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1
He who understands the conditions of Life does not strive after
what is of no use to life; and he who understands the conditions
of Destiny does not strive after what is beyond the reach of
knowledge. In nourishing the body it is necessary to have
beforehand the things (appropriate to its support); but there
are cases where there is a superabundance of such things, and
yet the body is not nourished'. In order to have life it is
necessary that it do not have left the body; but there are cases
when the body has not been left by it, and yet the life has
perished.
When life comes, it cannot be declined; when it goes, it cannot
be detained. Alas! the men of the world think that to nourish
the body is sufficient to preserve life; and when such
nourishment is not sufficient to preserve the life, what can be
done in the world that will be sufficient? Though (all that men
can do) will be insufficient, yet there are things which they
feel they ought to do, and they do not try to avoid doing them.
For those who wish to avoid caring for the body, their best plan
is to abandon the world. Abandoning the world, they are free
from its entanglements. Free from its entanglements, their (minds)
are correct and their (temperament) is equable. Thus correct and
equable, they succeed in securing a renewal of life, as some
have done'. In securing a renewal of life, they are not far from
the True (Secret of their being). But how is it sufficient to
abandon worldly affairs? and how is it sufficient to forget the
(business of) life? Through the renouncing of (worldly) affairs,
the body has no more toil; through forgetting the (business of)
life, the vital power suffers no diminution. When the body is
completed and the vital power is restored (to its original
vigour), the man is one with Heaven. Heaven and Earth are the
father and mother of all things. It is by their union that the
body is formed; it is by their separation that a (new) beginning
is brought about. When the body and vital power suffer no
diminution, we have what may be called the transference of power.
From the vital force there comes another more vital, and man
returns to be the assistant of Heaven.
2
My master Lieh-dze asked Yin, (the warden) of the gate, saying,
'The perfect man walks under water without encountering any
obstruction, treads on fire without being burned, and walks on
high above all things without any fear; let me ask how he
attains to do this?' The warden Yin replied, 'It is by his
keeping of the pure breath (of life); it is not to be described
as an achievement of his skill or daring. Sit down, and I will
explain it to you. Whatever has form, semblance, sound, and
colour is a thing; how can one thing come to be different from
another? But it is not competent for any of these things to
reach to what preceded them all;--they are but (form and)
visibility. But (the perfect man) attains to be (as it were)
without form, and beyond the capability of being transformed.
Now when one attains to this and carries it out to the highest
degree, how can other things come into his way to stop him? He
will occupy the place assigned to him without going beyond it,
and lie concealed in the clue which has no end. He will study
with delight the process which gives their beginning and ending
to all things. By gathering his nature into a unity, by
nourishing his vital power, by concentrating his virtue, lie
will penetrate to the making of things. In this condition, with
his heavenly constitution kept entire, and with no crevice in
his spirit, how can things enter (and disturb his serenity)?
'Take the case of a drunken man falling from his carriage;--though
he may suffer injury, he will not die. His bones and joints are
the same as those of other men, but the injury which he receives
is different:--his spirit is entire. He knew nothing about his
getting into the carriage, and knew nothing about his falling
from it. The thought of death or life, or of any alarm or
affright, does not enter his breast; and therefore he encounters
danger without any shrinking from it. Completely under the
influence of the liquor he has drunk, it is thus with him;--how
much more would it be so, if he were under the influence of his
Heavenly constitution! The sagely man is kept hid in his
Heavenly constitution, and therefore nothing can injure him.
'A man in the pursuit of vengeance would not break the (sword)
Mo-yê or Yü-kiang (which had done the deed); nor would one,
however easily made wrathful, wreak his resentment on the fallen
brick. In this way all under heaven there would be peace,
without the disorder of assaults and fighting, without the
punishments of death and slaughter:--such would be the issue of
the course (which I have described). If the disposition that is
of human origin be not developed, but that which is the gift of
Heaven, the development of the latter will produce goodness,
while that of the former would produce hurt. If the latter were
not wearied of, and the former not slighted, the people would be
brought nearly to their True nature.'
3
When Kung-nî was on his way to Khû, as he issued from a forest,
he saw a hunchback receiving cicadas (on the point of a rod), as
if he were picking them up with his hand'. 'You are clever!'
said he to the man. 'Is there any method in it?' The hunchback
replied, 'There is. For five or six months, I practised with two
pellets, till they never fell down, and then I only failed with
a small fraction of the cicadas (which I tried to catch). Having
succeeded in the same way with three (pellets), I missed only
one cicada in ten. Having succeeded with five, I caught the
cicadas as if I were gathering them. My body is to me no more
than the stump of a broken trunk, and my shoulder no more than
the branch of a rotten tree. Great as heaven and earth are, and
multitudinous as things are, I take no notice of them, but only
of the wings of my cicadas; neither turning nor inclining to one
side. I would not for them all exchange the wings of my cicadas;--how
should I not succeed in taking them?' Confucius looked round,
and said to his disciples, "Where the will is not diverted from
its object, the spirit is concentrated;"--this might have been
spoken of this hunchback gentleman.'
