IN the time of King Mu of Chou, there was a magician who came from a kingdom in the far west. He could pass through fire and water, penetrate metal and stone, overturn mountains and make rivers flow backwards, transplant whole towns and cities, ride on thin air without falling, encounter solid bodies without being obstructed. There was no end to the countless variety of changes and transformations which he could effect; and, besides changing the external form, he could also spirit away men's internal cares. King Mu revered him as a god, and served him like a prince. He set aside for his use a spacious suite of apartments, regaled him with the daintiest of food, and selected a number of singing-girls for his express gratification. The magician, however, condemned the King's palace as mean, the cooking as rancid, and the concu bines as too ugly to live with. So King Mu had a new building erected to please him. It was built entirely of bricks and wood, and gorgeously 58 A PALACE OF DELIGHT 59 decorated in red and white, no skill being spared in its construction. The five royal treasuries were empty by the time that the new pavilion was complete. It stood six thousand feet high, over topping Mount Chung-nan, and it was called Touch-the-sky Pavilion. Then the King pro ceeded to fill it with maidens, selected from Cheng and Wei, of the most exquisite and delicate beauty. They were anointed with fragrant perfumes, pro vided with jewelled hairpins and earrings, and arrayed in the finest silks, with costly satin trains. Their faces were powdered, and their eyebrows pencilled, their girdles were studded with precious stones, and sweet scents were wafted abroad wherever they went. Ravishing music was played to the honoured guest by the Imperial bands; several times a month he was presented with fresh jewelled raiment; every day he had set before him some new and delicious food.
The magician could not well refuse to take up his abode in this palace of delight. But he had not dwelt there very long before he invited the King to accompany him on a jaunt. So the King clutched the magician's sleeve, and soared up with him higher and higher into the sky, until at last they stopped, and lo! they had reached the magician's own palace. This palace was built with beams of gold and silver, and incrusted with pearls and jade. It towered high above the region of clouds and rain, and 60 DREAMS 60 DREAMS the foundations whereon it rested were unknown. It appeared like a stupendous cloud-mass to the view. The sights and sounds it offered to eye and ear, the scents and flavours which abounded there, were such as exist not within mortal ken. The King verily believed that he was in the Halls of Paradise, tenanted by God Himself, and that he was listening to the mighty music of the spheres. He gazed at his own palace on the earth below, and it seemed to him no better than a rude pile of clods and brushwood. The King would gladly have stayed in this place for decade after decade, without a thought for his own country. But the magician invited him to make another journey, and in the new region they came to, neither sun nor moon could be seen in the heavens above, nor any rivers or seas below. The King's eyes were dazed by the quality of the light, and he lost the power of vision; his ears were stunned by the sounds that assailed them, and he lost the faculty of hearing. The framework of his bones and his internal organs were thrown out of gear and refused to function. His thoughts were in a whirl, his intellect became clouded, and he begged the magician to take him back again.
" This was the region of the Great Void, where all is dim and blurred, assuredly not meant to be traversed by the ordinary man. The dizziness of brain and eye was the effect of Spontaneity."
THE UNREALITY OF PLEASURE 61 Thereupon, the magician gave him a shove, and the King experienced a sensation of falling through space...When he awoke to consciousness, he found himself sitting on his throne just as before, with the selfsame attendants round him. He looked at the wine in front of him, and saw that it was still full of sediment; he looked at the viands, and found that they had not yet lost their freshness. He asked where he had come from, and his attendants told him that he had only been sitting quietly there. This threw King Mu into a reverie, and it was three months before he was himself again. Then he made further inquiry, and asked the magician to explain what had happened. " Your Majesty and I," replied the magician, " were only difference is there between that sky-palace we • dwelt in and your Majesty's palace on earth, between the spaces we travelled through and your Majesty's own park?
Looked at from the standpoint of the Absolute, both palaces were unreal.
