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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK, II.
treading on the ground. A thing is called by its name through the constant) application of the name to it. How is it so? It is so because it is so. How is it not so ? It is not so, because it is not so. Everything has its inherent character and its proper capability. There is nothing which has not these. Therefore, this being so, if we take a stalk of grain 1 and a (large) pillar, a loathsome (leper) and (a beauty like) Hsi Shih ?, things large and things insecure, things crafty and things strange ;--they may in the light of the Tâo all be reduced to the same category (of opinion about them).
It was separation that led to completion; from completion ensued dissolution. But all things, without regard to their completion and dissolution, may again be comprehended in their unity;-it is only the far reaching in thought who know how to comprehend them in this unity. This being so, let us give up our devotion to our own views, and occupy ourselves with the ordinary views. These ordinary views are grounded on the use of things. (The study of that) use leads to the comprehensive judgment, and that judgment secures the success (of the inquiry). That success gained, we are near (to the object of our search), and there we stop. When we stop, and yet we do not know how it is so, we have what is called the Tâo.
When we toil our spirits and intelligence, obstin
1 The character in the text means both 'a stalk of grain and a horizontal beam. Each meaning has its advocates here.
? A famous beauty, a courtezan presented by the king of Yüeh to his enemy, the king of Wů, and who hastened on his progress to ruin and death, she herself perishing at the same time.
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