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

{fn. 1. See note {frr. 105@3} on previous page.} {fn. 2. This can hardly be any other but Nan-kwo Dze-khî.} {fn. 3. A famous physiognomist; some say, of horses. Hwâi-nan Dze calls him Kiû-fang Kâo ({img 10600}).} {fn. 4. See Mayers's Manual, p. 303.} {p. 107} you count it his misfortune.' Dze-khî said, 'O Yän, what sufficient ground have you for knowing that this will be Khwän's good fortune? (The fortune) that is summed up in wine and flesh affects only the nose and the mouth, but you are not able to know how it will come about. I have never been a shepherd, and yet a ewe lambed in the south-west corner of my house. I have never been fond of hunting, and yet a quail hatched her young in the south-east corner. If these were not prodigies, what can be accounted such? Where I wish to occupy my mind with my son is in (the wide sphere of) heaven and earth; I wish to seek his enjoyment and mine in (the idea of) Heaven, and our support from the Earth. I do not mix myself up with him in the affairs (of the world); nor in forming plans (for his advantage); nor in the practice of what is strange. I pursue with him the perfect virtue of Heaven and Earth, and do not allow ourselves to be troubled by outward things. I seek to be with him in a state of undisturbed indifference, and not to practise what affairs might indicate as likely to be advantageous. And now there is to come to us this vulgar recompense. Whenever there is a strange realisation, there must have been strange conduct. Danger threatens;--not through any sin of me or of my son, but as brought about, I apprehend, by Heaven. It is this which makes me weep!'