Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The nature of the second office is not so clearly ascertained. It was, I apprehend, more of a literary character than the curatorship. 314 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. APP. VII. not change his appearance. As soon as Hsiian Ni! saw him, he sighed over him as ‘the Dragon,’ whose powers are difficult to be known?. Yin (Hst), keeper of the (frontier) gate, keeping his eyes directed to every quarter, recognised ‘the True Man’ as he was hastening into retirement. (By Yin Hsi he was prevailed on) to put forth his extraordinary ability, and write his Book in two Parts °,—to lead the nature (of man) back to the T4o, and celebrating the usefulness of ‘doing nothing.’ The style of it is very condensed, and its reasoning deep and far-reaching. The hexagram which is made up of the ‘dragons on the wing *’ is not to be compared with it in exquisite subtlety. (The 30 Awan) which ends with the capture of the Lin, does not match it in its brightness and obscurity. If employed to regulate the person, the spirit becomes clear and the will is still. If employed to govern the state, the people return to simplicity, and become sincere and good. When one goes on to refine his body in accordance with it, the traces of material things are rolled away from it; in rainbow-hued robes and mounted on a stork he goes forwards and backwards to the purple palace; on its juice of gold and wine of jade®> he feasts in the beautiful and pure capital. He is lustrous as the sun and moon; his ending and beginning are those of heaven and earth. He who crosses its stream, drives away the dust and noise of the world; he who finds its gate, mounts prancing up on the misty clouds. It is not for the ephemeral fly to know the fading and luxuriance of the T4-£un®, or for a Fang-i? to fathom the depth of an Arm of the sea. Vast indeed (is the T4o)! words are not sufficient to describe its excellence and powers! 5. Kwang K4u tells us, that, ‘when Lao Tan died, 1 Confucius, who was styled after the beginning of our era for several centuries ‘ Duke Nf, the Illustrious.’ 2 See vol. xxxix, pp. 34, 35. 5 See vol. xxxix, p. 35. * The Khien or first of all the hexagrams of the Yt Xing; but the sentence is to be understood of all the hexagrams,—of the Yf as a whole. 5 Compare Pope's line, ‘ The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew.’ © Vol. xxxix, p. 166, 7 Vol. xxxix, p. 244. APP, VII. THE STONE TABLET TO LAO-3ZE. 315 Khin Shih went to condole (with his son), but after crying out three times, immediately left the house!.’ This was what is called the punishment for his neglecting his Heaven (-implanted nature), and although it appears as one of the metaphorical illustrations of the supercilious officer, yet there is some little indication in the passage of the reappearance of the snake after casting its exuviae?.
2[At this point the author leaves the subject of the Tao and its prophet, and enters on a long panegyric of the founder of the Sui dynasty and his achievements. This sovereign was the emperor Wan (a0 ifr)» the founder of Sui (5 BI iH), originally Yang Kien, a scion of the House of Sui, a principality whose name remains in Sui-24u, of the department Teh-an in Hf Pei. He was certainly the ablest man in the China of his day, and deserves a portion of the praise with which Mr. Hsieh celebrates him after his extravagant fashion. He claimed the throne from the year 581. While doing honour to Confucianism, he did not neglect the other two religions in the empire, Taoism and Buddhism ; and having caused the old temple of Léogze to be repaired in grand style in 586, he commissioned Hsieh T4o-hang to superintend the setting up in it a commemorative Tablet of stone. I pass over all this, which is related at great length, and proceed to give the inscription. It occupies no fewer than 352 characters in 88 lines, each consisting of four characters. The lines are arranged in what we may call eleven stanzas of equal length, the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lines of each rhyming together. There is a good deal of art in the metrical composition. In the first six stanzas the rhyming finals are in the even tone and one of the deflected tones alternately. In the last five stanzas this arrangement is reversed. The rhymes in 7, 9, and 11 are deflected, and in 8 and 10 even. The measure of four characters is the most common in the Shih King or Ancient Book of Poetry. 