Sacred-Texts Taoism
p. 57
LIFE AND SOUL
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall:
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.
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| SIR H. WOTTON. |
"As for the soul of man, "the bounds of the soul," said Heraclitus, "thou could'st not by going discover though thou didst travel every road: so deep a logos hath it." Logos is one of Heraclitus' chief contributions to philosophy, a cosmic principle, actively intelligent and thinking, and operative in man and in all nature, rational and divine."
"Nature tries to hide herself and eyes and ears are bad witnesses to such as have barbarian souls", said Heraclitus. The harmony of all things will not be obvious. But, in any case, underlying the variety of things, is unity: and they speculated, as to what the unity is. Is water the substance of all things, or fire, or the vaguer 'infinite'? They extended the reign of law to all phenomena."
"He, without toil, rules all things by his will."
From Progress in Religion by Dr. T. R. Glover.
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III
DISSERTATION ON
LIFE AND SOUL
OR
THE KEEPER OF LIFE
{notes|elucidations and analyses}
The title in Chinese is ching shen ###. Ching is the breath of life the material generation—the original endowment of the body. Shen is the soul-life in man. It may mean body and soul, or spirit and soul. There is implied in the words the sense of guardianship which has suggested the alternative title of KEEPER of LIFE.
Of old, before the creation of Heaven and Earth, I consider there was the void without form or shape; profound, opaque, vast, immobile, impalpable and still: it was a nebulosity, infinite, unfathomable, abysmal, a vasty deep without clue of class or genera. The twin and undivided divinities were born (born together and undivided), who superintended the way of Heaven and organized the path of the Earth. Deep-like indeed! No end could be discerned. Great-like indeed! No limit could be set. At a juncture, the divinities Yin and Yang were
separated and the eight points of the universe were resolved: the hard and soft being mutually united (cooperation of the Yin and Yang), creation assumed form. The murky elements went to form reptiles: the finer essence went to form man. Hence, spirit belongs to Heaven and the physical belongs to Earth. When the spirit returns to the gate of Heaven and the body seeks its origin, how can I exist? The "I" is dissolved.
The Sage-man, therefore, learns of Heaven and follows nature. He should not be tied by convention nor enticed
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| Absence of equilibrium is death. |
by the sophism of man. He looks to Heaven as father and Earth as mother: on Yin and Yang as the determining principles and the four seasons as the fundamental periodicity. Heaven is in
repose1 by purity. Earth is
stable through
tranquility.
2 When these are absent in creation death ensues. The imitation of these principles is life. The Repose, being boundless, forms the dwelling of the soul. The Unconditioned
3 is the abode of the Tao. Hence, should it be sought from without it will be missed within: should
| The Tao is within and without. |
it be held as being alone within, it will be lost without, just as root and branch, which may be taken in illustration, train from the root outwards, the thousand branches and myriad leaves follow without failure.
4
Now the soul is that which is received from Heaven: the physical form is what is received from Earth. Hence the saying: "One begets two; two begets three; three begets all things."5
Creation's back is Yin (it rests downward on earth); its front is Yang (it embraces and looks up to Heaven):
| The body has correspondence in the cosmos. |
the unity of the two is the harmonizing organ through which all form attains birth. Hence the saying, "there is an embryo in a month: which is covered with skin in the second month: in the third and fourth there is tissue and more definite shape: in the fifth there is muscle: bone in the sixth: it completes itself in the seventh: moves in the eighth: is active in the ninth and there is parturition in the tenth. When the body is perfect the Five Viscera
6 have form. The lungs regulate the eye, the kidneys regulate the nose, the gall the mouth, the liver the ear. The senses are the outward and the viscera the inward regulators. The opening and closing, the expansion and contraction,
6 each of these has its fixed work. Hence the head is round like the shape of the dome of Heaven: the foot is square like the Earth.
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Heaven has the Four Seasons, the Five Elements, the Nine Cardinal Points and the 366 days. These find a correspondence in Man's four limbs, five viscera, nine passages or orifices of the body and the 366 joints and branches. Heaven has wind, rain, cold, heat; and man has the activities of giving and taking, or reciprocity of feelings, and emotions of joy and anger. Therefore, the gall may bear correspondence to vapour (cloud),7 the lungs to breath,
the liver to wind, the kidneys to rain. The spleen corresponds to thunder. Thus man, heaven and earth are mutually intermixed and inter-related. The heart is the master. Therefore, the eyes and ears are as the sun and moon. The humours of the body as the wind and rain. Within the sun we have the bird standing on three-legs, and the three-legged toad in the moon.
