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

7. Po Kü{fr. 1} was studying with Lâo Tan, and asked his leave to go and travel everywhere. Lao Tan said, 'Nay;--elsewhere it is just as here.' He repeated his request, and then Lâo Tan said, 'Where would you go first?' 'I would begin with Khî,' replied the disciple. Having got there, I would go to look at the criminals (who had been executed). With my arms I would raise (one of) them up and set him on his feet, and, taking off my court robes, I would cover him with them, appealing at {fn. 1. We can only say of Po Kü that he was a disciple of Lâo-dze.} {p. 123} the same time to Heaven and bewailing his lot, while I said{fr. 1}, "My son, my son, you have been one of the first to suffer from the great calamities that afflict the world{fr. 2}."' (Lâo Tan) said{fr. 1}, '(It is said), ---Do not rob. Do not kill." (But) in the setting up of (the ideas of) glory and disgrace, we see the cause of those evils; in the accumulation of property and wealth, we see the causes of strife and contention. If now you set up the things against which men fret; if you accumulate what produces strife and contention among them; if you put their persons in such a state of distress, that they have no rest or ease, although you may wish that they should not come to the end of those (criminals), can your wish be realised? 'The superior men (and rulers) of old considered that the success (of their government) was to be found in (the state of) the people, and its failure to be sought in themselves; that the right might be with the people, and the wrong in themselves. Thus it was that if but a single person lost his life, they retired and blamed themselves. Now, however, it is not so. (Rulers) conceal what they want done, and hold those who do not know it to be stupid; they require what is very difficult, and condemn those who do not dare to undertake it; they impose heavy burdens, and punish those who are unequal to them; they require men to go far, and put them to death when they cannot accomplish the distance. When the people know that the utmost of their