________________
62
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BX, XXII.
will not seek to know the cause (of your being what you are).' Phei-i had not finished these words when the other dozed off into a sleep.
Phei-i was greatly pleased, and walked away, singing as he went,
Like stump of rotten tree his frame, Like lime when slaked his mind became? Real is his wisdom, solid, true, Nor cares what's hidden to pursue. O dim and dark his aimless mind! No one from him can counsel find.
What sort of man is he?' 4. Shun asked his attendant) Khăng?, saying, "Can I get the Tâo and hold it as mine?' The reply was, 'Your body is not your own to hold ;how then can you get and hold the Tâo?' Shun resumed, 'If my body be not mine to possess and hold, who holds it?' Khăng said, 'It is the bodily form entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth. Life is not yours to hold. It is the blended harmony (of the Yin and Yang), entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth. Your nature, constituted as it is, is not yours to hold. It is entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth to act in accordance with it. Your grandsons and sons are not yours to hold. They are the exuviae : entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth. Therefore when we walk, we should not know where we are going ; when we stop and rest,. we should not know what to occupy ourselves with ;
1 See the account of Nan-kwo Zze-khî in Book II, par. I. 2 Not the name of a man, but an office.
8 The term in the text denotes the cast-off skin or shell of insects, snakes, and crabs. See the account of death and life in par. I.
Digitized by Google