1 Vol. xxxix, p. 201. 3 Referring, I suppose, to the illustration of the fire and the faggots, 316 ‘THE TEXTS QF TAOISM. APP. VII, It continued to be a favourite down to the Thang dynasty, after which it fell very much into disuse. Through the many assonances of the Chinese characters, and the attention paid to the tones, we have in Chinese composition much of the art of rhyming, but comparatively little of the genius of poetry. ] II. THE INSCRIPTION. St. 1. Back in the depths of ancient time; Remote, before the Tis began; Four equal sides defined the earth, And pillars eight the heaven sustained. All living things in classes came, The valleys wide, and mighty streams. The Perfect T4o, with movement wise, Unseen, Its work did naturally. St. 2. Its power the elements? all felt ; The incipient germs of things? appeared. Shepherd and Lord established were, And in their hands the ivory bonds?. The Tis must blush before the Hwangs‘; The Wangs must blush before the Tis‘. More distant grew T4o’s highest gifts, And simple ways more rare became. St. 3. The still placidity was gone, And all the old harmonious ways. Men talents prized, and varnished wit ; The laws displayed proved but a net. 1 ¢The five essences ;’ meaning, I think, the subtle power and operation of the five elements. 7 So Williams, under Wei (44): See also the Khang-hst Thesaurus under the phrase —— TH.
3Men talents prized, and varnished wit ; The laws displayed proved but a net. 1 ¢The five essences ;’ meaning, I think, the subtle power and operation of the five elements. 7 So Williams, under Wei (44): See also the Khang-hst Thesaurus under the phrase —— TH. 5 ‘Bonds’ with written characters on them superseded the ‘knotted cords’ of the primitive age. That the material of the bonds should be, as here represented, slips of ivory, would seem to anticipate the progress of society. * The Hwangs (3) preceded the Tfs in the Taoistic genesis of history ; and as being more simple were TAoistically superior to them; so it was with the Tis and the Wangs or Kings. APP, VII. THE STONE TABLET TO LAO-8ZE. 317 Wine-cups and stands the board adorned, And shields and spears the country filled. The close-meshed nets the fishes scared: And numerous bows the birds alarmed. St. 4. Then did the True Man! get his birth, As neath the Bear the star shone down?. All dragon gifts his person graced ; Like the stork’s plumage was his hair. The complicated he resolved °, the sharp made blunt’, The mean rejected, and the generous chose ; In brightness like the sun and moon, And lasting as the heaven and earth®*. St. 5. Small to him seemed the mountains five‘, And narrow seemed the regions nine‘; About he went with lofty tread, And in short time he rambled far. In carriage by black oxen drawn §, Around the purple air was bright. Grottoes then oped to him their sombre gates, And thence, unseen, his spirit power flowed forth. St. 6. The village near the stream of Ko® ‘Traces of him will still retain ®; But now, as in the days of old, With changéd times the world is changed. 1 This of course was Lao-3ze. ? See above, p. 313, par. 4. 5 In the Tao Teh Xing, p. 50, par. 2, and p. §2, par. 1. The reading of line 7 is different in my two authorities: — in the one H <4 Al <4 ; in the other 74 By Al FR. I suppose the correct reading should be— H BY A $j , and have given what I think is the meaning. * Two well-known numerical categories. See Mayers’s Manual, pp. 320, 321, and p. 340. 5 So it was, according to the story, that Lao-3ze drew near to the barrier gate, when he wished to leave China. ° The Ko is a river flowing from Ho-nan into An-hui, and falling into the Hwéi, not far from the district city of Hwai-yiian. It enters the one province —. from the other in the small department of Po (Ss +H), in which, according to a Chinese map in my possession, Lao-3ze was born. The Khang-hst Thesaurus also gives a passage to the effect that the temple of his mother was hereabouts, at a bend in the Ko. 318 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. APP, VII. His stately temple fell to ruin ; His altar empty was and still; By the nine wells dryandras grew}, And the twin tablets were but heaps of stone.
