Fetching
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One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1to 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 To, and of its effects in making men superior to the infirmities of age and the most terrible 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 TAo. Confucius is introduced repeatedly as the expounder of Taoism, and made to praise it as the ne plus ultra of human attainment. Book VII. Yinc Ti 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 3hui Awan, 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 Thai, whom I have not BK. VI. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 137 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-yii, known in the Confucian school as ‘ the madman of XA,’ and he delivers his lesson in opposition to the heresy of a Z4h-#ung Shih, or ‘Noon Beginning,’ In the third paragraph the speakers are ‘a nameless man, and a Thien K&n, or ‘ Heaven Root.’ In the fourth paragraph Ldo-jze himself appears upon the stage, and lectures a Yang 3ze-fii, the Yang Kf) of Mencius. Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’
2Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’ The fifth paragraph is longer, and tells us of the defeat of a wizard, a physiognomist in Kang, by Hf-3ze, the master of the philosopher Lieh-3ze, who is thereby delivered from the glamour which the cheat was throwing round him. I confess to not being able to understand the various processes by which Hf-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 Pantheismus 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 humility 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 faithfully 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 an ingenious and interesting allegory 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 according to Taoism did Chaos an injury! On the whole I do not think that this Book, with which the more finished essays of Kwang-jze come to an end, is so successful as those that precede it. Book VIII. PHIEN MAv. This Book brings us to the Second Part of the writings of our author, embracing in all fifteen Books. Of the most important difference between the Books of the First and the other Parts some account has been given in the Introductory 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 Awang-3ze himself; those of this Book and the others that follow are believed to have been prefixed by Kwo Hsiang, and consist of two or three characters 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 Ad-yang Hsia.
3Books VIII to XIII are considered to be supplementary to VII by Ad-yang Hsia. The title of this eighth Book, Phien M4u, has been rendered 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 distinguished in this paragraph and elsewhere from Xih, ‘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 appendage 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. VIII, BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 139 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 30 A wan (twenty-third year of duke Hsi) that the famous duke W4n of 3in had phien hsieh, that is, that his ribs presented the appearance 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. A wang-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 excitement. 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 begun earlier), the world had been in a state of paradisiacal innocence and simplicity, under the guidance of the T 40, 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 century B.C., the famous Po-i, who died of hunger rather than acknowledge the dynasty of Kau; 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 Taoism, 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 L4o-3ze, only a dreamer.
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.
1to 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 To, and of its effects in making men superior to the infirmities of age and the most terrible 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 TAo. Confucius is introduced repeatedly as the expounder of Taoism, and made to praise it as the ne plus ultra of human attainment. Book VII. Yinc Ti 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 3hui Awan, 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 Thai, whom I have not BK. VI. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 137 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-yii, known in the Confucian school as ‘ the madman of XA,’ and he delivers his lesson in opposition to the heresy of a Z4h-#ung Shih, or ‘Noon Beginning,’ In the third paragraph the speakers are ‘a nameless man, and a Thien K&n, or ‘ Heaven Root.’ In the fourth paragraph Ldo-jze himself appears upon the stage, and lectures a Yang 3ze-fii, the Yang Kf) of Mencius. Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’
2Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’ The fifth paragraph is longer, and tells us of the defeat of a wizard, a physiognomist in Kang, by Hf-3ze, the master of the philosopher Lieh-3ze, who is thereby delivered from the glamour which the cheat was throwing round him. I confess to not being able to understand the various processes by which Hf-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 Pantheismus 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 humility 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 faithfully 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 an ingenious and interesting allegory 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 according to Taoism did Chaos an injury! On the whole I do not think that this Book, with which the more finished essays of Kwang-jze come to an end, is so successful as those that precede it. Book VIII. PHIEN MAv. This Book brings us to the Second Part of the writings of our author, embracing in all fifteen Books. Of the most important difference between the Books of the First and the other Parts some account has been given in the Introductory 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 Awang-3ze himself; those of this Book and the others that follow are believed to have been prefixed by Kwo Hsiang, and consist of two or three characters 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 Ad-yang Hsia.
3Books VIII to XIII are considered to be supplementary to VII by Ad-yang Hsia. The title of this eighth Book, Phien M4u, has been rendered 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 distinguished in this paragraph and elsewhere from Xih, ‘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 appendage 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. VIII, BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 139 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 30 A wan (twenty-third year of duke Hsi) that the famous duke W4n of 3in had phien hsieh, that is, that his ribs presented the appearance 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. A wang-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 excitement. 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 begun earlier), the world had been in a state of paradisiacal innocence and simplicity, under the guidance of the T 40, 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 century B.C., the famous Po-i, who died of hunger rather than acknowledge the dynasty of Kau; 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 Taoism, 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 L4o-3ze, only a dreamer.
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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