Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
12 In his Index to the Tripi¢aka, Mr. Bunyio Nanjio (p. 359) assigns Lif Mi and his work tb 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, III. 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-fa, or system of mystic and recondite calisthenics'.’ Lao insists, however, on the T4o as conducive to long life, and in Kwang-3ze 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 Phang-3, 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 Lado, discountenancing such a use of them, endeavoured to give the doctrine a higher character; and this view is favoured by passages in Awang-3ze. In the seventh paragraph, for instance, of his Book VI, speaking of parties who had obtained the T4o, he begins with a prehistoric sovereign, who ‘got it and by it adjusted heaven and earth.’ Among his other instances is Phang-34, who got it in the time of Shun, and lived on to the time of the five leading princes of KAu, —a longevity of more than 1800 years, greater than that ascribed to Methuselah! In the paragraph that follows there appears a Nii Yii, who is addressed by another famous Taoist in the words, ‘You are old, Sir, while your complexion 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 Kwang. In his eleventh Book, and the fourth paragraph, he tells us of interviews between Hwang-Ti, in the nineteenth year of his reign, which would be B.C. 2679, and his instructor Kwang Khang-3ze. The Taoist sage is not readily prevailed on 1 See note on p. 187 of his Awang-3ze. 2 See Bk. XV, par. 1. CH. Ill. INTRODUCTION. 25
22679, and his instructor Kwang Khang-3ze. The Taoist sage is not readily prevailed on 1 See note on p. 187 of his Awang-3ze. 2 See Bk. XV, par. 1. CH. Ill. INTRODUCTION. 25 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 Tao. 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 1200 to 2679, and we obtain 3879 as the year B.c. of Kwang A/angyze’s birth! 6. Lao-jze describes some other and kindred results of cultivating the T4o in terms which are sufficiently startling, Startling results and which it is difficult to accept. In his ofthe Tao. 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 Tao) is like an infant. Poisonous 26 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Ill. insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him; birds of prey will not strike him.’
3Poisonous 26 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Ill. 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 Taoism. What can seem more absurd than the declaration that ‘the Tao 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 T4o), 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 T4o By contraries proceeds ; And weakness marks the course Of Téo’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 Tao Teh King, styles this fortieth chapter ‘ Dispensing with the use (of means). If the wish to use means arise in the mind, the nature of the Tao 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 Kwang-jze to illustrate these points. In his eleventh Book his subject is Government 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 paradisiacal how long this condition lasted, but as Lao state. observes in his eighteenth chapter, ‘the Tao ceased to be observed.’ A wang-3ze, however, gives us CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 27
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
12 In his Index to the Tripi¢aka, Mr. Bunyio Nanjio (p. 359) assigns Lif Mi and his work tb 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, III. 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-fa, or system of mystic and recondite calisthenics'.’ Lao insists, however, on the T4o as conducive to long life, and in Kwang-3ze 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 Phang-3, 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 Lado, discountenancing such a use of them, endeavoured to give the doctrine a higher character; and this view is favoured by passages in Awang-3ze. In the seventh paragraph, for instance, of his Book VI, speaking of parties who had obtained the T4o, he begins with a prehistoric sovereign, who ‘got it and by it adjusted heaven and earth.’ Among his other instances is Phang-34, who got it in the time of Shun, and lived on to the time of the five leading princes of KAu, —a longevity of more than 1800 years, greater than that ascribed to Methuselah! In the paragraph that follows there appears a Nii Yii, who is addressed by another famous Taoist in the words, ‘You are old, Sir, while your complexion 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 Kwang. In his eleventh Book, and the fourth paragraph, he tells us of interviews between Hwang-Ti, in the nineteenth year of his reign, which would be B.C. 2679, and his instructor Kwang Khang-3ze. The Taoist sage is not readily prevailed on 1 See note on p. 187 of his Awang-3ze. 2 See Bk. XV, par. 1. CH. Ill. INTRODUCTION. 25
22679, and his instructor Kwang Khang-3ze. The Taoist sage is not readily prevailed on 1 See note on p. 187 of his Awang-3ze. 2 See Bk. XV, par. 1. CH. Ill. INTRODUCTION. 25 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 Tao. 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 1200 to 2679, and we obtain 3879 as the year B.c. of Kwang A/angyze’s birth! 6. Lao-jze describes some other and kindred results of cultivating the T4o in terms which are sufficiently startling, Startling results and which it is difficult to accept. In his ofthe Tao. 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 Tao) is like an infant. Poisonous 26 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Ill. insects will not sting him ; fierce beasts will not seize him; birds of prey will not strike him.’
3Poisonous 26 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Ill. 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 Taoism. What can seem more absurd than the declaration that ‘the Tao 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 T4o), 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 T4o By contraries proceeds ; And weakness marks the course Of Téo’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 Tao Teh King, styles this fortieth chapter ‘ Dispensing with the use (of means). If the wish to use means arise in the mind, the nature of the Tao 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 Kwang-jze to illustrate these points. In his eleventh Book his subject is Government 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 paradisiacal how long this condition lasted, but as Lao state. observes in his eighteenth chapter, ‘the Tao ceased to be observed.’ A wang-3ze, however, gives us CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 27
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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