"For the operation of these virtues is not disinterested. It is like lending gear to a sportsman.
With a view to share the game.
Wherefore, for one man to dogmatise for the good of the whole empire, is like splitting a thing at a single blow.
Without reference to method or the requirements of the case in point.
"Yao knows that good men benefit the empire. But he does not know that they injure it. Only those on a higher level than good men know this.
"There are nincompoops; there are parasites; there are enthusiasts.
"A man who learns from a single teacher, and then goes off exultant, satisfied with his acquirements though ignorant that there was a time when nothing existed,--such a one is a nincompoop.
"Parasites are like the lice on a pig's back. They choose bald patches, which are to them palaces and parks. The parts between the toes, the joints, the dugs, and the buttocks, are to them so many comfortable and convenient resting-places. They know not that one day the butcher will tuck up his sleeves and spread straw and apply fire, and that they will perish in the singeing of the pig. As they sow, so do they reap. This is to be a parasite.
"Of enthusiasts, Shun is an example. Mutton does not care for ants; it is the ants which care for the mutton. Mutton has a frowsy smell; and there is a frowsiness about Shun which attracts the people. Therefore it was that after three changes of residence, when he came to the Têng district, he had some hundred thousand families with him.
"Then Yao, hearing of his goodness, appointed him to a barren region, trusting, as he said, that Shun's arrival would enrich it. When Shun took up this appointment, he was already old, and his intellect was failing; yet he would not cease work and retire from office. He was, in fact, an enthusiast.
"So it is that the spiritual man dislikes a crowd. For where there is a crowd there is diversity, and where there is diversity advantage does not accrue. He is therefore neither very intimate, nor very distant. He clings to virtue and nourishes a spirit of harmony, in order to be in accord with his fellow-men. This is to be a divine man.
"Leave wisdom to ants. Strive for what fishes desire.
To be left alone in the water.
"Leave attractiveness to mutton. Use your eyes to contemplate, your ears to listen to, your mind to consider, their own internal workings.
For him who can do these things, his level will be that of a line, his modifications in due and proper season.
"Therefore, the divine man trusts to the natural development of events.
He does not strive to introduce the artificial into the domain of the natural. Accordingly, life is a gain and death a loss, or death is a gain and life a loss.
According to circumstances.
"For instance, drugs. They are characteristically poisonous. Such are _Chieh-Kêng_, _Chi-Yung_, and _Shih-Ling_. Circumstances, however, make of each a sovereign remedy. The list is inexhaustible.
Chieh-Kêng is the _Platycodon grandiflorum_. It is used by Chinese doctors as a tonic, astringent, and vermifuge.
"When Kou Chien encamped with three thousand armed warriors at Kuei-ch'i, Leading the men of Wu to attack the Yüeh State.
only Chung Wên Chung, minister of Yüeh.
saw that defeat would be followed by a rally. Yet he could not foresee the evil that was to come upon himself. Wherefore it has been said, 'An owl's eyes are adapted to their use. A crane's leg is of the length required. 'Twould be disastrous to shorten it.'
This illustration has been used in ch. viii, p. 101.
"Thus it has been said, 'The wind blows and the river suffers. The sun shines and the river suffers.' But though wind and sun be both brought into relation with the river, it does not really suffer therefrom. Fed from its source, it still continues to flow on.
The Sage too has a source from which the nourishment of his soul is supplied.
"The relation between water and earth is determinate. The relation between a man and his shadow is determinate. The relation between thing and thing is determinate.
"The relation between eye and vision is baneful.
Because indeterminate.
The relation between ear and hearing is baneful. The relation between mind and object is baneful. The relation between all kinds of capacity and man's inner self is baneful. If such banefulness be not corrected, disasters will spring up on all sides. Retrogression is hard to achieve, and success long in coming. Yet alas! men regard such capacities as valuable possessions.
"The destruction of States and the ceaseless slaughter of human beings result from an inability to examine into this.
"The foot treads the ground in walking; nevertheless it is the ground not trodden on which makes up the good walk. A man's knowledge is limited; but it is upon what he does not know that he depends to extend his knowledge to the apprehension of God.
"Knowledge of the great ONE, of the great Negative, of the great Nomenclature, of the great Uniformity, of the great Space, of the great Truth, of the great Law,--this is perfection.
"The great ONE is omnipresent. The great Negative is omnipotent.
