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

"This grave will not be available for your posterity; Duke Ling will appropriate it for himself." {fn. 1. Ling ({img 12500}) as a posthumous epithet, has various meanings, none of them very bad, and some of them very good. Confucius ought to have been able to solve his question himself better than any of the historiographers, but he propounded his doubt to them for reasons which he, no doubt, had.} {fn. 2. We are not to suppose that the royal messenger found him in the tub with his three wives or mistresses. The two incidents mentioned illustrate two different phases of his character, as some of the critics, and even the text itself, clearly indicate.} {p. 126} Thus that epithet of Ling had long been settled for the duke{fr. 1}. But how should those two be able to know this 10. Shâo Kih{fr. 2} asked Thâi-kung Thiâo{fr. 2}, saying, 'What do we mean by "The Talk of the Hamlets and Villages?" The reply was, 'Hamlets and Villages are formed by the union--say of ten surnames and a hundred names, and are considered to be (the source of) manners and customs. The differences between them are united to form their common character, and what is common to them is separately apportioned to form the differences. If you point to the various parts which make up the body of a horse, you do not have the horse; but when the horse is before you, and all its various parts stand forth (as forming the animal), you speak of "the horse." So it is that the mounds and hills are made to be the elevations that they are by accumulations of earth which individually are but low. (So also rivers like) the Kiang and the Ho obtain their greatness by the union of (other smaller) waters with them. And (in the same way) the Great man exhibits the common sentiment of humanity by the union in himself of all its individualities. Hence when ideas come to him from without, though he