During your retirement from public affairs, you have been in a perpetual state of doubt as to the reality of your experience. But in a wandering about in the spirit, and, of course, our bodies never moved at all. What essential 62 DREAMS universe where changes are everlastingly in progress, and fast and slow are purely relative conceptions, how can the Ideal ever be fully attained? " The sky-palace was only some degrees finer than the King's, just as the King's palace was only some degrees finer than the hovel of a peasant. To strive for something that shall satisfy man's desires and aspirations once and for all is only labour lost. The story continues with an account of the Bang's marvellous journey to the West. But though he drained the cup of pleasure to the dregs, the upshot of it all was that he never truly attained to Tao. We may seek the moral in a saying of Lao Tzu: " Without going out of doors, one may know the whole world; without looking out of window, one may see the Way of Heaven. The farther one travels, the less one may know."
Lao Ch'eng Tzu went to learn magic from the venerable Yin Wen. After a period of three years, having obtained no communication, he humbly asked permission to go home. Yin Wen bowed, and led him into the inner apart ment. There, having dismissed his attendants, he spoke to him as follows: " Long ago, when Lao Tzu was setting out on his journey to the West, he addressed me and said: * All that has the breath of life, all that possesses bodily form, is mere Illusion. The point at which creation begins, the change effected by the Dual Principles — these are called respectively Life and Death. That which underlies the manifold DEATH IS EVOLUTION 63 workings of Destiny is called Evolution; that which produces and transforms bodily substance is called Illusion. The Creator's ingenuity is mysterious, His operations secret and profound. In truth, He is inexhaustible and eternal.
The " Creator," of course, is Tao; but how widely the conception of Tao differs from that of a personal God may be seen from the commentator's note: " How should the Creator possess a conscious mind? It is His spontaneity that constitutes the mystery. Essential matter unites with extensive energy to become a bodily substance, which follows * the line of evolution and passes away, but does not, on that account, relapse into nothingness."
The ingenuity of that which causes material form is patent to the eye, and its workings are shallow. Therefore it arises anon, and anon it is destroyed.' Only one who knows that Life is really Illusion, and that Death is really Evolution, can begin to learn magic from me. You and I are both illusions. How are we, then, to make a study of the subject? " " If a person wishes to make a study of illusion, in spite of the fact that his own body is an illusion, we are reduced to the absurdity of an illusion studying an illusion."
Lao Ch'eng Tsu returned home, and for three months pondered deeply over the words of the Venerable Yin Wen. Subsequently, he had the power of appearing or disappearing at will; he could reverse the order of the four seasons, 64 DREAMS produce thunderstorms in winter and ice in summer, make flying things creep and creeping things fly. But to the end of his days he never made any public display of his art, so that the secret was not handed down to after generations.
The Master Lieh Tzu said: "A dream is the meeting of minds; an event in our waking consciousness is the coming together of sensible substances. Hence our feelings by day and our dreams by night are the meetings of mind with mind and of substance with substance. It follows that if we can concentrate the mind in abstraction, our feelings and our dreams will vanish of themselves. With those who rely on their waking perceptions you cannot argue. Those who put faith in dreams do not understand the alternating processes of evolution.
This refers to a previous passage, omitted in the present selection. Contrary to the received opinion of his own day, Lieh Tzu held that dreams were not just arbitrary mani festations portending future events, but the effects of regular antecedent causes, without any further significance. They are produced by certain processes of the mind, and if these processes can be checked (as Lieh Tzu believes they can) by means of abstraction, dreaming will also cease.
