________________
PT. I. SECT. II.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.
177
may have heard the notes of Man, but have not heard those of Earth; you may have heard the notes of Earth, but have not heard those of Heaven.'
Zze-yû said, 'I venture to ask from you a description of all these.' The reply was, 'When the breath of the Great Mass (of nature) comes strongly, it is called Wind. Sometimes it does not come so; but when it does, then from a myriad apertures there issues its excited noise ;-have you not heard it in a prolonged gale? Take the projecting bluff of a mountain forest ;-in the great trees, a hundred spans round, the apertures and cavities are like the nostrils, or the mouth, or the ears; now square, now round like a cup or a mortar; here like a wet footprint, and there like a large puddle. (The sounds issuing from them are like) those of fretted water, of the arrowy whizz, of the stern command, of the inhaling of the breath, of the shout, of the gruff note, of the deep wail, of the sad and piping note. The first notes are slight, and those that follow deeper, but in harmony with them. Gentle winds produce a small response ; violent winds a great one. When the fierce gusts have passed away, all the apertures
into the state of an Immortal,' a mild form of the Buddhistic samadhi. But his attitude and appearance were intended by Kwang-zze to indicate what should be the mental condition in reference to the inquiry pursued in the Book ;-a condition, it appears to me, of agnosticism. See the account of Lâo-zze in a similar trance in Book XXI, par. 4.
1 The Chinese term here (lâi) denotes a reed or pipe, with three holes, by a combination of which there was formed the rudimentary or reed organ. Our author uses it for the sounds or notes heard in nature, various as the various opinions of men in their discussions about things.
[39]
Digitized by Google
