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

{fn. 1. One expert supposes the text here to mean 'duke Khü;' but there was no such duke of Khî. The best explanation seems to be that Khü was a rich gentleman, inspector of the roads of Khî, or of the streets of its capital, who bought Khwän to take his duties for him.} {fn. 2. Compare in Bk. XXIII, par. 2.} {fn. 3. A scheming for one's own advantage.} {p. 109} also know how they injure it. It is only those who stand outside such men that know this{fr. 1}.' There are the pliable and weak; the easy and hasty; the grasping and crooked. Those who are called the pliable and weak learn the words of some one master, to which they freely yield their assent, being secretly pleased with themselves, and thinking that their knowledge is sufficient, while they do not know that they have not yet begun (to understand) a single thing. It is this which makes them so pliable and weak. The easy and hasty are like lice on a pig. The lice select a place where the bristles are more wide apart, and look on it as a great palace or a large park. The slits between the toes, the overlappings of its skin, about its nipples and its thighs,--all these seem to them safe apartments and advantageous places;--they do not know that the butcher one morning, swinging about his arms, will spread the grass, and kindle the fire, so that they and the pig will be roasted together. So do they appear and disappear with the place where they harboured:--this is why they are called the easy and hasty.