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

{fn. 1. The effect of repentance and reformation is well set forth; but the specification of three years, as the period within which the recompense or retribution will occur, is again an indication of the weakness in this concluding paragraph.} {section "Appendixes"} {file "Appendix I. Khing Käng King, or 'The Classic of Purity.'"} {p. 247} APPENDIXES. APPENDIX I. Khing Käng King, or 'The Classic of Purity{fr. 1}.' So I must translate the title of this brochure, as it appears in the 'Collection of the Most Important Treatises of the Tâoist Fathers' (vol. xxxix, p. xvii), in which alone I have had an opportunity of perusing and studying the Text. The name, as given by Wylie (Notes, p. 178), Balfour (Tâoist Texts.), and Faber (China Review, vol. xiii, p. 246), is Khing King King{fr. 2}, and signifies 'The Classic of Purity and Rest.' The difference is in the second character, but both Khing Käng and Khing King are well-known combinations in Tâoist writings; and it will be seen, as the translation of the Text is pursued, that neither of them is unsuitable as the title of the little Book. It is, as Dr. Faber says, one of the 'mystical canons' of Tâoism; but the mysticism of Tâoism is of a nature peculiar to itself, and different from any mental exercises which have been called by that name in connexion with Christianity or Mohammedanism. It is more vague and shadowy than any theosophy or Sûfism, just as the idea of the Tâo differs from the apprehension of a personal God, however uncertain and indefinite that apprehension may be. Mr. Wylie says the work 'treats under very moderate limits of the subjection of the mental faculties.' This indeed is the consummation to which it conducts the student; a