CHAPTER VI.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Zhuangzi and Giles, Herbert Allen
Fu Hsi obtained it, and was able to establish eternal principles.
The first in the received list of Chinese sovereigns (B.C. 2852). This monarch is said to have invented the art of writing and to have taught his people to cook.
The Great Bear obtained it, and has never erred from its course. The sun and moon obtained it, and have never ceased to revolve. K'an P'i obtained it, and established the K'un-lun mountains.
The divinity of the sacred mountains here mentioned.
P'ing I obtained it, and rules over the streams. Chien Wu obtained it, and dwells on Mount T'ai.
See ch. i.
The Yellow Emperor obtained it, and soared upon the clouds to heaven.
The most famous of China's legendary rulers (B.C. 2697). He is said among other things to have invented wheeled vehicles, and generally to have given a start to the civilisation of his people. Some of Lao Tzŭ's sayings have been attributed to him; and by some he has been regarded as the first promulgator of Tao.
Chuan Hsü obtained it, and dwells in the Dark Palace.
A legendary ruler (B.C. 2513), of whose Dark Palace nothing is known.
Yü Ch'iang obtained it, and fixed himself at the North Pole.
As its presiding genius.
Hsi Wang Mu obtained it, and settled at Shao Kuang; since when, no one knows; until when, no one knows either.
A lady,—or a place, for accounts vary,—around whose name innumerable legends have gathered.
P'êng Tsu obtained it, and lived from the time of Shun until the time of the Five Princes.
From 2255 to the 7th century B.C. See ch. i.
Fu Yüeh obtained it, and as the Minister of Wu Ting
A monarch of the Yin dynasty, B.C. 1324.
got the empire under his control. And now, charioted upon one constellation and drawn by another, he has been enrolled among the stars of heaven.
Nan Po Tzŭ K'uei
Probably the individual mentioned in chs. ii. and iv.
said to Nü Yü,
By one authority said to be a woman.
"You are old, Sir, and yet your countenance is like that of a child. How is this?"
Nü Yü replied, "I have learnt Tao."
"Could I get Tao by studying it?" asked the other.
"I fear not," said Nü Yü. "You are not the sort of man. There was Pu Liang I. He had all the qualifications of a sage, but not Tao. Now I had Tao, though none of the qualifications. But do you imagine that much as I wished it I was able to teach Tao to him so that he should be a perfect sage? Had it been so, then to teach Tao to one who has the qualifications of a sage would be an easy matter. No, Sir. I imparted as though withholding; and in three days, for him, this sublunary state had ceased to exist.
With all its paltry distinctions of sovereign and subject, high and low, good and bad, etc.
When he had attained to this, I withheld again; and in seven days more, for him, the external world had ceased to be. And so again for another nine days, when he became unconscious of his own existence. He became first etherealised, next possessed of perfect wisdom, then without past or present, and finally able to enter there where life and death are no more,—where killing does not take away life, nor does prolongation of life add to the duration of existence.
In Tao life and death are One.
In that state, he is ever in accord with the exigencies of his environment;
Literally, there is no sense in which he is not accompanying or meeting, destroying or constructing. That is, in spite of his spiritual condition as above described, he can still adapt himself naturally to life among his fellow-men. The retirement of a hermit is by no means necessary to the perfection of the pure man.
and this is to be Battered but not Bruised. And he who can be thus battered but not bruised is on the way to perfection."
"And how did you manage to get hold of all this?" asked Nan Po Tzŭ K'uei.
"I got it from books," replied Nü Yü; "and the books got it from learning, and learning from investigation, and investigation from cö-ordination,
Of eye and mind.
and cö-ordination from application, and application from desire to know, and desire to know from the unknown, and the unknown from the great void, and the great void from infinity!"
Four men were conversing together, when the following resolution was suggested:—"Whosoever can make Inaction the head, Life the backbone, and Death the tail, of his existence,—that man shall be admitted to friendship with us." The four looked at each other and smiled; and tacitly accepting the conditions, became friends forthwith.
By-and-by, one of them, named Tzŭ Yü, fell ill, and another, Tzŭ Ssŭ, went to see him. "Verily God is great!" said the sick man. "See how he has doubled me up. My back is so hunched that my viscera are at the top of my body. My cheeks are level with my navel. My shoulders are higher than my neck. My hair grows up towards the sky. The whole economy of my organism is deranged. Nevertheless, my mental equilibrium is not disturbed." So saying, he dragged himself painfully to a well, where he could see himself, and continued, "Alas, that God should have doubled me up like this!"
"Are you afraid?" asked Tzŭ Ssŭ.