________________
118
THE TEXTS OF TAOISM.
master.
Yung-khăng said, 'Take the days away and there will be no year; without what is internal there will be nothing external 1.'
BK. XXV.
4. (King) Yung2 of Wei made a treaty with the marquis Thien Mâu3 (of Kh), which the latter violated. The king was enraged, and intended to send a man to assassinate him. When the Minister of War heard of it, he was ashamed, and said (to the king), 'You are a ruler of 10,000 chariots, and by means of a common man would avenge yourself on your enemy. I beg you to give me, Yen, the command of 200,000 soldiers to attack him for you. I will take captive his people and officers, halter (and lead off) his oxen and horses, kindling a fire within him that shall burn to his backbone. I will then storm his capital; and when he shall run away in terror, I will flog his back and break his spine.' Ki-zze heard of this advice, and was ashamed of it, and said (to the king), 'We have been raising the wall (of our capital) to a height of eighty cubits, and the work has been completed. If we now get it thrown down, it will be a painful toil to the convict builders. It is now seven years
Said to have been employed by Hwang-Tî to make the calendar.
2 B.C. 370-317.
3 I do not find the name Mâu as belonging to any of the Thien rulers of Khî. The name of the successor of Thien Ho, who has been before us, was 4, Wû, for which , Mâu, may be a mistake; or 'the marquis Mâu' may be a creation of our author.
Literally, 'the Rhinoceros' Head,' the title of 'the Minister of War' in Wei, who was at this time a Kung-sun Yen. See the memoir of him in Sze-mâ Khien, Book IX of his Biographies.
"I do not know that anything more can be said of Kî and Hwâ than that they were officers of Wei.
Digitized by Google