Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1It is the good fortune of your son, and 1 See note 3 on previous page. * This can hardly be any other but Nan-kwo Bze-kit. * A famous physiognomist ; some say, of horses. Hwé4i-nan 3ze calls him Xif-fang K4o ( ). “ See Mayers’s Manual, p. 303. PT. III. SECT. 11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 107 you count it his misfortune.’ 3ze-£ht said, ‘O Y&n, what sufficient ground have you for knowing that this will be Khw&n’s good fortune? (The fortune) that is summed up in wine and flesh affects only the nose and the mouth, but you are not able to know how it will come about. I have never been a shepherd, and yet a ewe lambed in the south-west corner of my house. I have never been fond of hunting, and yet a quail hatched her young in the south-east corner. If these were not prodigies, what can be accounted such? Where I wish to occupy my mind with my son is in (the wide sphere of) heaven and earth; I wish to seek his enjoyment and mine in (the idea of) Heaven, and our support from the Earth. I do not mix myself up with him in the affairs (of the world); nor in forming plans (for his advantage) ; nor in the practice of what is strange. I pursue with him the perfect virtue of Heaven and Earth, and do not allow ourselves to be troubled by outward things. I seek to be with him in a state of undisturbed indifference, and not to practise what affairs might indicate as likely to be advantageous. And now there is to come to us this vulgar recompense, Whenever there is a strange realisation, there must have been strange conduct. Danger threatens ;—not through any sin of me or of my son, but as brought about, I apprehend, by Heaven. It is this which makes me weep!’ Not long after this, 3ze-£/i sent off Khwan to go to Yen1, when he was made prisoner by some robbers on the way. It would have been difficult to sell him if he were whole and entire, and they thought 1 The state so called. 108 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXIV. their easiest plan was to cut off (one of his) feet first. They did so, and sold him in At, where he became Inspector of roads for a Mr. KA. Nevertheless he had flesh to eat till he died.
2108 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXIV. their easiest plan was to cut off (one of his) feet first. They did so, and sold him in At, where he became Inspector of roads for a Mr. KA. Nevertheless he had flesh to eat till he died. 12. Nieh Khiieh met Hsii Yd (on the way), and said to him, ‘Where, Sir, are you going to?’ ‘I am fleeing from Y4o, was the reply. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Y4o has become so bent on his benevolence that I am afraid the world will laugh at him, and that in future ages men will be found eating one another®?. Now the people are collected together without difficulty. Love them, and they respond with affection; benefit them, and they come to you; praise them, and they are stimulated (to please you); make them to experience what they dislike, and they disperse. When the loving and benefiting proceed from benevolence and righteousness, those who forget the benevolence and righteousness, and those who make a profit of them, arethe many. In this way the practice of benevolence and righteousness comes to be without sincerity and is like a borrowing of the instruments with which men catch birds*, In all this the one man’s seeking to benefit the world by his decisions and enactments (of such a nature) is as if he were to cut through (the nature of all) by one operation ;—Y4o knows how wise and superior men can benefit the world, but he does not 1 One expert supposes the text here to mean ‘duke XAii;’ but there was no such duke of K/i. The best explanation seems to be that Ki was a rich gentleman, inspector of the roads of KAi, or of the streets of its capital, who bought Khwan to take his duties for him. * Compare in Bk. XXIII, par. 2. 8 A scheming for one’s own advantage. PT, Ill. SECT.11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 109 also know how they injure it. It is only those who stand outside such men that know this 1’ There are the pliable and weak; the easy and hasty; the grasping and crooked. Those who are called the pliable and weak learn the words of some one master, to which they freely yield their assent, being secretly pleased with themselves, and thinking that their knowledge is sufficient, while they do not know that they have not yet begun (to understand) a single thing. It is this which makes them so pliable and weak. The easy and hasty are like lice on a pig. The lice select a place where the bristles are more wide apart, and look on it as a great palace or a large park. The slits between the toes, the overlappings of its skin, about its nipples and its thighs,—all these seem to them safe apartments and advantageous places ;—they do not know that the butcher one morning, swinging about his arms, will spread the grass, and kindle the fire, so that they and the pig will be roasted together. So do they appear and disappear with the place where they harboured :—this is why they are called the easy and hasty.