The great Nomenclature is all-inclusive. The great Uniformity is all-assimilative. The great Space is all-receptive. The great Truth is all-exacting. The great Law is all-binding.
"The ultimate end is God. He is manifested in the laws of nature. He is the hidden spring. At the beginning, he was.
Had an objective existence.
This, however, is inexplicable. It is unknowable. But from the unknowable we reach the known.
"Investigation must not be limited, nor must it be unlimited.
It must be undertaken from the standpoint of the unconditioned.
In this vague undefinedness there is an actuality. Time does not change it. It cannot suffer diminution. May we not then call it our great Guide?
"Why not bring our doubting hearts to investigation thereof? And then, using certainty to dispel doubt, revert to a state without doubt, in which doubt is doubly dead?"
Doubt dispelled leaves conviction firmer still.
Lin Hsi Chung says that this essay begins with the subtle to end in the abstruse. "The force of language," adds he, "can no farther go!"
CHAPTER XXV.
TSÊ YANG.
_Argument_:--Influence of virtue concealed--The true Sage a negative quantity--The great, the small, the infinite--Crime and Capital--Rulers and their vices--What is Society? Predestination or Chance? Illustrations.
When Tsê Yang visited the Ch'u State, I Chieh An official of Ch'u.
spoke of him to the prince; but the latter refused an audience.
Upon I Chieh's return, Tsê Yang went to see Wang Kuo, A local Sage.
and asked him to obtain an interview with the prince.
"I am not so fitted for that," replied Wang Kuo, "as Kung Yüeh Hsiu."
A hermit.
"What sort of a man is he?" enquired Tsê Yang.
"In winter," said Wang Kuo, "he catches turtles on the river. In summer, he reposes in some mountain copse. If any passers-by ask of him, he tells them, "This is my home." Where I Chieh could not succeed, still less should I. I am not equal even to him.
"He is a man without virtue, but possessed of knowledge. Were it not for an air of arrogance, he would be very popular with his superiors.
But help without virtue is a hindrance. Shivering people borrowing clothes in the coming spring! Hot people thinking of last winter's icy blast!
"The prince of Ch'u is dignified and severe. In punishing, he is merciless as a tiger. Only a very practised or a very perfect man could influence him.
"The true Sage, when in obscurity, causes those around him to forget their poverty. When in power, he causes princes to forget ranks and emoluments, and to become as though of low estate. He rejoices exceedingly in all creation. He exults to see TAO diffused among his fellow-men, while suffering no loss himself.
TAO is a constant quantity. It can be shared, but cannot be divided.
"Thus, although silent, he can instil peace; and by his mere presence cause men to be to each other as father and son. From his very return to passivity comes this active influence for good. So widely does he differ in heart from ordinary men. Wherefore I said, 'Wait for Kung Yüeh Hsiu.'
"The true Sage is free from all embarrassments. All things are to him as ONE. Yet he knows not that this is so. It is simply nature. In the midst of action he remains the same. He makes God his guide, and men make him theirs. He grieves that wisdom carries one but a short distance, and at times comes altogether to a deadlock.
"To a beauty, mankind is the mirror in which she sees herself. If no one tells her she is beautiful, she does not know that she is so. But whether she knows it or whether she does not know it, whether she hears it or whether she does not hear it, her joy will never cease, neither will mankind ever cease to take pleasure therein. It is nature.
"The love of a Sage for his fellows likewise finds expression among mankind. Were he not told so, he would not know that he loved his fellows. But whether he knows it or whether he does not know it, whether he hears it or whether he does not hear it, his love for his fellows is without end, and mankind cease not to repose therein.
"The old country, the old home, gladden a wanderer's eyes. Nay, though nine-tenths of it be a howling wilderness, still his eye will be glad. How much more to see sight and hear hearing, from a lofty dais suspended in their very midst!"
The joy of the wanderer is as that of the mind returning to a consciousness only of itself.
Jen Hsiang Shih reached the centre and attained.
The centre at which all Infinities converge. See p. 18. This individual was a legendary ruler of old.
He recognised no beginning, no end, no quantity, no time. Daily modified together with his environment, as part of ONE he knew no modification. Why not rest in this?
To strive to follow God and not to succeed is to display an activity fatal to itself. How can success ever be thus achieved?
The true Sage ignores God. He ignores man. He ignores a beginning. He ignores matter. He moves in harmony with his generation and suffers not. He takes things as they come and is not overwhelmed. How are we to become like him?
