movements, powerful. By inaction you will gain honour; and by confining yourself to the pure and simple, you will hinder the whole world from struggling with you for show.
To fully apprehend the scheme of the universe, _Lit._: "the virtue of heaven and earth," meaning their inaction by which all things are brought to maturity.
this is called the great secret of being in accord with GOD, whereby the empire is so administered that the result is accord with man. To be in accord with man is human happiness; to be in accord with God is the happiness of God.
Chuang Tzŭ said, "O my exemplar! Thou who destroyest all things, and dost not account it cruelty; thou who benefitest all time, and dost not account it charity; thou who art older than antiquity and dost not account it age; thou who supportest the universe, shaping the many forms therein, and dost not account it skill;--this is the happiness of God!"
Therefore it has been said, "Those who enjoy the happiness of God, when born into the world, are but fulfilling their divine functions; when they die, they do but undergo a physical change. In repose, they exert the influence of the Negative; in motion, they wield the power of the Positive."
See _ante_, chs. vi and xi.
Thus, those who enjoy the happiness of God have no grievance against God, no grudge against man. Nothing material injures them; nothing spiritual punishes them. Accordingly it has been said, "Their motion is that of heaven; One of ceaseless revolution, without beginning or end.
their repose is that of earth. Mental equilibrium gives them the empire of the world. Evil spirits do not harass them without; demons do not trouble them within. Mental equilibrium gives them sovereignty over all creation." Which signifies that in repose to extend to the whole universe and to be in relation with all creation,--this is the happiness of God. This enables the mind of the Sage to cherish the whole empire.
For the virtue of the wise ruler is modelled upon the universe, is guided by TAO, and is ever occupied in inaction. By inaction, he administers the empire, and has energy to spare; but by action he finds his energy inadequate to the administration of the empire. Therefore the men of old set great store by inaction.
But if rulers practise inaction and the ruled also practise inaction, the ruled will equal the rulers, and will not be as their subjects. On the other hand, if the ruled practise action and rulers also practise action, rulers will assimilate themselves to the ruled, and will not be as their masters. Rulers must practise inaction in order to administer the empire. The ruled must practise action in order to subserve the interests of the empire. This is an unchangeable law.
And one over which the commentators have exhausted not a little wit.
At the end of the chapter, the reader will be able to draw his own conclusions.
Thus, the men of old, although their knowledge did not extend throughout the universe, were not troubled in mind. Although their intellectual powers beautified all creation, they did not rejoice.
Although their abilities exhausted all things within the limits of ocean, they did not act.
Heaven has no parturitions, yet all things are evolved. Earth knows no increment, yet all things are nourished. The wise ruler practises inaction, and the empire applauds him. Therefore it has been said, "There is nothing more mysterious In its action.
than heaven, nothing richer than earth, nothing greater than the wise ruler." Wherefore also it has been said, "The virtue of the wise ruler makes him the peer of heaven and earth." Charioted upon the universe, with all creation for his team, he passes along the highway of mortality.
The essential is in the ruler; the accidental in the ruled.
_Lit._ the "root," and the "tip" of the branch, respectively.
The _ultima ratio_ lies with the prince; representation is the duty of the minister.
Appeal to arms is the lowest form of virtue. Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education. Ceremonies and laws are the lowest form of government. Music and fine clothes are the lowest form of happiness. Weeping and mourning are the lowest form of grief. These five should follow the movements of the mind.
The ancients indeed cultivated the study of accidentals, but they did not allow it to precede that of essentials. The prince precedes, the minister follows. The father precedes, the son follows. The elder brother precedes, the younger follows. Seniors precede, juniors follow.
Men precede, women follow. Husbands precede, wives follow. Distinctions of rank and precedence are part of the scheme of the universe, and the Sage adopts them accordingly. In point of spirituality, heaven is honourable, earth is lowly. Spring and summer precede autumn and winter: such is the order of the seasons. In the constant production of all things, there are phases of existence. There are the extremes of maturity and decay, the perpetual tide of change. And if heaven and earth, divinest of all, admit of rank and precedence, how much more man?
In the ancestral temple, parents rank before all; at court, the most honourable; in the village, the elders; in matters to be accomplished, the most trustworthy. Such is the order which appertains to TAO. He who in considering TAO disregards this order, thereby disregards TAO; and he who in considering TAO disregards TAO,--whence will he secure TAO?
