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268
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK, VIII.
BOOK VIII.
Part II. Section I.
Phien Mậu, or Webbed Toes :
1. A ligament uniting the big toe with the other toes and an extra finger may be natural ? growths, but they are more than is good for use. Excrescences on the person and hanging tumours are growths from the body, but they are unnatural additions to it. There are many arts of benevolence and righteousness, and the exercise of them is distributed among the five viscera 3 ; but this is not the correct method according to the characteristics of the Tâo. Thus it is that the addition to the foot is but the attachment to it of so much useless flesh, and the addition to the hand is but the planting on it of a useless finger. (So it is that) the connecting (the virtues) with the five viscera renders, by excess or restraint, the action of benevolence and righteousness bad, and leads to many arts as in the employment of (great) powers of hearing or of vision.
2. Therefore an extraordinary power of vision
See pp. 138, 139. 2. Come out from the nature,' but nature' must be taken here as in the translation. The character is not Tâo.
s The five viscera are the heart, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, and the kidneys. To the liver are assigned the element 'wood,' and the virtue of benevolence; to the lungs, the element metal, and the virtue of righteousness.
