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PT. III. SECT. II.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE.
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round, and said to his attendants, 'On the top of the nose of that man of Ying? there is a little) bit of mud like a fly's wing. He sent for the artisan Shih to cut it away. Shih whirled his axe so as to produce a wind, which immediately carried off the mud entirely, leaving the nose uninjured, and the (statue of) the man of Ying standing undisturbed. The ruler Yüan of Sung heard of the feat, called the artisan Shih, and said to him, 'Try and do the same thing on me. The artisan said, 'Your servant has been able to trim things in that way, but the material on which I have worked has been dead for a long time.' Kwang-gze said, 'Since the death of the Master, I have had no material to work upon. I have had no one with whom to talk.'
7. Kwan Kung being ill, duke Hwan went to ask for him, and said, 'Your illness, father Kung, is very severe; should you not speak out your mind to me? Should this prove the great illness, to whom will it be best for me to entrust my State ?' Kwan Kung said, 'To whom does your grace wish to entrust it?''To Pâo Shd-yâ 3,' was the reply. 'He will not do. He is an admirable officer, pure and incorruptible, but with others who are not like himself he will not associate. And when he once hears
1 Ying was the capital of Khů. I have seen in China about the graves of wealthy and distinguished men many life-sized statues of men somehow connected with them.
Yüan is called the 'ruler of Sung. That duchy was by this time a mere dependency of Khi. The sacrifices of its old ruling House were finally extinguished by Khî in B.C. 206.
Pâo ShQ-yâ had been the life-long friend of the dying premier, and to him in the first place had been owing the elevation of Hwan to the marquisate.
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