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

is a wonderful machinery, by which all the heavenly bodies are produced, the eight diagrams, and the sexagenary cycle; spirit-like springs of power, and hidden ghostlinesses; the arts of the Yin and Yang in the victories of the one over the other:--all these come brightly forward into visibility.{fr. 7_1} {fn. 7_1. I cannot say that I fully understand this concluding paragraph of the Yin Fû King. One thing is plain from it,--how the Yî King was pressed into the service of the Tâoism that prevailed when it was written. I leave it with the judgment on it, quoted by Lî Hsî-yüeh from a Lû Zhien-hsü. 'The subject-matter of the Yin Fû and Tâo Teh is all intended to set forth the action by contraries of the despoiling powers in nature and society. As to finding in them directions for the government of states, the conduct of war, and the mastery of the kingdom, with such expressions as those about a wonderful machinery by which the heavenly bodies are produced, the eight diagrams, the cycle, spirit-like springs, and hidden ghostlinesses:--they all have a deep meaning, but men do not know it. They who go to the Yin Fû for direction in war and use Lâo-dze for guidance in government go far astray from the meaning of both.'} {file "Appendix III. Yü Shû King, or 'The Classic of the Pivot of Jade.'"} APPENDIX III. Yü Shû King, or 'The Classic of the Pivot of Jade.' Mr. Wylie says (Notes, p. 179) that the Pivot of Jade is much used in the ritual services of Tâoism, meaning that it is frequently read in the assemblies of its monks. The object of the Treatise, according to Li Hsî-yüeh, is 'to teach men to discipline and refine their spirit;' and he illustrates the name by referring to the North Star, which is called 'the Pivot of the Sky,' revolving in its place, and carrying round with it all the other heavenly bodies. So the body of man is carried round his spirit and by it, and when the spirit has been disciplined and refined, till it is freed from every obscuring influence, and becomes solid, soft, and strong as jade, the name, 'the Pivot of Jade,' is appropriate to it.