3So do they appear and disappear with the place where they harboured :—this is why they are called the easy and hasty. Of the grasping and crooked we have an example in Shun. Mutton has no craving for ants, but ants have a craving for mutton, for it is rank. There was a rankness about the conduct of Shun, and the people were pleased with him. Hence when he thrice changed his residence, every one of them became a capital city. When he came to the wild 1 I suppose that the words of Hsii YQ stop with this sentence, and that from this to the end of the paragraph we have the sentiments of Xwang-3ze himself. The style is his,—graphic but sometimes coarse. 2 See note on Mencius V, i, 2, 3. 110 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXIV, of Tang}, he had 100,000 families about him. Y4o having heard of the virtue and ability of Shun, appointed him to a new and uncultivated territory, saying, ‘I look forward to the benefit of his coming ° here. When Shun was appointed to this new territory, his years were advanced, and his intelligence was decayed ;—and yet he could not find a place of rest or a home. This is an example of being grasping and wayward. Therefore (in opposition to such) the spirit-like man dislikes the flocking of the multitudes to him. When the multitudes come, they do not agree; and when they do not agree, no benefit results from their coming. Hence there are none whom he brings very near to himself, and none whom he keeps at a great distance. He keeps his virtue in close embrace, and warmly nourishes (the spirit of) harmony, so as to be in accordance with all men. This is called the True man?, Even the knowledge of the ant he puts away; his plans are simply those of the fishes*; even the notions of the sheep he discards. His seeing is simply that of the eye; his hearing that of the ear; his mind is governed by its general exercises. Being such, his course is straight and level as if marked out by a line, and its every change is in accordance (with the circumstances of the case). 13. The True men of old waited for the issues of events as the arrangements of Heaven, and did not by their human efforts try to take the place of Heaven, The True men of old (now) looked on ' Situation unknown. * The spirit-like man and the true man are the same. 5 Fishes forget everything in the water. PT. Ill, SECT. 11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE, Ill v
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.
1It is the good fortune of your son, and 1 See note 3 on previous page. * This can hardly be any other but Nan-kwo Bze-kit. * A famous physiognomist ; some say, of horses. Hwé4i-nan 3ze calls him Xif-fang K4o ( ). “ See Mayers’s Manual, p. 303. PT. III. SECT. 11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 107 you count it his misfortune.’ 3ze-£ht said, ‘O Y&n, what sufficient ground have you for knowing that this will be Khw&n’s good fortune? (The fortune) that is summed up in wine and flesh affects only the nose and the mouth, but you are not able to know how it will come about. I have never been a shepherd, and yet a ewe lambed in the south-west corner of my house. I have never been fond of hunting, and yet a quail hatched her young in the south-east corner. If these were not prodigies, what can be accounted such? Where I wish to occupy my mind with my son is in (the wide sphere of) heaven and earth; I wish to seek his enjoyment and mine in (the idea of) Heaven, and our support from the Earth. I do not mix myself up with him in the affairs (of the world); nor in forming plans (for his advantage) ; nor in the practice of what is strange. I pursue with him the perfect virtue of Heaven and Earth, and do not allow ourselves to be troubled by outward things. I seek to be with him in a state of undisturbed indifference, and not to practise what affairs might indicate as likely to be advantageous. And now there is to come to us this vulgar recompense, Whenever there is a strange realisation, there must have been strange conduct. Danger threatens ;—not through any sin of me or of my son, but as brought about, I apprehend, by Heaven. It is this which makes me weep!’ Not long after this, 3ze-£/i sent off Khwan to go to Yen1, when he was made prisoner by some robbers on the way. It would have been difficult to sell him if he were whole and entire, and they thought 1 The state so called. 108 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXIV. their easiest plan was to cut off (one of his) feet first. They did so, and sold him in At, where he became Inspector of roads for a Mr. KA. Nevertheless he had flesh to eat till he died.