8 Were the sun and moon to miss their course, we should have the calamity of eclipse and loss of light. Should the winds and rains fail, life would be destroyed and plagues arise. Should the five stars
9 fail in their courses the several kingdoms would be doomed to disaster.
The Way of Heaven and Earth is great and boundless:10 nevertheless it conserves its variegated lights and avoids all waste. Eyes and ears cannot be expected to last for ever and work without rest. How can spirit ever speed
on, without coming to exhaustion? Therefore, the constitution (animal energies) is man's bloom of vitality, and the five viscera his sap. Nevertheless, when the animal energies are one with the five viscera and do not strain, the chest and stomach will be full
11 and there will be no overdraft on the powers through the waste arising from desires. When the chest and stomach are full, and there is no overdraft through
| The physical co-operates with the moral. |
desires, the eyes, and ears are clear, and the seeing and hearing are effective. When the eye and ear are clear, the seeing and hearing effective, it may be said there is understanding. When the five viscera conform to the leadings
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of the heart and do not issue in vicious humours, evil purpose is dispersed; when the breath (Ch‛i) is not scattered and there is no aberration in action, the spirit is exuberant. When the breath is not wasted and the spirit is exuberant we have order: with order comes equal adjustment: with equal adjustment comes clarity: with clarity comes spirituality of ideas: with this spirituality nothing is
invisible to the sight and nothing is unheard by the ear; nothing is unaccomplished in action. Hence trouble and distress are not able to enter and find a lodgement: nor can a noxious humour find an occasion of clinging. Hence when a search is made for it (Tao) in the far distance it is not found: when found it is in the person unconsciously; though unperceived, it is present. Hence when the search is over a wide range the acquirement is little: the more that is seen the less is the real understanding.
12
Now the orifices are doors and windows of the spirit: breath and will are the messengers and signals of the five viscera, i.e., the animal life. When the eyes and ears are
| When desire predominates, life is confused. |
under the allurements of colour and sound then the passions (five viscera) are moved and not in a state of rest. When this is the case flesh and blood sweep onward in their sensuousness unceasingly: then, in turn, the spirit gallops forth wildly into the outward world of sense and does not guard itself within its self-contained domain.
13 When this condition is reached, the coming of distress and joy, though mountainously great, is not understood. On the contrary, were the ear and eye clear and pure without the allurement of desires: the breath and will simple and unalloyed, happy and contented and few in its appetites: the animal life reposeful, not being wasted and scattered: the spirit self-possessed and centred within the bodily frame
and not scattered without: when these conditions exist, it would follow that the past ages could be known and the coming events of the
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future could be seen, and even more than this could be done.
14 Hence it is said a large exploration only gives a little knowledge. That is to say the spirit should not be
| Four elements of corruption. |
exercised in the extraneous. Look within. The five colours confuse the eye, causing it to lose its clarity. The five tones derange the ear, leading to loss of true perception. The five flavours disorganise the palate, causing it to injure the taste, likes and dislikes confuse the heart, causing it to lose its proper course in action. These four, i.e. the five colours, the five sounds, the five tastes, likes and dislikes, though they are the means by which life is carried on, yet, involve all men in their toils. Hence the saying, appetites induce loss of spirit: love and hate give rise to travail in the hearts of men. If they are not quickly dominated, a daily waste of will-power follows. These are reasons why people are unable to run the full course of life, being overtaken by a destiny which arrests it midway, and caught untimely in the meshes of retribution. Why so? There is excessive indulgence in the illicit use of the senses.
15 There is too much attention given to the life of the senses. The full life would be attained by a denial of the sensuous.
