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28
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XX.
seem to be the right position, but it would not be so, for it would not put me beyond being involved in trouble; whereas one who takes his seat on the Tâo and its Attributes, and there finds his ease and enjoyment, is not exposed to such a contingency. He is above the reach both of praise and of detraction ; now he (mounts aloft) like a dragon, now he (keeps beneath) like a snake; he is transformed with the (changing) character of the time, and is not willing to addict himself to any one thing; now in a high position and now in a low, he is in harmony with all his surroundings; he enjoys himself at ease with the Author of all things ?; he treats things as things, and is not a thing to them :-where is his liability to be involved in trouble? This was the method of Shăn Năng and Hwang-Ti. As to those who occupy themselves with the qualities of things, and with the teaching and practice of the human relations, it is not so with them. Union brings on separation; success, overthrow; sharp corners, the use of the file; honour, critical remarks; active exertion, failure; wisdom, scheming; inferiority, being despised :—where is the possibility of unchangeableness in any of these conditions ? Remember this, my disciples. Let your abode be here,-in the Tâo and its Attributes?.'
2. I-liko ?, an officer of Shih-nan 3, having an in
· The Tao; called , in Bk. XII, par. 5.
? But after all it comes to be the same thing in point of fact with those who ground themselves in the Tâo, and with others.
8 The I-liâo here was a scion of the ruling House of Khd, and is mentioned fortunately in the Supplement to the 30-khwan, under the very year in which Confucius died (B. C. 479). His residence was in the south of the Market Place' of the city where he lived,
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