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

{fn. 1. A sage sovereign prior to the three Hwang or August ones.} {fn. 2. See the same phraseology in Book II, par. 3.} {fn. 3. I have followed Lin Hsî-hung in taking these four characters as the name of one man.} {fn. 4. There was a human element in it instead of the Heavenly only; but some critics think the text here is erroneous or defective.} {p. 118} master. Yung-khäng said, 'Take the days away and there will be no year; without what is internal there will be nothing external{fr. 1}.' 4. (King) Yung{fr. 2} of Wei made a treaty with the marquis Thien Mâu{fr. 3} (of Khî), which the latter violated. The king was enraged, and intended to send a man to assassinate him. When the Minister of War{fr. 4} heard of it, he was ashamed, and said (to the king), 'You are a ruler of 10,000 chariots, and by means of a common man would avenge yourself on your enemy. I beg you to give me, Yen, the command of 200,000 soldiers to attack him for you. I will take captive his people and officers, halter (and lead off) his oxen and horses, kindling a fire within him that shall burn to his backbone. I will then storm his capital; and when he shall run away in terror, I will flog his back and break his spine.' Kî-dze{fr. 5} heard of this advice, and was ashamed of it, and said (to the king), 'We have been raising the wall (of our capital) to a height of eighty cubits, and the work has been completed. If we now get it thrown down, it will be a painful toil to the convict builders. It is now seven years