There is mutual correspondence in the fluxes of Nature. Creation is governed by unity. When this unity is comprehended there is nothing which is not apprehended. But through ignorance of this universal unity (The Tao) it is not possible to know any one thing.16 For example, I am placed in the world and count also as a unit in it. May it not be that creation must have me to make it complete; would it be perfect without me? Nevertheless, I am a parcel of matter and creation is matter and I am matter. Why name each and other? We are all one matter. Nevertheless, is life, given me by Heaven, of any worth that it adds to the value of creation or would my annihilation be any injury to it? Further, since the Creator made me an ignorant clod, i.e., a man, I must submit to its decrees. How then
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may it be said that the invalid who seeks a leach, desiring to prolong his life, is not mistaken? How may it be sure that the man who seeks death by suicide is not happy in
his attempt? It may be that life will be but slavery and death would be a rest and surcease from toils. Life is but a vague mystery (vast wilderness) who knows what it signifies? Shall the Creator be asked not to give life? Shall he be asked not to give death? Desiring life yet not striving for it, disliking death and yet not refusing it. If my condition in life is humble, I will not despise it; if honourable, yet I will not rejoice. Waiting on the times of Heaven (or Nature) the
True Man does not rush to prolong life. In life I have a seven-foot body, in death I have a coffin-length of soil. As a living being, I add one to the kind of those who have form: just as, in death, I sink into the formless kind. Thus the sum of matter is not increased by my living: even the thickness of the soil is not swelled by my death. How then should I feel the joy of life or sorrow of death, the gain of one or loss of the other?
Again, the Creator's moulding and guidance of matter may be illustrated by the potter's kneading of clay. He takes it from the soil and having made it into a bason or dish it is still not different from what it was in the soil, since, when the vessel is broken, it gets dispersed and returns again to its source: and in this state it is in no wise different in nature from a plate or bason as made. The people who live in villages bordering on the river lead its waters to irrigate their gardens, to which the water has no objection. The poor people disgusted with the filthy pools around drain them into the flowing river, but the foul water feels no exhilaration. Therefore, there is no difference whether the water is in the river or irrigating the garden: it is a matter of indifference to the water whether it lies in the filthy pool or in the flowing Chiang.17 Therefore the Sage rests satisfied with his position, whether high or low, and joyfully follows his work and avocation of Sage.
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Grief and joy are aberrations from virtue (tê): pleasure and anger are the excesses of man trying to follow Tao: love and hate are the exasperations of the mind. Therefore the saying, "life is as the change of the seasons: death is as the flux of matter." Immobile, it is inactive with Yin (negative, all avenues are closed up): mobile, it is active with Yang, (positive, all avenues open out). The spirit begins pure, unadulterated, with a fund of tranquility, and undisturbed by the friction of life, has the world at
his feet in virtue. The heart is the master of the physical body and the spirit is the pearl of the heart. When the body travels without rest there ensues a collapse: when the spirit is ceaselessly used exhaustion will follow. Hence the Sage esteems and respects the body and the spirit and dares not abuse them. Think of the semi-circular seal of jade belonging to Hsia Hou's family.
18 It was locked in a box and put in a safe because it was most precious. But how precious the spirit! It is to be prized even more than the seal of Hou-Hsia. Therefore, the Sage responding to everything with an unbiassed mind,
18 with a mind free from prepossession, he approaches all facts, and must investigate the law that governs them. Spending his life in the spirit of sweet reasonableness, unmoved by sensuous desire, necessarily he looks thoroughly into the economy of things and so completes his life in peaceful happiness. Hence he does not separate himself very much from the one nor is attached overmuch to the other.
19 He cherishes virtue, and, he
| Mind sees things through the spirit. |
warms himself at the fires of harmony that he may be in line with Heaven. He is in agreement with the Tao; he is neighbour of virtue. He does not put happiness first nor is he the first to create distress.
20 The aura and soul are domiciled in his home, (the body), and the Spirit guards the vital root. Death and life make no difference to him. So the name "Most Spiritual."
He who is named the True Man,21 implies an identity
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of his nature with the Tao. Thoroughly equipped he yet
gives the appearance of having nothing, (like an immortal). Reality is he, yet he gives the appearance of being witless. He stands on the one thing (The Tao) with undivided attention and has no second thing in mind: he enriches his inner life without being governed by the affections, such as
like and
dislike.
