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PT. II. SECT. XII.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-SZE.
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Pien-zze 1 said to him, 'Have you not heard how the perfect man deals with himself ? He forgets that he has a liver and gall. He takes no thought of his ears and eyes. He seems lost and aimless beyond the dust and dirt of the world, and enjoys himself at ease in occupations untroubled by the affairs of business. He may be described as acting and yet not relying on what he does, as being superior and yet not using his superiority to exercise any control. But now you would make a display of your wisdom to astonish the ignorant; you would cultivate your person to make the inferiority of others more apparent; you seek to shine as if you were carrying the sun and moon in your hands. That you are complete in your bodily frame, and possess all its nine openings; that you have not met with any calamity in the middle of your course, such as deafness, blindness, or lameness, and can still take your place as a man among other men ;-in all this you are fortunate. What leisure have you to murmur against Heaven? Go away, Sir.'
Sun-zze on this went out, and Pien-zze went inside. Having sitten down, after a little time he looked up to heaven, and sighed. His disciples asked him why he sighed, and he said to them, 'Hsiù came to me a little while ago, and I told him the characteristics of the perfect man. I am afraid he will be frightened, and get into a state of perplexity.' His disciples said, "Not so. If what he said was right, and what you
1 This must have been a man of more note. We find him here with a school of disciples in his house, and sought out for counsel by men like Sun Hsiů.
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