Therefore, those of old who apprehended TAO, first apprehended God.
TAO came next, and then charity and duty to one's neighbour, and then the functions of public life, and then forms and names, and then employment according to capacity, and then distinctions of good and bad, and then discrimination between right and wrong, and then rewards and punishments. Thus wise men and fools met with their dues; the exalted and the humble occupied their proper places. And the virtuous and the worthless being each guided by their own natural instincts, it was necessary to distinguish capabilities, and to adopt a corresponding nomenclature, in order to serve the ruler, nourish the ruled, administer things generally, and elevate self. Where knowledge and plans are of no avail, one must fall back upon the natural. This is perfect peace, the acme of good government. Therefore it has been written, "Wherever there is form, there is also its name." Forms and names indeed the ancients had, but did not give precedence to them.
Thus, those of old who considered TAO, passed through five phases before forms and names were reached, and nine before rewards and punishments could be discussed.
As given in the preceding paragraph.
To rise _per saltum_ to forms and names is to be ignorant of their source; to rise _per saltum_ to rewards and punishments is to be ignorant of their beginning. Those who invert the process of discussing TAO, arguing in a directly contrary sense, are rather to be governed by others than able to govern others themselves.
To rise _per saltum_ to forms and names and rewards and punishments, this is to understand the instrumental part of government, but not to understand the great principle of government.
Which is TAO.
This is to be of use in the administration of the empire, but not to be able to administer the empire. This is to be a sciolist, a man of narrow views.
Ceremonies and laws were indeed cultivated by the ancients; but they were employed in the service of the rulers by the ruled. Rulers did not employ them as a means of nourishing the ruled.
From the beginning of this chapter, the argument has been eminently unsatisfactory.
Of old, Shun asked Yao, saying, "How does your Majesty employ your faculties?"
"I am not arrogant towards the defenceless," replied Yao. "I do not neglect the poor. I grieve for those who die. I pity the orphan. I sympathise with the widow. Beyond this, nothing."
"Good indeed!" cried Shun, "but yet not great."
"How so?" inquired Yao.
"Be passive," said Shun, "like the virtue of God. The sun and moon shine; the four seasons revolve; day and night alternate; clouds come and rain falls."
"Alas!" cried Yao, "what a muddle I have been making. You are in accord with God; I am in accord with man."
Of old, heaven and earth were considered great; and the Yellow Emperor and Yao and Shun all thought them perfection. Consequently, what did those do who ruled the empire of old? They did what heaven and earth do; no more.
* * * * * When Confucius was going west to place his works in the Imperial library of the House of Chou, Tzŭ Lu The most popular of all the disciples of Confucius. In the striking words of Mr. Watters, "He was equally ready to argue, fight, be silent, pray for his master, and die with him. So it is very unfair in Dr. Legge to call him _a kind of_ Peter, meaning of course Simon Peter, a man who lacked faith, courage, and fidelity, and who moreover cursed and swore."--_Guide to the Tablets in a Confucian Temple._ counselled him, saying, "I have heard that a certain librarian of the Chêng department, by name Lao Tan, Or, as usually named in this work, Lao Tzŭ. "Chêng" appears to have been merely a distinctive name.
has resigned and retired into private life. Now as you, Sir, wish to deposit your works, it would be advisable to go and interview him."
"Certainly," said Confucius; and he thereupon went to see Lao Tzŭ. The latter would not hear of the proposal; so Confucius began to expound the doctrines of his twelve canons, in order to convince Lao Tzŭ.
These twelve have been variously enumerated as (1) the _Book of Changes_, Parts i and ii, with the ten _Wings_. (2) The twelve Dukes of the _Spring and Autumn_, etc.
"This is all nonsense," cried Lao Tzŭ, interrupting him. "Tell me what are your criteria."
"Charity," replied Confucius, "and duty towards one's neighbour."
"Tell me, please," asked Lao Tzŭ, "are these part of man's original nature?"
The question of an innate moral sense early occupied the attention of Chinese thinkers.
"They are," answered Confucius. "Without charity, the superior man could not become what he is. Without duty to one's neighbour, he would be of no effect. These two belong to the original nature of a pure man.
What further would you have?"
