled against Hl&u, and would not submit to him. And I say that their methods were not the same.' L4o Tan said, * Come a little more forward, my son, and I will tell you how the Three Hwangs and the Five Tts^ ruled the world. Hwang- Tt ruled it, so as to make the minds of the people all conformed to the One (simplicity). If the parents of one of them died, and he did not wail, no one blamed him. Y&o ruled it so as to cause the hearts of the people to cherish relative affection. If any, however, made the observances on the death of other members of their kindred less than those for their parents, no one blamed them *. Shun ruled it, so as to produce a feeling of rivalry in the minds of the people. Their wives gave birth to their children in the tenth month of their pregnancy, but those children could speak at five months ; and before they were three years old, they began to call people by their surnames and names. Then it was that men began to die prematurely. Yti ruled it, so as to cause the minds of the people to become changed. Men's minds became scheming, and they * See note 3, preceding page. * Referring to some abases, contrary to the doctrine of rela- tionship. 360 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. bk. xiv. used their weapons as if they might legitimately do so, (saying that they were) killing thieves and not killing other men. The people formed themselves into different combinations ; — so it was throughout the kingdom. Everywhere there was great con- sternation, and then arose the Literati and (the followers of) Mo (Tl), From them came first the doctrine of the relationships (of society) ; and what can be said of the now prevailing customs (in the marrying of) wives and daughters ? I tell you that the rule of the Three Kings and Five Tls may be called by that name^ but nothing can be greater than the disorder which it produced* The wisdom of the Three Kings was opposed to the brightness of the sun and moon above, contrary to the exquisite purity of the hills and streams below, and subversive of the beneficent gifts of the four seasons between. Their wisdom has been more fatal than the sting of a scorpion or the bite of a dailgerous beast ^ Unable to rest in the true attributes of their nature and con- stitution, they still regarded themselves as sages : — was it not a thing to be ashamed of ? But they were shameless/ 3ze-k*ung stood quite disconcerted and ill at ease. 8, Confucius said to LAo Tan, * I have occupied myself with the Shih, the ShO, the Ll, the Yo, the Yl, and the A'iftun KAiii^ those six Books, for what I myself consider a long time*, and am thoroughly ^ What beast is meant here cannot be ascertained from the characters in the text,— |^ ^ <1 W^- * But with the preparation of the jOun ^hit Confucius's life ended ; — it is veiy plain that no conversation such as JTwang-jze has fabricated here could ever have taken place. PT. II. SECT.VII. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE, 36 1 acquainted with their contents. With seventy-two rulers, all offenders against the right, I have dis- coursed about the ways of the former kings, and set forth the examples of (the dukes of) K&xi and Sh&o ; and not one of them has adopted (my views) and put them in practice : — ^how very difficult it is to prevail on such men, and to make clear the path to be pursued ! ' LSo-jze replied, * It is fortunate that you have not met with a ruler fitted to rule the age. Those six writings are a description of the vestiges left by the former kings, but do not tell how they made such vestiges ; and what you, Sir, speak about are still only the vestiges. But vestiges are the prints left by the shoes ; — are they the shoes that produced them ? A pair of white herons look at each other with pupils that do not move, and impregnation takes place ; the male insect emits its buzzing sound in the air above, and the female responds from the air below, and impregnation takes place ; the creatures called l^i are both male and female, and each individual breeds of itself^. The nature cannot be altered ; the conferred constitution cannot be changed ; the march of the seasons cannot be arrested ; the TAo cannot be stopped. If you get the T4o, there is no effect that cannot be produced ; if you miss it, there is no effect that can.' Confucius (after this) did not go out, till at the end of three months he went again to see Lio Tan, and said, ' I have got it. Ravens produce their young by hatching ; fishes by the communication of their milt ; the small-waisted wasp by transforma- ^ Where had L&o-jze or his author learned his zoology ? 362 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XIV. tion^; when a younger brother comes, the elder weeps ^. Long is it that I have not played my part in harmony with these processes of transformation. But as I did not play my part in harmony with such transformation, how could I transform men ? ' L&o-jze said, ' You will do. Kkx^y you have found the Tdo/ ^ See the Shih King, II, v, Ode II, 3, about the sphex. ' Because, as we say, * his nose is put out.' But the sentiment, though it is ascribed to Confucius, is rarely according to the fact of the case. PT. II. SECT, VIII. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-fiZE. 363 BOOK XV. Part 1 1. Section VI I L Kho 1, or ' Ingrained Ideas V I. Ingrained ideas and a high estimate of their own conduct ; leaving the world, and pursuing un- common ways ; talking loftily and in resentful disparagement of others ; — all this is simply symptomatic of arrogance. This is what scholars who betake themselves to the hills and valleys, who are always blaming the world, and who stand aloof like withered trees, or throw themselves into deep pools ^, are fond of. Discoursing of benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and good faith ; being humble and frugal, self-forget- ful and courteous ; — ^all this is simply symptomatic of (self-)cultivation. This is what scholars who wish to tranquillise the world, teachers and instructors, men who pursue their studies at home and abroad, are fond of. Discoursing of their great merit and making a great name for themselves; insisting on the cere- monies between ruler and minister ; and rectifying the relations between high and low ; — all this shows their one object to be the promotion of government. This is what officers of the court, men who honour their lord and would strengthen the state and who ' See pp. 146, 147. ' As did Shiln-thii Tf. See in Book VI, par. 3. 364 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XV. would do their utmost to incorporate other states with their own, are fond of. Resorting to marshes and lakes ; dwelling in solitary places ; occupying themselves with angling and living at ease ;*— all this shows their one object to be to do nothing. This is what gentlemen of the rivers and seas, men who avoid the society of the world and desire to live at leisure, are fond of. Blowing and breathing with open mouth ; inhaling and exhaling the breath ; expelling the old breath and taking in new ; passing their time like the (dor- mant) bear \ and stretching . and twisting (the neck) like a bird ^ ; — all this simply shows the desire for longevity. This is what the scholars who manipu- late their breath, and the men who nourish the body and wish to live as long as Pang 3^1 sire fond of. As to those who have a lofty character without any ingrained ideas ; who pursue the path of self- cultivation without benevolence and righteousness ; who succeed in government without great services or fame ; who enjoy their ease without resorting to the rivers and seas ; who attain to longevity without the management (of the breath) ; who forget all things and yet possess all things ; whose placidity is un- limited, while all things to be valued attend them : — such men pursue the way of heaven and earth, and display the characteristics of the sages. Hence it is said *, * Placidity, indifference, silence, quietude, * This is probably the meaning. The text is simply : — ' Bear- passing, bird-stretching/ * It is said:' — ^where? and by whom? These questions we cannot answer. We have met indeed already with the same cha- racteristics of the Tdo; but Awang-gze is not likely to be quoting PT. II, SECT. VIII. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 365 absolute vacancy, and non-action : — these are the qualities which maintain the level of heaven and earth and are the substance of the Tdo and its characteristics.' 