4
Yen Yüan asked Kung-nî, saying, 'When 1 was crossing the gulf of
Khang-shän, the ferryman handled the boat like a spirit. I asked
him whether such management of a boat could be learned, and he
replied, "It may. Good swimmers can learn it quickly; but as for
divers, without having seen a boat, they can manage it at once."
He did not directly tell me what I asked;--I venture to ask you
what he meant.' Kung-nî replied, 'Good swimmers acquire the
ability quickly;--they forget the water (and its dangers). As to
those who are able to dive, and without having seen a boat are
able to manage it at once, they look on the watery gulf as if it
were a hill-side, and the upsetting of a boat as the going back
of a carriage. Such upsettings and goings back have occurred
before them multitudes of times, and have not seriously affected
their minds. Wherever they go, they feel at ease on their
occurrence.
'He who is contending for a piece of earthenware puts forth all
his skill. If the prize be a buckle of brass, he shoots
timorously; if it be for an article of gold, he shoots as if he
were blind. The skill of the archer is the same in all the cases;
but (in the two latter cases) he is under the influence of
solicitude, and looks on the external prize as most important.
All who attach importance to what is external show stupidity in
themselves.'
5
Thien Khâi-kih was having an interview with duke Wei of Kâu, who
said to him, 'I have heard that (your master) Kû Hsin has
studied the subject of Life. What have you, good Sir, heard from
him about it in your intercourse with him?' Thien Khâi-kih
replied, 'In my waiting on him in the courtyard with my broom,
what should I have heard from my master?' Duke Wei said, 'Do not
put the question off, Mr. Thien; I wish to hear what you have to
say.' Khâi-kih then replied, 'I have heard my master say that
they who skilfully nourish their life are like shepherds, who
whip up the sheep that they see lagging behind.' 'What did he
mean?' asked the duke. The reply was, 'In Lû there was a Shan
Pâo, who lived among the rocks, and drank only water. He would
not share with the people in their toils and the benefits
springing from them; and though he was now in his seventieth
year, he had still the complexion of a child. Unfortunately he
encountered a hungry tiger, which killed and ate him. There was
also a Kang Î, who hung up a screen at his lofty door, and to
whom all the people hurried (to pay their respects). In his
fortieth year, he fell ill of a fever and died. (Of these two
men), Pho nourished his inner man, and a tiger ate his outer;
while I nourished his outer man, and disease attacked his inner.
Both of them neglected whipping up their lagging sheep.'
Kung-nî said, 'A man should not retire and hide himself; he
should not push forward and display himself; he should be like
the decayed tree which stands in the centre of the ground. Where
these three conditions are fulfilled, the name will reach its
greatest height. When people fear the dangers of a path, if one
man in ten be killed, then fathers and sons, elder brothers and
younger, warn one another that they must not go out on a journey
without a large number of retainers;--and is it not a mark of
wisdom to do so? But there are dangers which men incur on the
mats of their beds, and in eating and drinking; and when no
warning is given against them;--is it not a mark of error?'
6
The officer of Prayer in his dark and square-cut robes goes to
the pig-pen, and thus counsels the pigs, 'Why should you shrink
from dying? I will for three months feed you on grain. Then for
ten days I will fast, and keep vigil for three days, after which
I will put down the mats of white grass, and lay your shoulders
and rumps on the carved stand;--will not this suit you?' If he
had spoken from the standpoint of the pigs, he would have said,
'The better plan will be to feed us with our bran and chaff, and
leave us in our pen.' When consulting for himself, he preferred
to enjoy, while he lived, his carriage and cap of office, and
after death to be borne to the grave on the ornamented carriage,
with the canopy over his coffin. Consulting for the pigs, he did
not think of these things, but for himself he would have chosen
them. Why did he think so differently (for himself and) for the
pigs?
