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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXVI.
evils of a myriad ages :-is it that you purposely make yourself thus unhappy? or is it that you have not the ability to comprehend the case ? Your obstinate purpose to make men rejoice in a participation of your joy is your life-long shame, the procedure of a mediocre man. You would lead men by your fame; you would bind them to you by your secret art. Than be praising Yâo and condemning Kieh, you had better forget them both, and shut up your tendency to praise. If you reflect on it, it does nothing but injury; your action in it is entirely wrong. The sage is full of anxiety and indecision in undertaking anything, and so he is always successful. But what shall I say of your conduct ? To the end it is all affectation.'
6. The ruler Yüan of Sung 1 (once) dreamt at midnight that a man with dishevelled hair peeped in on him at a side door and said, I was coming from the abyss of Zâi-lû, commissioned by the Clear Kiang to go to the place of the Earl of the Ho; but the fisherman Yü Zü has caught me.' When the ruler Yüan awoke, he caused a diviner to divine the meaning (of the dream), and was told, This is a marvellous tortoise.' The ruler asked if among the fishermen there was one called Yü Zü, and being told by his attendants that there was, he gave orders that he should be summoned to court. Accordingly the man next day appeared at court, and the ruler said, 'What have you caught (lately) in fishing ?' The reply was, 'I have caught in my net a white tortoise, sievelike, and five cubits round.' 'Present the prodigy here,' said the ruler ; and, when it came, once and
Compare in Bk. XXI, par. 7.
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