2. In accordance with this it is said, * The sage is entirely restful, and so (his mind) is evenly balanced and at ease. This even balance and ease appears in his placidity and indifference. In this state of even balance and ease, of placidity and indifference, anxieties and evils do not find access to him, no depraving influence can take him by surprise ; his virtue is complete, and his spirit continues unimpaired.' Therefore it is (also) said, * The life of the sage is (like) the action of Heaven ; and his death is the transformation common to (all) things. In his still- ness his virtue is the same as that of the Y i n, and in movement his diffusiveness is like that of the Yang. He does not take the initiative in produc- ing either happiness or calamity. He responds to the influence acting on him, and moves as he feels the pressure. He rises to act only when he is obliged to do so. He discards wisdom and the memories of the past ; he follows the lines of his Heaven (-given nature) ; and therefore he suffers no calamity from Heaven, no involvement from things, no blame from men, and no reproof from the spirits of the dead \ His life seems to float along ; his death seems to be a resting. He does not indulge any himself. On the ' It is said,' and the five recmrences of the phrase below, L(i Shft-^h says that iTwang-jze is quoting from sentences cunrent among the adherents of Taoism, — the sentence-makers often drawn on by L&o-jze; compare the Tdo Teh iTing, ch. xli. ^ See Book XIII, par. 2. 366 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. XV. anxious doubts ; he does not lay plans beforehand. His light is without display; his good faith is with- out previous arrangement His sleep is untroubled by dreams ; his waking is followed by no sorrows* His spirit is guileless and pure; his soul is not sub- ject to weariness. Vacant and without self-assertion, placid and indifferent, he agrees with the virtue of Heaven.' Therefore it is said (further), * Sadness and plea- sure show a depraving element in the virtue (of those who feel them) ; joy and anger show some error in their course ; love and hatred show a failure of their virtue. Hence for the mind to be free froni sorrow and pleasure is the perfection of virtue; to be of one mind that does not change is the perfection of quietude ; to be conscious of no opposition is the perfection of vacancy ; to have no intercourse with (external) things is the perfection of indifference; and to have no rebellious dissatisfactions is the perfection of purity.' 3. Therefore it is said (still further), ' If the body be toiled, and does not rest, it becomes worn out ; if the spirit be used without cessation, it becomes toiled ; and when toiled, it becomes exhausted. It is the nature of water, when free from admixture, to be clear, and, when not agitated, to be level ; while if obstructed and not allowed to flow, it cannot preserve its clearness ; — being an image of the virtue of Heaven.' Hence it is said (once again), ' To be guileless and pure, and free from all admix- ture ; to be still and uniform, without undergoing any change ; to be indifferent and do nothing ; to move and yet to act like Heaven : — ^this is the way to nourish the spirit Now he who possesses a PT. U. SECT. VIII. THE WRITINGS OF JCWANG-8ZE. 367 sword made at Kan-ylieh ^ preserves it carefully in a box, and does not dare to use it ; — it is considered the perfection of valuable swords. But the human spirit 2 goes forth in all directions, flowing on with- out limit, reaching to heaven above, and wreathing round the earth beneath. It transforms and nourishes all things, and cannot be represented by any form. Its name is " the Divinity (in man)^" It is only the path of pure simplicity which guards and preserves the Spirit When this path is preserved and not lost, it becomes one with the Spirit ; and in this ethereal amalgamation, it acts in harmony with the orderly operation of Heaven.' There is the vulgar saying, ' The multitude of men consider gain to be the most important thing ; pure scholars, fame ; those who are wise and able value their ambition ; the sage prizes essential purity.' Therefore simplicity is the denomination of that in which there is no admixture ; purity of that in which the spirit is not impaired. It is he who can embody simplicity and purity whom we call the True Man*. * Both of the seaboard states of Wii and YQeh were fiunous for the swords produced in them. Kan-jtleh appears to have been the name of a valley or place in Wii, famous for the weapons made in it; unless indeed we should read ^ jj^^ instead of -^ j|^, and take ^ ^ as equivalent to 'j^ j|||, which is found in the Qo Khy/tJi as the name of YOeh. * Might be translated ' the subtle spirit' ' A very remarkable use of T! ('^) for the human spirit in the sense of God. The subject of the clause, let the reader observe, is that spirit, and not the T&o. See pp. 146, 147, where I have said something about it * See the full account of ' the True Man ' in Book VI. 368 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvi. BOOK XVI. Part II. Section IX. Shan Hsing, or 'Correcting the Nature ^' I. Those who would correct their nature by means of the vulgar learning*, seeking to restore it to its original condition, and those who would regulate ' their desires, by the vulgar ways of think- ing, seeking thereby to carry their intelligence to perfection, must be pronounced to be deluded and ignorant people. The ancients who regulated the T&o nourished their faculty of knowledge by their placidity, and all through life abstained from employing that faculty in action ; — they must be pronounced to have (thus also) nourished their placidity by their knowledge \ When the faculty of knowledge and the placidity * See pp. 147, 148. * < Vulgar ' must mean ' common/ and ' the vulgar learning ' is the teaching popular in the time of our author, and which he regarded as contrary to the principles of Tioism, of which he was an adherent. The Chinese critics say that 'vulgar' here is used as the opposite of ' true/ ' ^& is generally explained by S[^ , ' to confuse/ but I cannot construe the sentence with that meaning of the term. In the Khang-hsi dictionary which I have followed, the character is defined by |^ with special reference to this passage. * This sentence is the clue to the author's aim in the whole Book. The 'knowledge' is defined by ^ ^, ^the faculty of perception and apprehension.' I»T. II. SECT. IX. THE WRITINGS OF JCWANG-3ZE. 369 -■- --- --■ — --.-■- — — --, — , — I — , — ^ — (thus) blend together, and they nourish each other, then from the nature there come forth harmony and orderly method* The attributes (of the Tdo) con- stitute the harmony; the T4o (itself) secures the orderly method. When the attributes appear in a universal practice of forbearance, we have Benevo- lence; when the path is all marked by orderly method, we have Righteousness; when the right- eousness is clearly manifested, and (all) things are regarded with affection, we have Leal-heartedness ; when the (heart's) core is thus (pure) and real, and carried back to its (proper) qualities, we have Music ; when this sincerity appears in all the range of the capacity, and its demonstrations are in accordance with what is elegant, we have Ceremony. If Cere- monies and Music are carried out in an imperfect and one-sided manner, the world is thrown into con- fusion. When men would rectify others, and their own virtue is beclouded, it is not sufficient to ex- tend itself to them. If an attempt be made so to extend it, they also will lose their (proper) nature. 2. The men of old, while the chaotic condition was yet undeveloped \ shared the placid tranquillity which belonged to the whole world. At that time the Yin and Yang were harmonious and still ; their resting and movement proceeded without any dis- turbance ; the four seasons had their definite times ; not a single thing received any injury, and no living being came to a premature end* Men might be * These 'men of old ' were what we may call * primeval men ; ' — men in the lowest stage of development; but which our author considered to be the highest or paradisiacal condition of their nature. [39] Bb 370 THE TEXTS OF TAOISNT. BK. xvi. possessed of (the faculty of) knowledge, but they had no occasion for its use. This was what is called the state of Perfect Unity, At this time, there was no action on the part of any one, but a constant manifestation of spontaneity. This condition (of excellence) deteriorated and decayed, till Sui--s&n and FA-hsl arose and com- menced their administration of the world ^ ; on which came a compliance (with their methods), but the state of unity was lost. The condition going on to deteriorate and decay, Shin N4ng and Hwang-Tl arose, and took the administration of the world, on which (the people) rested (in their methods), but did not themselves comply with them. Still the deterioration and decay continued till the lords of Thang and YU ^ began to administer the world. These introduced the method of governing by trans- formation, resorting to the stream (instead of to the spring) \ thus vitiating the purity and destroying the simplicity (of the nature). They left the Tfio, and substituted the Good for it, and pursued the course of Haphazard Virtue. After this they for- sook their nature and followed (the promptings of) their minds. One mind and another associated their knowledge, but were unable to give rest to the world. Then they added to this knowledge (ex- ' Awang-jze gives no hint of how long he considered this highest condition to have lasted. Sui-sILn, * the man of the Burning Speculum,' *the Fire-producer,' whom Williams calls *the Pro- metheus of China,' appears before F{i-hsi, as the first in the line of the Rulers of the world, who broke up the Primal Unity. ' These were Ydo and Shun, named from the principalities over which their fathers ruled. ' * The streams' were the methods of culture that arose after the simple virtues and spontaneity of the Tslo were lost. PT. II, SECT. IX. