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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. III.
cord on which God suspended (the life)? What we can point to are the faggots that have been consumed; but the fire is transmitted (elsewhere), and we know not that it is over and ended 2.
1 This short sentence is remarkable by the use of the character Tî G ), 'God,' in it, a usage here ascribed to the ancients.
? The concluding sentence might stand as a short paragraph by itself. The faggots' are understood to represent the body, and the 'fire' the animating spirit. The body perishes at death as the faggots are consumed by the fire. But the fire may be transmitted to other faggots, and so the spirit may migrate, and be existing elsewhere.
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