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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXII.
Zăn Khið had not made any reply, when Kung-ni went on, 'Let us have done. There can be no answering (on your part). We cannot with life give life to death; we cannot with death give death to life. Do death and life wait (for each other)? There is that which contains them both in its one comprehension. Was that which was produced before Heaven and Earth a thing ? That which made things and gave to each its character was not itself a thing. Things came forth and could not be before things, as if there had (previously) been things; -as if there had been things (producing one another) without end. The love of the sages for others, and never coming to an end, is an idea taken from this?'
11. Yen Yüan asked Kung-ni, saying, “Master, I have heard you say, "There should be no demonstration of welcoming ; there should be no movement to meet;"- I venture to ask in what way this affection of the mind may be shown.' The reply was, 'The ancients, amid (all) external changes, did not change internally; now-a-days men change internally, but take no note of external changes. When one only notes the changes of things, himself continuing one and the same, he does not change. How should there be (a difference between) his changing and not changing ? How should he put himself in contact with (and come under the influence of) those external changes ? He is sure, however,
there were the present) heaven and earth, there must have been another heaven and earth. But I am not sure that he has in this remark exactly caught our author's meaning. 1 Meaning the Tâo.
* An obscure remark.
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