7
(Once), when duke Hwan was hunting by a marsh, with Kwan Kung
driving the carriage, he saw a ghost. Laying his hand on that of
Kwan Kung, he said to him, 'Do you see anything, Father Kung?' 'Your
servant sees nothing,' was the reply. The duke then returned,
talking incoherently and becoming ill, so that for several days
he did not go out. Among the officers of Khî there was a Hwang-dze
Kâo-âo, who said to the duke, 'Your Grace is injuring yourself;
how could a ghost injure you? When a paroxysm of irritation is
dispersed, and the breath does not return (to the body), what
remains in the body is not sufficient for its wants. When it
ascends and does not descend, the patient becomes accessible to
gusts of anger. When it descends and does not ascend, he loses
his memory of things. When it neither ascends nor descends, but
remains about the heart in the centre of the body, it makes him
ill.' The duke said, 'Yes, but are there ghostly sprites?' The
officer replied, 'There are about mountain tarns there is the Lî;
about furnaces, the Khieh; about the dust-heaps inside the door,
the Lei-thing. In low-lying places in the north-east, the Pei-a
and Wa-lung leap about, and in similar places in the north-west
there dwells the Yî-yang. About rivers there is the Wang-hsiang;
about mounds, the Hsin; about hills, the Khwei; about wilds, the
Fang-hwang; about marshes, the Wei-tho.' 'Let me ask what is the
Wei-tho like?' asked the duke. Hwang-dze said, 'It is the size
of the nave of a chariot wheel, and the length of the shaft. It
wears a purple robe and a red cap. It dislikes the rumbling
noise of chariot wheels, and, when it hears it, it puts both its
hands to its head and stands up. He who sees it is likely to
become the leader of all the other princes.' Duke Hwan burst out
laughing and said, 'This was what I saw.' On this he put his
robes and cap to rights, and made Hwang-dze sit with him. Before
the day was done, his illness was quite gone, he knew not how.
8
Kî Hsing-dze was rearing a fighting-cock for the king. Being
asked after ten days if the bird were ready, he said, 'Not yet;
he is still vain and quarrelsome, and relies on his own vigour.'
Being asked the same after other ten days, he said, 'Not yet; he
still responds to the crow and the appearance of another bird.'
After ten days more, he replied, 'Not yet. He still looks
angrily, and is full of spirit.' When a fourth ten days had
passed, he replied to the question, 'Nearly so. Though another
cock crows, it makes no change in him. To look at him, you would
say he was a cock of wood. His quality is complete. No other
cock will dare to meet him, but will run from him.'
9
Confucius was looking at the cataract near the gorge of Lü,
which fell a height of 240 cubits, and the spray of which
floated a distance of forty lî, (producing a turbulence) in
which no tortoise, gavial, fish, or turtle could play. He saw,
however, an old man swimming about in it, as if he had sustained
Some great calamity, and wished to end his life. Confucius made
his disciples hasten along the stream to rescue the man; and by
the time they had gone several hundred paces, he was walking
along singing, with his hair dishevelled, and enjoying himself
at the foot of the embankment. Confucius followed and asked him,
saying, 'I thought you were a sprite; but, when I look closely
at you, I see that you are a man. Let me ask if you have any
particular way of treading the water.' The man said, 'No, I have
no particular way. I began (to learn the art) at the very
earliest time; as I grew up, it became my nature to practise it;
and my success in it is now as sure as fate. I enter and go down
with the water in the very centre of its whirl, and come up
again with it when it whirls the other way. I follow the way of
the water, and do nothing contrary to it of myself;--this is how
I tread it.' Confucius said, 'What do you mean by saying that
you began to learn the art at the very earliest time; that as
you grew up, it became your nature to practise it, and that your
success in it now is as sure as fate?' The man replied, 'I was
born among these hills and lived contented among them;--that was
why I say that I have trod this water from my earliest time. I
grew up by it, and have been happy treading it;--that is why I
said that to tread it had become natural to me. I know not how I
do it, and yet I do it;--that is why I say that my success is as
sure as fate.'
10
Khing, the Worker in Rottlera wood, carved a bell-stand, and
when it was completed, all who saw it were astonished as if it
were the work of spirits. The marquis of Lû went to see it, and
asked by what art he had succeeded in producing it. 'Your
subject is but a mechanic,' was the reply; 'what art should I be
possessed of? Nevertheless, there is one thing (which I will
mention), When your servant had undertaken to make the
bell-stand, I did not venture to waste any of my power, and felt
it necessary to fast in order to compose my mind. After fasting
for three days, I did not presume to think of any
congratulation, reward, rank, or emolument (which I might obtain
by the execution of my task); after fasting five days, I did not
presume to think of the condemnation or commendation (which it
would produce), or of the skill or want of skill (which it might
display). At the end of the seven days, I had forgotten all
about myself;--my four limbs and my whole person. By this time
the thought of your Grace's court (for which I was to make the
thing) had passed away; everything that could divert my mind
from exclusive devotion to the exercise of my skill had
disappeared. Then I went into the forest, and looked at the
natural forms of the trees. When I saw one of a perfect form,
then the figure of the bell-stand rose up to my view, and I
applied my hand to the work. Had I not met with such a tree, I
must have abandoned the object; but my Heaven-given faculty and
the Heaven-given qualities of the wood were concentrated on it.
