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BK. XXIV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. 153
BOOK XXIII. KẰNG-SANG KHÍ.
It is not at all certain that there ever was such a personage as Kăng-sang Khû, who gives its name to the Book. In his brief memoir of Kwang-zze, Sze-mâ Khien spells, as we should say, the first character of the surname differently, and for the Kăng ($), employs Khang (u), adding his own opinion, that there was nothing in reality corresponding to the account given of the characters in this and some other Books. They would be therefore the inventions of Kwang-zze, devised by him to serve his purpose in setting forth the teaching of Lâo-zze. It may have been so, but the value of the Book would hardly be thereby affected.
La Shû-kih gives the following very brief account of the contents. Borrowing the language of Mencius concerning Yen Hui and two other disciples of Confucius as compared with the sage, he says, 'Kăng-sang Khû had all the members of Lâo-zze, but in small proportions. To outward appearance he was above such as abjure sagehood and put knowledge away, but still he was unable to transform Nanyung Khû, whom therefore he sent to Lâo-zze; and he announced to him the doctrine of the Tâo that everything was done by doing nothing.'
The reader will see that this is a very incomplete summary of the contents of the Book. We find in it the Tâoistic ideal of the 'Perfect Man,' and the discipline both of body and mind through the depths of the system by means of which it is possible for a disciple to become such.
Book XXIV. Hsü WŮ-KWEI.
This Book is named from the first three characters in it, the surname and name of Hsü Wû-kwei, who plays the most important part in the first two paragraphs, and does not further appear. He comes before us as a well-known recluse of Wei, who visits the court to offer his counsels to the marquis of the state. But whether there ever was such
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2240 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 38 MB |