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

After reading this paragraph, I passed over the four intermediate Books,--the Zang Wang, the Yüeh Kien, the Yü Fû, and the Tâo Kih, and joined it on to the first paragraph of the Lieh Yü-khâu (Book XXXII). I then read how Lieh-dze had started to go to Khî but came back {fn. 1. See Book XXXIII, pars. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.} {p. 323} when he had got half-way to it. (When asked why he had done so), he replied, 'I was frightened, I went into ten soup-shops to get a meal, and in five of them the soup was set before me before I had paid for it.' Comparing this with the paragraph about Yang Dze-kü, the light flashed on me. I laughed and said, 'They certainly belong to one chapter!' The words of Kwang-dze were not ended; and some other stupid person copied in (these other four Books) of his own among them. We should have our wits about us, and mark the difference between them. The division of paragraphs and the titles of the Books did not proceed from Kwang-dze himself, but were introduced by custom in the course of time{fr. 1}. Recorded on the 19th day of the 11th month of the first year of the period Yüan Fäng (1078-1085). {fn. 1. Few of my readers, I apprehend, will appreciate this article, which is to me more a jeu d'esprit than 'a record.' It is strange that so slight and fantastic a piece should have had the effect attributed to it of making the four Books which they call in question be generally held by scholars of the present dynasty to be apocryphal, but still Sû Shih avows in it his belief in Book XXXIII. Compare the quotation from Lin Hsî-kung on pp. 296, 297.}