Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
113, the party applied to is ‘duke Wan of Wei;’ but this does not necessarily conflict with the text. The genuineness of the paragraph is denied by Lin Hsf-4ung and others; but I seem to see the hand of Kwang-jze in it. PT, 111, SECT. Iv. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 133 getting the (tax-) money from the people (soon), - and I will then lend you three hundred ounces of silver ;—will that do?’ wang Au flushed with anger, and said, ‘On the road yesterday, as I was coming here, I heard some one calling out. On looking round, I saw a goby in the carriage rut, and said to it, “Goby fish, what has brought you here ?” The goby said, “I am Minister of Waves in the Eastern Sea. Have you, Sir, a gallon or a pint of water to keep me alive?” I replied, “ Yes, I am going south to see the kings of WQ and Yiieh, and I will then lead a stream from the Western Kiang to meet you ;—will that do?” The goby flushed with anger, and said, “I have lost my proper element, and I can here do nothing for myself; but if I could get a gallon or a pint of water, I should keep alive. Than do what you propose, you had better soon look for me in a stall of dry fish.”’ 3. A son of the duke of Zan}, having provided himself with a great hook, a powerful black line, and fifty steers to be used as bait, squatted down on (mount) Kwai Ai, and threw the line into the Eastern Sea. Morning after morning he angled thus, and for a whole year caught nothing. At the end of that time, a great fish swallowed the bait, and dived down, dragging the great hook with him. Then it rose to the surface in a flurry, and flapped with its fins, till the white waves rose like hills, and the waters were lashed into fury. The noise was like that of imps and spirits, and spread terror 1 I suppose this was merely a district of KAf, and the duke of it merely the officer in charge of it ;—according to the practice of the rulers of AAA, after they usurped the title of King. 134 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXVI. for a thousand lf. The prince having got such a fish, cut it in slices and dried them. From the Keh river! to the east, and from 3hang-w(? to the north, there was not one who did not eat his full from that fish ; and in subsequent generations, story-tellers of small abilities have all repeated the story to one another with astonishment. (But) if the prince had taken his rod, with a fine line, and gone to pools and ditches, and watched for minnows and gobies, it would have been difficult for him to get a large fish. Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding ; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Zan is not fit to take any part in the government of the world ;—far is he from being so*.
2Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding ; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Zan is not fit to take any part in the government of the world ;—far is he from being so*. 4. Some literati, students of the Odes and Ceremonies, were breaking open a mound over a grave‘. The superior among them spoke down to the others, ‘ Day is breaking in the east ; how is the thing going on?’ The younger men replied, ‘We have not yet opened his jacket and skirt, but there is a pearl in the mouth. As it is said in the Ode, “The bright, green grain Is growing on the sides of the mound. ' The FF] YB] of the text = the wr YT, still giving its name to the province so called. 2 Where Shun was buried. 5 This last sentence is difficult to construe, and to understand.— The genuineness of this paragraph is also questioned, and the style is inferior to that of the preceding. * I can conceive of Xwang-3ze telling this story of some literati who had been acting as resurrectionists, as a joke against their class; but not of his writing it to form a part of his work. PT. 111, SECT.IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 135 While living, he gave nothing away ; Why, when dead, should he hold a pearl in his mouth! ?”’ Thereupon they took hold of the whiskers and pulled at the beard, while the superior introduced a piece of fine steel into the chin, and gradually separated the jaws, so as not to injure the pearl in the mouth. 5. A disciple of Lao LAi-3ze?, while he was out gathering firewood, met with Aung-nt. On his return, he told (his master), saying, ‘ There is a man there, the upper part of whose body is long and the lower part short. He is slightly hump-backed, and his ears are far back. When you look at him, he seems occupied with the cares of all within the four seas ; I do not know whose son he is.’ Lao L4i-3ze said, ‘ It is Kid; call him here;’ and when Kung-ni came, he said to him, ‘ AAid, put away your personal conceit, and airs of wisdom, and show yourself to be indeed a superior man.’ ung-nt bowed and was retiring, when he abruptly changed his manner, and asked, ‘Will the object I am pursuing be thereby advanced?’ Lao LaAi-jze replied, ‘ You cannot bear the sufferings of this one age, and are stubbornly regardless of the 1 This verse is not found, so far as I know, anywhere else.
