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PT. III. SECT. I.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE.
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its physical constitution). It will keep its fingers closed all the day without relaxing their grasp ;such is the concentration of its powers. It will keep its eyes fixed all day, without their moving ;-so is it unaffected by what is external to it. It walks it knows not whither; it rests where it is placed, it knows not why; it is calmly indifferent to things, and follows their current. This is the regular method of guarding the life 1.'
6. Nan-yung Kha said, 'And are these all the characteristics of the Perfect man?' Lâo-zze replied,
No. These are what we call the breaking up of the ice, and the dissolving of the cold. The Perfect man, along with other men, gets his food from the earth, and derives his joy from his Heaven (-conferred nature). But he does not like them allow himself to be troubled by the consideration of advantage or injury coming from men and things; he does not like them do strange things, or form plans, or enter on undertakings; he flees from the allurements of desire, and pursues his way with an entire simplicity. Such is the way by which he guards his life.' And is this what constitutes his perfection ?' 'Not quite. I asked you whether you could become a little child. The little child moves unconscious of what it is doing, and walks unconscious of whither it is going. Its body is like the branch of a rotten tree, and its mind is like slaked lime 2. Being such, misery does not come to it, nor happiness. It has
1 In this long reply there are many evident recognitions of passages in the Tâo Teh King ;-compare chapters 9, 10, 55, 58,
See the description of 3ze-khi's Taoistic trance at the beginning of the second Book.
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