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n.
THE TEXTS OF TAOISM.
(
only been too late in going to him. I will make him my teacher; and how much more should those do so who are not equal to me! Why should only the state of Lû follow him? I will lead on all under heaven with me to do so.' Khang Ki rejoined, He is a man who has lost his feet, and yet he is known as the venerable Wang1;-he must be very different from ordinary men. What is the peculiar way in which he employs his mind?' The reply was, 'Death and life are great considerations, but they could work no change in him. Though heaven and earth were to be overturned and fall, they would occasion him no loss. His judgment is fixed regarding that in which there is no element of falsehood; and, while other things change, he changes not. The transformations of things are to him the developments prescribed for them, and he keeps fast hold of the author of them 2.'
224
BK. V.
Khang Ki said, 'What do you mean?' 'When we look at things,' said Kung-nî, 'as they differ, we see them to be different, (as for instance) the liver and the gall, or Khû and Yüeh; when we look at them, as they agree, we see them all to be a unity. So it is with this (Wang Thâi). He takes no knowledge of the things for which his ears and eyes are the appropriate organs, but his mind delights itself in the harmony of (all excellent) qualities. He looks at the unity which belongs to things, and does not perceive where they have suffered loss. He looks
1 Literally, the Senior;' often rendered 'Teacher.'
2 That in which there is no element of falsehood' is the Tâo, which also is the 'Author' of all the changes that take place in time and space. See the Introductory Note on the title and subject of the Book.
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