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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXVIII.
Shun proposed to resign the throne to Shan Küan', who said, 'I am a unit in the midst of space and time. In winter I wear skins and furs; in summer, grass-cloth and linen ; in spring I plough and sow, my strength being equal to the toil; in autumn I gather in my harvest, and am prepared to cease from labour and eat. At sunrise I get up and work; at sunset I rest. So do I enjoy myself between heaven and earth, and my mind is content:
-why should I have anything to do with the throne ? Alas! that you, Sir, do not know me better!' Thereupon he declined the proffer, and went away, deep among the hills, no man knew where.
Shun proposed to resign the throne to his friend, a farmer of Shih-hů?. The farmer, however, said (to himself), How full of vigour does our lord show himself, and how exuberant is his strength! If Shun with all his powers be not equal (to the task of government, how should I be so ?). On this he took his wife on his back, led his son by the hand, and went away to the sea-coast, from which to the end of his life he did not come back.
When Thâi-wang Than-fd 8 was dwelling in Pin 3, the wild tribes of the North attacked him. He tried to serve them with skins and silks, but they were not satisfied. He tried to serve them with dogs and horses, but they were not satisfied, and then
Nor do we know more of Shan Küan, though Mî relates a visit of Yâo to him.
Name of a place; where it was is very uncertain. : An ancestor of the House of Kâu, who about B.C. 1325 removed from Pin (in the present small department so called of Shen-hsi), and settled in the district of Khi-shan, department of Fång-hiang. He was the grandfather of king Wăn.
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