1
What comes from without cannot be determined beforehand. So it
was that Lung-fäng was killed; Pî-kan immolated; and the count
of Kî (made to feign himself) mad, (while) O-lâi died, and Kieh
and Kâu both perished. Rulers all wish their ministers to be
faithful, but that faithfulness may not secure their confidence;
hence Wû Yün became a wanderer along the Kiang, and Khang Hung
died in Shû, where (the people) preserved his blood for three
years, when it became changed into green jade. Parents all wish
their sons to be filial, but that filial duty may not secure
their love; hence I Hsiâo-kî had to endure his sorrow, and Zäng
Shän his grief.
When wood is rubbed against wood, it begins to burn; when metal
is subjected to fire, it (melts and) flows. When the Yin and
Yang act awry, heaven and earth are greatly perturbed; and on
this comes the crash of thunder, and from the rain comes fire,
which consumes great locust trees. (The case of men) is still
worse. They are troubled between two pitfalls, from which they
cannot escape. Chrysalis-like, they can accomplish nothing.
Their minds are as if hung up between heaven and earth. Now
comforted, now pitied, they are plunged in difficulties. The
ideas of profit and of injury rub against each other, and
produce in them a very great fire. The harmony (of the mind) is
consumed in the mass of men. Their moonlike intelligence cannot
overcome the (inward) fire. They thereupon fall away more and
more, and the Course (which they should pursue) is altogether
lost.
2
The family of Kwang Kâu being poor, he went to ask the loan of
some rice from the Marquis Superintendent of the Ho, who said,
'Yes, I shall be getting the (tax-) money from the people
(soon), and I will then lend you three hundred ounces of
silver;--will that do?' Kwang Kâu flushed with anger, and said,
'On the road yesterday, as I was coming here, I heard some one
calling out. On looking round, I saw a goby in the carriage rut,
and said to it, "Goby fish, what has brought you here?" The goby
said, "I am Minister of Waves in the Eastern Sea. Have you, Sir,
a gallon or a pint of water to keep me alive?" I replied, "Yes,
I am going south to see the kings of Wû and Yüeh, and I will
then lead a stream from the Western Kiang to meet you;--will
that do?" The goby flushed with anger, and said, "I have lost my
proper element, and I can here do nothing for myself; but if I
could get a gallon or a pint of water, I should keep alive. Than
do what you propose, you had better soon look for me in a stall
of dry fish."'
3
A son of the duke of Zän, having provided himself with a great
hook, a powerful black line, and fifty steers to be used as
bait, squatted down on (mount) Kwâi Khî, and threw the line into
the Eastern Sea. Morning after morning he angled thus, and for a
whole year caught nothing. At the end of that time, a great fish
swallowed the bait, and dived down, dragging the great hook with
him.
Then it rose to the surface in a flurry, and flapped with its
fins, till the white waves rose like hills, and the waters were
lashed into fury. The noise was like that of imps and spirits,
and spread terror for a thousand lî. The prince having got such
a fish, cut it in slices and dried them. From the Keh river to
the cast, and from Zhang-Wû to the north, there was not one who
did not eat his full from that fish; and in subsequent
generations, story-tellers of small abilities have all repeated
the story to one another with astonishment. (But) if the prince
had taken his rod, with a fine line, and gone to pools and
ditches, and watched for minnows and gobies, it would have been
difficult for him to get a large fish. Those who dress up their
small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from
being men of great understanding; and therefore one who has not
heard the story of this scion of Zän is not fit to take any part
in the government of the world;--far is he from being so.
4
Some literati, students of the Odes and Ceremonies, were
breaking open a mound over a grave. The superior among them
spoke down to the others, 'Day is breaking in the east; how is
the thing going on?' The younger men replied, 'We have not yet
opened his jacket and skirt, but there is a pearl in the mouth.
As it is said in the Ode,
"The bright, green grain
Is growing on the sides of the mound.
While living, he gave nothing away;
Why, when dead, should he hold a pearl in his mouth?"'