'The pure men of old passed their waking existence in self-oblivion, and slept without KING BY NIGHT, SLAVE BY DAY 65 dreams.' How can this be dismissed as an empty phrase? " Mr. Yin of Chou was the owner of a large estate who harried his servants unmercifully, and gave them no rest from morning to night. There was one old servant in particular whose physical strength had quite left him, yet his master worked him all the harder. All day long he was groaning as he went about his work, and when night came he was reeling with fatigue and would sleep like a log. His spirit was then free to wander at will, and every night he dreamt that he was a king, enthroned in authority over the multitude, and controlling the affairs of the whole State. He took his pleasure in palaces and belvederes, following his own fancy in everything, and his happiness was beyond compare. But when he awoke, he was a servant once more. To some one who condoled with him on his hard lot the old man replied: " Human life may last a hundred years, and the whole of it is equally divided into nights and days. In the daytime I am only a slave, it is true, and my misery cannot be gainsaid. But by night I am a king, and my happiness is beyond compare. So what have I to grumble at? " Now, Mr. Yin's mind was full of worldly 5 66 DREAMS cares, and he was always thinking with anxious solicitude about the affairs of his estate. Thus he was wearing out mind and body alike, and at night he also used to fall asleep utterly ex hausted. Every night he dreamt that he was another man's servant, running about on menial business of every description, and subjected to every possible kind of abuse and ill-treatment. He would mutter and groan in his sleep, and obtained no relief until morning came. This state of things at last resulted in a serious illness, and Mr. Yin besought the advice of a friend. "Your station in life," his friend said, " is a distinguished one, and you have wealth and property in abundance. In these respects you are far above the average. If at night you dream that you are a servant and exchange ease for affliction, that is only the proper balance in human destiny. What you want is that your dreams should be as pleasant as your waking moments. But that is beyond your powrer to compass." On hearing what his friend said, Mr. Yin lightened his servant's toil, and allowed his own mental worry to abate; whereupon his malady began to decrease in proportion.
A man was gathering fuel in the Cheng State when he fell in with a deer that had been startled DREAMS WITHIN DREAMS 67 from its usual haunts. He gave chase, and succeeded in killing it. He was overjoyed at his good luck; but, for fear of discovery, he hastily concealed the carcass in a dry ditch, and covered it up with brushwood. Afterwards, he forgot the spot where he had hidden the deer, and finally became convinced that the whole affair was only a dream. He told the story to people he met as he went along; and one of those who heard it, following the indications given, went and found the deer. On reaching home with his booty, this man made the following statement to his wife: " Once upon a time," he said, " a wood-cutter dreamt that he had got a deer, but couldn't remember the place where he had put it. Now I have found the deer, so it appears that his dream was a true dream." " On the con trary," said his wife, "it is you who must have dreamt that you met a wood-cutter who had caught a deer. Here you have a deer, true enough. But where is the wood-cutter? It is evidently your dream that has come true." " I have certainly got a deer," replied her husband; " so what does it matter to us whether it was his dream or mine? " Meanwhile, the wood-cutter had gone home, not at all disgusted at having lost the deer.
For he thought the whole thing must have been a dream.
But the same night, he saw in a dream the place 68 DREAMS where he had really hidden it, and he also dreamt of the man who had taken it. So, the next morning, in accordance with his dream, he went to seek him out in order to recover the deer. A quarrel ensued, and the matter was finally brought before the magistrate, who gave judg ment in these terms: " You," he said to the wood-cutter, " began by really killing a deer, but wrongly thought it was a dream. Then you really dreamt that you had got the deer, but wrongly took the dream to be a reality. The other man really took your deer, which he is now disputing with you. His wife, on the other hand, declares that he saw both man and deer in a dream, so that nobody can be said to have killed the deer at all. Meanwhile, here is the deer itself in court, and you had better divide it between you."
The case was reported to the Prince of the Cheng State, who said: " Why, the magistrate must have dreamt the whole thing himself! " The question was referred to the Prime Minister, but the latter confessed himself unable to dis entangle the part that was a dream from the part that was not a dream. " If you want to distinguish between waking and dreaming," he said, " you would have to go back to the Yellow Emperor or Confucius. But both these sages are dead, and there is nobody now alive who can draw any such distinction.
A STRANGE DISEASE 69 Of course, it is implied that there is no real distinction between the two.
So the best thing you can do is to uphold the magistrate's decision."
Yang-li Hua-tzu, of the Sung State, was afflicted in middle age by the disease of amnesia. Anything he received in the morning he had forgotten by the evening; anything he gave away in the evening he had forgotten the next morning. Out-of-doors, he forgot to walk; indoors, he forgot to sit down. At any given moment, he had no recollection of what had just taken place; and a little later on, he could not even recollect what had happened then. All his family were perfectly disgusted with him. Fortune-tellers were summoned, but their divinations proved unsuccessful; wizards were sought out, but their exorcisms were ineffec tual; physicians were called in, but their remedies were of no avail. At last, a learned professor from the Lu State volunteered his services, declaring that he could effect a cure. Hua-tzu's wife and family immediately offered him half their landed property if only he would tell them how to set to work. The professor replied: " This is a case which cannot be dealt with by means of auspices and diagrams; the evil cannot be removed by prayers and incantations, nor successfully combated by drugs and potions.
