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16
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XIX.
directly tell me what I asked ;-I venture to ask you what he meant.' Kung-ni replied, 'Good swimmers acquire the ability quickly ;-they forget the water (and its dangers). As to those who are able to dive, and without having seen a boat are able to manage it at once, they look on the watery gulf as if it were a hill-side, and the upsetting of a boat as the going back of a carriage. Such upsettings and goings back have occurred before them multitudes of times, and have not seriously affected their minds. Wherever they go, they feel at ease on their occurrence.
He who is contending for a piece of earthenware puts forth all his skill?. If the prize be a buckle of brass, he shoots timorously; if it be for an article of gold, he shoots as if he were blind. The skill of the archer is the same in all the cases; but in the two latter cases) he is under the influence of solicitude, and looks on the external prize as most important. All who attach importance to what is external show stupidity in themselves.'
5. Thien Khâi-kih ? was having an interview with duke Wei of Kâu?, who said to him, 'I have heard that (your master) Ka Hsin? has studied the subject of Life. What have you, good Sir, heard from him about it in your intercourse with him?' Thien Khâi-kih replied, 'In my waiting on him in the courtyard with my broom, what should I have heard from my master ?' Duke Wei said, 'Do not put the question off, Mr. Thien; I wish to hear what
* I think this is the meaning. is defined by At Tinti , to compete for anything by archery.'
We have no information about who these personages and the others below were, and I have missed the story, if it be in Lieh-zze. The duke, it will be seen, had the appanage of Kâu.
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