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

{fn. 2. See Tâo Teh King, chaps. 18, 25, 53.} {fn. 3. T. T. K., chaps. 1, 51, et al.} {fn. 4. See Kwang-dze, Bk. II, par. 2. 'Passions,' that is, feelings, affections; as in the first of the thirty-nine Articles.} {fn. 5. T. T. K., chaps. 1, 25, 32, 51.} {fn. 6. T. T. K., ch. 25.} {p. 250} 2. Now, the Tâo (shows itself in two forms); the Pure and the Turbid, and has (the two conditions of) Motion and Rest{fr. 1}. Heaven is pure and earth is turbid; heaven moves and earth is at rest. The masculine is pure and the feminine is turbid; the masculine moves and the feminine is still{fr. 2}. The radical (Purity) descended, and the (turbid) issue flowed abroad; and thus all things were produced{fr. 1}. The pure is the source of the turbid, and motion is the foundation of rest. If man could always be pure and still, heaven and earth would both revert (to non-existence){fr. 3}. {fn. 1. This paragraph is intended to set forth 'the production of all things;' but it does so in a way that is hardly intelligible. Comparing what is said here with the utterances in the former paragraph, Tâo would seem to be used in two {footnote p. 251} senses; first as an Immaterial Power or Force, and next as the Material Substance, out of which all things come. Li Hsî-yüeh says that in the first member of par. 1 we have 'the Unlimited (or Infinite) producing the Grand (or Primal) Finite.' On the Tâo in par. 2 he says nothing. The fact is that the subject of creation in the deepest sense of the name is too high for the human mind.}