"Tell me," said Lao Tzŭ, "in what consist charity and duty to one's neighbour?"
"They consist," answered Confucius, "in a capacity for rejoicing in all things; in universal love, without the element of self. These are the characteristics of charity and duty to one's neighbour."
"What stuff!" cried Lao Tzŭ. "Does not universal love contradict itself?
If every one loves every one, there can be no such thing as love, just as absolute altruism only achieves the same result as absolute egoism.
Is not your elimination of self a positive manifestation of self?
On the "Don't nail his ear to the pump" principle.
Sir, if you would cause the empire not to lose its source of nourishment,--there is the universe, its regularity is unceasing; there are the sun and moon, their brightness is unceasing; there are the stars, their groupings never change; there are birds and beasts, they flock together without varying; there are trees and shrubs, they grow upwards without exception, Be like these; follow TAO; and you will be perfect. Why then these vain struggles after charity and duty to one's neighbour, as though beating a drum in search of a fugitive. Alas! Sir, you have brought much confusion into the mind of man."
The drum similitude occurs again in ch. xiv.
Shih Ch'êng Ch'i Of whom nothing is known.
visited Lao Tzŭ, and addressed him, saying, "Having heard, Sir, that you were a Sage, I put aside all thought of distance to come and visit you. Travelling many stages, the soles of my feet thickened, but I did not venture to rest. And now I see you are not a Sage. While rats feasted off your leavings, you turned your sister out of doors. This is not charity. Though you have no lack of food, raw and cooked, you are stingy beyond all bounds."
At this Lao Tzŭ was silent and made no reply; and the next day Shih Ch'êng Ch'i came again and said, "Before, I was rude to you; now, I am sorry. How is this?"
"I have no pretension," replied Lao Tzŭ, "to be possessed of cunning knowledge nor of divine wisdom. Had you yesterday called me an ox, I should have considered myself an ox. Had you called me a horse, I should have considered myself a horse.
"For if men class you in accordance with truth, and you reject the classification, you only double the reproach. My humility is natural humility. It is not humility for humility's sake."
Shih Ch'êng Ch'i moved respectfully away.
Without allowing his shadow to fall on Lao Tzŭ. Bringing one foot up to the other only. Not venturing to let it pass as in ordinary walking.
Then he advanced again, also respectfully, and said, "May I ask you about personal cultivation?"
Lao Tzŭ said, "Your countenance is a strange one. Your eyes protrude.
Your jaws are heavy. Your lips are parted. Your demeanour is self-satisfied. You look like a man on a tethered horse.
His body there, his mind elsewhere.
You are too confident. You are too hasty. You think too much of your own powers. Such men are not trusted. Those who are found on the wrong side of a boundary line are called thieves."
* * * * * Lao Tzŭ said, "TAO is not too small for the greatest, nor too great for the smallest. Thus all things are embosomed therein; wide indeed its boundless capacity, unfathomable its depth.
"Form, and virtue, and charity, and duty to one's neighbour, these are the accidentals of the spiritual. Except he be a perfect man, who shall determine their place? The world of the perfect man, is not that vast? And yet it is not able to involve him in trouble. All struggle for power, but he does not join. Though discovering nothing false, he is not tempted astray. In spite of the utmost genuineness, he still confines himself to essentials.
To the root, not to the branch.
"He thus places himself outside the universe, beyond all creation, where his soul is free from care. Apprehending TAO, he is in accord with virtue. He leaves charity and duty to one's neighbour alone. He treats ceremonies and music as adventitious. And so the mind of the perfect man is at peace.
"Books are what the world values as representing TAO. But books are only words, and the valuable part of words is the thought therein contained. That thought has a certain bias which cannot be conveyed in words, yet the world values words as being the essence of books. But though the world values them, they are not of value; as that sense in which the world values them is not the sense in which they are valuable.
"That which can be seen with the eye is form and colour; that which can be heard with the ear is sound and noise. But alas! the people of this generation think that form, and colour, and sound, and noise, are means by which they can come to understand the essence of TAO. This is not so. And as those who know, do not speak, while those who speak do not know, whence should the world derive its knowledge?"
The first half of this last sentence has been pitchforked _à propos de bottes_ into ch. lvi of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_. See _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_, pp. 7 and 38.
Duke Huan.