22 Conscious of the primordial simplicity
of being, he does not strive (for the decorations of an outward culture) but reverts to (pristine and unadultered) simplicity. He is concerned with foundations, he protects the spirit that he may soar to the circumference of the Universe. Far and wide, at pleasure, (or following his own volition) he soars beyond this "world of dirt": and suspires in the sphere
of
wu wei, spirit-action. How vast and wide his attainments! He harbours no scheme of cunning in his heart: hence life and death are both great and dignified: they are alike. Though the firmament covers and the earth sustains all, yet he is not tied to them (but maintains an independency): the spirit is above the fluxes.
| Life in the Spirit has the great quality of stillness. |
True in his judgments, free from defects, by which evil could enter, he has no controversies with life.
23 Though the world is empirical,
23 and tries this and that method, one essays thas another that, but he sticks to principles. Such an one as this is verily in harmony with his being, depending not on the sight of the eye or the hearing of the ear or on courage, he has his heart and purpose governed by the spirit within. The will is concentrated on the inner life: he is permeated with and a partner of the Tao-Unity. He lives in a state of unconciousness of his actions, he is unaware of whither he goes: i.e., he is not uncertain how to act, the spirit is clear
and will guide action unerringly.
24 He comes and goes as it were mechanically and his actions are prompt. There is no physically prompted action,
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the heart is as dead ashes. All material things are as nothing. Without learning he knows; without seeing he sees; without doing he achieves; without immediate study he can discuss; he responds to influence; he only moves under stress. Thus, he moves forward without choice and
as a result of this influence there is a flash as from light and a shadow as of substance.
25 With the Tao as the rule of life, he waits, in this spirit, on every thing, in secret. He preserves the foundation of the Great Purity entertaining none of the appetites: matter in no way seduces him. He is impervious to the sway of the senses and free from anxieties. Were you to heat a great lake of water it wouldn't make him feel hot: if you were to freeze the rivers, he wouldn't feel their cold: if the thunderstorm sundered the mountains, he wouldn't be
frightened: if raging tornadoes obscured the day he wouldn't be perturbed. Such is the man whose heart is fixed on the Tao. The senses have no power to disturb him. Hence the sight of a precious jade or jewel affects him no more than an ordinary stone. An interview with the emperor does not flurry him more than the visit of an ordinary guest. A sight of the two beauties Mao Ch‛iang and Hsi Shih stirs him no more than a sight of an ugly person would.
Death and life are looked on as but a transformation: the myriad creation is all of a kind, there is a kinship through all. Being one in essence with the fundamental of the Great purity he moves in the realm of the formless.
| The soul is part of the whole. |
He does not pollute the essence, nor abuse the spirit, i.e., he does not sully the pristine element of life nor waste the energies of the spirit. The soul is a hving part of a whole universe, and is placed in an environment of great clarity. Therefore he does not dream during his sleep: the intelligence is not dimmed; the spirit maintaining its own unity, his knowledge is not mixed with scheming concepts. The animal spirits are not depressed nor is the spirit too buoyant.
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His activities and movements, from first to last, are of a homogeneity. Closing the eyes on the world of sense, he lives in the abstruse realms of the Tao, yet he sees as
though he were in a house full of light. Reposing in this ideal realm (not in the crooked ways of schemes) he takes his flight into regions of formless space. Living in regions that could not be visualized, roaming without a fixed location, his movements have no vestiges, his tranquility no substance. In being, he is as one lost, living, he is as one dead: he can go in and out through the impenetrable; the ghosts of the dead and of the divinities are his ministers. He probes into the unfathomable, he penetrates into the unspatial since the Tao transmits the varied forms. The beginning and end are as a circle, so others can't find the truth.
This is the wherefore of the spirit. All
life hangs together in the Tao. This spirituality mounts aloft to the
| Gymnastic exercises will not get tao. |
Tao. This is the peregrination of the Perfect Man. As to such motions as breathing and blowing, inhaling and exhaling, spitting out the old, drawing in the new breath, imitating in gymnastic the steps of the bear, the fluttering and expanding of the wings of birds, the ablutions of the duck, the stooping of the gibbon, the glare of the owl, the concentrated stare of the tiger,—these motions are the means used by man to cultivate the bodily form.
26 The Perfect Man does not bother his mind about them. They are those things that disarrange and confuse the mind. When the spirit in its peregrinations does not lose its abundance of life, and when it never deteriorates it will ever have the everlasting vernal vivifications of matter.
