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PT. III. SECT. IV. THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE.
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again he wished to kill it, once and again he wished to keep it alive. Doubting in his mind (what to do), he had recourse to divination, and obtained the answer, ‘To kill the tortoise for use in divining will be fortunate. Accordingly they cut the creature open, and perforated its shell in seventy-two places, and there was not a single divining slip which failed.
Kung-nt said, “The spirit-like tortoise could show itself in a dream to the ruler Yüan, and yet it could not avoid the net of Yü Zü. Its wisdom could respond on seventy-two perforations without failing in a single divination, and yet it could not avoid the agony of having its bowels all scooped out. We see from this that wisdom is not without its perils, and spirit-like intelligence does not reach to everything. A man may have the greatest wisdom, but there are a myriad men scheming against him. Fishes do not fear the net, though they fear the pelican. Put away your small wisdom, and your great wisdom will be bright; discard your skilfulness, and you will become naturally skilful. A child when it is born needs no great master, and yet it becomes able to speak, living (as it does) among those who are able to speak.'
7. Hui-zze said to Kwang-zze, You speak, Sir, of what is of no use. The reply was, 'When a man knows what is not useful, you can then begin to speak to him of what is useful. The earth for instance is certainly spacious and great; but what a
1 The story of this wonderful tortoise is found at much greater length, and with variations, in Sze-mâ Khien's Records, Bk. LXVIII, q. v. The moral of it is given in the concluding remarks from Confucius.
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