70 DEEAMS What I shall try to do is to influence his mind and turn the current of this thoughts; in that way a cure is likely to be brought about."
Accordingly, the experiment was begun. The professor exposed his patient to cold, so that he was forced to beg for clothes; subjected him to hunger, so that he was fain to ask for food; left him in darkness, so that he was obliged to search for light. Soon, he was able to report progress to the sons of the house, saying gleefully:;c The disease can be checked. But the methods I shall employ have been handed down as a secret in my family, and cannot be made known to the public. All attendants must, therefore, be dis missed, and I must be shut up alone with my patient." The professor was allowed to have his way, and for the space of seven days no one knew what was going on in the sick man's chamber. Then, one fine morning, the treatment came to an end, and, wonderful to relate, the disease of so many years' standing had entirely disappeared!
No sooner had Hua-tzu regained his senses, however, than he flew into a great rage, drove his wife out of doors, beat his sons, and, snatching up a spear, hotly pursued the professor through the town. On being arrested and asked to explain his conduct, this is what he said: " Lately, when I was steeped in forge tfulness, my senses were so benumbed that I was quite unconscious of the existence of the outer world. But now I have been brought suddenly to a perception of the events of half a lifetime. Preservation and destruction, gain and loss, sorrow and joy, love and hate have begun to throw out their myriad tentacles to invade my peace; and these emotions will, I fear, continue to keep my mind in the state of turmoil that I now experience. Oh! if I could but recapture a short moment of that blessed oblivion! " " If this is the sentiment of a man whose mental infirmity bears some resemblance to the Highest Principle [Tao], how much stronger will it be on entering the realm of the Absolute itself! " There was once a man who, though born in Yen, was brought up in Ch'u, and it was only in his old age that he returned to his native country.
Yen was the northernmost State of ancient China, while Ch'u was bounded by the left bank of the Yangtsze.
On the way thither, as they were passing through the Chin State, his fellow-travellers played a practical joke on him. They pointed to the city and said: "Here is the capital of the Yen State; " whereupon the old man flushed with excitement. Pointing out a certain shrine, they told him that it was his own village altar, and he heaved a deep sigh. They showed him a house, and said: "This is where your 72 DREAMS ancestors lived; " and the tears welled up in his eyes. Finally, they brought him in front of a mound and said: " This is the tomb where your ancestors lie buried." The old man could control himself no longer, and wept aloud. But his fellow-travellers burst into roars of laughter. " We have been hoaxing you," they cried; " this is only the Chin State." Their victim was greatly mortified; and when they arrived at their journey's end, and he really did see before him the city and altars of Yen, with the actual abode and tombs of his ancestors, his emotion was much less acute.
BOOK IV CONFUCIUS BOOK IV CONFUCIUS A HIGH official from Shang paid a visit to Con fucius. " You are a sage, are you not? " he inquired. " A sage! " replied Confucius. " How could I venture to think so? I am only a man of extensive learning and moral culture." The Minister then asked: " Were the Three Kings The Three Kings, in this particular passage, are probably T'ang, surnamed " The Completer " or " The Successful," who founded the Shang dynasty, B.C. 1766, and the two founders of the Chou dynasty, Wen and Wu.
'The Three Kings," replied Confucius, "were great in the exercise of wisdom and courage. I do not know, however, that they were sages." " What of the Five Emperors? Were they not Shao Hao, Chuan Hsii, Yao, Shun, and the Great Yii. The last-named came to the throne in 2205 B.o.
73 74 CONFUCIUS ;c The Five Emperors excelled in the exercise of altruism and righteousness. I do not know that they were sages." " And the Three Sovereigns: surely they were sages? " The Three Sovereigns always denote the legendary rulers Fu Hsi, Shen Nung and the Yellow Emperor.