27 In this unison with the
tao, the seasonable transformations take place in the heart. Without disorder of time, or detriment to matter there is ample benevolence. Moreover should some disability or disease strike the bodily frame, or should it undergo change this would in no wise harm the spirit. Should the earthly tenement fail the spirit is in no way
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| Body may decay soul never dies. |
destroyed. Should a man be leprous, for instance, he still can walk and the purpose of the mind is in no wise changed, during life. Should a person, on the other hand, be seized with madness, his physical form is not despoiled, but the spirit is about to take its flight and pass beyond its bounds. No one can ever say what a madman will do next. Though the form dies the spirit does not die, because that which can undergo no change supplies and responds to that which
is subject to change, and to the myriad fluctuations and thousand changes which never come to an end. That which is subject to death reverts, in turn, to the formless. That which does not change lives on with Heaven and Earth. Wood dies because the sap has left it. But can wood give life to itself? That which gives body to the form is not the form itself: (it is
Ch‛i, vitalism.) The Giver of life has never died, but that which it begets is subject to death. That which causes the flux of matter (Tao) does not undergo the flux, but what it changes undergoes the change. He who makes light of the world, or thinks little of empire, has an undivided heart and an untroubled spirit. He looks on death and life as being of a piece. Viewing life as a minor affair, he has no fears. Cognisant of the flux of life, the understanding is free from perplexity and void of doubts. Seeing that the multitude looks on this doctrine as so many idle words let me give a few examples to substantiate it.
The reason why people think it a matter of joy to be masters of men is that these have all that the senses can desire, and can command all those luxuries that minister to the comfort of the person. Lofty fabrics and storied palaces people affect and covet: yet Yao did not decorate
his house, nor carve and paint his palace columns. Rare delicacies of unusual taste are things people like, but Yao lived on the simplest fare and the plainest soups. Embroidered white
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fox furs are what people covet, but Yao covered his person with the plainest calico, and a deer skin fended off the cold. He did not regale himself with luxuries more than others, but he superimposed the anxieties of office on himself. Hence in transferring the empire to Shun,
28 the act was not simply a matter of renunciation, but truly a release from burden. This was really to think little of the glories of empire.
Yü travelled south inspecting the Empire, and when crossing the River a yellow dragon shouldered the boat. The boatmen changed colour, but Yü, smiling genially said, "I'm doing my utmost in the interest of the people, discharging my duties in obedience to Heaven. Living, I'm but a guest, dying I return home. Why should we be
disturbed in our peace? The sight of a dragon is no more than a lizard." Since he didn't turn colour, the dragon pressed his ears and dropping his tail departed. Yü thought it a little matter to see monstrous animals.
A ghost-like witch of Cheng, telling the fortune of Hu Tzŭ Lin, thought he couldn't live long, and mentioned the fact to Lieh Tzŭ. Lieh Tzŭ went weeping to tell Hu Tzŭ. Hu Tzŭ replied "I hold that our spiritual nature comes from Heaven, and our physical frame from the Earth. Honours and wealth are not lasting, death comes on apace." Thus we see that Hu Tzŭ looked on life and death as being but the same thing.
Tzû Ch‛iu when he was 54 years of age had an illness which left his body deformed. The nape of his neck was higher than his head, his jaw was bent to his chest, his lips were distorted and his head was twisted. He crawled one day to a well and seeing his reflection in the water, exclained: "How wonderful! Great is the work of the Creator, who hath fashioned me in this goodly way!" The change did not disfigure the real form, in his view.
We may, therefore, deduce that in Yao's view of life, the empire, or being an emperor, was of no great consequence.
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Considering Yü's mind it is clear that he thought empire was a paltry affair. Probing Hu Tzû's disquisition we can see that life and death are but two phases of the same thing, in his estimation. From the action of Tzŭ Ch‛iu we know that the fluxes of life are governed by identical laws.
Now the Perfect Man29 leans on a support that cannot be uprooted and travels on an unobstructed road.30 He is endowed with an inexhaustible store of spiritual goods
and instructed in the methods of
"no-death":
31 none of his journeys are unsuccussful: there is no avenue not open to him. Life does not clog his mind, nor death cloud his spirit. He guards the Heavenly dispensation in all his activities without departing from its behests. Adversity and happiness, loss and gain, the thousand changes and myriad fluxes of life fail to worry him. A man of this calibre preserves his pristine spirit, and upholds his mind. Like the cicada and snake he can throw off his mortal coil and wander in the great Empyrean. With light or airy step and with the greatest ease he swiftly enters the sable Heaven (out of sight).