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-8ZE. 37 1 temal and) elegant forms, and went on to make these more and more numerous. The forms ex- tinguished the (primal) simplicity, till the mind was drowned by their multiplicity. After this the people began to be perplexed and disordered, and had no way by which they might return to their true nature, and bring back their original condition. 3. Looking at the subject from this point of view, we see how the world lost ^ the (proper) course, and how the course (which it took) only led it further astray*. The world and the Way, when they came together, being (thus) lost to each other, how could the men of the Way make themselves con- spicuous in the world ? and how could the world rise to an appreciation of the Way ? Since the Way had no means to make itself conspicuous in the world, and the world had no means of rising to an appreciation of the Way, though sagely men might not keep among the hills and forests, their virtue was hidden; — hidden, but not because they them- selves sought to hide it. Those whom the ancients called * Retired Scholars' did not conceal their persons, and not allow them- selves to be seen ; they did not shut up their words, and refuse to give utterance to them ; they did not hide away their knowledge, and refuse to bring it forth. The conditions laid on them by the times were very much awry. If the conditions of the times had allowed them to act in the world on a great scale, they would have brought back the state of unity without any trace being perceived (of how ^ It is the same character in the text which I have been obliged to translate thus differently, — 4^« B b 2 372 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvr. they did so). When those conditions shut them up entirely from such action, they struck their roots deeper (iri themselves), were perfectly still and waited. It was thus that they preserved (the Way in) their own persons. 4. The ancients who preserved (the Way in) their own persons did not try by sophistical reasonings to gloss over their knowledge ; they did not seek to embrace (everything in) the world in their know- ledge, nor to comprehend all the virtues in it Solitary and trembling they remained where they were, and sought the restoration of their nature. What had they to do with any further action ? The Way indeed is not to be pursued, nor (all) its charac- teristics to be known on a small scale. A little knowledge is injurious to those characteristics ; small doings are injurious to the Way ; — hence it is said, * They simply rectified themselves.' Complete enjoy- ment is what is meant by * the Attainment of the Aim.' What was anciently called * the Attainment of the Aim' did not mean the getting of carriages and coronets * ; it simply meant that nothing more was needed for their enjoyment. Now-a-days what is called 'the Attainment of the Aim ' means the getting of carriages and coronets. But carriages and coronets belong to the body; they do not affect the nature as it is constituted* When such things happen to come, it is but for a time; being but for a time, their coming cannot be obstructed and their going cannot be stopped ^ Therefore we should not * That is, worldly distinction. * Because they depend on others. Compare Mencius VI, i, ch. 17, a. PT. II. SECT. IX. THE WRITINGS OF £WANG-3ZE. 373 because of carriages and coronets indulge our aims, nor because of distress and straitness resort to the vulgar (learning and thinking); the one of these conditions and the other may equally conduce to our enjoyment, which is simply to be free from anxiety. If now the departure of what is transient takes away one's enjoyment, this view shows that what enjoyment it had given was worthless. Hence it is said, ' They who lose themselves in their pursuit of things, and lose their nature in their study of what is vulgar, must be pronounced people who turn things upside down.' 374 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvii. BOOK XVII. Part II. Section X. KAidi Shui, or * The Floods of Autumn \' I . The time of the autumnal floods was come, and the hundred streams were all discharging themselves into the Ho, Its current was greatly swollen ^, so that across its channel from bank to bank one could not distinguish an ox from a horse. On this the (Spirit-) earl of the Ho ® laughed with delight, think- ing that all the beauty of the world was to be found in his charge. Along the course of the river he walked east till he came to the North Sea, over which he looked, with his face to the east, without being able to see where its waters began. Then he began to turn his face round, looked across the ex- panse, (as if he were) confronting Zo *, and said with a sigh, 'What the vulgar saying expresses about him who has learned a hundred points (of the Tdo), and thinks that there is no one equal to himself, was surely spoken of me. And moreover, I have heard ^ See pp. 148, 149. 1^ here perhaps means ' turbid/ It has nothing to do with the river ATing. ' See Mayers's Manual, p. 54. Our author adopts the common beliefs or superstitions of his time, and after his fashion puts his own reasonings into the mouths of these m3rthological personages. It is more difficult to collect the legends about Zo of the sea, or of the Northern Sea. See the Khang-hsi Thesaurus under PT. II.SICT.X. THE WRITINGS OF JTWANG-SZE. 375 parties making little of the knowledge of A'ung-nl and the righteousness of Po-!, and at first I did not believe them. Now I behold the all-but-boundless extent (of your realms). If I had not come to your gate, I should have been in danger (of continuing in my ignorance), and been laughed at for long in the schools of our great System ^.' Zo, (the Spirit-lord) of the Northern Sea, said, 'A frog in a well cannot be talked with about the sea ; — he is confined to the limits of his hole. An insect of the summer cannot be talked with about ice ; — it knows nothing beyond its own season. A scholar of limited views cannot be talked with about the TAo; — he is bound by the teaching (which he has received). Now you have come forth from be- tween your banks, and beheld the great sea. You have come to know your own ignorance and infe- riority, and are in the way of being fitted to be talked with about great principles. Of all the waters under heaven there are none so great as the sea. A myriad streams flow into it without ceasing, and yet it is not filled; and afterwards* it discharges them (also) without ceasing, and yet it is not emptied. In spring and in autumn it undergoes no change ; it takes no notice of floods or of drought. Its supe- riority over such streams even as the Alang and the * Thus the Confucian learning and its worthies were to the system of the T^o only as the waters of the Ho to the great sea. ' I have translated here as if the reading were J^ ^^ which is given by Lin Hsi->hing. The correct reading, however, so far as depends on editions and dictionaries, is J^ f& ', which is explained in the Khang-hsi dictionary as ' a great Rock in Td- sang on the East,' against which the water of the sea collects, and is all evaporated ! 376 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvii. Ho cannot be told by measures or numbers ; and that I have never, notwithstanding this, made much of myself, is because I compare my own bodily form with (the greatness of) heaven and earth, and (re- member that) I have received my breath from the Yin and Yang. Between heaven and earth I am but as a small stone or a small tree on a great hilL So long as I see myself to be thus small, how should I make much of myself ? I estimate all within the four seas, compared with the space between heaven and earth, to be not so large as that occupied by a pile of stones in a large marsh ! I estimate our Middle States, compared with the space between the four' seas, to be smaller than a single little grain of rice in a great granary ! When we would set forth the number of things (in existence), we speak of them as myriads ; and man is only one of them. Men occupy all the nine provinces ; but of all whose life is maintained by grain -food, wherever boats and carriages reach, men form only one portion. Thus, compared with the myriads of things, they are not equal to a single fine hair on the body of a horse. Within this range are comprehended all (the terri- tories) which the five Tls received in succession from one another; all which the royal founders of the three dynasties contended for ; all which excited the anxiety of Benevolent men ; and all which men in office have toiled for. Po-1 was accounted famous for declining (to share in its government), and Al'ung- nt was accounted great because of the lessons which he addressed to it They acted as they did, making much of themselves ; — therein like you who a little time ago did so of yourself because of your (volume of) water ! * PT. 11. