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134
THE TEXTS OF TAOISM.
BK. XXVI.
for a thousand 11. The prince having got such a fish, cut it in slices and dried them. From the Keh river to the east, and from Zhang-wûto the north, there was not one who did not eat his full from that fish; and in subsequent generations, story-tellers of small abilities have all repeated the story to one another with astonishment. (But) if the prince had taken his rod, with a fine line, and gone to pools and ditches, and watched for minnows and gobies, it would have been difficult for him to get a large fish. Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Zăn is not fit to take any part in the government of the world ;-far is he from being so
4. Some literati, students of the Odes and Ceremonies, were breaking open a mound over a grave +
The superior among them spoke down to the others, 'Day is breaking in the east; how is the thing going on ?' The younger men replied, 'We have not yet opened his jacket and skirt, but there is a pearl in the mouth. As it is said in the Ode, “The bright, green grain
Is growing on the sides of the mound.
1 The #Uyos of the text = the W YI, still giving its name to the province so called.
Where Shun was buried. * This last sentence is difficult to construe, and to understand. - The genuineness of this paragraph is also questioned, and the style is inferior to that of the preceding.
* I can conceive of Kwang-gze telling this story of some literati who had been acting as resurrectionists, as a joke against their class; but not of his writing it to form a part of his work.
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