Thereupon they took hold of the whiskers and pulled at the
beard, while the superior introduced a piece of fine steel into
the chin, and gradually separated the jaws, so as not to injure
the pearl in the mouth.
5
A disciple of Lâo Lâi-dze, while he was out gathering firewood,
met with Kung-nî. On his return, he told (his master), saying,
'There is a man there, the upper part of whose body is long and
the lower part short. He is slightly hump-backed, and his ears
are far back. When you look at him, he seems occupied with the
cares of all within the four seas I do not know whose son he
is.' Lâo Lâi-dze said, It is Khiû; call him here;' and when
Kung-nî came, he said to him, 'Khiû, put away your personal
conceit, and airs of wisdom, and show yourself to be indeed a
superior man.' Kung-nî bowed and was retiring, when he abruptly
changed his manner, and asked, 'Will the object I am pursuing be
thereby advanced?' Lao Lâi-dze replied, 'You cannot bear the
sufferings of this one age, and are stubbornly regardless of the
evils of a myriad ages:--is it that you purposely make yourself
thus unhappy? or is it that you have not the ability to
comprehend the case? Your obstinate purpose to make men rejoice
in a participation of your joy is your life-long shame, the
procedure of a mediocre man. You would lead men by your fame;
you would bind them to you by your secret art. Than be praising
Yâo and condemning Kieh, you had better forget them both, and
shut up your tendency to praise. If you reflect on it, it does
nothing but injury; your action in it is entirely wrong. The
sage is full of anxiety and indecision in undertaking anything,
and so he is always successful. But what shall I say of your
conduct? To the end it is all affectation.'
6
The ruler Yüan of Sung (once) dreamt at midnight that a man with
dishevelled hair peeped in on him at a side door and said, 'I
was coming from the abyss of commissioned by the Clear Kiang to
go to the place of the Earl of the Ho; but the fisherman Yü Zü
has caught me.' When the ruler Yüan awoke, he caused a diviner
to divine the meaning (of the dream), and was told, 'This is a
marvellous tortoise.' The ruler asked if among the fishermen
there was one called Yü Zü, and being told by his attendants
that there was, he gave orders that he should be summoned to
court. Accordingly the man next day appeared at court, and the
ruler said, 'What have you caught (lately) in fishing?' The
reply was, 'I have caught in my net a white tortoise,
sieve-like, and five cubits round.' 'Present the prodigy here,'
said the ruler; and, when it came, once and again he wished to
kill it, once and again he wished to keep it alive. Doubting in
his mind (what to do), he had recourse to divination, and
obtained the answer, 'To kill the tortoise for use in divining
will be fortunate.' Accordingly they cut the creature open, and
perforated its shell in seventy-two places, and there was not a
single divining slip which failed.
Kung-nî said, 'The spirit-like tortoise could show itself in a
dream to the ruler Yüan, and yet it could not avoid the net of
Yü Zü. Its wisdom could respond on seventy-two perforations
without failing in a single divination, and yet it could not
avoid the agony of having its bowels all scooped out. We see
from this that wisdom is not without its perils, and spirit-like
intelligence does not reach to everything. A man may have the
greatest wisdom, but there are a myriad men scheming against
him. Fishes do not fear the net, though they fear the pelican.
Put away your small wisdom, and your great wisdom will be
bright; discard your skilfulness, and you will become naturally
skilful. A child when it is born needs no great master, and yet
it becomes able to speak, living (as it does) among those who
are able to speak.'
7
Hui-dze said to Kwang-dze, 'You speak, Sir, of what is of no
use.' The reply was, 'When a man knows what is not useful, you
can then begin to speak to him of what is useful. The earth for
instance is certainly spacious and great; but what a man uses of
it is only sufficient ground for his feet. If, however, a rent
were made by the side of his feet, down to the yellow springs,
could the man still make use of it?' Hui-dze said, 'He could not
use it,' and Kwang-dze rejoined, 'Then the usefulness of what is
of no use is clear.'
