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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. II.
be found? Where shall speech be found that it will be inappropriate ? Tâo becomes obscured through the small comprehension (of the mind), and speech comes to be obscure through the vain-gloriousness (of the speaker). So it is that we have the contentions between the Literati and the Mohists 2, the one side affirming what the other denies, and vice versâ. If we would decide on their several affirmations and denials, no plan is like bringing the (proper) light (of the mind) to bear on them.
All subjects may be looked at from (two points of view),—from that and from this. If I look at a thing from another's point of view, I do not see it; only as I know it myself, do I know it. Hence it is said, 'That view comes from this ; and this view is a consequence of that:'—which is the theory that that view and this—(the opposite views)-produce each the other 4. Although it be so, there is affirmed now life and now death ; now death and now life; now the admissibility of a thing and now its inadmissibility; now its inadmissibility and now its admissibility. (The disputants) now affirm and now deny; now deny and now affirm. Therefore the sagely man does not pursue this method, but views things in the light of (his) Heaven 5 (-ly nature), and hence forms his judgment of what is right.
i The followers of Confucius.
? The disciples of Mih-ze, or Mih Tî, the heresiarch, whom Mencius attacked so fiercely ;-see Mencius, V, 1, 5, et al. His era must be assigned between Confucius and Mencius.
$ That is, the perfect mind, the principle of the Tâo.
* As taught by Hui-zze ;-see XXXIII, 7; but it is doubtful if the quotation from Hui's teaching be complete.
Equivalent to the Tâo. See on the use in Lâo-gze and Kwang-sze of the term "Heaven,' in the Introduction, pp. 16-18.
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