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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1? So Hui is made to represent the master as a mental Thaumathurgist, and Confucius is made to try to explain the whole thing to him ;—but not to my mind successfully. Still a distinction is maintained between the mind and the body. ‘46 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXI. I move as acted on by things, day and night without cessation, and I do not know when I will come to an end. Clearly I am here a completed frame, and even one who (fancies that he) knows what is appointed cannot determine it beforehand. I am in this way daily passing on, but all day long I am communicating my views to you; and now, aS we are shoulder to shoulder you fail (to understand me) ;—is it not matter for lamentation ? You are able in a measure to set forth what I more. clearly set forth ; but that is passed away, and you look for it, as if it were still existing, just as if you were looking for a horse in the now empty place where it was formerly exhibited for sale. You have very much forgotten my service to you, and I have very much forgotten wherein I served you. But nevertheless why should you account this such an evil? What you forget is but my old self; that which cannot be forgotten remains with me.’ 4. Confucius went to see Léo Tan, and arrived just as he had completed the bathing of his head, and was letting his dishevelled hair get dry. There he was, motionless, and as if there were not another man in the world’. Confucius waited quietly; and, when ina little time he was introduced, he said, ‘Were my eyes dazed? Is it really you? Just now, your body, Sir, was like the stump of a rotten tree. You looked as if you had no thought of anything, as if you had left the society of men, and were standing in the solitude (of yourself).’ Lao Tan replied, ‘I was enjoying myself in thinking about the commencement 1 He was in the TAoistic trance, like Nan-kwo 3ze-éA1, at the beginning of the second Book. PT. Il, SECT. XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 47
2PT. Il, SECT. XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 47 of things?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘My mind is so cramped, that I hardly know it; my tongue is so tied that I cannot tell it; but I will try to describe it to you as nearly as I can. When the state of Yin was perfect, all was cold and severe; when the state of Yang was perfect, all was turbulent and agitated. The coldness and severity came forth from Heaven; the turbulence and agitation issued from Earth. The two states communicating together, a harmony ensued and things were produced. Some one regulated and controlled this, but no one has seen his form. Decay and growth; fulness and emptiness; darkness and light; the changes of the sun and the transformations of the moon :—these are brought about from day to day; but no one sees the process of production. Life has its origin from which it springs, and death has its place from which it returns. Beginning and ending go on in mutual contrariety without any determinable commencement, and no one knows how either comes to an end. If we disallow all this, who originates and presides over all these phenomena ?’ Confucius said, ‘I beg to ask about your enjoyment in these thoughts. L4o Tan replied, ‘The 1 This ‘commencement of things’ was not the equivalent of ‘our creation out of nothing,’ for Lao Tan immediately supposes the existence of the primary ether in its twofold state, as Yin and Yang; and also of Heaven and Earth, as a twofold Power working, under some regulation and control, yet invisible ; that is, under the Tao. In the same way the process of beginning and ending, growth and decay, life and death go on, no one knows how, or how long. And the contemplation of all this is the cause of unceasing delight to the Perfect man, the possessor of the T Ao. Death is a small matter, merely as a change of feature; and Confucius acknowledges his immeasurable inferiority to LAo-3ze. 48 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXI.
3And the contemplation of all this is the cause of unceasing delight to the Perfect man, the possessor of the T Ao. Death is a small matter, merely as a change of feature; and Confucius acknowledges his immeasurable inferiority to LAo-3ze. 48 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXI. comprehension of this is the most admirable and the most enjoyable (of all acquisitions). The getting of the most admirable and the exercise of the thoughts in what is the most enjoyable, constitutes what we call the Perfect man.’ Confucius said, ‘I should like to hear the method of attaining to it. The reply was, ‘Grass-eating animals do not dislike to change their pastures; creatures born in the water do not dislike to change their waters. They make a small change, but do not lose what is the great and regular requirement (of their nature); joy, anger, sadness, and delight do not enter into their breasts (in connexion with such events). Now the space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity. When they possess that unity and equally share it, then the four limbs and hundred members of their body are but so much dust and dirt, while death and life, their ending and beginning, are but as the succession of day and night, which cannot disturb their enjoyment; and how much less will they be troubled by gains and losses, by calamity and happiness! Those who renounce the paraphernalia of rank do it as if they were casting away so much mud ;— they know that they are themselves more honourable than those paraphernalia. The honour belonging to one’s self is not lost by any change (of condition). Moreover, a myriad transformations may take place before the end of them is reached. What is there in all this sufficient to trouble the mind ? Those who have attained to the T4o understand the subject.’ Confucius said, ‘O Master, your virtue is equal to that of Heaven and Earth, and still I must borrow PT, Il, SECT, XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 49 (some of your) perfect words (to aid me) in the cultivation of my mind. Who among the superior men of antiquity could give such expression to them?’ L4o Tan replied, ‘Not so. Look at the spring, the water of which rises and overflows ;— it does nothing, but it naturally acts so. So with the perfect man and his virtue ;—he does not cultivate it, and nothing evades its influence. He is like heaven which is high of itself, like earth which is solid of itself, like the sun and moon which shine of themselves ;—what need is there to cultivate it ?’ Confucius went out and reported the conversation to Yen Hui, saying, ‘In the (knowledge of the) T4o am I any better than an animalcule in vinegar? But for the Master’s lifting the veil from me, I should not have known the grand perfection of Heaven and Earth.’