T'ang appointed his Equerry, Mên Yin Têng Hêng, to be his tutor, listening to his counsels but not being restricted by them. He got TAO for himself and a reputation for his tutor. But the reputation was a violation of principle, and landed him in the domain of alternatives.
Instead of ONE. No ingenuity of commentator has here succeeded in making sense.
As a tutor, Confucius pushed care and anxiety to an extreme limit.
Yung Ch'êng Shih Lao Tzŭ's tutor.
said, "Take away days, and there would be no years. No inside, no outside."
* * * * * Prince Hui of Wei had made a treaty with prince Wei of Ch'i, which the latter broke.
Thereupon prince Hui was wroth, and was about to send a man to assassinate him. But the Captain-General heard of this, and cried out in shame, "Sire, you are ruler over a mighty State, yet you would seek the vengeance of a common man. Give me two hundred thousand warriors, and I will do the work for you. I will take his people prisoners, and carry off their oxen and horses. I will make the heat of the prince's mind break out on his back. Then I will seize his country, and he will flee. Then you can wring his neck as you please."
When Chi Tzŭ heard this, he cried out in shame and said, "If you are building a ten-perch wall, and when the wall is near completion, destroy it, you inflict great hardship on the workmen.
Alluding to the _corvée_ system of public works. The speaker was an official of Wei.
Now for seven years the troops have not been called out. That is, as it were, your Highness' foundation work. Listen not to the Captain-General. He is a mischievous fellow."
When Hua Tzŭ Also an official of Wei.
heard this, he was very indignant and said, "He who argued in favour of punishing the Ch'i State was a mischievous fellow. And he who argued against punishing the Ch'i State was a mischievous fellow. And he who says that either of the above is a mischievous fellow, is a mischievous fellow himself."
"Where then shall I find what to do?" enquired the prince.
"In TAO alone," said Hua Tzŭ.
When Hui Tzŭ heard this, he introduced Tai Chin Jen to the prince.
A Sage of the Liang State. For Hui Tzŭ, see p. 8.
"There is a creature called a snail," said Tai Chin Jen. "Does your Highness know what I mean?"
"I do," replied the prince.
"There is a kingdom on its left horn," continued Tai Chin Jen, "ruled over by _Aggression_, and another on its right horn, ruled over by _Violence_. These two rulers are constantly fighting for territory. In such cases, corpses lie about by thousands, and one party will pursue the other for fifteen days before returning."
"Whew!" cried the prince. "Surely you are joking."
"Sire," replied Tai Chin Jen, "I beg you to regard it as fact. Does your Highness recognise any limit to space?"
"None," said the prince, "It is boundless."
"When, therefore," continued Tai Chin Jen, "the mind descends from the contemplation of boundless space to the contemplation of a kingdom with fixed boundaries, that kingdom must seem to be of dimensions infinitesimally small?"
"Of course," replied the prince.
"Well then," said Tai Chin Jen, "in a kingdom with fixed boundaries Meaning the then empire of the Chous.
there is the Wei State. In the Wei State there is the city of Liang. In the city of Liang there is a prince. In what does that prince differ from Violence?"
In his pettiness.
"There is no difference," said the prince.
Thereupon Tai Chin Jen took his leave, and the prince remained in a state of mental perturbation, as though he had lost something.
When Tai Chin Jen had gone, Hui Tzŭ presented himself, and the prince said, "Our friend is truly a great man. Sages are not his equal."
"If you blow through a tube," replied Hui Tzŭ, "the result will be a note. If you blow through the hole in a sword-hilt, the result will be simply _whssh_. Yao and Shun have been belauded by mankind; yet compared with Tai Chin Jen they are but _whssh_."
* * * * * When Confucius went to Ch'u, he stopped at a restaurant on Mount I. The servant to a man and his wife who lived next door, got up on top of the house.
"Whatever is he doing up there?" asked Tzŭ Lu.
"He is a Sage," replied Confucius, "under the garb of a menial. He buries himself among the people.
So as to get into closer relation with them.
He effaces himself at the wayside. Fame, he has none; but his perseverance is inexhaustible. Though his mouth speaks, his heart speaks not. He has turned his back upon mankind, not caring to abide amongst them. He has drowned himself on dry land. I think 'tis I Liao of Shih-nan."
See p. 325.