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF JPWAKG-BZE. 37/ 2. The earl of the Ho said, * Well then, may I consider heaven and earth as (the ideal of) what i^ great, and the point of a hair as that of what is small ? ' Zo of the Northern Sea replied, ' No. The (different) capacities of things are illimitable ; time never stops, (but is always moving on) ; man's lot is ever changing ; the end and the beginning of things never occur (twice) in the same way. Therefore men of great wisdom, looking at things far off or near at hand, do not think them insignificant for being small, nor much of them for being great : — knowing how capacities differ illimitably. They ap- peal with intelligence to things of ancient and recent occurrence, without being troubled by the remote- ness of the former, or standing on tiptoe to lay-hold of the latter : — knowing that time never stops in its course. They examine with discrimination (cases of) fulness and of want, not overjoyed by success, nor disheartened by failure : — knowing the inconstancy of man s lot. They know the plain and quiet path (in which things proceed), therefore they are not overjoyed to live, nor count it a calamity to die : — the end and the beginning of things never occurring (twice) in the same way. ' We must reckon that what men know is not so much as what they do not know, and that the time since they were bom is not so long as that which elapsed before they were bom. When they take that which is most small and try to fill with it the dimensions of what is most great, this leads to error and confusion, and they cannot attain their end. Looking at the subject in this way, how can you know that the point of a hair is sufficient to deter- mine the minuteness of what is most small, or that 378 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvil. heaven and earth are sufficient to complete the dimensions of what is most large ? ' 3. The earl of the Ho said, * The disputers of the world all say, " That which is most minute has no bodily form ; and that which is most great cannot be encompassed ;" — is this really the truth ?' Zo of the Northern Sea replied, 'When from the standpoint of what is small we look at what is great, we do not take it all in ; when from the standpoint of what is great we look at what is small, we do not see it clearly. Now the subtile essence is smallness in its extreme degree ; and the vast mass is greatness in its largest form. Different as they are, each has its suitability, — according to their several conditions. But the subtile and the g^oss both presuppose that they have a bodily form. Where there is no bodily form, there is no longer a possibility of numerical division; where it is not possible to encompass a mass, there is no longer a possibility of numerical estimate. What can be discoursed about in words is the grossness of things ; what can be reached in idea is the subtilty of things. What cannot be dis- coursed about in words, and what cannot be reached by nice discrimination of thought, has nothing to do either with subtilty or grossness. * Therefore while the actions of the Great Man are not directed to injure men, he does not plume himself on his benevolence and kindness ; while his movements are not made with a view to gain, he does not consider the menials of a family as mean ; while he does not strive after property and wealth, he does not plume himself on declining them ; while he does not borrow the help of others to accomplish his affairs, he does not plume himself on supporting PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF JrWANG-3ZE, 379 himself by his own strength, nor does he despise those who in their greed do what is mean; while he differs in his conduct from the vulgar, he does not plume himself on being so different from them ; while it is his desire to follow the multitude, he does not despise the glib-tong^ed flatterers. The rank and emoluments of the world furnish no stimulus to him, nor does he reckon its punishments and shame to be a disgrace. He knows that the right and the wrong can (often) not be distinguished, and that what is small and what is great can (often) not be defined. I have heard it said, " The Man of Tio does not become distinguished ; the greatest virtue is unsuccessful; the Great Man has no thought of self;" — to so great a degree may the lot be restricted.' 4. The earl of the Ho said, * Whether the subject be what is external in things, or what is internal, how do we come to make a distinction between them as noble and mean, and as great or small ? ' Zo of the Northern Sea replied, * When we look at them in the light of the Tfio, they are neither noble nor mean. Looking at them in themselves, each thinks itself noble, and despises others. Looking at them in the light of common opinion, their being noble or mean does not depend on themselves. Looking at them in their differences from one another, if we call those great which are greater than others, there is nothing that is not great, and in the same way there is nothing that is not small. We shall (thus) know that heaven and earth is but (as) a grain of the smallest rice, and that the point of a hair is (as) a mound or a mountain ; — such is the view given of them by their relative size. Look- 380 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK.XVII. ing at them from the services they render, allowing to everything the service which it does, there is not one which is not serviceable; and, extending the consideration to what it does not do, there is not one which is not unserviceable. We know (for in- stance) that East and West are opposed to each other, and yet that the one cannot be without (suggesting the idea of) the other; — (thus) theii* share of mutual service is determined. Looking at them with respect to their tendencies, if we approve of what they approve, then there is no one who may not be approved of ; and, if we condemn what they condemn, there is no one who may not be con- demned There are the cases of Ydo and Aleh, each of whom approved of his own course, and condemned the other; — such is the view arising from the consideration of tendency and aim. * Formerly YAo and Shun resigned (their thrones), and yet each continued to be Tl; Alh-khwdi^ re- signed (his marquisate) which led to his ruin. Thang and WA contended (for the sovereignty), and each became king; the duke of PAi* contended (for KhiX), which led to his extinction. Looking at the subject from these examples of striving by force and of resigning, and from the conduct of YAo (on the one hand) and of Kie\i (on the other), we see that there is a time for noble acting, and a time for ^ See Mencius II, ii, ch. 8, and I, ii, chaps. 10, 11, with the notes. J^ is probably a mistake for ■^, ' See the last narrative but one in the 3^ -^^wan, under the sixteenth year of duke Ai of LA, — ^the year in which Confucius died. * The duke of P&i ' was merely the chief of a district of Kh^ ; but rebelling against the Ruler of the State, he was defeated, and strangled himself. PT. n. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE. 38 1 mean; — these characteristics are subject to no re- gular rule. 5. 'A battering ram may be used against the wall of a city, but it cannot be employed to stop up a hole ; — the uses of implements are different. The (horses) -ffl^ih-^fl and Hw^-liO^ could in one day gallop 1000 It, but for catching rats they were not equal to a wild dog or a weasel;— the gifts of creatures are different^ The ^hite horned owl col- lects its fleas in the night-time, and can discern the point of a hair, but in bright day it stares with its eyes and cannot see a mound or a hill ; — the natures of creatures are different. * Hence the sayings, " Shall we not follow and honour the right, and have nothing to do with the , wrong ? shall we not follow and honour those who secure good government, and have nothing to do with those who produce disorder ? " show a want of acquaintance with the principles of Heaven and Earth, and with the different qualities of things. It is like following and honouring Heaven and taking no account of Earth ; it is like following and honouring the Yin and taking no account of the .Yang. It is clear that such a course cannot be pursued. Yet notwithstanding they go on talking so : — if they are not stupid, they are visionaries. The Tl sovereigns resigned their thrones to others in one way, and the rulers of the three dynasties transmitted their thrones to their successors in another. He who acts differently from the require- ments of his time and contrary to its custom is called an usurper; he who complies with the time * Two of king Mu's team of eight famous steeds. 