The famous ruler of the Ch'i State. Flourished 7th century B.C.
was one day reading in his hall, when a wheelwright who was working below, Below the covered dais, termed "hall," which has an open frontage, in full view of which such work might be carried on.
flung down his hammer and chisel, and mounting the steps said, "What words may your Highness be studying?"
"I am studying the words of the Sages," replied the Duke.
"Are the Sages alive?" asked the wheelwright.
"No," answered the Duke; "they are dead."
"Then the words your Highness is studying," rejoined the wheelwright, "are only the dregs of the ancients."
"What do you mean, sirrah!" cried the Duke, "by interfering with what I read? Explain yourself, or you shall die."
"Let me take an illustration," said the wheelwright, "from my own trade. In making a wheel, if you work too slowly, you can't make it firm; if you work too fast, the spokes won't fit in. You must go neither too slowly nor too fast. There must be co-ordination of mind and hand. Words cannot explain what it is, but there is some mysterious art herein. I cannot teach it to my son; nor can he learn it from me.
Consequently, though seventy years of age, I am still making wheels in my old age. If the ancients, together with what they could not impart, are dead and gone, then what your Highness is studying must be the dregs."
This episode of the wheelwright is to be found in the works of Huai Nan Tzŭ, of the 2nd century B.C. He used it to illustrate the opening words of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_; and in _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_, p. 6, it is stated that he stole it from Chuang Tzŭ without acknowledgment.
When that statement was made I had not come to the conclusion, now forced upon me, that the above chapter is not from the hand of Chuang Tzŭ. As one critic remarks, the style is generally admirable; but it is not the style of Chuang Tzŭ.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CIRCLING SKY.
_Argument_:--The Ultimate Cause--Integrity of TAO--Music and TAO--Failure of Confucianism--Confucius and Lao Tzŭ--Confucius attains to TAO--Illustrations.
[This chapter is supplementary to ch. v.]
"The sky turns round; the earth stands still; sun and moon pursue one another. Who causes this? Who directs this? Who has leisure enough to see that such movements continue?
"Some think there is a mechanical arrangement which makes these bodies move as they do. Others think that they revolve without being able to stop.
"The clouds cause rain; rain causes clouds. Whose kindly bounty is this? Who has leisure enough to see that such, result is achieved?
"Wind comes from the north. It blows now east, now west; and now it whirls aloft. Who puffs it forth? Who has leisure enough to be flapping it this way or that? I should like to know the cause of all this."
We are not told the name of this questioner.
Wu Han Chao An ancient worthy.
said, "Come here, and I will tell you. Above there are the Six Influences The _Yin_ and _Yang_ principles, wind, rain, darkness, and light; as in ch. xi.
Some commentators read, the "Six Cardinal Points," _viz._: N., E., S., W., above, and below.
and the Five Virtues.
Charity, duty to one's neighbour, order, wisdom, and truth.
If a ruler keeps in harmony with these, his rule is good; if not, it is bad. By following the nine chapters of the Lo book, Containing a mystic revelation of knowledge in the form of a diagram, supposed to have been delivered to one of the legendary rulers of China more than 2,000 years before the Christian era.
his rule will be a success and his virtue complete; he will watch over the interests of his people, and all the empire will owe him gratitude.
This is to be an eminent ruler."
"A very round answer," says Lin Hsi Chung, "to a very square question."
* * * * * Tang, a high official of Sung, asked Chuang Tzŭ about charity. Chuang Tzŭ said, "Tigers and wolves have it."
"How so?" asked Tang.
"The natural love between parents and offspring," replied Chuang Tzŭ,--"is not that charity?"
Tang then inquired about perfect charity.
"Perfect charity," said Chuang Tzŭ, "does not admit of love for the individual."
It embraces all men equally. To love one person would imply at least the possibility of hating another. See also p. 167, where Lao Tzŭ refutes the doctrine of universal love.
"Without such love," replied Tang, "it appears to me there would be no such thing as affection, and without affection no filial piety. Does perfect charity not admit of filial piety?"
"Not so," said Chuang Tzŭ. "Perfect charity is the more extensive term.
Consequently, it was unnecessary to mention filial piety. It was not that filial piety was omitted. It was merely not particularised.
"A man who travels southwards to Ying, Capital of the Ch'u State.
cannot see Mount Ming in the north. Why? Because he is too far off.