Tzŭ Lu asked to be allowed to go and call him; but Confucius stopped him, saying, "No. He knows that I know what he is. He knows that I have come to Ch'u to recommend him to the prince. And he looks on me as a toady. Under the circumstances, as he would scorn to hear the words of a toady, how much more would he scorn to see him in the flesh! How could you keep him?"
Tzŭ Lu went to see, but the house was empty.
* * * * * The border-warden of Ch'ang-wu said to Tzŭ Lao, Ch'in Lao, or Ch'in Chang, a disciple of Confucius.
"A prince in his administrative details must not lack thoroughness; in his executive details he must not be inefficient. Formerly, in my ploughing I lacked thoroughness, and the results also lacked thoroughness. In my weeding I was inefficient, and the results were also inefficient. By and by, I changed my system. I ploughed deep, and weeded carefully, the result being an excellent harvest, more than I could get through in a year."
Chuang Tzŭ, upon hearing this, observed, "The men of to-day in their self-regulation and their self-organisation are mostly as the Border-warden has described. They put their Godhead out of sight. They abandon their natural dispositions. They get rid of all feeling. They part with their souls, carried away by the fashion of the hour.
"Those who lack thoroughness in regard to their natural dispositions suffer an evil tribe to take the place thereof.
The physical senses.
These grow up rank as reeds and rushes, at first of apparent value to the body, but afterwards to destroy the natural disposition. Then they break out, at random, like sores and ulcers carrying off pent-up humours."
* * * * * Poh Chü was studying under Lao Tzŭ. "Let us go," said he, "and wander over the world."
One commentator says Poh Chü was a "criminal," probably from his sympathetic remarks in the context.
"No," replied Lao Tzŭ, "the world is just as you see it here."
But as he again urged it, Lao Tzŭ said, "Where would you go to begin with?"
"I would begin," answered Poh Chü, "by going to the Ch'i State. There I would view the dead bodies of their malefactors. I would push them to make them rise. I would take off my robes and cover them. I would cry to God and bemoan their lot, as follows:--'O sirs, O sirs, there was trouble upon earth, and you were the first to fall into it!'
"I would say, 'Perhaps you were robbers, or perhaps murderers?'...Honour and disgrace were set up, and evil followed. Wealth was accumulated, and contentions began. Now the evil which has been set up and the contentions which have accumulated, endlessly weary man's body and give him no rest. What escape is there from this?
This might almost have come from _The Curse of Capital_, (Aveling) or from one of Mr. Hyndman's discourses.
"The rulers of old set off all success to the credit of their people, attributing all failure to themselves. All that was right went to the credit of their people, all that was wrong they attributed to themselves. Therefore, if any matter fell short of achievement, they turned and blamed themselves.
"Not so the rulers of to-day. They conceal a thing and blame those who cannot see it. They impose dangerous tasks and punish those who dare not undertake them. They inflict heavy burdens and chastise those who cannot bear them. They ordain long marches and slay those who cannot make them.
"And the people, feeling that their powers are inadequate, have recourse to fraud. For when there is so much fraud about, In the rulers.
how can the people be otherwise than fraudulent? If their strength is insufficient, they will have recourse to fraud. If their knowledge is insufficient, they will have recourse to deceit. If their means are insufficient, they will steal. And for such robbery and theft, who is really responsible?"
reached his sixtieth year, he changed his opinions. What he had previously regarded as right, he now came to regard as wrong. But who shall say whether the right of to-day may not be as wrong as the wrong of the previous fifty-nine years?
See p. 365.
Things are produced around us, but no one knows the whence. They issue forth, but no one sees the portal. Men one and all value that part of knowledge which is known. They do not know how to avail themselves of the unknown in order to reach knowledge. Is not this misguided?
Men value the phenomena of which the senses make them conscious, but not the phenomena of the senses themselves.
Alas! alas! the impossibility of escaping from this state results in what is known as elective affinity.
Adaptation to the suitable; being as one is because more adapted to that than to something to which one is not adapted. See ch. ii, where this idea is first broached.
* * * * * Confucius asked the historiographers Ta T'ao, Poh Ch'ang Ch'ien, and Hsi Wei, saying, "Duke Ling was fond of wine and given up to pleasure, and neglected the administration of his State. He spent his time in hunting, and did not cultivate the goodwill of the other feudal princes. How was it he came to be called _Ling_?"
The name _Ling_ means "knowing," which may be taken in two senses.