" The Three Sovereigns excelled in the virtues that were suited to their age. But whether they were sages or no I really cannot say."
" The wide learning of Confucius, the warlike prowess of T'ang and Wu, the humility and self-abnegation of Yao and Shun, the rude simplicity of Fu Hsi and Shen Nung, simply represent the ordinary activities of the sage who accommo dates himself to the necessities of the world he lives in. They are not the qualities which make them sages. Those qualities are truly such as neither word nor deed can adequately express."
"Why, who is there, then," cried the Minister, much astonished, " that is really a sage? " The expression of Confucius' countenance changed, and he replied after a pause: "Among the people of the West a true sage dwells. He governs not, yet there is no disorder. He speaks not, yet he is naturally trusted. He makes no reforms, yet right conduct is spontaneous anc universal. So great and incomprehensible is he that the people can find no name to call him by I suspect that this man is a sage, but whether iu A TRUE SAGE IN THE WEST 75 truth he is a sage or is not a sage I do not know."
The early Jesuit missionaries saw in the above an allusion to Jesus Christ. But (apart from other considerations) it is almost certain that the present work had taken definite shape before the Christian era.
The Minister from Shang meditated awhile in silence. Then he said to himself: "Confucius is making a fool of me! " When the Master Lieh Tzii settled down in Nan-kuo the number of those who sought him out could not be reckoned, though one were to count all day. Lieh Tzu, however, was unaffected thereby, and every morning would hold dis cussions with them, the fame of which spread far and wide.
Nan-kuo Tzu was his next-door neighbour, but for twenty years no visit passed between them, and when they met in the street they made as though they had not seen each other.
" There was a mysterious harmony between their doctrines, and therefore they arrived at old age without having had any mutual intercourse." Nan-kuo Tzu means simply " the Philosopher of Nan-kuo."
The followers and disciples of Lieh Tzu felt convinced that there was enmity between their Master and Nan-kuo Tzu; and at last, one who 76 CONFUCIUS had come from the Ch'u State spoke to Lieh Tzu about it, saying: " How comes it, Sir, that you and Nan-kuo Tzu are enemies? " " Nan- kuo Tzu," replied the Master, "has the appear ance of fullness, but his mind is a blank.
By no means a term of disparagement, in the mouth of a Taoist.
His ears do not hear, his eyes do not see, his mouth does not speak, his mind is devoid of know ledge, his body free from agitation. What would be the object of visiting him? However, we will try, and you shall accompany me thither to see." Accordingly, forty of the disciples went with him to call on Nan-kuo Tzu, who turned out to be a repulsive-looking creature.
Taoist writers seem to delight in attributing ugliness and deformity to their sages, no doubt as a sort of foil or set-off to their inward grandeur.
He made no show of receiving his guests, but only gazed blankly at Lieh Tzu. Body and soul seemed not to belong together, and to be unable to respond to the stimuli of the external world.
" The soul had subjugated the body. The mind being void of sense-impressions, the countenance remained motion less. Hence it seemed as if there were no co-operation between the two. How could they respond to external stimuli? " BLANKNESS OF MIND 77 Suddenly, Nan-kuo Tzii singled out the hinder- most row of Lieh Tzu's disciples, and began to talk to them quite pleasantly and simply, though in the tone of a superior.
"Fraternising with the hindmost row, he recognised no distinctions of rank or standing; meeting a sympathetic in fluence, and responding thereto, he did not allow his mind to be occupied with the external."
The disciples were astonished at this, and when they got home again, all wore a puzzled expression. Their Master Lieh Tzu said to them: "He who has reached the stage of thought is silent. He who has attained to perfect knowledge is also silent. He who uses silence in lieu of speech really does speak. He who for knowledge sub stitutes blankness of mind really does know. Without words and speaking not, without know- pledge and knowing not, he really speaks and /really knows. Saying nothing and knowing nothing, there is in reality nothing that he does not say, nothing that he does not know. This is how the matter stands, and there is nothing further to be said. Why are you thus astonished without cause? " Lung Shu said to Wen Chih: " Wen Chih lived in the time of the Six States, and acted as phybician to Prince Wei of Ch'i [378-333 B.C.]. Another 78 CONFUCIUS account says that lie was an able physician of the Sung State in the ' Spring and Autumn ' period, and that he cured Prince Wen of Ch'i by making him angry, whereupon his sickness vanished."