"Therefore it has been said that it is easy to be respectfully filial, but difficult to be affectionately filial.
The artificial is easier than the natural.
But even that is easier than to become unconscious of one's natural obligations, which is in turn easier than to cause others to be unconscious of the operations thereof.
_I.e._ to be filial without letting others be conscious of the fact.
Similarly, this is easier than to become altogether unconscious of the world, which again is easier than to cause the world to be unconscious of one's influence upon it.
Such is perfect charity, which operates without letting its operation be known.
"True virtue does nothing, yet it leaves Yao and Shun far behind. Its good influence extends to ten thousand generations, yet no man knoweth it to exist. What boots it then to sigh after charity and duty to one's neighbour?
"Filial piety, fraternal love, charity, duty to one's neighbour, loyalty, truth, chastity, and honesty,--these are all studied efforts, designed to aid the development of virtue. They are only parts of a whole.
"Therefore it has been said, 'Perfect honour includes all the honour a country can give. Perfect wealth includes all the wealth a country can give. Perfect ambition includes all the reputation one can desire.' And by parity of reasoning, TAO does not admit of sub-division."
* * * * * Pei Mên Ch'êng Of whom nothing is recorded.
said to the Yellow Emperor, "When your Majesty played the _Han-ch'ih_ Name of a piece of music, the meaning of which is not known.
in the wilds of Tung-t'ing, the first time I heard it I was afraid, the second time I was amazed, and the last time I was confused, speechless, overwhelmed."
"You are not far from the truth," replied the Yellow Emperor. "I played as a man, drawing inspiration from God. The execution was punctilious, the expression sublime.
"Perfect music first shapes itself according to a human standard; then it follows the lines of the divine; then it proceeds in harmony with the five virtues; then it passes into spontaneity. The four seasons are then blended, and all creation is brought into accord. As the seasons come forth in turn, so are all things produced. Now fulness, now decay, now soft and loud in turn, now clear, now muffled, the harmony of _Yin_ and _Yang_. Like a flash was the sound which roused you as the insect world is roused, By the warm breath of spring.
followed by a thundering peal, without end and without beginning, now dying, now living, now sinking, now rising, on and on without a moment's break. And so you were afraid.
"When I played again, it was the harmony of the _Yin_ and _Yang_, lighted by the glory of sun and moon; now broken, now prolonged, now gentle, now severe, in one unbroken, unfathomable volume of sound.
Filling valley and gorge, stopping the ears and dominating the senses, adapting itself to the capacities of things,--the sound whirled around on all sides, with shrill note and clear. The spirits of darkness kept to their domain. Sun, moon, and stars, pursued their appointed course.
When the melody was exhausted I stopped; if the melody did not stop, I went on.
The music was naturally what it was, independently of the player.
You would have sympathised, but you could not understand. You would have looked, but you could not see. You would have pursued, but you could not overtake. You stood dazed in the middle of the wilderness, leaning against a tree and crooning, your eye conscious of exhausted vision, your strength failing for the pursuit, and so unable to overtake me. Your frame was but an empty shell. You were completely at a loss, and so you were amazed.
"Then I played in sounds which produce no amazement, the melodious law of spontaneity, springing forth like nature's countless buds, in manifold but formless joy, as though poured forth to the dregs, in deep but soundless bass. Beginning nowhere, the melody rested in void; some would say dead, others alive, others real, others ornamental, as it scattered itself on all sides in never to be anticipated chords.
"The wondering world enquires of the Sage. He is in relation with its variations and follows the same eternal law.
"When no machinery is set in motion, and yet the instrumentation is complete, this is the music of God. The mind awakes to its enjoyment without waiting to be called. Accordingly, Yu Piao praised it, saying, 'Listening you cannot hear its sound; gazing you cannot see its form.
Yu Piao is said to have been one of the pre-historic rulers of China.
Readers of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_ (ch. xiv) will here find another nail for the coffin of that egregious fraud. See _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_, p. 14. Also ch. xxii of this work.
It fills heaven and earth. It embraces the six cardinal points.'
Now you desired to listen to it, but you were not able to grasp its existence. And so you were confused.
"My music first induced fear; and as a consequence, respect. I then added amazement, by which you were isolated.
From consciousness of your surroundings.
