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54
.THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXI.
thirds of their length outside the edge, and beckoned Yü-khâu to come forward. He, however, had fallen prostrate on the ground, with the sweat pouring down to his heels. Then the other said, 'The Perfect man looks up to the azure sky above, or dives down to the yellow springs beneath, or soars away to the eight ends of the universe, without any change coming over his spirit or his breath. But now the trepidation of your mind appears in your dazed eyes; your inward feeling of peril is extreme!'
10. Kien Wa asked Sun-shû Âo', saying, You, Sir, were thrice chief minister, and did not feel elated; you were thrice dismissed from that position, without manifesting any sorrow. At first I was in doubt about you, (but I am not now, since) I see how regularly and quietly the breath comes through your nostrils. How is it that you exercise your mind ?' Sun-shù Âo replied, “In what do I surpass other men ? When the position came to me, I thought it should not be rejected; when it was taken away, I thought it could not be retained. I considered that the getting or losing it did not make me what I was, and was no occasion for any manifestation of sorrow ;-that was all. In what did I surpass other men ? And moreover, I did not know whether the honour of it belonged to the dignity, or to myself. If it belonged to the dignity, it was nothing to me; if it belonged to me, it had nothing
Sun-shû Âo ;--see Mencius VI, ii, 15. He was, no doubt, a good and able man, chief minister to king Kwang of Khů. The legends or edifying stories about him are many; but Kwangzze, I think, is the author of his being thrice raised and thrice dismissed from office.
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