8
Kwang-dze said, 'If a man have the power to enjoy himself (in
any pursuit), can he be kept from doing so? If he have not the
power, can he so enjoy himself? There are those whose aim is
bent on concealing themselves, and those who are determined that
their doings shall leave no trace. Alas! they both shirk the
obligations of perfect knowledge and great virtue. The (latter)
fall, and cannot recover themselves; the (former) rush on like
fire, and do not consider (what they are doing). Though men may
stand to each other in the relation of ruler and minister, that
is but for a time. In a changed age, the one of them would not
be able to look down on the other. Hence it is said, "The
Perfect man leaves no traces of his conduct."
'To honour antiquity and despise the present time is the
characteristic of learners; but even the disciples of Khih-wei
have to look at the present age; and who can avoid being carried
along by its course? It is only the Perfect man who is able to
enjoy himself in the world, and not be deflected from the right,
to accommodate himself to others and not lose himself. He does
not learn their lessons; he only takes their ideas into
consideration, and does not discard them as different from his
own.
9
'It is the penetrating eye that gives clear vision, the acute
car that gives quick hearing, the discriminating nose that gives
discernment of odours, the practised mouth that gives the
enjoyment of flavours, the active mind that acquires knowledge,
and the far-reaching knowledge that constitutes virtue. In no
case does the connexion with what is without like to be
obstructed; obstruction produces stoppage; stoppage, continuing
without intermission, arrests all progress; and with this all
injurious effects spring up.
'The knowledge of all creatures depends on their breathing. But
if their breath be not abundant, it is not the fault of Heaven,
which tries to penetrate them with it, day and night without
ceasing; but men notwithstanding shut their pores against it.
The womb encloses a large and empty space; the heart has its
spontaneous and enjoyable movements. If their apartment be not
roomy, wife and mother-in-law will be bickering; if the heart
have not its spontaneous and enjoyable movements, the six
faculties of perception will be in mutual collision. That the
great forests, the heights and hills, are pleasant to men, is
because their spirits cannot overcome (those distracting
influences). Virtue overflows into (the love of) fame; (the love
of) fame overflows into violence; schemes originate in the
urgency (of circumstances); (the show of) wisdom comes from
rivalry; the fuel (of strife) is produced from the obstinate
maintenance (of one's own views); the business of offices should
be apportioned in accordance with the approval of all. In
spring, when the rain and the sunshine come seasonably,
vegetation grows luxuriantly, and sickles and hoes begin to be
prepared. More than half of what had fallen down becomes
straight, and we do not know how.
10
'Stillness and silence are helpful to those who are ill; rubbing
the corners of the eyes is helpful to the aged; rest serves to
calm agitation; but they are the toiled and troubled who have
recourse to these things. Those who are at ease, and have not
had such experiences, do not care to ask about them. The
spirit-like man has had no experience of how it is that the
sagely man keeps the world in awe, and so he does not inquire
about it; the sagely man has had no experience of how it is that
the man of ability and virtue keeps his age in awe, and so he
does not inquire about it; the man of ability and virtue has had
no experience of how it is that the superior man keeps his state
in awe, and so he does not inquire about it. The superior man
has had no experience of how it is that the small man keeps
himself in agreement with his times that he should inquire about
it.'
11
The keeper of the Yen Gate, on the death of his father, showed
so much skill in emaciating his person that he received the rank
of 'Pattern for Officers.' Half the people of his neighbourhood
(in consequence) carried their emaciation to such a point that
they died. When Yâo wished to resign the throne to Hsü Yû, the
latter ran away. When Thang offered his to Wû Kwang, Wû Kwang
became angry. When Kî Thâ heard it, he led his disciples, and
withdrew to the river Kho, where the feudal princes came and
condoled with him, and after three years, Shän Thû-tî threw
himself into the water. Fishing-stakes are employed to catch
fish; but when the fish are got, the men forget the stakes.
Snares are employed to catch hares, but when the hares are got,
men forget the snares. Words are employed to convey ideas; but
when the ideas are apprehended, men forget the words. Fain would
I talk with such a man who has forgot the words! |