And lastly, confusion; for confusion means absence of sense, and absence of sense means TAO, and TAO means absorption therein."
* * * * * When Confucius travelled west to the Wei State, Yen Yüan The "John" among the disciples of Confucius. He closed a pure and gentle life at the early age of 32, to the inexpressible grief of the Sage.
asked Shih Chin, Chief musician of the Lu State.
saying, "What think you of my Master?"
"Alas!" replied Shih Chin, "he is not a success."
"How so?" enquired Yen Yüan.
"Before the straw dog has been offered in sacrifice," replied Shih Chin, "it is kept in a box, wrapped up in an embroidered cloth, and the augur fasts before using it. But when it has once been offered up, passers-by trample over its body, and fuel-gatherers pick it up for burning. Then, if any one should take it, and again putting it in a box and wrapping it up in an embroidered cloth, watch and sleep alongside, he would not only dream, but have nightmare into the bargain.
The thing being uncanny. From which it would appear that the use of the straw dog was to induce dreams of future events.
"Now your Master has been thus treating the ancients, who are like the dog which has already been offered in sacrifice. He causes his disciples to watch and sleep alongside of them. Consequently, his tree Beneath which he used to teach.
has been cut down in Sung; they will have none of him in Wei; in fact, his chances among the Shangs and the Chous are exhausted. Is not this the dream? And then to be surrounded by the Ch'êns and the Ts'ais, seven days without food, death staring him in the face,--is not this the nightmare?
"For travelling by water there is nothing like a boat. For travelling by land there is nothing like a cart. This because a boat moves readily in water; but were you to try to push it on land you would never succeed in making it go.
Be in harmony with your surroundings.
Now ancient and modern times may be likened unto water and land; Chou and Lu to the boat and the cart. To try to make the customs of Chou succeed in Lu, is like pushing a boat on land: great trouble and no result, except certain injury to oneself. Your Master has not yet learnt the doctrine of non-angularity, of self-adaptation to externals.
"Have you never seen a well-sweep? You pull it, and down it comes. You release it, and up it goes. It is the man who pulls the well-sweep, and not the well-sweep which pulls the man; so that both in coming down and going up, it does not run counter to the wishes of the man. And so it was that the ceremonial and obligations and laws of the Three Emperors and Five Rulers did not aim at uniformity of application but at good government of the empire. Their ceremonial, obligations, laws, etc., were like the cherry-apple, the pear, the orange, and the pumelo,--all differing in flavour but each palatable. They changed with the changing season.
"Dress up a monkey in the robes of Chou Kung, See ch. iv.
and it will not be happy until they are torn to shreds. And the difference between past and present is much the same as the difference between Chou Kung and a monkey.
"When Hsi Shih A famous beauty of old.
was distressed in mind, she knitted her brows. An ugly woman of the village, seeing how beautiful she looked, went home, and having worked herself into a fit frame of mind, knitted her brows. The result was that the rich people of the place barred up their doors and would not come out, while the poor people took their wives and children and departed elsewhere. That woman saw the beauty of knitted brows, but she did not see wherein the beauty of knitted brows lay.
In suitability to the individual.
Alas! your Master is emphatically not a success."
* * * * * Confucius had lived to the age of fifty-one without hearing TAO, when he went south to P'ei, to see Lao Tzŭ.
Lao Tzŭ said, "So you have come, Sir, have you? I hear you are considered a wise man up north. Have you got TAO?"
"Not yet," answered Confucius.
"In what direction," asked Lao Tzŭ, "have you sought for it?"
"I sought it for five years," replied Confucius, "in the science of numbers, but did not succeed."
"And then?..." continued Lao Tzŭ.
"Then," said Confucius, "I spent twelve years seeking for it in the doctrine of the _Yin_ and _Yang_, also without success."
"Just so," rejoined Lao Tzŭ. "Were TAO something which could be presented, there is no man but would present it to his sovereign, or to his parents. Could it be imparted or given, there is no man but would impart it to his brother or give it to his child. But this is impossible, for the following reason. Unless there is a suitable endowment within, TAO will not abide. Unless there is outward correctness, TAO will not operate. The external being unfitted for the impression of the internal, the true Sage does not seek to imprint. The internal being unfitted for the reception of the external, the true Sage does not seek to receive.
Attempting neither to teach nor to learn.