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.
1The nature of the second office is not so clearly ascertained. It was, I apprehend, more of a literary character than the curatorship. 314 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. APP. VII. not change his appearance. As soon as Hsiian Ni! saw him, he sighed over him as ‘the Dragon,’ whose powers are difficult to be known?. Yin (Hst), keeper of the (frontier) gate, keeping his eyes directed to every quarter, recognised ‘the True Man’ as he was hastening into retirement. (By Yin Hsi he was prevailed on) to put forth his extraordinary ability, and write his Book in two Parts °,—to lead the nature (of man) back to the T4o, and celebrating the usefulness of ‘doing nothing.’ The style of it is very condensed, and its reasoning deep and far-reaching. The hexagram which is made up of the ‘dragons on the wing *’ is not to be compared with it in exquisite subtlety. (The 30 Awan) which ends with the capture of the Lin, does not match it in its brightness and obscurity. If employed to regulate the person, the spirit becomes clear and the will is still. If employed to govern the state, the people return to simplicity, and become sincere and good. When one goes on to refine his body in accordance with it, the traces of material things are rolled away from it; in rainbow-hued robes and mounted on a stork he goes forwards and backwards to the purple palace; on its juice of gold and wine of jade®> he feasts in the beautiful and pure capital. He is lustrous as the sun and moon; his ending and beginning are those of heaven and earth. He who crosses its stream, drives away the dust and noise of the world; he who finds its gate, mounts prancing up on the misty clouds. It is not for the ephemeral fly to know the fading and luxuriance of the T4-£un®, or for a Fang-i? to fathom the depth of an Arm of the sea. Vast indeed (is the T4o)! words are not sufficient to describe its excellence and powers! 5. Kwang K4u tells us, that, ‘when Lao Tan died, 1 Confucius, who was styled after the beginning of our era for several centuries ‘ Duke Nf, the Illustrious.’ 2 See vol. xxxix, pp. 34, 35. 5 See vol. xxxix, p. 35. * The Khien or first of all the hexagrams of the Yt Xing; but the sentence is to be understood of all the hexagrams,—of the Yf as a whole. 5 Compare Pope's line, ‘ The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew.’ © Vol. xxxix, p. 166, 7 Vol. xxxix, p. 244. APP, VII. THE STONE TABLET TO LAO-3ZE. 315 Khin Shih went to condole (with his son), but after crying out three times, immediately left the house!.’ This was what is called the punishment for his neglecting his Heaven (-implanted nature), and although it appears as one of the metaphorical illustrations of the supercilious officer, yet there is some little indication in the passage of the reappearance of the snake after casting its exuviae?.
2[At this point the author leaves the subject of the Tao and its prophet, and enters on a long panegyric of the founder of the Sui dynasty and his achievements. This sovereign was the emperor Wan (a0 ifr)» the founder of Sui (5 BI iH), originally Yang Kien, a scion of the House of Sui, a principality whose name remains in Sui-24u, of the department Teh-an in Hf Pei. He was certainly the ablest man in the China of his day, and deserves a portion of the praise with which Mr. Hsieh celebrates him after his extravagant fashion. He claimed the throne from the year 581. While doing honour to Confucianism, he did not neglect the other two religions in the empire, Taoism and Buddhism ; and having caused the old temple of Léogze to be repaired in grand style in 586, he commissioned Hsieh T4o-hang to superintend the setting up in it a commemorative Tablet of stone. I pass over all this, which is related at great length, and proceed to give the inscription. It occupies no fewer than 352 characters in 88 lines, each consisting of four characters. The lines are arranged in what we may call eleven stanzas of equal length, the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lines of each rhyming together. There is a good deal of art in the metrical composition. In the first six stanzas the rhyming finals are in the even tone and one of the deflected tones alternately. In the last five stanzas this arrangement is reversed. The rhymes in 7, 9, and 11 are deflected, and in 8 and 10 even. The measure of four characters is the most common in the Shih King or Ancient Book of Poetry. 