382 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM^. BK. XVlt. and follows the common practice is said to be right- eous. Hold your peace, O earl of the Ho. How should you know what constitutes being noble and being mean, or who are the small and who the great? ' 6. The earl of the Ho said, ' Very well. But what am I to do ? and what am I not to do ? How am I to be guided after all in regard to what I accept or reject, and what I pursue or put away from me ? ' Zo of the Northern Sea replied, * From the standpoint of the T&o, what is noble ? and what is mean ? These expressions are but the different extremes of the average level. Do not keep per- tinaciously to your own ideas, which put you in such opposition to the T4o. What are few? and what are many? These are denominations which we employ in thanking (donors) and dispensing gifts. Do not study to be uniform in doing so ; — it only shows how different you are from the Tfio. Be severe and strict, like the ruler of a state who does not selfishly bestow his favours. Be scrupu- lous, yet gentle, like the tutelary spirit of the land, when sacrifice is offered to him who does not bestow his blessing selfishly. Be large-minded like space, whose four terminating points are illimit- able, and form no particular enclosures. Hold all things in your love, favouring and supporting none specially. This is called being without any local or partial regard ; all things are equally regarded ; there is no long or short among them. ' There is no end or beginning to the T Ao. Things indeed die and are born, not reaching a perfect state which can be relied on. Now there is emptiness, and now fulness; — they do not continue in one form. The years cannot be reproduced; time PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF JrWANG-3ZE. 383 cannot be arrested. Decay and growth, fulness and emptiness, when they end, begin again. It is thus that we describe the method of great righteous- ness, and discourse about the principle pervading all things. The life of things is like the hurrying and galloping along of a horse. With every move- ment there is a change ; with every moment there is an alteration. What should you be doing ? what should you not be doing? You have only to be allowing this course of natural transformation to be going on.' 7. The earl of the Ho said, * What then is there so valuable in the T4o .^ ' Zo of the Northern Sea replied, ' He who knows the Tio is sure to be well acquainted with the principles (that appear in the procedures of things). Acquainted with (those) principles, he is sure to understand how to regulate his conduct in all varying circumstances. Having that understanding, he will not allow things to injure himself. Fire cannot burn him who is (so) perfect in virtue, nor water drown him ; neither cold nor heat can affect him injuriously ; neither bird nor beast can hurt him. This does not mean that he is indifferent to these things; it means that he dis- criminates between where he may safely rest and where he will be in peril ; that he is tranquil equally in calamity and happiness ; that he is careful what he avoids and what he approaches ; — so that nothing can injure him. Hence it is said, "What is heavenly is internal ; what is human is external." The virtue (of man) is in what is Heavenly. If you know the operation of what is Heavenly and what is Human, you will have your root in what is Heavenly and your position in Virtue. You will bend or stretch 384 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XVIT. (only) after the (necessary) hesitation ; you will have returned to the essential, and may be pronounced to have reached perfection/ * What do you mean/ pursued the earl, * by the Heavenly, and by the Human ? ' Zo replied, *Oxen and horses have four feet; — that is what I call their Heavenly (constitution). When horses' heads are haltered, and the noses of oxen are pierced, that is what I call (the doing of) Man, Hence it is said, " Do not by the Human (doing) extinguish the Heavenly (constitution) ; do not for your (Human) purpose extinguish the appointment (of Heaven) ; do not bury your (proper) fame in (such) a pursuit of it; carefully guard (the Way) and do not lose it: — this is what I call reverting to your True (Nature)/' ' 8. The kh wei * desires to be like * the millipede* ; the millipede to be like the serpent* the serpent like the wind ; the wind to be like the eye ; and the eye to be like the mind ^ The khwei said to the millipede, 'With my one leg I hop about, and can hardly manage to go along. Now you have a myriad feet which you can employ ; how is it that you are so abundantly fur- nished ? ' The millipede said, ' It is not so. Have you not seen one ejecting saliva? The largest portion of it is like a pearl, while the smaller portions fall down like a shower of mist in innumer- ^ The khwei is ' a sort of dragon (it may be, a worm) with one foot.' The hsien has many feet*; one account calls it 'a centipede/ * Such is the meaning of the lin or lien. The best commenta- tors explain it by hsien (^), * to covet and desire.' ^ Compare Book I, par. 3, towards the end. PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF ZWANG-SZE. 385 able drops. Now I put in motion the springs set in me by Heaven, without knowing how I do so.' The millipede said to the serpent, * I go along by means of my multitude of feet; and yet how is it that I do not go so fast as you who have no feet at all ? ' The serpent replied, * How can the method of moving by the springs set in us by Heaven be changed ? How could I make use of feet ? ' The serpent said to the wind, * I get along by moving my backbone and ribs, thus appearing to have some (bodily) means of progression. But now you, Sir, rise with a blustering force in the North Sea, and go on in the same way to the South Sea ; — seemingly without any such means. How does it take place ? ' The wind said, * Yes. With such a blustering force I rise in the North Sea and go on to the South Sea. But you can point to me, and therein are superior to me, as you are also in treading on me. Yet notwithstanding, it is only I who can break great trees, and blow down great houses. Therefore he whom all that are small cannot overcome is a great overcomer. But it is only he who is the sagely man ^ that is the Great Conqueror (of all).' 9. When Confucius was travelling in Khwang^, ^ The sagely man is ' the Tnie man,' who embodies the Tao. The Tdo has given to the khwei, the millipede, the serpent, and it may be said also to the wind, their means of progression and action. Nothing is said of the eye and the mind ; — it was not necessary to dwell on the T do in them. • See Confucian Analects, IX, v and XI, xxii. Our author's account of this event is his own, constructed by him to convey his own Tdoistic lessons. [39] C C 386 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK, xvii. some people of Sung (once) surrounded him (with a hostile intention) several ranks deep ; but he kept singing to his lute without stopping. ^zeAd came in, and saw him, and said, ' How is it. Master, that you are so pleased ? ' Confucius said, ' Come here, and I will tell you. I have tried to avoid being reduced to such a strait for a long time ; and that I have not escaped shows that it was so appointed for me. I have sought to find a ruler that would employ me for a long time, and that I have not found one, shows the character of the time. Under Y4o and Shun there was no one in the kingdom reduced to straits like mine ; and it was not by their sagacity that men succeeded as they did. Under Aleh and K&u no (good and able man) in the king- dom found his way to employment ; and it was not for (want of) sagacity that they failed to do so. It was simply owing to the times and their character, * People that do business on the water do not shrink from meeting iguanodons and dragons ; — that is the courage of fishermen. Those who do busi- ness on land do not shrink from meeting rhinoce- roses and tigers ; — that is the courage of hunters. When men see the sharp weapons crossed before them, and look on death as going home ; — that is the courage of the determined soldier. When he knows that his strait is determined for him, and that the employment of him by a ruler depends on the cha- racter of the time, and then meeting with great distress is yet not afraid ; — that is the courage of the sagely man. Wait, my good YA, and you will see what there is determined for me in my lot.' A little afterwards, the leader of the armed men approached and took his leave, saying, * We thought you were PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF rWANG-3ZE. 387 Yang Hft\ and therefore surrounded you. Now we see our mistake.' (With this) he begged to take his leave, and withdrew. ID. Kung-sun Lung^ asked Mdu of Wei®, saying, * When I was young, I learned the teachings of the former kings ; and when I was grown up, I became proficient in the practice of benevolence and right- eousness. I brought together the views that agreed and disagreed; I considered the questions about hardness and whiteness * ; I set forth what was to be affirmed and what was not, and what was allowable and what was not ; I studied painfully the various schools of thought, and made myself master of the reasonings of all their masters. I thought that I had reached a good understanding of every subject ; but now that I have heard the words of A!wang-jze, they throw me into a flutter of surprise. I do not know whether it be that I do not come up to him in the power of discussion, or that my knowledge is not equal to his. But now I do not feel able to open my mouth, and venture to ask you what course I should pursue.