"Reputation is public property; you may not appropriate it in excess.
Charity and duty to one's neighbour are as caravanserais established by wise rulers of old; you may stop there one night, but not for long, or you will incur reproach.
"The perfect men of old took their road through charity, stopping a night with duty to their neighbour, on their way to ramble in transcendental space. Feeding on the produce of non-cultivation, and establishing themselves in the domain of no obligations, they enjoyed their transcendental inaction. Their food was ready to hand; and being under no obligations to others, they did not put any one under obligation to themselves. The ancients called this the outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
"Those who make wealth their all in all, cannot bear loss of money.
Those who make distinction their all in all, cannot bear loss of fame.
Those who affect power will not place authority in the hands of others.
Anxious while holding, distressed if losing, yet never taking warning from the past and seeing the folly of their pursuit,--such men are the accursed of God.
"Resentment, gratitude, taking, giving, censure of self, instruction of others, power of life and death,--these eight are the instruments of right; but only he who can adapt himself to the vicissitudes of fortune, without being carried away, is fit to use them. Such a one is an upright man among the upright. And he whose heart is not so constituted,--the door of divine intelligence is not yet opened for him."
* * * * * Confucius visited Lao Tzŭ, and spoke of charity and duty to one's neighbour.
Lao Tzŭ said, "The chaff from winnowing will blind a man's eyes so that he cannot tell the points of the compass. Mosquitoes will keep a man awake all night with their biting. And just in the same way this talk of charity and duty to one's neighbour drives me nearly crazy.
Sir! strive to keep the world to its own original simplicity. And as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so let Virtue establish itself.
Wherefore such undue energy, as though searching for a fugitive with a big drum?
See p. 167.
"The snow-goose is white without a daily bath. The raven is black without daily colouring itself. The original simplicity of black and of white is beyond the reach of argument. The vista of fame and reputation is not worthy of enlargement. When the pond dries up and the fishes are left upon dry ground, to moisten them with the breath or to damp them with a little spittle is not to be compared with leaving them in the first instance in their native rivers and lakes."
Repeated from ch. vi.
On returning from this visit to Lao Tzŭ, Confucius did not speak for three days. A disciple asked him, saying, "Master, when you saw Lao Tzŭ, in what direction did you admonish him?"
"I saw a Dragon," replied Confucius, "--a Dragon which by convergence showed a body, by radiation became colour, and riding upon the clouds of heaven, nourished the two Principles of Creation. My mouth was agape: I could not shut it. How then do you think I was going to admonish Lao Tzŭ?"
Upon this Tzŭ Kung remarked, "Ha! then a man can sit corpse-like manifesting his dragon-power around, his thunder-voice heard though profound silence reigns, his movements like those of the universe? I too would go and see him."
More repetition, this time from ch. xi.
So on the strength of his connection with Confucius, Tzŭ Kung obtained an interview. Lao Tzŭ received him distantly and with dignity, saying in a low voice, "I am old, Sir. What injunctions may you have to give me?"
"The administration of the Three Kings and of the Five Rulers," replied Tzŭ Kung, "was not uniform; but their reputation has been identical.
How then, Sir, is it that you do not regard them as Sages?"
"Come nearer, my son," said Lao Tzŭ. "What mean you by _not uniform_?"
"Yao handed over the empire to Shun," replied Tzŭ Kung; "and Shun to Yü. Yü employed labour, and T'ang employed troops. Wên Wang followed Chou Hsin and did not venture to oppose him. Wu Wang opposed him and would not follow. Therefore I said _not uniform_."
"Come nearer, my son," said Lao Tzŭ, "and I will tell you about the Three Kings and the Five Rulers.
"The Yellow Emperor's administration caused the affections of the people to be catholic. Nobody wept for the death of his parents, and nobody found fault.
All loved each other equally.
"The administration of Yao diverted the affections of the people into particular channels. If a man slew the slayer of his parents, nobody blamed him.
Filial affection began to predominate.
"The administration of Shun brought a spirit of rivalry among the people. Children were born after ten months' gestation; when five months old, they could speak; and ere they were three years of age, Including gestation.
could already tell one person from another. And so early death came into the world.
A veritable anti-climax, hopelessly unworthy of either Lao Tzŭ or Chuang Tzŭ.
"The administration of Yü wrought a change in the hearts of the people.