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

5. Kwang Kâu tells us, that, 'when Lâo Tan died, {fn. 1. Confucius, who was styled after the beginning of our era for several centuries 'Duke Nî, the Illustrious.'} {fn. 2. See vol. xxxix, pp. 34, 35.} {fn. 3. See vol. xxxix, p. 35.} {fn. 4. The Khien or first of all the hexagrams of the Yî King; but the sentence is to be understood of all the hexagrams,--of the Yî as a whole.} {fn. 5. Compare Pope's line, 'The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew.'} {fn. 6. Vol. xxxix, p. 166.} {fn. 7. Vol. xxxix, p. 244.} {p. 315} Khin Shih went to condole (with his son), but after crying out three times, immediately left the house{fr. 1}.' This was what is called the punishment for his neglecting his Heaven (-implanted nature), and although it appears as one of the metaphorical illustrations of the supercilious officer, yet there is some little indication in the passage of the reappearance of the snake after casting its exuviae{fr. 2}. [At this point the author leaves the subject of the Tâo and its prophet, and enters on a long panegyric of the founder of the Sui dynasty and his achievements. This sovereign was the emperor Wän ({img 31500}) the founder of Sui ({img 31501}), originally Yang Kien, a scion of the House of Sui, a principality whose name remains in Sui-kâu, of the department Teh-an in Hû Pei. He was certainly the ablest man in the China of his day, and deserves a portion of the praise with which Mr. Hsieh celebrates him after his extravagant fashion. He claimed the throne from the year 581. While doing honour to Confucianism, he did not neglect the other two religions in the empire, Tâoism and Buddhism; and having caused the old temple of Lâo-dze to be repaired in grand style in 586, he commissioned Hsieh Tâo-häng to superintend the setting up in it a commemorative Tablet of stone.