* Kung-jze Mfiu leant forward on his stool, drew a long breath, looked up to heaven, smiled, and * No doubt the Yang Ho of Analects XVII, i. The grandson (Kung-sun) of one of the rulers of -^ilo (one of the three states into which the great state of 3in had been broken up). He has come down to us as a philosophic sophist, whose views it is not easy to define. See Mayers's Manual, p. 288, and Book XXXIII, par. 7. * Wei was another of the divisions of 3in, and Mdu was one of the sons of its ruler at this time, a great admirer, evidently, of iTwang-jze, and more than a match for the sophist Lung. * Holding, it is supposed, that ' the attributes of material objects, such as hardness and colour, are separate existences : '—so Mayers, after Wylie. C C 2 388 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvil, said, ' Have you not heard of the frog of the dilapi- dated well, and how it said to the turtle of the Eastern Sea, " How I enjoy myself? I leap upon the parapet of this well. I enter, and having by means of the projections formed by the fragments of the broken tiles of the lining proceeded to the water, I draw my legs together, keep my chin up, (and strike out). When I have got to the mud, I dive till my feet are lost in it. Then turning round, I see that of the shrimps, crabs, and tadpoles there is not one that can do like me. Moreover, when one has entire command of all the water in the gully, and hesitates to go forward, it is the greatest pleasure to enjoy one's self here in this dilapidated well ^ ; — why do not you, Master, often come and enter, and see it for yourself ? " The turtle of the Eastern Sea (was then proceeding to go forward), but before he had put in his left foot, he found his right knee caught and held fast. On this he hesitated, drew back, and told (the frog) all about the sea, saying, '* A distance of a thousand ll is not sufficient to express its extent, nor would (a line of) eight thousand cubits be equal to sound its depth. In the time of Yii, for nine years out of ten the flooded land (all drained into it), and its water was not sensibly increased ; and in the time of Thang for seven years out of eight there was a drought, but the rocks on the shore (saw) no diminution of the water because of it. Thus it is that no change is produced in its waters by any cause operating for a short time or a long, and that they do not advance nor recede for any addition or subtraction, whether great or small ; and this is the great pleasure afforded by the Eastern Sea." When ^ A passage difficult to construe. PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE. 389 the frog of the dilapidated well heard this, he was amazed and terror-struck, and lost himself in surprise. * And moreover, when you, who have not wisdom enough to know where the discussions about what is right and what is wrong should end, still desire to see through the words of -STwang-jze, that is like employing a mosquito to carry a mountain on its back, or a millipede ^ to gallop as fast as the Ho runs ; — tasks to which both the insects are sure to be un- equal. Still further, when you, who have not wisdom enough to know the words employed in discussing very mysterious subjects, yet hasten to show your sharpness of speech on any occasion that may occur, is not this being like the frog of the dilapidated well ? * And that ( ATwang-jze) now plants his foot on the Yellow Springs (below the earth), and anon rises to the height of the Empyrean. Without any regard to south and north, with freedom he launches out in every direction, and is lost in the unfathomable. Without any regard to east and west, starting from what is abysmally obscure, he comes back to what is grandly intelligible. (All the while), you. Sir, in amazement, search for his views to examine them, and grope among them for matter for discussion ; — this is just like peeping at the heavens through a tube, or aiming at the earth with an awl ; are not both the implements too small for the purpose ? Go your ways. Sir. * And have you not heard of the young learners of ^ A different character from that for a millipede in the last para- graph; — a Shang Kil, evidently some small insect, but we cannot tell what. 390 THE TEXTS OF tAoISM. BK. xvil. Sh&u-ling *, and how they did in Han-tan ? Before they had acquired what they might have done in that capital, they had forgotten what they had learned to do in their old city, and were marched back to it on their hands and knees. If now you do not go away, you will forget your old acquirements, and fail in your profession/ Kung-sun Lung gaped on the speaker, and could not shut his mouth, and his tongue clave to its roof. He slank away and ran off. 1 1 . Awang-jze was (once) fishing in the river Ph A ^ when the king of KhiH ^ sent two great officers to him, with the message, * I wish to trouble you with the charge of all within my territories.' A^vang-jze kept on holding his rod without looking round, and said, ' I have heard that in Khil there is a spirit-like tortoise-shell, the wearer of which died 3000 years ago*, and which the king keeps, in his ancestral temple, in a hamper covered with a cloth. Was it better for the tortoise to die, and leave its shell to be thus honoured ? Or would it have been better for it to live, and keep on dragging its tail through the mud } * The two officers said, * It would have been better for it to live, and draw its tail after it over the mud *.' ' Go your ways. I will keep on drawing my tail after me through the mud.' ^ A city of A'ao, as Han-tan was its capital. Of the incident referred to, I have not been able to learn anything. The ' were marched ' gives my idea of what it may have been. ' A river, which still gives its name to Phfi-^u, department XhsLO-kin, Shan-tung. ' Probably king Wei, b. c. 339-330. * A good antiquity for Kh^ ! ' ? A species of Test u do Serpentina, such as is often seen on pieces of Japanese lacquer-ware. PT. II. SECT. X. THE WRITINGS OF JSrWANG-SZE. 39 1 12. Hui-jze being a minister of state in Liang ^ Awang-gze went to see him. Some one had told Hui-jze that ATwang-jze was come with a wish to supersede him in his office, on which he was afraid, and instituted a search for the stranger all over the kingdom for three days and three nights. (After this) ATwang-jze went and saw him, and said, * There is in the south a bird, called " the Young Phoenix ^ ;" — do you know it ? Starting from the South Sea, it flies to the Northern; never resting but on the bignonia^ never eating but the fruit of the melia azederach *, and never drinking but from the purest springs. An owl, which had got a putrid rat, (once), when a phoenix went passing overhead, looked up to it and gave an angry scream. Do you wish now, in your possession of the kingdom of Liang, to frighten me with a similar scream ? ' 13. AVang-jze and Hui-gze were walking on the dam over the H4o *, when the former said, ' These thryssas come out, and play about at their ease ; — that is the enjoyment of fishes.' The other said, * You are not a fish ; how do you know what ^ Another name for Wei, so called from its capital; — in the present department of Khdi-ftLng. ' So the critics explain the name. Williams thinks the bird may be * the argus pheasant,' or * a variety of the peacock.' But what the bird was does not affect the meaning of om* author's reference to it. • One of the Eleococcae, the Dryandra Cordifolia of Thunberg. ^ All the editions I have seen give ^j^ here, which makes no sense. The character should doubtless be jA, with the meaning which I have given; and not 'bamboo/ which is found in the critics. It is also called ' the Pride of India.' ' A river in the department and district of Fung-yang, An-huL 392 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XVII. constitutes the enjoyment of fishes ^ ? ' Awang-jze rejoined, * You are not I. How do you know that I do not know what constitutes the enjoyment of fishes ? ' Hui-jze said, * I am not you ; and though indeed I do not fully know you, you certainly are not a fish, and (the argument) is complete against your knowing what constitutes the happiness of fishes/ A^vang-gze replied, ' Let us keep to your original question. You said to me, " How do you know what constitutes the enjoyment of fishes ? " You knew that I knew it, and yet you put your question to me ; — ^well, I know it (from our enjoying ourselves together) over the Hdo.' * Surely a captious question. We infer the feelings of other creatures from their demonstrations. TRANSLITERATION OF ORIENTAL ALPHABETS. CO o »-< CO H K H o S3 w £ £ o ^ Q o W CO « g »^ GQ < »-• P< o O o H I-) C/} X H O P< I s I % i I >■ I I I I O M z • • • ^ !S • • • n n *^ *^ n. -D • • D ^\) •O ^ :| OOJ «^^3 c^os/ If IT r ^ ir % C J^ c - - UoJU «• - UoJ-lJ l» IM' \d ^ Qy \d^ U-oJ ii\ p P ^ W]f »*< 5 «^ 'Sfc •« ett to-Scr 3 'O- ::^«« a .a S l-s 8 " S3 • • * • I -J I 3 • • ^ J cB ;g |-S |-i |-3 a « a js a 4i ^ CI CO ^ ao CO .5a QQ t* 00 OJ O ^ 05 f-« r^ pH [39] Dd TRANSLITERATION OF ORIENTAL ALPHABETS • • • • • • • • ^ . >^ • • • «t ^ ^ • • • • S3 — < • • a • M •** • • • • • • • • • • • •^^ • • • • • • • • ^ • • • • E i; . p- f~ • rKS\ • • .9 D - J«l • s • • • • • • • • • « 'b • • • D ! t • • • • : s : .