"For those very reasons," replied Ta T'ao.
"The Duke," said Poh Ch'ang Ch'ien, "had three wives. He was having a bath together with them when Shih Ch'in, summoned by his Highness, entered the apartment. Thereupon the Duke covered himself and the ladies. So outrageously did he behave on the one hand, and yet so respectful was he towards a virtuous man. Hence he was called _Ling_."
"When the Duke died," said Hsi Wei, "divination showed that it would be inauspicious to bury him in the old family burying-ground, but auspicious to bury him at Sha-ch'iu. And upon digging a grave there, several fathoms deep, a stone coffin was found, which, being cleaned, yielded the following inscription:--_Posterity cannot be trusted. Duke Ling will seize this for his tomb._ "As a matter of fact, Duke Ling had been named Ling long before. What should these two persons know about it?"
As evidenced by the inscription, the Duke had been so named long before, in the Book of Fate.
* * * * * Shao Chih asked T'ai Kung Tiao, saying, "What is meant by society?"
The first name signifies _Small Knowledge_. Of the second personage there is no record.
"Society," replied T'ai Kung Tiao, "is an agreement of a certain number of families and individuals to abide by certain customs. Discordant elements unite to form a harmonious whole. Take away this unity and each has a separate individuality.
"Point at any one of the many parts of a horse, and that is not a horse, although there is the horse before you. It is the combination of all which makes the horse.
"Similarly, a mountain is high because of its individual particles. A river is large because of its individual drops. And he is a just man who regards all parts from the point of view of the whole.
"Thus, in regard to the views of others, he holds his own opinion, but not obstinately. In regard to his own views, while conscious of their truth, he does not despise the opinions of others.
"The four seasons have different characteristics, but God shows no preference for either, and therefore we have the year complete.
With results which could not be otherwise achieved.
The functions of the various classes of officials differ; but the sovereign shows no partiality, and therefore the empire is governed.
There are the civil and the military; but the truly great man shows no preference for either, and therefore their efficacy is complete.
All things are under the operation of varying laws; but TAO shows no partiality and therefore it cannot be identified.
As the given part of anything.
Not being able to be identified, it consequently does nothing. And by doing nothing all things can be done.
"Seasons have their beginnings and their ends. Generations change and change. Good and evil fortune alternate, bringing sorrow here, happiness there.
Nunc mihi, nunc alio, benigna.
He who obstinately views things from his own standpoint only, may be right in one case and wrong in another. Just as in a great jungle all kinds of shrubs are found together; or as on a mountain you see trees and stones indiscriminately mixed,--so is what we call society."
"Would it not do then," asked Shao Chih, "if we were to call this TAO?"
"It would not," replied T'ai Kung Tiao. "All creation is made up of more than ten thousand things. We speak of creation as the _Ten Thousand Things_ merely because it is a convenient term by which to express a large number. In point of outward shape the universe is vast.
In point of influence the Positive and Negative principles are mighty.
Yet TAO folds them all in its embrace. For convenience' sake the bond of society is called great. But how can that which is thus conditioned By having a name.
be compared with TAO? There is as wide a difference between them as there is between a horse and a dog."
"Whence then," enquired Shao Chih, "comes the vitality of all things between the four points of the compass, between heaven above and earth beneath?"
"The Positive and Negative principles," answered T'ai Kung Tiao, "influence, act upon, and regulate each other. The four seasons alternate with, give birth to, and destroy one another. Hence, loves and hates, and courses rejected and courses adopted. Hence too, the intercourse of the sexes.
"States of peril and safety alternate. Good and evil fortune give birth to one another. Slowness and speed are mutually exclusive. Collection and dispersion are correlates. The actuality of these may be noted.
There is the name and the embodiment.
The essence of each can be verified. There is regular movement forward, modified by deflection into a curve. Exhaustion leads to renewal. The end introduces a new beginning. This is the law of material existences. The force of language, the reach of knowledge, cannot pass beyond the bounds of such material existences. The disciple of TAO refrains from prying into the states after or before. Human speculation stops short of this."
"Chi Chên," said Shao Chih, "taught _Chance_; Chieh Tzŭ taught _Predestination_.
"Two Sages." _Comm._ In the speculations of these two schools, on which side did right lie?"
"The cock crows," replied T'ai Kung Tiao, "and the dog barks. So much we know. But the wisest of us could not say why one crows and the other barks, nor guess why they crow or bark at all.
