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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XVII.
Shâu-ling', and how they did in Han-tan? Before they had acquired what they might have done in that capital, they had forgotten what they had learned to do in their old city, and were marched back to it on their hands and knees. If now you do not go away, you will forget your old acquirements, and fail in your profession.'
Kung-sun Lung gaped on the speaker, and could not shut his mouth, and his tongue clave to its roof. He slank away and ran off.
11. Kwang-zze was (once) fishing in the river Phù ?, when the king of Khû 3 sent two great officers to him, with the message, ‘I wish to trouble you with the charge of all within my territories.' Kwang-zze kept on holding his rod without looking round, and said, 'I have heard that in Khû there is a spirit-like tortoise-shell, the wearer of which died 3000 years ago 4, and which the king keeps, in his ancestral temple, in a hamper covered with a cloth. Was it better for the tortoise to die, and leave its shell to be thus honoured? Or would it have been better for it to live, and keep on dragging its tail through the mud?' The two officers said, 'It would have been better for it to live, and draw its tail after it over the mud 5.' 'Go your ways. I will keep on drawing my tail after me through the mud.'
1 A city of Kâo, as Han-tan was its capital. Of the incident referred to, I have not been able to learn anything. The were marched' gives my idea of what it may have been.
2 A river, which still gives its name to Phû-kâu, department Khao-kâu, Shan-tung.
8 Probably king Wei, B. C. 339-330. 4 A good antiquity for Khû!
5? A species of Testudo Serpentina, such as is often seen on pieces of Japanese lacquer-ware.
Digitized by
| 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 |