2108 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXIV. their easiest plan was to cut off (one of his) feet first. They did so, and sold him in At, where he became Inspector of roads for a Mr. KA. Nevertheless he had flesh to eat till he died. 12. Nieh Khiieh met Hsii Yd (on the way), and said to him, ‘Where, Sir, are you going to?’ ‘I am fleeing from Y4o, was the reply. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Y4o has become so bent on his benevolence that I am afraid the world will laugh at him, and that in future ages men will be found eating one another®?. Now the people are collected together without difficulty. Love them, and they respond with affection; benefit them, and they come to you; praise them, and they are stimulated (to please you); make them to experience what they dislike, and they disperse. When the loving and benefiting proceed from benevolence and righteousness, those who forget the benevolence and righteousness, and those who make a profit of them, arethe many. In this way the practice of benevolence and righteousness comes to be without sincerity and is like a borrowing of the instruments with which men catch birds*, In all this the one man’s seeking to benefit the world by his decisions and enactments (of such a nature) is as if he were to cut through (the nature of all) by one operation ;—Y4o knows how wise and superior men can benefit the world, but he does not 1 One expert supposes the text here to mean ‘duke XAii;’ but there was no such duke of K/i. The best explanation seems to be that Ki was a rich gentleman, inspector of the roads of KAi, or of the streets of its capital, who bought Khwan to take his duties for him. * Compare in Bk. XXIII, par. 2. 8 A scheming for one’s own advantage. PT, Ill. SECT.11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 109 also know how they injure it. It is only those who stand outside such men that know this 1’ There are the pliable and weak; the easy and hasty; the grasping and crooked. Those who are called the pliable and weak learn the words of some one master, to which they freely yield their assent, being secretly pleased with themselves, and thinking that their knowledge is sufficient, while they do not know that they have not yet begun (to understand) a single thing. It is this which makes them so pliable and weak. The easy and hasty are like lice on a pig. The lice select a place where the bristles are more wide apart, and look on it as a great palace or a large park. The slits between the toes, the overlappings of its skin, about its nipples and its thighs,—all these seem to them safe apartments and advantageous places ;—they do not know that the butcher one morning, swinging about his arms, will spread the grass, and kindle the fire, so that they and the pig will be roasted together. So do they appear and disappear with the place where they harboured :—this is why they are called the easy and hasty.
3So do they appear and disappear with the place where they harboured :—this is why they are called the easy and hasty. Of the grasping and crooked we have an example in Shun. Mutton has no craving for ants, but ants have a craving for mutton, for it is rank. There was a rankness about the conduct of Shun, and the people were pleased with him. Hence when he thrice changed his residence, every one of them became a capital city. When he came to the wild 1 I suppose that the words of Hsii YQ stop with this sentence, and that from this to the end of the paragraph we have the sentiments of Xwang-3ze himself. The style is his,—graphic but sometimes coarse. 2 See note on Mencius V, i, 2, 3. 110 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK. XXIV, of Tang}, he had 100,000 families about him. Y4o having heard of the virtue and ability of Shun, appointed him to a new and uncultivated territory, saying, ‘I look forward to the benefit of his coming ° here. When Shun was appointed to this new territory, his years were advanced, and his intelligence was decayed ;—and yet he could not find a place of rest or a home. This is an example of being grasping and wayward. Therefore (in opposition to such) the spirit-like man dislikes the flocking of the multitudes to him. When the multitudes come, they do not agree; and when they do not agree, no benefit results from their coming. Hence there are none whom he brings very near to himself, and none whom he keeps at a great distance. He keeps his virtue in close embrace, and warmly nourishes (the spirit of) harmony, so as to be in accordance with all men. This is called the True man?, Even the knowledge of the ant he puts away; his plans are simply those of the fishes*; even the notions of the sheep he discards. His seeing is simply that of the eye; his hearing that of the ear; his mind is governed by its general exercises. Being such, his course is straight and level as if marked out by a line, and its every change is in accordance (with the circumstances of the case). 13. The True men of old waited for the issues of events as the arrangements of Heaven, and did not by their human efforts try to take the place of Heaven, The True men of old (now) looked on ' Situation unknown. * The spirit-like man and the true man are the same. 5 Fishes forget everything in the water. PT. Ill, SECT. 11. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE, Ill v
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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