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

11. When Khâo-fû, the Correct{fr. 2}, received the first {fn. 1. Is this equivalent to the adage 'In vino veritas?'} {fn. 2. A famous ancestor of Confucius in the eighth century B.C., {footnote p. 210} before the Khung family fled from Sung. See the account of him, with some verbal alterations, in the Zo Khwan, under the seventh year of duke Kâo.} {p. 210} grade of official rank, he walked with head bowed down; on receiving the second, with bent back; on receiving the third, with body stooping, he ran and hurried along the wall:--who would presume not to take him as a model? But one of those ordinary men, on receiving his first appointment, goes along with a haughty stride; on receiving his second, he looks quite elated in his chariot; and on receiving the third, he calls his uncles by their personal names;--how very different from Hsü (Yû) in the time (of Yâo of) Thang! Of all things that injure (men) there is none greater than the practising of virtue with the purpose of the mind, till the mind becomes supercilious. When it becomes so, the mind (only) looks inwards (on itself), and such looking into itself leads to its ruin. This evil quality has five forms, and the chief of them is that which is the central. What do we mean by the central quality? It is that which appears in a man's loving (only) his own views, and reviling whatever he does not do (himself). Limiting (men's advance), there are eight extreme conditions; securing (that advance), there are three things necessary; and the person has its six repositories. Elegance; a (fine) beard; tallness; size; strength; beauty; bravery; daring; and in all these excelling others:--(these are the eight extreme conditions) by which advance is limited. Depending on and copying others; stooping in order to rise; and being straitened by the fear of not equalling others:--