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.
1? So Hui is made to represent the master as a mental Thaumathurgist, and Confucius is made to try to explain the whole thing to him ;—but not to my mind successfully. Still a distinction is maintained between the mind and the body. ‘46 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXI. I move as acted on by things, day and night without cessation, and I do not know when I will come to an end. Clearly I am here a completed frame, and even one who (fancies that he) knows what is appointed cannot determine it beforehand. I am in this way daily passing on, but all day long I am communicating my views to you; and now, aS we are shoulder to shoulder you fail (to understand me) ;—is it not matter for lamentation ? You are able in a measure to set forth what I more. clearly set forth ; but that is passed away, and you look for it, as if it were still existing, just as if you were looking for a horse in the now empty place where it was formerly exhibited for sale. You have very much forgotten my service to you, and I have very much forgotten wherein I served you. But nevertheless why should you account this such an evil? What you forget is but my old self; that which cannot be forgotten remains with me.’ 4. Confucius went to see Léo Tan, and arrived just as he had completed the bathing of his head, and was letting his dishevelled hair get dry. There he was, motionless, and as if there were not another man in the world’. Confucius waited quietly; and, when ina little time he was introduced, he said, ‘Were my eyes dazed? Is it really you? Just now, your body, Sir, was like the stump of a rotten tree. You looked as if you had no thought of anything, as if you had left the society of men, and were standing in the solitude (of yourself).’ Lao Tan replied, ‘I was enjoying myself in thinking about the commencement 1 He was in the TAoistic trance, like Nan-kwo 3ze-éA1, at the beginning of the second Book. PT. Il, SECT. XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 47
2PT. Il, SECT. XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 47 of things?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘My mind is so cramped, that I hardly know it; my tongue is so tied that I cannot tell it; but I will try to describe it to you as nearly as I can. When the state of Yin was perfect, all was cold and severe; when the state of Yang was perfect, all was turbulent and agitated. The coldness and severity came forth from Heaven; the turbulence and agitation issued from Earth. The two states communicating together, a harmony ensued and things were produced. Some one regulated and controlled this, but no one has seen his form. Decay and growth; fulness and emptiness; darkness and light; the changes of the sun and the transformations of the moon :—these are brought about from day to day; but no one sees the process of production. Life has its origin from which it springs, and death has its place from which it returns. Beginning and ending go on in mutual contrariety without any determinable commencement, and no one knows how either comes to an end. If we disallow all this, who originates and presides over all these phenomena ?’ Confucius said, ‘I beg to ask about your enjoyment in these thoughts. L4o Tan replied, ‘The 1 This ‘commencement of things’ was not the equivalent of ‘our creation out of nothing,’ for Lao Tan immediately supposes the existence of the primary ether in its twofold state, as Yin and Yang; and also of Heaven and Earth, as a twofold Power working, under some regulation and control, yet invisible ; that is, under the Tao. In the same way the process of beginning and ending, growth and decay, life and death go on, no one knows how, or how long. And the contemplation of all this is the cause of unceasing delight to the Perfect man, the possessor of the T Ao. Death is a small matter, merely as a change of feature; and Confucius acknowledges his immeasurable inferiority to LAo-3ze. 48 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXI.
3And the contemplation of all this is the cause of unceasing delight to the Perfect man, the possessor of the T Ao. Death is a small matter, merely as a change of feature; and Confucius acknowledges his immeasurable inferiority to LAo-3ze. 48 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXI. comprehension of this is the most admirable and the most enjoyable (of all acquisitions). The getting of the most admirable and the exercise of the thoughts in what is the most enjoyable, constitutes what we call the Perfect man.’ Confucius said, ‘I should like to hear the method of attaining to it. The reply was, ‘Grass-eating animals do not dislike to change their pastures; creatures born in the water do not dislike to change their waters. They make a small change, but do not lose what is the great and regular requirement (of their nature); joy, anger, sadness, and delight do not enter into their breasts (in connexion with such events). Now the space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity. When they possess that unity and equally share it, then the four limbs and hundred members of their body are but so much dust and dirt, while death and life, their ending and beginning, are but as the succession of day and night, which cannot disturb their enjoyment; and how much less will they be troubled by gains and losses, by calamity and happiness! Those who renounce the paraphernalia of rank do it as if they were casting away so much mud ;— they know that they are themselves more honourable than those paraphernalia. The honour belonging to one’s self is not lost by any change (of condition). Moreover, a myriad transformations may take place before the end of them is reached. What is there in all this sufficient to trouble the mind ? Those who have attained to the T4o understand the subject.’ Confucius said, ‘O Master, your virtue is equal to that of Heaven and Earth, and still I must borrow PT, Il, SECT, XIV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 49 (some of your) perfect words (to aid me) in the cultivation of my mind. Who among the superior men of antiquity could give such expression to them?’ L4o Tan replied, ‘Not so. Look at the spring, the water of which rises and overflows ;— it does nothing, but it naturally acts so. So with the perfect man and his virtue ;—he does not cultivate it, and nothing evades its influence. He is like heaven which is high of itself, like earth which is solid of itself, like the sun and moon which shine of themselves ;—what need is there to cultivate it ?’ Confucius went out and reported the conversation to Yen Hui, saying, ‘In the (knowledge of the) T4o am I any better than an animalcule in vinegar? But for the Master’s lifting the veil from me, I should not have known the grand perfection of Heaven and Earth.’
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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