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PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.
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wish to ask you a question.' Hung Mung lifted up his head, looked at the stranger, and said, ' Pooh !' Yün Kiang, however, continued, The breath of heaven is out of harmony; the breath of earth is bound up; the six elemental influences 1 do not act in concord; the four seasons do not observe their proper times. Now I wish to blend together the essential qualities of those six influences in order to nourish all living things;-how shall I go about it?' Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head, saying, 'I do not know; I do not know!'
Yün Kiang could not pursue his question; but three years afterwards, when (again) rambling in the east, as he was passing by the wild of Sung, he happened to meet Hung Mung. Delighted with the rencontre, he hastened to him, and said, 'Have you forgotten me, O Heaven? Have you forgotten me, O Heaven?' At the same time, he bowed twice with his head to the ground, wishing to receive his instructions. Hung Mung said, 'Wandering listlessly about, I know not what I seek; carried on by a wild impulse, I know not where I am going. I wander about in the strange manner (which you have seen), and see that nothing proceeds without method and order3;—what more should I know?' Yün Kiang replied, 'I also seem carried on by an aimless influence, and yet the people follow me wherever I go. I cannot help their doing so. But now as they thus
1 Probably, the yin, the yang, wind, rain, darkness, and light;— see Mayers, p. 323.
2 See Introduction, pp. 17, 18.
3 Compare in Book XXIII, par. I.
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