Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
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

Page 1925

34
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XX.
Confucius said, 'Excellent;' and thereupon he took leave of his associates, forsook his disciples, retired to the neighbourhood of a great marsh, wore skins and hair cloth, and ate acorns and chestnuts. He went among animals without causing any confusion among their herds, and among birds without troubling their movements. Birds and beasts did not dislike him; how much less would men do so!
5. Confucius asked Zze-sang HQ 1, saying, “I was twice driven from Lù; the tree was felled over me in Sung; I was obliged to disappear from Wei; I was reduced to extreme distress in Shang and Kâu?; and I was kept in a state of siege between Khăn and Zhâi. I have encountered these various calamities; my intimate associates are removed from me more and more; my followers and friends are more and more dispersed ;-why have all these things befallen me?' 3ze-sang Hû replied, 'Have you not heard of the flight of Lin Hui of Kiâ 3;—how he abandoned his round jade symbol of rank, worth a thousand pieces of silver, and hurried away with his infant son on his back ? If it be asked, “Was it because of the market value of the child ?" But that value was small (compared with the value of the jade token). If it be asked again, "Was it because of the troubles
1 Supposed to have been a recluse.
* I do not know the particulars of this distress in Shang and Kâu, or have forgotten them. A still more full recital of the sage's misfortunes occurs in Lieh-zze, VII, 8a.
9 The text here appears to be somewhat confused. Lin Hui is said to have been a man of the Yin dynasty, and of a state which was called Kiâ, and for the verification of such a state I have searched in vain. The explanation of his conduct put here into his mouth is very good.
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