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

{fn. 1. Was this then Wû-zän's idea of how the Tâoist should carry himself? From 'those who associate with you' Wû-zän's address might be rhymed.} {fn. 2. Read them aloud, and so committed them to memory;--as Chinese schoolboys do still.} {fn. 3. The name of a place, or, perhaps, of Hwan's schoolmaster.} {fn. 4. Probably, the kindred of his father, mother, and wife;--through his getting office as a scholar.} {fn. 5. Or Mih Tî;--Mencius's heresiarch.} {fn. 6. Literally, 'of Tî,' as if that had been the name of the younger brother, as it was that of the heresiarch.} {p. 205} {cont}Mohist; why did you not recognise that good service{fr. 1}? I am become (but) the fruit of a cypress in autumn{fr. 2}.' But the Creator{fr. 3}, in apportioning the awards of men, does not recompense them for their own doings, but recompenses them for the (use of the) Heavenly in them. It was thus that Hwan's brother was led to learn Mohism. When this Hwan thought that it was he who had made his brother different from what he would have been, and proceeded to despise his father, he was like the people of Khî, who, while they drank from a well, tried to keep one another from it. Hence it is said, 'Now-a-days all men are Hwans{fr. 4}.' From this we perceive that those who possess the characteristics (of the Tâo) consider that they do not know them; how much more is it so with those who possess the Tâo itself! The ancients called such (as Hwan) 'men who had escaped the punishment of Heaven.'