"Let me explain. The infinitely small is inappreciable; the infinitely great is immeasurable. Chance and Predestination must refer to the conditioned. Consequently, both are wrong.
"Predestination involves a real existence.
Of a God.
Chance implies an absolute absence of any principle. To have a name and the embodiment thereof,--this is to have a material existence. To have no name and no embodiment,--of this one can speak and think; but the more one speaks the farther off one gets.
"The unborn creature cannot be kept from life.
So powerful is its "will to live."
The dead cannot be tracked. From birth to death is but a span; yet the secret cannot be known. Chance and Predestination are but _à priori_ solutions.
"When I seek for a beginning, I find only time infinite. When I look forward to an end, I see only time infinite. Infinity of time past and to come implies no beginning and is in accordance with the laws of material existences. Predestination and Chance give us a beginning, but one which is compatible only with the existence of matter.
And not with the time before matter was.
"TAO cannot be existent. If it were existent, it could not be non-existent. The very name of TAO is only adopted for convenience' sake. Predestination and Chance are limited to material existences. How can they bear upon the infinite?
"Were language adequate, it would take but a day to fully set forth TAO. Not being adequate, it takes that time to explain material existences. TAO is something beyond material existences. It cannot be conveyed either by words or by silence. In that state which is neither speech nor silence, its transcendental nature may be apprehended."
"With this essay in China," says Lin Hsi Chung, "what need to fetch Buddhist books from the West?"
CHAPTER XXVI.
CONTINGENCIES.
_Argument_:--The external uncertain--The internal alone without harm--Life and death are external--The soul only is under man's Contingencies are uncertain. Hence the decapitation of Lung Fêng, the disembowelment of Pi Kan, the enthusiasm of Chi Tzŭ, the death of Wu Lai, the flights of Chieh and Chou.
See pp. 40, 72. Wu Lai was an intriguing official who held office under the tyrant Chou Hsin.
No sovereign but would have loyal ministers; yet loyalty does not necessarily inspire confidence. Hence Wu Yüan found a grave in the river; See p. 221.
and Ch'ang Hung perished in Shu, his blood, after being preserved three years, turning into green jade.
No parent but would have filial sons; yet filial piety does not necessarily inspire love. Hence Hsiao Chi sorrowed, and Tsêng Shên grieved.
The first, prince of the House of Yin, was turned out of doors by his stepmother. The second, one of the disciples of Confucius and a rare pattern of filial piety, grieved because his mother was too old to hit him hard enough. See p. 100.
Wood rubbed with wood produces fire. Metal exposed to fire will liquefy. If the Positive and Negative principles operate inharmoniously, heaven and earth are greatly disturbed. Thunder crashes, and with rain comes lightning, scorching up the tall locust-trees. One fears lest sky and land should collapse and leave no escape. Unable to lie _perdu_, the heart feels as though suspended between heaven and earth.
So in the struggle between peace and unrest, the friction between good and evil, much fire is evolved which consumes the inner harmony of man.
But the mind is unable to resist fire. It is destroyed, and with it TAO comes to an end.
* * * * * Chuang Tzŭ's family being poor, he went to borrow some corn from the prince of Chien-ho.
"Yes," said the prince. "I am just about collecting the revenue of my fief, and will then lend you three hundred ounces of silver. Will that do?"
At this Chuang Tzŭ flushed with anger and said, "Yesterday, as I was coming along, I heard a voice calling me. I looked round, and in the "'And what do you want, stickleback?' said I.
"'I am a denizen of the eastern ocean,' replied the stickleback. 'Pray, Sir, a pint of water to save my life.'
"'Yes,' said I. 'I am just going south to visit the princes of Wu and Yüeh. I will bring you some from the west river. Will that do?'
"At this the stickleback flushed with anger and said, 'I am out of my element. I have nowhere to go. A pint of water would save me. But to talk to me like this,--you might as well put me in a dried-fish shop at once.'"
The above episode is condemned by Lin Hsi Chung on the score of style.
* * * * * Jên Kung Tzŭ A young noble of the Jen State. _Comm._ got a huge hook on a big line, which he baited with fifty oxen. He squatted down at Kuei-chi, and cast into the eastern ocean. Every day he fished, but for a whole year he caught nothing. Then came a great fish which swallowed the bait, and dragging the huge hook dived down below. This way and that way it plunged about, erecting the dorsal fin.
