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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XVII.
of our author which I miss, is the illustrative stories of which he is generally so profuse. In this the Book agrees with the preceding.
BOOK XVII. KHIÙ SHUI. Khill Shui, or ‘Autumn Waters,' the first two characters of the first paragraph of this Book, are adopted as its title. Its subject, in that paragraph, however, is not so much the waters of autumn, as the greatness of the Tâo in its spontaneity, when it has obtained complete dominion over man. No illustration of the Tâo is so great a favourite with Lâo-zze as water, but he loved to set it forth in its quiet, onward movement, always seeking the lowest place, and always exercising a beneficent influence. But water is here before Kwang-zze in its mightiest volume,-the inundated Ho and the all but boundless magnitude of the ocean ; and as he takes occasion from those phenomena to deliver his lessons, I translate the title by 'The Floods of Autumn.'
To adopt the account of the Book given by Lů Shûkih :- This Book,' he says, 'shows how its spontaneity is the greatest characteristic of the Tâo, and the chief thing inculcated in it is that we must not allow the human element to extinguish in our constitution the Heavenly.
First, using the illustrations of the Ho and the Sea, our author gives us to see the Five Tis and the Kings of the Three dynasties as only exhibiting the Tâo in a small degree, while its great development is not to be found in outward form and appliances so that it cannot be described in words, and it is difficult to find its point of commencement, which indeed appears to be impracticable, while still by doing nothing the human may be united with the Heavenly, and men may bring back their True condition. By means of the conversations between the guardian spirit of the Ho and 20 (the god) of the Sea this subject is exhaustively treated.
Next (in paragraph 8), the khwei, the millepede, and other subjects illustrate how the mind is spirit-like in its spontaneity and doing nothing. The case of Confucius (in par. 9) shows the same spontaneity, transforming violence.
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