^ 'ij : «««^i^ ^ • • • • 'b •"\ D -0 -» • • :\ :3»>-^ fim • • • • •!>•■> <^ c; • • • • ^j • : ^ :v^ : : A. • « • • CN • • • N init. ^ • o «k X.A • • • • • • • • Sv/ • 1 . ?-8 • ' • • • : sj : ^ : : • • • • IT I i ; » • • • IB ^ \ YX^ • >P IS K • • '. tt ', '. • • • • • < » • • • » • • • • • • • 1 • • • • • • • • • • - -S ^ « «a « • • • • « • • « > • • • 1 • • • • • • a • • • « • ^« • • • I • • • • « • m • • MISSIC • • • • • • • • • • • • OB • M • • • • • ij a • • • • • • a • c • f-l « • ^ ;s * • ^H C9 • • • • » o a v> 1 o -* w 1 1 s a s s s a c • 8*3 1 ^ : -^ * 1 • * 1 ' %% •88, : -^ : • a i1 - II i -H W m ft 5 . S3 2 - 6 B s. 1 l 3 a <JS Ok xn S s \ k ^ Of GO O) < d ^ C9 CO ^ lO tt > t>. 00 o o «-i ca CO ^ W5 o r* ^ 1-1 G 4 CQ C4 09 O CI C 1 C4 CI C9 CO CO •0 00 CO CO CO CO FOR THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. •••••• V • •' -s > a • 1 1 • a 1 ' B ^ • a • m > «M a a • a a a a a a a a ... a r a a a a CI CI n n • ' Q .' ; ' * a a > a • • •*** .'S : -^ ; • • • at » • a a « : -: : |1 -> : : ** "* !::"*: : 3* : ^ : ; ► t- a , : "1 -^ : : • a • • -i • * ' * * CN ' ! :? : : '>n; i i- : : >^ : : : :a- ; : *" P : ; i-'g : "-•/.'*• .-**:,/. l« »» 10 Iv 19 *^ • • r - er IT ir » . ► ir 'a i : r-^ j; ! ** I ! 1 a a * 1 • • a • t a a a • 1 a • a a ♦• :S -w *§ « • •• a a 1 ► •at a • 1 . . . . s U ' • * ' '. s -< I I a. M M o. -g, JO :§ I •^ .9 •k at a s ^ c8 a J :5 a. to I a S ^ ^ -H s a Sad •§ I I « « » H & CO s 8 Ji - 3 I .S4 CO C CO CO 00 ^^ ^t* ^^ ^^ ^t* ^* ^^ ^J* ooooi-icdeo^tocoi^ooo) 396 TRANSLITERATION OF ORIENTAL ALPHABETS.. i p « «i « «3 O • 3 I' I* i-r l'-M« !►- .| ^ |. ij. "hi> ib '% 'I ^ h ^ -1'^ •••d ;ix «» • :? 3 ""T- to ^ • 9 H kr«r \g\lftrt^t> H iv/iv 'ii'if ^ *S WJO *<• — ♦^a6;5S'C^ s^s* ^?^ ^^ d cs 9 9 *^ !«« *'^ !0 J « •II fi § > fi'l &l ^f & 5,^ o c I -I SB ;9 •s I & g i Jq ^ 4S O c o p. I d «fc -2 S fi e ^ .= I C5 3 '3 13 ^ P4 1-3 f-40eO^«ACOl^QOO)0 I o »« CD *^ CI Sacred Books of the East TRANSLATED BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY F. MAX MULLER %* T/its Series is published with the sanction and cthoperation of the Secretary of State for India in Couticil, BBPOBT presented to the AOiLDilffZB DEB ZVSCBIPTZOV8, Maj 11, 1883, 1>7 M. BSVBBT BSVAV. ' M. Renan pr^sente trois nouveaux Yolnmes de la grande collection des '* Livres sacr^s de TOrient *' (Sacred Books of the East), que dirige k Oxford, avec une si vaste Erudition et une critique si siire, le savant associ^ de I'Academie des Inscriptions, M. Max Mliller. ... La premiere s^rie de ce beau recueil, com- pos^e de 24 volumes, est presque achev^e. M. Max Miiller se propose d'en publier une seconde, dont Tint^ret historique et religieux ne sera pas moindre. M. Max Miiller a sn se procurer la collaboration des savans les plus ^minens d* Europe et d'Asie. L*Universit6 d'Oxford, que cctte grande publication honore au plus haut degr^, doit tenir k continuer dans les pins larges proportions une oeuvre aussi philo- sophiquement con9ue que savamment execut^e.* BZT&ACT from the QUASTBBZiT BBTIBW. *We rejoice to notice that a second series of these translations has been an- nounced and has actually begnn to appear. The stones, at least, out of which a stately edifice may hereafter arise, are here being brought together. Prof. Max Miiller has deserved well of scientific history. Not a few minds owe to his enticing words their first attraction to this branch of study. But no work of his, not even the great edition of the Rig- Veda, can com- pare in importance or in usefulness with this English translation of the Sacred Books of the East, which has been devised by his foresight, successfully brought so far by his persuasive and organising power, and will, we trust, by the assist- ance of the distinguished scholars he has gathered round him, be carried in due time to a happy completion,' FrofeMor B. XABDT, Inangnxal Zieotiire in the Universitj of FxeihnriTf 1887. * Die allgemeine vergleichende Reli- gionswissenschafl datiit von jenem g^ross- aitigen, in seiner Art einzig dastchenden Untemehmen, zu welchem auf Anregung Max Miillers im Jahre 1874 auf dem intemationalen Orientalistencongress in London der Gmndstein gelegt worden war, die tjbersetzung der heiligen Biicher des Ostens' (Jhe Sacred Books of the East), AT THE CLARENDON PRESS LONDON : HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C. SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST: FIRST SERIES. -*♦■ VOL. I. The Upanishads. Translated by F. Max Mullkr. Part I. The .Odndogya- upanishad, The Talavakdra-upanishad, The Aitareya-iranyaka, The Kaushttaki-brihma»a-upanishad, and The V^^^asaneyi- samhiti-upanishad. 8vo, cloth, los, 6d. The Upanishads contain the philosophy of the Veda, They have become the foundation of the later Veddnta doctrines^ and indirectly of Buddhism, Schopenhauer ^ speaking of the UpanishadSy says : * In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads, It has been the solace of my life^ it will be the solace of my deaths [See also Vol. XV.] Voii. II. The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, As taught in the Schools of Apastamba, Gautama, Visish/Aa, and Baudh&yana. Translated by Georg Buhler. Part I. Apastamba and Gautama. 8vo, cloth, \os, 6d, IVie Sacred Laws of the Aryas contain the original treatises on which the Laws of Manu and other lawgivers were founded, [See also Vol, XIV.] VOL. III. The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism. Translated by James Legoe. Part I. The Shft King, The Religious Portions of the Shih King, and The Hsiio King. 8vo, cloth, \2s, 6d. Confucius was a collector of ancient traditions^ not the founder of a new religion. As he lived in the sixth and fifth centuries B, C his works are of unique interest for the study of Ethology. [See also Vols. XVI, XXVII. XXVIII, XXXIX, and XL.] VOL. IV. The Zend-Avesta. Translated by James Darmesteter. Part I. The Vendid&d. 8vo, cloth, los, 6d, The Zend-Avesta contains the relics of what was the religion of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes^ and, but for the battle of Marathon, might have become the religion of Europe, It forms to the present day the sacred book of the Par sis, the so-called fire-worshippers. Two more volumes will complete the translation of all that is left us of Zoroaster* s religion, [See also Vols. XXIII and XXXI.] EDITED BY F. MAX MULLER. VOL. V. Pahlavi Texts. Translated by E. W. West. Part I. The Bundahi^, Bahman Yaxt, and Shiyast li-shdyast. 8vo, cloth, 1 2^ . 6d, The Pahlavi Texts comprise the theological literature o/the revival of Zoroaster* s religion^ beginning with the Sassanian dynasty. They are important /or a study of Gnosticism, Vols. VI and IX. The Qur 4n. Parts I and II. Translated by E. H. Palmer. 8vo, cloth, 21s. This translation, carried out according to his own peculiar views of the origin of the Qur^dn, was the last great work ofE. H, Palmer^ before he was murdered in Egypt. Voii. VII. The Institutes of Vish«u. Translated by Julius Jolly. 8vo, cloth, ioj. 6</. A collection of legal aphorisms, closely connected with one of the oldest Vedic schools, the Ka/ias, but considerably added to in later time. Of importance for a critical study of the Laws of Manu, VOL. VIII. The BhagavadgltA, with The Sanatsu^tlya, and The Anugltd. Translated by KAshimJIth Trimbak Telang. Svo, cloth, I Of. 6^. The earliest philosophical and religious poem of India, It has been paraphrased in Arnold^ s ^Song Celestial* Vol. X. The Dhammapada, Translated from Pill by F. Max Mullsr; and The Sutta-Nipita, Translated from Pdli by V. Fausb6ll ; being Canonical Books of the Buddhists. 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d, The Dhammapada contains the quintessence of Buddhist morality. The Sutta-Nipdta gives the authentic teaching if Buddha on somt of the fundamental principles of religion. Vol. XI. Buddhist Suttas. Translated from Pili by T. W. Rhys Davids, i. The MahS- parinibbdna Suttanta; 2. The Dhamma-fekka-ppavattana Sutta. 3. The Tevj^^ Suttanta; 4. The Akankheyya Sutta; 5. The Ajstokhila Sutta; 6. The Mahd-sudassana Suttanta; 7. The Sabbdsava Sutta. 