________________
108
THE TEXTS OF TAOISM.
their easiest plan was to cut off (one of his) feet first. They did so, and sold him in Khi, where he became Inspector of roads for a Mr. Khü1. Nevertheless he had flesh to eat till he died.
BK. XXIV.
12. Nieh Khüeh met Hsü Yû (on the way), and said to him, 'Where, Sir, are you going to?' 'I am fleeing from Yâo,' was the reply. 'What do you mean?' 'Yâo has become so bent on his benevolence that I am afraid the world will laugh at him, and that in future ages men will be found eating one another2. Now the people are collected together without difficulty. Love them, and they respond with affection; benefit them, and they come to you; praise them, and they are stimulated (to please you); make them to experience what they dislike, and they disperse. When the loving and benefiting proceed from benevolence and righteousness, those who forget the benevolence and righteousness, and those who make a profit of them, are the many. this way the practice of benevolence and righteousness comes to be without sincerity and is like a borrowing of the instruments with which men catch birds 3. In all this the one man's seeking to benefit the world by his decisions and enactments (of such a nature) is as if he were to cut through (the nature of all) by one operation ;-Yâo knows how wise and superior men can benefit the world, but he does not
In
1 One expert supposes the text here to mean 'duke Khü;' but there was no such duke of Khî. The best explanation seems to be that Khu was a rich gentleman, inspector of the roads of Khî, or of the streets of its capital, who bought Khwăn to take his duties for him.
2 Compare in Bk. XXIII, par. 2.
A scheming for one's own advantage.
Digitized by Google
