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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XIX.
avoid caring for the body, their best plan is to abandon the world. Abandoning the world, they are free from its entanglements. Free from its entanglements, their (minds) are correct and their (temperament) is equable. Thus correct and equable, they succeed in securing a renewal of life, as some have done! In securing a renewal of life, they are not far from the True (Secret of their being). But how is it sufficient to abandon worldly affairs ? and how is it sufficient to forget the (business of) life? Through the renouncing of (worldly) affairs, the body has no more toil; through forgetting the (business of) life, the vital power suffers no diminution. When the body is completed and the vital power is restored (to its original vigour), the man is one with Heaven. Heaven and Earth are the father and mother of all things. It is by their union that the body is formed; it is by their separation that a (new) beginning is brought about. When the body and vital power suffer no diminution, we have what may be called the transference of power. From the vital force there comes another more vital, and man returns to be the assistant of Heaven.
2. My master 2 Lieh-zze? asked Yin, (the warden) of the gate?, saying, “The perfect man walks under
1 I think I have caught the meaning. The phrase signifying 'the renewal of life' has been used to translate being born again in John's Gospel, ch. 3.
2 We find here Lieh-sze (whose name has already occurred several times) in communication with the warden Yin, who was a contemporary of Lâo-sze, and we must refer him therefore to the sixth century B. c. He could not therefore be contemporary with our author, and yet the three characters of the text mean 'My Master, Lieh-zze;' and the whole of the paragraph is found in Lieh-zze's second Book (48-5a) with a good many variants in the text.
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