1 Vol. xxxix, p. 201. 3 Referring, I suppose, to the illustration of the fire and the faggots, 316 ‘THE TEXTS QF TAOISM. APP. VII, It continued to be a favourite down to the Thang dynasty, after which it fell very much into disuse. Through the many assonances of the Chinese characters, and the attention paid to the tones, we have in Chinese composition much of the art of rhyming, but comparatively little of the genius of poetry. ] II. THE INSCRIPTION. St. 1. Back in the depths of ancient time; Remote, before the Tis began; Four equal sides defined the earth, And pillars eight the heaven sustained. All living things in classes came, The valleys wide, and mighty streams. The Perfect T4o, with movement wise, Unseen, Its work did naturally. St. 2. Its power the elements? all felt ; The incipient germs of things? appeared. Shepherd and Lord established were, And in their hands the ivory bonds?. The Tis must blush before the Hwangs‘; The Wangs must blush before the Tis‘. More distant grew T4o’s highest gifts, And simple ways more rare became. St. 3. The still placidity was gone, And all the old harmonious ways. Men talents prized, and varnished wit ; The laws displayed proved but a net. 1 ¢The five essences ;’ meaning, I think, the subtle power and operation of the five elements. 7 So Williams, under Wei (44): See also the Khang-hst Thesaurus under the phrase —— TH.
3Men talents prized, and varnished wit ; The laws displayed proved but a net. 1 ¢The five essences ;’ meaning, I think, the subtle power and operation of the five elements. 7 So Williams, under Wei (44): See also the Khang-hst Thesaurus under the phrase —— TH. 5 ‘Bonds’ with written characters on them superseded the ‘knotted cords’ of the primitive age. That the material of the bonds should be, as here represented, slips of ivory, would seem to anticipate the progress of society. * The Hwangs (3) preceded the Tfs in the Taoistic genesis of history ; and as being more simple were TAoistically superior to them; so it was with the Tis and the Wangs or Kings. APP, VII. THE STONE TABLET TO LAO-8ZE. 317 Wine-cups and stands the board adorned, And shields and spears the country filled. The close-meshed nets the fishes scared: And numerous bows the birds alarmed. St. 4. Then did the True Man! get his birth, As neath the Bear the star shone down?. All dragon gifts his person graced ; Like the stork’s plumage was his hair. The complicated he resolved °, the sharp made blunt’, The mean rejected, and the generous chose ; In brightness like the sun and moon, And lasting as the heaven and earth®*. St. 5. Small to him seemed the mountains five‘, And narrow seemed the regions nine‘; About he went with lofty tread, And in short time he rambled far. In carriage by black oxen drawn §, Around the purple air was bright. Grottoes then oped to him their sombre gates, And thence, unseen, his spirit power flowed forth. St. 6. The village near the stream of Ko® ‘Traces of him will still retain ®; But now, as in the days of old, With changéd times the world is changed. 1 This of course was Lao-3ze. ? See above, p. 313, par. 4. 5 In the Tao Teh Xing, p. 50, par. 2, and p. §2, par. 1. The reading of line 7 is different in my two authorities: — in the one H <4 Al <4 ; in the other 74 By Al FR. I suppose the correct reading should be— H BY A $j , and have given what I think is the meaning. * Two well-known numerical categories. See Mayers’s Manual, pp. 320, 321, and p. 340. 5 So it was, according to the story, that Lao-3ze drew near to the barrier gate, when he wished to leave China. ° The Ko is a river flowing from Ho-nan into An-hui, and falling into the Hwéi, not far from the district city of Hwai-yiian. It enters the one province —. from the other in the small department of Po (Ss +H), in which, according to a Chinese map in my possession, Lao-3ze was born. The Khang-hst Thesaurus also gives a passage to the effect that the temple of his mother was hereabouts, at a bend in the Ko. 318 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. APP, VII. His stately temple fell to ruin ; His altar empty was and still; By the nine wells dryandras grew}, And the twin tablets were but heaps of stone.
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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