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3ăng and Shih are not the whizzing arrows of Kieh and Kih 1? Therefore it is said, 'Abolish sageness and cast away knowledge, and the world will be brought to a state of great order 2.'
PT. II. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.
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4. Hwang-Ti had been on the throne for nineteen years, and his ordinances were in operation all through the kingdom, when he heard that Kwang Khăng-zze was living on the summit of Khungthung, and went to see him. 'I have heard,' he said, 'that you, Sir, are well acquainted with the perfect Tâo. I venture to ask you what is the essential thing in it. I wish to take the subtlest influences of heaven and earth, and assist with them the (growth of the) five cereals for the (better) nourishment of the people. I also wish to direct the (operation of the) Yin and Yang, so as to secure the comfort of all living beings. How shall I proceed to accomplish those objects?' Kwang Khăng-ze replied, 'What you wish to ask about is the original substance of all things; what you
1 Compare this picture of the times after Yâo and Shun with that given by Mencius in III, ii, ch. 9 et al. But the conclusions arrived at as to the causes and cure of their evils by him and our author are very different.
2 A quotation, with the regular formula, from the Tâo Teh King, ch. 19, with some variation of the text.
s? in B. C. 2678.
* Another imaginary personage; apparently, a personification of the Tâo. Some say he was Lâo-zze,-in one of his early states of existence; others that he was a True Man,' the teacher of Hwang-Tî. See Ko Hung's Immortals,' I, i.
Some
Equally imaginary is the mountain Khung-thung. critics find a place for it in the province of Ho-nan; the majority say it is the highest point in the constellation of the Great Bear.
The original ether, undivided, out of which all things were
formed.
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