________________
176
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. II.
BOOK II.
Part I. Section II. Khi Wa Lun, or “The Adjustment of
Controversies 1.' 1. Nan-kwo Zze-khi 2 was seated, leaning forward on his stool. He was looking up to heaven and breathed gently, seeming to be in a trance, and to have lost all consciousness of any companion. (His disciple), Yen Khăng Zze-yù , who was in attendance and standing before him, said, 'What is this ? Can the body be made to become thus like a withered tree, and the mind to become like slaked lime? His appearance as he leans forward on the stool to-day is such as I never saw him have before in the same position.' Zze-khỉ said, 'Yen, you do well to ask such a question, I had just now lost myself 4; but how should you understand it? You
1 See pp. 128-130.
2 Nan-kwo, the southern suburb,' had probably been the quarter where Zze-khî had resided, and is used as his surname. He is introduced several times by Kwang-zze in his writings: Books IV, 7; XXVII, 4, and perhaps elsewhere.
3 We have the surname of this disciple, Yen (Bit); his name, Yen (1); his honorary or posthumous epithet (Khăng); and his ordinary appellation, Zze-yûThe use of the epithet shows that he and his master had lived before our author.
4 He had lost himself;' that is, he had become unconscious of all around him, and even of himself, as if he were about to enter
Digitized by Google
