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THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXIX
establish under it towns containing several hundred thousands of inhabitants, and honour you there as a feudal lord. The kingdom will see you begin your career afresh; you will cease from your wars and disband your soldiers; you will collect and nourish your brethren, and along with them offer the sacrifices to your ancestors1 :—this will be a course befitting a sage and an officer of ability, and will fulfil the wishes of the whole kingdom.'
Come forward, Khid,' said Tâo Kih, greatly enraged. Those who can be persuaded by considerations of gain, and to whom remonstrances may be addressed with success, are all ignorant, low, and ordinary people. That I am tall and large, elegant and handsome, so that all who see me are pleased with me;—this is an effect of the body left me by my parents. Though you were not to praise me for it, do I not know it myself? And I have heard that he who likes to praise men to their face will also like to speak ill of them behind their back. And when you tell me of a great wall and a multitudinous people, this is to try to persuade me by considerations of gain, and to cocker me as one of the ordinary people. But how could such advantages last for long? Of all great cities there is none so great as the whole kingdom, which was possessed by Yâo and Shun, while their descendants (now) have not so much territory as would admit an awla. Thang and Wû were both set up as the Sons of Heaven, but in after ages (their posterity) were cut
It is said near the beginning that Kih and his followers had ceased to offer such sacrifices ;—they had no religion.
? The descendants of those worthies were greatly reduced ; but they still had a name and a place.
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