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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XIII.
sages, the uncrowned kings, with their ways. With this retiring (from public life), and enjoying themselves at leisure, we find the scholars who dwell by the rivers and seas, among the hills and forests, all submissive to it; with this coming forward to active life and comforting their age, their merit is great, and their fame is distinguished ;-and all the world becomes united in one.
2. (Such men) by their stillness become sages; and by their movement, kings. Doing-nothing, they are honoured; in their plain simplicity, no one in the world can strive with them (for the palm of) excellence. The clear understanding of the virtue of Heaven and Earth is what is called “The Great Root,' and 'The Great Origin ;'—they who have it are in harmony with Heaven, and so they produce all equable arrangements in the world ;—they are those who are in harmony with men. Being in harmony with men is called the Joy of men; being in harmony with Heaven is called the Joy of Heaven. Kwang-zze said, My Master! my Master! He shall hash and blend all things in mass without being cruel ; he shall dispense his favours to all ages without being benevolent. He is older than the highest antiquity, and yet is not old. He overspreads the heavens and sustains the earth; from him is the carving of all forms without any artful skill?! This is what is called the Joy of Heaven. Hence it is said, “Those who know the Joy of Heaven during their life, act like Heaven, and at death undergo transformation like (other) things 2; in their stillness
1 Compare in Bk. VI, pars. 13 and 7.
? They do not cease to be, but only become transformed or changed.
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