Even the phoenix cannot keep him company in pace, much less the (fabulous) Ch‛ih Yen.
{32} How can Power, Emoluments, or Position influence or shrivel such a mind. When Yen was near death, he refused to break his faith by entering into a treaty with Ts‛ui Chu,
{33} the traitorous minister, who designed to slay the king. The threats of Ts‛ui failed to shake Yen Tzû's loyalty. Chih Hua did not fear death in battle, and so the Prince of Lu vainly tempted him with a great bribe to stay out of battle. Hence we gather that Yen Tzû could act under the compulsion of goodness, but could not be frightened by military force. Chih Hua could be arrested in his course by the power of right, could not be moved by gain.
{34} The superior man will die for right, but he cannot be detained by the thoughts of honours and gain. He was determined to do the right and could not
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be disturbed by fear of death.
These men, then, had in view nothing but righteousness.{35} They were not hampered by material things. How much
less so can worldly allurements deceive the
Man of Wu-wei, of spirit-action. Yao looked not on the empire as a thing of honour (to cling to): he therefore handed it to Shun. Kung Tzû Cha conceded the throne, as he did not consider it the chief honour of life. Tzû Kan did not look on the possession of the jade to be true riches, so refused the throne—the precious jade. Wu Kuang
{36} would not injure righteousness by living, so he threw himself into the whirling pool (and died).
From these instances it is clear that the highest honour is not that pertaining to official position: the greatest wealth is not that which comes from worldly riches. The Empire is the very greatest thing in the world, yet this has been relinquished (by Yao) to another. There is nothing dearer to a man than his body, but it was thrown into the whirlpool. Having said this the last word is said. These are the greatest things, and in saying this all is said.
These instances refer to people who have not been entangled by the world,—men with spirits free from the glamour of life who do not look upon a throne as a thing of honour to be coveted. Thinking of these men that stand right above us, and considering their view of life, probing their profound meaning of Tao and its works of virtue, we cannot but blush as we look on the conventional life we live.
Therefore an apprehension of Hsü Yu's ideas lead us to abandon the study of the Ching Teng and Pao t‛ao, the two classics on militarism, as having no place in the cultured life. Yen Leng Chi Tzû refused the throne of
Wu State (to which he was entitled), which fact coming to the ear of two men wrangling over a bit of land led them to cease their law suit. Think of Tzû Han who laid no store by a precious jade, which
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act led a party that was wrangling over a deed, a title to some property, to be ashamed of themselves. Think of Wu Kuang who would not be contaminated by the world. These ideals of life filled those who lusted for gain and snatched at every means of prolonging their span of life, with uneasiness. Hence, except those people who have a vision of the higher life, others do not realize that existence isn't worth lusting for: except those who have heard the great (divine) words, others do not understand that empire is not worth hankering after.
