CHAPTER XXII.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Zhuangzi and Giles, Herbert Allen
For the former see ch. ii. Of the latter there is no record.
The latter said, "Keep your body under proper control, your gaze concentrated upon One,—and the peace of God will descend upon you. Keep back your knowledge, and concentrate your thoughts upon One,—and the holy spirit shall abide within you. Virtue shall beautify you, Tao shall establish you, aimless as a new-born calf which recks not how it came into the world."
While P'i I was still speaking, Yeh Ch'üeh had gone off to sleep; at which the former rejoiced greatly, and departed singing,
"Body like dry bone,
Mind like dead ashes;
This is true knowledge,
Not to strive after knowing the whence.
In darkness, in obscurity,
The mindless cannot plan;—
What manner of man is that?"
His mortal trammels had fallen off by his absorption into Tao.
Shun asked Ch'êng,
His tutor.
saying, "Can one get Tao so as to have it for one's own?"
"Your very body," replied Ch'êng, "is not your own. How should Tao be?"
"If my body," said Shun, "is not my own, pray whose is it?"
"It is the delegated image of God," replied Ch'êng. "Your life is not your own. It is the delegated harmony of God.
The affinity of the Yin and Yang causes them, when in due proportions, to combine and produce life.
Your individuality is not your own. It is the delegated adaptability of God.
Providing the endless variety of shapes with an endless variety of complexion.
Your posterity is not your own. It is the delegated exuviæ of God.
As God sends us into the world, so He wishes us to "increase and multiply."
You move, but know not how. You are at rest, but know not why. You taste, but know not the cause. These are the operation of God's laws. How then should you get Tao so as to have it for your own?"
Cf. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost," etc. I. Corinthians vi. 19.
Confucius said to Lao Tzŭ, "To-day you are at leisure. Pray tell me about perfect Tao."
"Purge your heart by fasting and discipline," answered Lao Tzŭ. "Wash your soul as white as snow. Discard your knowledge. Tao is abstruse and difficult of discussion. I will try, however, to speak to you of its outline.
"Light is born of darkness. Classification is born of formlessness. The soul is born of Tao. The body is born of the vital essence.
Existence springs from non-existence.
"Thus all things produce after their kind. Creatures with nine channels of communication are born from the womb. Creatures with eight are born from the egg.
Nature is always self-similar.
Of their coming there is no trace. In their departure there is no goal. No entrance gate, no dwelling house, they pass this way and that, as though at the meeting of cross-roads.
"Those who enter herein become strong of limb, subtle of thought, and clear of sight and hearing. They suffer no mental fatigue, nor meet with physical resistance.
"Heaven cannot but be high. Earth cannot but be broad. The sun and moon cannot but revolve. All creation cannot but flourish. To do so is their Tao.
"But it is not from extensive study that this may be known, nor by dialectic skill that this may be made clear. The true Sage will have none of these. It is in addition without gain, in diminution without loss, that the true Sage finds salvation.
"Unfathomable as the sea, wondrously ending only to begin again, informing all creation without being exhausted, the Tao of the perfect man is spontaneous in its operation. That all creation can be informed by it without exhaustion, is its Tao.
The Tao of Tao.
"In the Middle Kingdom there are men who recognise neither positive nor negative. They abide between heaven and earth. They act their part as mortals, and then return to the Cause.
"From that standpoint,
Of the Cause, sc. God, which is commensurate with infinity.
life is but a concentration of the vital fluid, whose longest and shortest terms of existence vary by an inappreciable space,—-hardly enough for the classification of Yao and Chieh.