Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 376

CHAP. I.
APPENDIX III.
349
3. We have the exciting forces of thunder and lightning; the fertilising influences of wind and rain ; and the revolutions of the sun and moon, which give rise to cold and warmth.
4. The attributes expressed by Khien constitute the male; those expressed by Khwăn constitute the female.
5. Khien (symbolises Heaven, which) directs the great beginnings of things; Khwăn (symbolises Earth, which) gives to them their completion.
6. It is by the ease with which it proceeds that Khien directs (as it does), and by its unhesitating response that Khwăn exhibits such ability.
7. (He who attains to this) ease (of Heaven) will be easily understood, and (he who attains to this) freedom from laborious effort (of the Earth) will be easily followed. He who is easily understood will have adherents, and he who is easily followed will achieve success. He who has adherents can continue long, and he who achieves success can become great. To be able to continue long shows the virtue of the wise and able man; to be able to become great is the heritage he will acquire.
8. With the attainment of such ease and such freedom from laborious effort, the mastery is got of all principles under the sky. With the attainment of that mastery, (the sage) makes good his position in the middle (between heaven and earth).
Chapter I is an attempt to show the correspondency between the phenomena of external nature ever changing, and the figures of the Yi King ever varying. The first four paragraphs, it is said, show, from the phenomena of production and transformation in external
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