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

{fn. 1. See Mencius V, i, 7.} {fn. 2. Mencius V, i, 9.} {p. 90} the action is in that not-acting. Desiring to be quiescent, he must pacify all his emotions; desiring to be spirit-like, he must act in conformity with his mind. When action is required of him, he wishes that it may be right; and it then is under an inevitable constraint. Those who act according to that inevitable constraint pursue the way of the sage. {file "Book XXIV. Hsü Wû-kwei"} {p. 91} BOOK XXIV. PART III. SECTION II. Hsü Wû-kwei{fr. 1}. 1. Hsü Wû-kwei having obtained through Nü Shang{fr. 2} an introduction to the marquis Wû of Wei{fr. 3}, the marquis, speaking to him with kindly sympathy{fr. 4}, said, 'You are ill, Sir; you have suffered from your hard and laborious toils{fr. 4} in the forests, and still you have been willing to come and see poor me{fr. 5}.' Hsü Wû-kwei replied, 'It is I who have to comfort your lordship; what occasion have you to comfort me? If your lordship go on to fill up the measure of your sensual desires, and to prolong your likes and dislikes, then the condition of your mental nature will be diseased, and if you discourage and repress those desires, and deny your likings and dislikings, that will be an affliction to your ears and eyes {fn. 1. See vol. xxxix, pp. 153, 154.} {fn. 2. A favourite and minister of the marquis Wû.} {fn. 3. This was the second marquis of Wei, one of the three principalities into which the great state of Zin had been broken up, and which he ruled as the marquis Kî for sixteen years, B.C. 386-371. His son usurped the title of king, and was the 'king Hui of Liang,' whom Mencius had interviews with. Wû, or 'martial,' was Kî's honorary, posthumous epithet.}