Sacred Books of the East Vol. 40 - Taoism Vol. 2

{fn. 1. See the account of Nan-kwo Dze-khî in Book II, par. 1.} {fn. 2. Not the name of a man, but an office.} {fn. 3. The term in the text denotes the cast-off skin or shell of insects, snakes, and crabs. See the account of death and life in par. 1.} {p. 63} when we eat, we should not know the taste of our food;--all is done by the strong Yang influence of Heaven and Earth{fr. 1}. How then can you get (the Tâo), and hold it as your own?' 5. Confucius asked Lao Tan, saying, 'Being at leisure to-day, I venture to ask you about the Perfect Tâo.' Lâo Tan replied, 'You must, as by fasting and vigil, clear and purge your mind, wash your spirit white as snow, and sternly repress your knowledge. The subject of the Tâo is deep, and difficult to describe;--I will give you an outline of its simplest attributes. 'The Luminous was produced from the Obscure; the Multiform from the Unembodied; the Spiritual from the Tâo; and the bodily from the seminal essence. After this all things produced one another from their bodily organisations. Thus it is that those which have nine apertures are born from the womb, and those with eight from eggs{fr. 2} But their coming leaves no trace, and their going no monument; they enter by no door; they dwell in no apartment{fr. 3}:--they are in a vast arena reaching in all directions. They who search for and find (the Tâo) in this are strong in their limbs, sincere and far-reaching in their thinking, acute in their hearing, and clear in their seeing. They exercise their minds without being toiled; they respond to everything aright without regard to place or circumstance. Without this heaven would not be high, nor earth