Fetching
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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1When 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 Xieh, (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 1 See pp. 142, 143. U2 292 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XI. irritated >—the Yin or opposite element is too much developed. When those elements thus predominate 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 maintained ;—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 movements 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 animosities, and then we have actions like those of the robber ih, or of 3ang (Shan) and Shih (3hid)* If now the whole world were taken to reward the good it would not suffice, 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 LQ Shfkih, who here introduces a Ii in his commentary (3p 2} Hey Zz brag we #H Fe zx Zz): 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 7. 2 Our moral instincts protest against Taoism which thus places in the same category such sovereigns as Yao and Kieh, and such men as the brigand ih and 3ang and Shih. PT. Il, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 293
22 Our moral instincts protest against Taoism which thus places in the same category such sovereigns as Yao and Kieh, and such men as the brigand ih and 3ang and Shih. PT. Il, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 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 engage 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 1 Here is the TAoistic meaning of the title of this Book. eee ni: 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. 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 ?
33. 3hui AZii? asked Lao 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). Nowit 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 Tao Teh King, ch. 13. * Probably an imaginary personage. J PT, II, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE, 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 haughtiness, it refuses to be bound ;—such is the mind of man?!’ Anciently, Hwang-Ti was the first to meddle with and disturb the mind of man with his benevolence and righteousness *, After him, Yao 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 benevolence and righteousness; they tasked their blood and breath to make out a code of laws ;—and after all they were unsuccessful. On this Yao sent away Hwan Tau to Khung hill, and (the Chiefs of) the Three Mido 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 Xieh and Xih; of a higher type there were 3ang (Shan) and Shih (Zhit). At the same time there arose the classes of * IT must suppose that the words of Lao-3ze stop here, and that what follows is from Awang-3ze himself, down to the end of the paragraph. We cannot have L4o-jze referring to men later than himself, and quoting from his own Book. * Hitherto Yao 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. 5 See these parties, and the way they were dealt with, in the Sha King, Part II, Book I, 3. The punishment of them is there asctibed to Shun; but Y4o was still alive, and Shun was acting as his viceroy. 206 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XI.
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.
1When 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 Xieh, (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 1 See pp. 142, 143. U2 292 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XI. irritated >—the Yin or opposite element is too much developed. When those elements thus predominate 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 maintained ;—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 movements 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 animosities, and then we have actions like those of the robber ih, or of 3ang (Shan) and Shih (3hid)* If now the whole world were taken to reward the good it would not suffice, 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 LQ Shfkih, who here introduces a Ii in his commentary (3p 2} Hey Zz brag we #H Fe zx Zz): 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 7. 2 Our moral instincts protest against Taoism which thus places in the same category such sovereigns as Yao and Kieh, and such men as the brigand ih and 3ang and Shih. PT. Il, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 293
22 Our moral instincts protest against Taoism which thus places in the same category such sovereigns as Yao and Kieh, and such men as the brigand ih and 3ang and Shih. PT. Il, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 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 engage 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 1 Here is the TAoistic meaning of the title of this Book. eee ni: 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. 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 ?
33. 3hui AZii? asked Lao 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). Nowit 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 Tao Teh King, ch. 13. * Probably an imaginary personage. J PT, II, SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE, 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 haughtiness, it refuses to be bound ;—such is the mind of man?!’ Anciently, Hwang-Ti was the first to meddle with and disturb the mind of man with his benevolence and righteousness *, After him, Yao 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 benevolence and righteousness; they tasked their blood and breath to make out a code of laws ;—and after all they were unsuccessful. On this Yao sent away Hwan Tau to Khung hill, and (the Chiefs of) the Three Mido 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 Xieh and Xih; of a higher type there were 3ang (Shan) and Shih (Zhit). At the same time there arose the classes of * IT must suppose that the words of Lao-3ze stop here, and that what follows is from Awang-3ze himself, down to the end of the paragraph. We cannot have L4o-jze referring to men later than himself, and quoting from his own Book. * Hitherto Yao 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. 5 See these parties, and the way they were dealt with, in the Sha King, Part II, Book I, 3. The punishment of them is there asctibed to Shun; but Y4o was still alive, and Shun was acting as his viceroy. 206 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XI.
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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