8vo, cloth, loj. M, A collection of the most important religious, moral, and philosophical discourses tdkenfrom the sacred canon of the Buddhists, SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST: Voii. XII. The .Satapatha-Brihma/^a, according to the Text of the Midhyandina School. Translated by Julius Eggeling. Part I. Books I and II. 8vo, cloth, \25, 6d, A minute acctmnt of the sacrificial ceremonies of ike Vedic age. It contains the earliest account of the Deluge in India, [See also Vol. XXVI.] VOL. 3tlII. Vinaya Texts. Translated from the Pili by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg. Part I. The Pdtimokkha. The Mahdvagga, I-IV. 8vo, cloth, loj. 6d. The Vinaya Texts give /or the first time a translation of the moral code of the Buddhist religion as settled in the third century B.C, [See also Vols. XVII Jind XX.] VOL. XIV. The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, As taught in the Schools of Apastamba, Gautama, VdsishMa, and Baudhdyana. Translated by Georg Buhler. Part II. VasishMa and Baudhdyana. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d, Vol. XV. The Upanishads. Translated by F. Max Muller. Part II. The Ka/Aa-upanishad, The Mu«</aka-upanishad, The Taittiriyaka-upanishad, The Bnhad^ra«yaka-upanishad, The .SvetsLrvatara-upanishad, The Prar^a-upanishad, and The Maitrdyana-brdhma^ra-upanishad. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d. VOL. XVI. The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism. Translated by James Legge. Part II. The Yl King. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d. VOL. XVII. Vinaya Texts. Translated from the Pdli by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg. Part 11. The Mahivagga V-X. The Ajillavagga, I-III. 8vo, cloth, los, 6d. VOL. XVIII. Pahlavi Texts. Translated by E. V^. West. Part II. The D4^istan-! Dinik and The Epistles of Mdnfix^thar. 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d. Vol. XIX. .The Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king. A^Life of Buddha by Ajvaghosha Bodhisattva, translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Dharmaraksha, a.d. 420, and from Chinese into English by Samuel Beal. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d. This life of Buddha was translated from Sanskrit into Chinese^ A,D, 420, // contains many legends^ some of which shew a certain similarity to the Evangelium infantiae^ ^c. EDITED BY F. MAX MULLER. Vol. XX. Vinaya Texts. Translated from the Pdli by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg. Part III. The -ffullavagga, IV-XII. 8vo, cloth, 10^. 6(/. Vol. XXI. The Saddharma-pu«fl!arika ; or, The Lotus of the True Law. Translated by H. Kern. 8vo, cloth, 1 2 j. 6</. * The Lotus of the true Law^, a canonical hook of the Northern Buddhists y translated from Sanskrit, There is a Chinese transla- tion of this book which was finished as early as the year 286 A,D. Vol. XXII. 6^aina-SAtras. Translated from Prdkrit by Hermann Jacobi. Part I. The A^rdnga-Siitra and The Kalpa-Siitra. 8vo, cloth, 10s, 6d. The religion of the ffainas wasfounded by a contemporary of Buddha, It still counts numerous adherents in India, while there are no Buddhists left in India proper. Vol. XXIII. The Zend-Avesta. Translated by James Darmesteter. Part II. The Sirdzahs^ Yaxts, and Nyayw. 8vo, cloth, lof. 6d, I Vol. XXTV. Pahlavi Texts. Translated by E. W. West. Part III. Dind-t Maindg-i Khirafl?, -Sikand-g^mantk Vj^dr, and Sad Dar. 8vo, cloth, 10s, 6d, SECOND SERIES. Vol. XXV. Manu. Translated by Georg Buhler. 8vo, cloth, 21s, This translation is founded on that of Sir William Jones, which has been carefully revised and corrected with the help of seven native Commentaries. An Appendix contains all the quotations from Manu which are found in the Hindu Law-books, translated for the use of the Law Courts in India. , Another Appendix gives a synopsis of parallel passages from the six Dharma>s<itras, the other Smn'tis, the Upanishads, the Mah&bh&rata, &c. Vol. 2CXVI. The 6atapatha-Brdhma«a. Translated by Julius Eggeling. Part II. Books III and IV. 8vo, cloth, i2S, 6d, SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. Vols. XXVII usro xzvill. The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism. Translated by Jakes Legge. Parts III and IV. The Lt K\, or Collection of Treatises on the Rules of Propriety, or Ceremonial Usages. 8vo, cloth, I ax. 6d, each. Voii. ZZIX. The Gr/hya-SAtras, Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies. Part I. ^hkh&yana, A^alSyana, Pdraskara, Khddira. Trans- lated by Hermann Oldenberg. 8vo, cloth, 1 2s, 6d. These niles of Domestic Ceremonies describe the home life of the ancient Aryas with a completeness and accnnicy unmatched in any other literature. Some of these rules have been incorporated in the ancient Law-books. Vol. XXX. The Gr/hya-SAtras. Part II. \InthePress^ Voii. XXXI. The Zend-Avesta. Part III. The Yasna, Visparad, Afrinagfin, Gdhs, and Miscellaneous Fragments. Translated by L. H. Mills. 8vo, cloth, 12S, 6d, Vol. XXXII. Vedic Hymns. Translated by F. Max Muller. Part I. 8vo, cloth, i8j. 6i. Vol. XXXIII. The Minor Law-books. Translated by Julius Jolly. Part I. Narada, BriTiaspati. 8vo, cloth, I Of. 6</. VOL. XXXIV. The Ved&nta-Siitras, with the Com- mentary by ^'ankard^&rjra. Translated by G. Thibaut. 8vo, cloth, 12s, 6d, Vol. XXXV. The Questions of King Milinda. Trans- lated from the Pdli by T. W. Rhys Davids. 8vo, cloth, lox. 6</. VOL. XXXVII. The Contents of the Nasks, as stated in the Eighth and Ninth Books of the Dtvikard Translated by E. W. West. [In the Press.] Vols, xxxix and xl. The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Tioism. Translated by James Legoe. 8vo, cloth, 21J. *** The Second Series will oonaist of Twanty-fbur Volumes in all. RECENT ORIENTAL WORKS. SOME ORIENTAL WORKS BECEKTLT PTJBLISEED BT THE GLAEEITDON FB.ESS. A Practical Arabic Grammar, Part I. Compiled by A. O. Green, Brigade Major, Royal Engineers. Second Edition, Enlarged, Crown 8vo, *]s, 6d, First Lessons in Tamil ; or, an Introduction to the Common Dialect of that Language. With an easy Catechism in Tamil of both the Colloquial and Classical Dialects. By the Rev. G. U. Pope, M.A., D.D. Crown 8vo, ^s, 6d. Grammar of the Bengali Language^ Literary and Colloquial. By John Beames. Crown 8vo. 4^. 6^. A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Bud- dhist Tripi/aka, the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan. Compiled by order of the Secretary of State for India by Bunyiu Nanjio, Priest of the Temple, Eastern Hongwanieii, Japan; Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. 4to, 32J. 6</. * An immense service rendered to Oriental scholarship.' — Sahtrdc^ JRevirtv. The Chinese Classics : with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. By James Legge, D.D., LL.D. In Seven Volumes. Royal Svo. Vol. I. Confucian Analects, &*c. [Out of print^ Vol. II. The Works of Mencius, i/. loj. Vol. III. The Shoo-Kingy or the Book of Historical Documents, In two Parts, i/. loj. each. Vol. IV. The She-King^ or the Book of Poetry. In two Parts, i/. 10 J. each. Vol. V. The CKun Tsew^ with the Tso Chuen. In two Parts, i/. loj. each. Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms ; being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (a.d. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Translated and annotated, with a Corean recension of the Chinese Text, by James Legge, M.A., LL.D. Crown 4to, boards, lox. 6(/. 8 RECENT ORIENTAL WORKS, ARYAN SERIES. Buddhist Texts from y apan. I. Vajfra^i^iSedikd ; The Diamond-Cutter. Edited by F. Max Muller, M.A. Small 4to, 3J. 6</. One of the most famous metaphysical treatises of the Mah&y^a Baddhists. Buddhist Texts from Japan. II. SukhSvatl-VyAha : Description of Sukhdvatty the Land of Bliss. Edited by F. Max Muller, M.A., and Bunyiu Nanjio. With two Appendices: (i) Text and Translation of Sahghavarman's Chinese Version of the Poetical Portions of the Sukhdvati- Vydha; (2) Sanskrit Text of the Smaller SukhSvatt-Vyiiha. Small 4to, 7^ . 6d. The editio princeps of the Sacred Book of one of the largest and most influential sects of Buddhism, numbering more than ten millions of followers in Japan alone. Buddhist Texts from Japan. III. The Ancient Palm- Leaves containing the Pra^»&-P4ramit4-H^'^daya- S<itra and the Ush»lsha-V^ya-Dhira;^l. Edited by F. Max Miller, M.A., and Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. With an Appendix by G. BChler, CLE. With many Plates. Small 4to, lo^. Contains facsimiles of the oldest Sanskrit MS. at present known. Dharma-Sa/^graha, an Ancient Collection of Buddhist Technical Terms. Prepared for publication by Kenjiu Kasawara, a Buddhist Priest from Japan, and, after his death, edited by F. Max Muller and H. Wenzel. Small 4to, 7 j. dd. K&t&yana's Sarvinukramawi of the jff/gveda. With Extracts from Shat/gurujishya's Commentary entitled Vedarthadtpik4. Edited by A. A. Macdonell, M.A,, Ph.D, 1 6 J. Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS LONDON: HENRY FROWDE oxford university press warehouse, amkn corner, e.c. •I ' T' '' V-.' 3 2044 054 093 828 "^