The white waves rolled mountain high. The great deep was shaken up. The noise was like that of so many devils, terrifying people for many miles around.
But when Jên Kung Tzŭ had secured his fish, he cut it up and salted it.
And from Chih-ho eastwards, and from Ts'ang-wu northwards, there was none but ate his fill of that fish. Even among succeeding generations, _gobemouches_ of the day recounted the marvellous tale.
To take a rod and line, and go to a pool, and catch small fry is a very different thing from catching big fish. And by means of a little show of ability to secure some small billet is a very different thing from really pushing one's way to the front. So that those who do not imitate the example of Jên Kung Tzŭ will be very far from becoming leaders in their generation.
Also spurious.
* * * * * When some Confucianists were opening a grave in accordance with their Canons of _Poetry_ and _Rites_, the master shouted out, "Day is breaking. How are you getting on with the work?"
"Not got off the burial-clothes yet," answered an apprentice. "There is a pearl in the mouth."
Now the Canon of _Poetry_ says-- The greenest corn Grows over graves.
In life, no charity; In death, no pearl.
So seizing the corpse's brow with one hand, and forcing down its chin with the other, these Confucianists proceed to tap its cheeks with a metal hammer, in order to make the jaws open gently and not injure the pearl!
The above, pronounced by Lin Hsi Chung to be spurious, is aimed at the Confucianists, who are ready to commit any outrage on natural feeling so long as there is no violation of the details of their own artificial system.
A disciple of Lao Lai Tzŭ A sage of the Ch'u State.
while out gathering fuel, chanced to meet Confucius. On his return, he said, "There is a man over there with a long body and short legs, round shoulders and drooping ears. He looks as though he were sorrowing over mankind. I know not who he can be."
"It is Confucius!" cried Lao Lai Tzŭ. "Bid him come hither."
When Confucius arrived, Lao Lai Tzŭ addressed him as follows:-- "Ch'iu! Get rid of your dogmatism and your specious knowledge, and you will be really a superior man."
Confucius bowed and was about to retire, when suddenly his countenance changed and he enquired, "Shall I then be able to enter upon TAO?"
"The wounds of one generation being too much," answered Lao Lai Tzŭ, "you would take to yourself the sorrows of all time. Are you not weary?
Is your strength equal to the task?
"To employ goodness as a passport to influence through the gratification of others, is an everlasting shame. Yet this is the common way of all, to lure people by fame, to bind them by ties of gratification.
"Better than extolling Yao and cursing Chieh is oblivion of both, keeping one's praises to oneself. These things react injuriously on self; the agitation of movement results in deflection.
"The true Sage is a passive agent. If he succeeds, he simply feels that he was provided by no effort of his own with the energy necessary to success."
* * * * * Prince Yüan of Sung dreamed one night that a man with dishevelled hair peeped through a side door and said, "I have come from the waters of Tsai-lu. I am a marine messenger attached to the staff of the River God. A fisherman, named Yü Ch'ieh, has caught me."
When the prince awaked, he referred his dream to the soothsayers, who said, "This is a divine tortoise."
"Is there any fisherman," asked the prince, "whose name is Yü Ch'ieh?"
Being told there was, the prince gave orders for his appearance at court; and the next day Yü Ch'ieh had an audience.
"Fisherman," said the prince, "what have you caught?"
"I have netted a white tortoise," replied the fisherman, "five feet in "Bring your tortoise," said the prince. But when it came, the prince could not make up his mind whether to kill it or keep it alive. Thus in doubt, he had recourse to divination, and received the following response:-- _Slay the tortoise for purposes of divination and good fortune will result._ So the tortoise was despatched. After which, out of seventy-two omens taken, not a single one proved false.
"A divine tortoise," said Confucius, "can appear to prince Yüan in a dream, yet it cannot escape the net of Yü Ch'ieh. Its wisdom can yield seventy-two faultless omens, yet it cannot escape the misery of being cut to pieces. Truly wisdom has its limits; spirituality, that which it cannot reach.
"In spite of the highest wisdom, there are countless snares to be avoided; If a fish has not to fear nets, there are always pelicans.
Get rid of small wisdom, and great wisdom will shine upon you. Put away goodness and you will be naturally good. A child does not learn to speak because taught by professors of the art, but because it lives among people who can themselves speak."
* * * * * Hui Tzŭ said to Chuang Tzŭ, "Your theme, Sir, is the useless."