" You are the master of cunning arts. I have a disease. Can you cure it, Sir? " "So far," replied Wen Chih, " you have only acquainted me with your desire. Please let me know first the symptoms of your disease." " I hold it no honour," said Lung Shu, "to be praised in my native village, nor do I consider it a disgrace to be decried in my native State. Gain excites in me no joy, and loss no sorrow. I look upon life in the same light as death, upon riches in the same light as poverty, upon my fellow-men as so many swine, and upon myself as I look upon my fellow-men. I dwell in my home as though it were a mere caravanserai, and regard my native district with no more feeling than I would a barbarian State. Afflicted as I am in these various ways, honours and rewards fail to rouse me, pains and penalties to overawe me, good or bad fortune to influence me, joy or grief to move me. Thus I am incapable of serving my sovereign, of associat ing with my friends and kinsmen, of directing my wife and children, or of controlling my servants and retainers.
"Men are controlled by external influences in so far as their minds are open to impressions of good and evil, and their bodies are sensitive to injury or the reverse. But one who DIVINE ENLIGHTENMENT 79 is able to discern a connecting unity in the most multiform diversity will surely, in his survey of the universe, be uncon scious of the differences between positive and negative."
What disease is this, and what remedy is there that will cure it? " Wen Chih replied by asking Lung Shu to stand with his back to the light, while he himself faced the light and looked at him intently. " Ah! " said he after a while, "I see that a good square inch of your heart is hollow. You are within an ace of being a true sage. Six of the orifices in your heart are open and clear, and only the seventh is blocked up.
" It was an ancient belief that the sage had seven orifices in his heart " (the seat of the understanding).
This, however, is doubtless due to the fact that you are mistaking for a disease that which is really divine enlightenment. It is a case in which my shallow art is of no avail."
Pu-tse, in the Cheng State, was rich in wise men, and Tung-li in men of administrative talent. Among the vassals of Pu-tse was a certain Po Feng Tzu, who happened to travel through Tung- li and had a meeting with Teng Hsi.
A noted sophist of the sixth century B.C.
80 CONFUCIUS The latter cast a glance at his followers, and asked them, with a smile: "Would you like to see me have some sport with this stranger? " They understood what he would be at, and assented. Teng Hsi then turned to Po Feng Tzu. "Are you acquainted with the true theory of Susten- tation? " he inquired. 'To receive sustenance from others, through inability to support oneself, places one in the category of dogs and swine. It is man's prerogative to give sustenance to other creatures, and to use them for his own purposes. That you and your fellows are provided with abundant food and comfortable clothing is due to the Government. Young and old, you herd to gether, and are penned up like cattle destined for the shambles: in what respect are you to be distinguished from dogs and swine? " Po Feng Tzu made no reply, but one of his company, disregarding the rules of precedence, stepped forward and said: " Has your Excellency never heard of the variety of craftsmen in Ch'i and Lu? Some are skilled potters and carpenters, others are clever workers in metal and leather; there are good musicians, trained scribes and accountants, military experts and men learned in the ritual of ancestor-worship. All kinds of crafts manship are there fully represented. Now, if there were no division of ranks and duties, mutual co-operation would be impossible. Those of higher social standing are lacking in technical CO-OPERATION IN THE STATE 81 knowledge, those who are employed by them are lacking in power. Only when there is a com bination of technical knowledge and power can co-operative service exist.
Chih (knowledge) and neng (power) have their modem equivalents in "skilled labour " and "capital," respectively.
It is really we who may be said to employ the Government authorities. Why then should you pity us? " Teng Hsi could think of nothing to say in reply. He made a sign to his disciples and retreated.
BOOK V THE QUESTIONS OF TCANG T'ANG of Yin questioned Hsia Ko, saying: "In the beginnings of antiquity, did individual things exist? "