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

{fn. 1. Perhaps the Tung-kwo Shun-dze of Bk. XXI, par. 1.} {fn. 2. A contemptuous reply, provoked by Tung-kwo's repeated interrogation as to where the Tâo was to, be found, the only question being as to what it was.} {fn. 3. We do not know the practices from which our author draws his illustrations here sufficiently to make out his meaning clearly. The signification of the characters {img 06600} and {img 06601} may be gathered indeed from the Î Lî, Books 7-9; but that is all.} {p. 67} but the reality (sought in them) is the same referring to the One thing{fr. 1}. 'Suppose we were to try to roam about in the palace of No-where;--when met there, we might discuss (about the subject) without ever coming to an end. Or suppose we were to be together in (the region of) Non-action;--should we say that (the Tâo was) Simplicity and Stillness? or Indifference and Purity? or Harmony and Ease? My will would be aimless. If it went nowhere, I should not know where it had got to; if it went and came again, I should not know where it had stopped; if it went on going and coming, I should not know when the process would end. In vague uncertainty should I be in the vastest waste. Though I entered it with the greatest knowledge, I should not know how inexhaustible it was. That which makes things what they are has not the limit which belongs to things, and when we speak of things being limited, we mean that they are so in themselves. (The Tâo) is the limit of the unlimited, and the boundlessness of the unbounded.