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

{fn. 1. Compare vol. xxxix, pp. 36, 37, 39, Sze-mâ Khien enters king Hui's death in this year. The 'Bamboo Books' place it sixteen years later, see 'The General Mirror of History,' under the thirty-fifth year of king Hsien of Kau.} {fn. 2. I suppose this incident is an invention of Sû Shih's own. I have not met with it anywhere else. In Ziâo's text for the 'in disguise' of the translation, however, there is an error. He gives {img 32100} instead of {img 32101}.} {p. 322} of them shows them to be far from any wish to defame Khung-dze. 3. And there is that in the style which slightly indicates his real meaning. (In his last Book for instance), when discussing the historical phases of Tâoism, he exhibits them from Mo Tî, Khin Hwâ-lî, Phäng Mäng, Shän Tâo, Thien Pien, Kwan Yin, and Lâo Tan, down even to himself, and brings them all together as constituting one school, but Confucius is not among them{fr. 1}. So great and peculiar is the honour which he does to him! 4. I have had my doubts, however, about 'The Robber Kih (Bk. XXIX),' and 'The Old Fisherman (Bk. XXXI),' for they do seem to be really defamatory of Confucius. And as to 'The Kings who have wished to Resign the Throne (Bk. XXVIII)' and 'The Delight in the Sword-fight (Bk. XXX);' they are written in a low and vulgar style, and have nothing to do with the doctrine of the Tâo. Looking at the thing and reflecting on it, there occurred to me the paragraph at the end of Book XXVII ('Metaphorical Language'). It tells us that 'when Yang Dze-kü had gone as far as Khin, he met with Lâo-dze, who said to him, "Your eyes are lofty, and you stare; who would live with you? The purest carries himself as if he were defiled, and the most virtuous seems to feel himself defective." Yang Dze-kü looked abashed and changed countenance. When he first went to his lodging-house, the people in it met him and went before him. The master of it carried his mat for him, and the mistress brought to him the towel and comb. The lodgers left their mats and the cook his fire-place, as he went past them. When he went away, the others in the house would have striven with him about (the places for) their mats.'