So it was that my spirit was thus engaged in the production of
the bell-stand.'
11
Tung-yê Kî was introduced to duke Kwang to exhibit his driving.
His horses went forwards and backwards with the straightness of
a line, and wheeled to the right and the left with the exactness
of a circle. The duke thought that the lines and circles could
not be surpassed if they were woven with silken strings, and
told him to make a hundred circuits on the same lines. On the
road Yen Ho met the equipage, and on entering (the palace), and
seeing the duke, he said, 'Kî's horses will break down,' but the
duke was silent, and gave him no reply. After a little the
horses did come back, having broken down; and the duke then
said,' How did you know that it would be so?' Yen Ho said, 'The
horses were exhausted, and he was still urging them on. It was
this which made me say that they would break down.'
12
The artisan Shui made things round (and square) more exactly
than if he had used the circle and square. The operation of his
fingers on (the forms of) things was like the transformations of
them (in nature), and required no application of his mind; and
so his Intelligence I was entire and encountered no resistance.
13
To be unthought of by the foot that wears it is the fitness of a
shoe; to be unthought of by the waist is the fitness of a
girdle. When one's wisdom does not think of the right or the
wrong (of a question under discussion), that shows the
suitability of the mind (for the question); when one is
conscious of no inward change, or outward attraction, that shows
the mastery of affairs. He who perceives at once the fitness,
and never loses the sense of it, has the fitness that forgets
all about what is fitting.
14
There was a Sun Hsiû who went to the door of Dze-pien Khing-dze,
and said to him in a strange perturbed way, 'When I lived in my
village, no one took notice of me, but all said that I did not
cultivate (my fields); in a time of trouble and attack, no one
took notice of me, but all said that I had no courage. But that
I did not cultivate my fields, was really because I never met
with a good year; and that I did not do service for our ruler,
was because I did not meet with the suitable opportunity to do
so. I have been sent about my business by the villagers, and am
driven away by the registrars of the district;--what is my
crime? O Heaven! how is it that I have met with such a fate?'
Pien-dze said to him, 'Have you not heard how the perfect man
deals with himself? He forgets that be has a liver and gall. He
takes no thought of his ears and eyes. He seems lost and aimless
beyond the dust and dirt of the world, and enjoys himself at
ease in occupations untroubled by the affairs of business. He
may be described as acting and yet not relying on what he does,
as being superior and yet not using his superiority to exercise
any control. But now you would make a display of your wisdom to
astonish the ignorant; you would cultivate your person to make
the inferiority of others more apparent; you seek to shine as if
you were carrying the sun and moon in your hands. That you are
complete in your bodily frame, and possess all its nine
openings; that you have not met with any calamity in the middle
of your course, such as deafness, blindness, or lameness, and
can still take your place as a man among other men;--in all this
you are fortunate. What leisure have you to murmur against
Heaven? Go away, Sir.'
Sun-dze on this went out, and Pien-dze went inside. Having
sitten down, after a little time he looked up to heaven, and
sighed. His disciples asked him why he sighed, and he said to
them, 'Hsiû came to me a little while ago, and I told him the
characteristics of the perfect man. I am afraid he will be
frightened, and get into a state of perplexity.' His disciples
said, 'Not so. If what he said was right, and what you said was
wrong, the wrong will certainly not be able to perplex the
right. If what he said was wrong, and what you said was right,
it was just because he was perplexed that he came to you. What
was your fault in dealing with him as you did?' Pien-dze said,
'Not so. Formerly a bird came, and took up its seat in the
suburbs of Lû. The ruler of Lû was pleased with it, and provided
an ox, a sheep, and a pig to feast it, causing also the Kiû-shâo
to be performed to delight it. But the bird began to be sad,
looked dazed, and did not venture to eat or drink. This was what
is called "Nourishing a bird, as you would nourish yourself." He
who would nourish a bird as a bird should be nourished should
let it perch in a deep forest, or let it float on a river or
lake, or let it find its food naturally and undisturbed on the
level dry ground. Now Hsiû (came to me), a man of slender
intelligence, and slight information, and I told him of the
characteristics of the perfect man, it was like using a carriage
and horses to convey a mouse, or trying to delight a quail with
the music of bells and drums;could the creatures help being
frightened?' |