32 Lao Léi-gze appears here as a contemporary of Confucius, and the master of a T4oistic school, and this also is the view of him which we receive from the accounts in Sze-ma X/ien and HwangfQ Mi. Sze-ma says he published a work in fifteen sections on the usefulness of Taoism. Some have imagined that he was the same as LAo-gze himself, but there does not appear any ground for that opinion. He is one of the twenty-four examples of Filial Piety so celebrated among the Chinese; but I suspect that the accounts of him as such are fabrications. He certainly lectures Confucius here in a manner worthy of Lao Tan. 136 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXVI. evils of a myriad ages :—is it that you purposely make yourself thus unhappy ? or is it that you have not the ability to comprehend the case? Your obstinate purpose to make men rejoice in a participation of your joy is your life-long shame, the procedure of a mediocre man. You would lead men by your fame; you would bind them to you by your secret art. Than be praising Y4o and condemning Kieh, you had better forget them both, and shut up your tendency to praise. If you reflect on it, it does nothing but injury; your action in it is entirely wrong. The sage is full of anxiety and indecision in undertaking anything, and so he is always successful, But what shall I say of your conduct? To the end it is all affectation.’ 6. Theruler Yiian of Sung! (once) dreamt at midnight that a man with dishevelled hair peeped in on him at a side door and said, ‘I was coming from the abyss of 34i-li, commissioned by the Clear Kiang to go to the place of the Earl of the Ho; but the fisherman Yii Zii has caught me.’ When the ruler Yiian ‘awoke, he caused a diviner to divine the meaning (of the dream), and was told, ‘ This is a marvellous tortoise.’ The ruler asked if among the fishermen there was one called Yii 3ii, and being told by his attendants that there was, he gave orders that he should be summoned to court. Accordingly the man next day appeared at court, and the ruler said, ‘What have you caught (lately) in fishing?’ The reply was, ‘I have caught in my net a white tortoise, sievelike, and five cubits round.’ ‘ Present the prodigy here,’ said the ruler ; and, when it came, once and * Compare in Bk, XXI, par. 7. PT. Ill, SECT.IvV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 137 again he wished to kill it, once and again he wished to keep it alive. Doubting in his mind (what to do), he had recourse to divination, and obtained the answer, ‘ To kill the tortoise for use in divining will be fortunate.’ Accordingly they cut the creature open, and perforated its shell in seventy-two places, and there was not a single divining slip which failed’.
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.
113, the party applied to is ‘duke Wan of Wei;’ but this does not necessarily conflict with the text. The genuineness of the paragraph is denied by Lin Hsf-4ung and others; but I seem to see the hand of Kwang-jze in it. PT, 111, SECT. Iv. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE. 133 getting the (tax-) money from the people (soon), - and I will then lend you three hundred ounces of silver ;—will that do?’ wang Au flushed with anger, and said, ‘On the road yesterday, as I was coming here, I heard some one calling out. On looking round, I saw a goby in the carriage rut, and said to it, “Goby fish, what has brought you here ?” The goby said, “I am Minister of Waves in the Eastern Sea. Have you, Sir, a gallon or a pint of water to keep me alive?” I replied, “ Yes, I am going south to see the kings of WQ and Yiieh, and I will then lead a stream from the Western Kiang to meet you ;—will that do?” The goby flushed with anger, and said, “I have lost my proper element, and I can here do nothing for myself; but if I could get a gallon or a pint of water, I should keep alive. Than do what you propose, you had better soon look for me in a stall of dry fish.”’ 3. A son of the duke of Zan}, having provided himself with a great hook, a powerful black line, and fifty steers to be used as bait, squatted down on (mount) Kwai Ai, and threw the line into the Eastern Sea. Morning after morning he angled thus, and for a whole year caught nothing. At the end of that time, a great fish swallowed the bait, and dived down, dragging the great hook with him. Then it rose to the surface in a flurry, and flapped with its fins, till the white waves rose like hills, and the waters were lashed into fury. The noise was like that of imps and spirits, and spread terror 1 I suppose this was merely a district of KAf, and the duke of it merely the officer in charge of it ;—according to the practice of the rulers of AAA, after they usurped the title of King. 134 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXVI. for a thousand lf. The prince having got such a fish, cut it in slices and dried them. From the Keh river! to the east, and from 3hang-w(? to the north, there was not one who did not eat his full from that fish ; and in subsequent generations, story-tellers of small abilities have all repeated the story to one another with astonishment. (But) if the prince had taken his rod, with a fine line, and gone to pools and ditches, and watched for minnows and gobies, it would have been difficult for him to get a large fish. Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding ; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Zan is not fit to take any part in the government of the world ;—far is he from being so*.
2Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding ; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Zan is not fit to take any part in the government of the world ;—far is he from being so*. 4. Some literati, students of the Odes and Ceremonies, were breaking open a mound over a grave‘. The superior among them spoke down to the others, ‘ Day is breaking in the east ; how is the thing going on?’ The younger men replied, ‘We have not yet opened his jacket and skirt, but there is a pearl in the mouth. As it is said in the Ode, “The bright, green grain Is growing on the sides of the mound. ' The FF] YB] of the text = the wr YT, still giving its name to the province so called. 2 Where Shun was buried. 5 This last sentence is difficult to construe, and to understand.— The genuineness of this paragraph is also questioned, and the style is inferior to that of the preceding. * I can conceive of Xwang-3ze telling this story of some literati who had been acting as resurrectionists, as a joke against their class; but not of his writing it to form a part of his work. PT. 111, SECT.IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 135 While living, he gave nothing away ; Why, when dead, should he hold a pearl in his mouth! ?”’ Thereupon they took hold of the whiskers and pulled at the beard, while the superior introduced a piece of fine steel into the chin, and gradually separated the jaws, so as not to injure the pearl in the mouth. 5. A disciple of Lao LAi-3ze?, while he was out gathering firewood, met with Aung-nt. On his return, he told (his master), saying, ‘ There is a man there, the upper part of whose body is long and the lower part short. He is slightly hump-backed, and his ears are far back. When you look at him, he seems occupied with the cares of all within the four seas ; I do not know whose son he is.’ Lao L4i-3ze said, ‘ It is Kid; call him here;’ and when Kung-ni came, he said to him, ‘ AAid, put away your personal conceit, and airs of wisdom, and show yourself to be indeed a superior man.’ ung-nt bowed and was retiring, when he abruptly changed his manner, and asked, ‘Will the object I am pursuing be thereby advanced?’ Lao LaAi-jze replied, ‘ You cannot bear the sufferings of this one age, and are stubbornly regardless of the 1 This verse is not found, so far as I know, anywhere else.
32 Lao Léi-gze appears here as a contemporary of Confucius, and the master of a T4oistic school, and this also is the view of him which we receive from the accounts in Sze-ma X/ien and HwangfQ Mi. Sze-ma says he published a work in fifteen sections on the usefulness of Taoism. Some have imagined that he was the same as LAo-gze himself, but there does not appear any ground for that opinion. He is one of the twenty-four examples of Filial Piety so celebrated among the Chinese; but I suspect that the accounts of him as such are fabrications. He certainly lectures Confucius here in a manner worthy of Lao Tan. 136 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. BK, XXVI. evils of a myriad ages :—is it that you purposely make yourself thus unhappy ? or is it that you have not the ability to comprehend the case? Your obstinate purpose to make men rejoice in a participation of your joy is your life-long shame, the procedure of a mediocre man. You would lead men by your fame; you would bind them to you by your secret art. Than be praising Y4o and condemning Kieh, you had better forget them both, and shut up your tendency to praise. If you reflect on it, it does nothing but injury; your action in it is entirely wrong. The sage is full of anxiety and indecision in undertaking anything, and so he is always successful, But what shall I say of your conduct? To the end it is all affectation.’ 6. Theruler Yiian of Sung! (once) dreamt at midnight that a man with dishevelled hair peeped in on him at a side door and said, ‘I was coming from the abyss of 34i-li, commissioned by the Clear Kiang to go to the place of the Earl of the Ho; but the fisherman Yii Zii has caught me.’ When the ruler Yiian ‘awoke, he caused a diviner to divine the meaning (of the dream), and was told, ‘ This is a marvellous tortoise.’ The ruler asked if among the fishermen there was one called Yii 3ii, and being told by his attendants that there was, he gave orders that he should be summoned to court. Accordingly the man next day appeared at court, and the ruler said, ‘What have you caught (lately) in fishing?’ The reply was, ‘I have caught in my net a white tortoise, sievelike, and five cubits round.’ ‘ Present the prodigy here,’ said the ruler ; and, when it came, once and * Compare in Bk, XXI, par. 7. PT. Ill, SECT.IvV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-8ZE. 137 again he wished to kill it, once and again he wished to keep it alive. Doubting in his mind (what to do), he had recourse to divination, and obtained the answer, ‘ To kill the tortoise for use in divining will be fortunate.’ Accordingly they cut the creature open, and perforated its shell in seventy-two places, and there was not a single divining slip which failed’.
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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