Let us take an illustration of our theme. In a very rustic state of Society people sing together to the music made by striking a crock, or tapping an ewer, and they think this is music. They do it with gusto. But once they have heard the tapping on the taute drum, and the ringing of the great bell, they are surprised, and the music of the crock and ewer fills them with shame. He who has a library of good books and cultivates his own scholarship, yet who does not understand the real message of life, is but a disciple of the crock and ewer. Nevertheless he who has no lust for empire is he who is concerned with the great music. Honourable position and great profits are what men desire: but let them have a warranty of the gift of empire in the right hand and a knife for cutting the throat in the left (i.e., let them think that the venture for empire will cost life), even a stupid person will refuse the great honour if it means death. From which we gather that life is of more value than the possession of empire, in the estimation of all. The Sage eats just enough to keep body
| Externals not of the essence of life. |
and soul together: his clothes are just enough to cover his body. These meet his needs; he asks for no more. If he has no empire, he feels no deprivation to his nature. Should he possess a throne there is no accretion to his state of contentment. The possession or absence of a kingdom makes no difference. Suppose the Ao
37 granary were put at the service of a man and a river of water
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were given him, he would eat when hungry and drink when thirsty from these supplies. Still he can take only a peckful of grain and a ladleful of water into his stomach. So that when he is satiated the corn in the granary is little less in quantity, and the water in the river is not exhausted after he has filled his belly with it. Those who have these supplies cannot eat more than what satiates appetite. Those
who are without these ample supplies do not starve: that is to say it is just the same amount they eat and drink as those who have only a small home consumption. Great anger indicates the bursting of the Yin element (like ice broken in pieces), and great joy the collapse of the Yang element. Great anxiety leads to inward decay i.e., upsets
the five viscera: great fear begets nervous tension. Expel the dust of life, get rid of the entanglements of the world: but it would be better still if there had been no departure from the foundation (tao). That would be the enlightenment. It would be well if there never had been entanglement. The eye that is single will refuse to look on the world, a trained ear will not hear the jargon of the world: the closed mouth will not speak: the consecrated heart will not be seduced. Abandon mere human understanding and return to the pristine nature: cultivate the spirit and throw away scheming methods. Thus consciousness will be as though insensible, and life will be as though it were death. When finally a person returns to his source, he revolves into the prenatal state, before the transformation. Death is one with life. Just think of the tillers of the soil carrying their tools and baskets of earth: the saltish sweat runs down in streams, the breath comes in gasps, they pant and heave: coming on a shady tree and resting under its ample shade they throw down their burdens, and are glad. The dead, resting within the shade of a cave in the mountain, have much more peace and gladness than men find in the shade of a tree. A person suffering from cancer of the stomach
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beats his breast, presses his stomach, nurses his knees, knocks his head in anguish: he sits with his legs crouched up under him, moaning all the night long without getting sleep. In this agony should he get a moment's relief so that he can sleep, his waiting relatives are so glad and rejoice. But the dead who get the long night's sleep (untroubled by the cares of the world) find a joy greater far than the patient's momentary joy.
He who realizes the greatness of the universe cannot fear death. He who has the Great Law will not be enslaved in the toils of pleasures. He who is aware of the joys of a former existence will not be alarmed by death. He who knows that Hsü Yu's choice (refusal of a throne) was better than Shun's will not lust for goods that serve the purpose of gain or the gratification of desire. A wall that is built up is inferior to its state when lying prone. How much better then if it had never been made into a wall! The congealed ice is in a worse state than if it
| The secret of life is with the man of Tao. |
were free. How much better then if it were never crystallized at all. To pass from non-existence to a state of existence: to pass from a state of existence to non-existence is a continuous round without end or beginning. It is the great Wheel of the Law. Where it all sprouts from is not known, i.e., the end and beginning of existence is a mystery.
38 Who can repress the desires except he who is versed in the inner and outer view of life, the esoteric man. Uncircumscribed infinity is most great, and the microcosm of the Tao is most precious. He, who comprehends this truth of the great and precious, has the Tao at his command and has all avenues open to him.
A corrupt and decadent age heaps up its superficial learning to gain honours and to win a name from the studies of others, ignorant (of the need) to probe their own mind and the necessity of constant reversion to original nature. They carve and decorate their nature; they hew
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their affections or character into symmetry with the conventional precepts of life. Though, there is a desire for the Tao, men restrain it by mere rules, they regulate their tastes by etiquette. Though they rejoice in it, yet they curtail it with their courtesies and obeisances; they push themselves into the grooves and rules and formalities of custom: they demean themselves by prostrations. They must stand to rigid attention on great ceremonies, whilst the meat may be rotting in the larder and the wine be turning sour in the cup. The person is hampered by ceremonies without and his originality tied by precepts within. The concord of the inward life is gagged, the affections and nature of life are under bondage to these conventional rules of life; the whole of existence is burdened by such restrictions as these.
39
But the man who is enlightened in the Tao is not so. He regulates his natural passions and controls the activities of the emotions. He nourishes them with the harmony of life and maintains them by suitable processes. The person
| Freedom of the man in truth. |
who delights in the Tao forgets his mean position, and he who finds rest in virtue does not think of poverty. Whilst his nature has no illicit desire, there is no desire that is ungratified. Whilst his heart is not given to sensuous pleasure, there is no true joy which he doesn't possess. He does not entangle himself with anything unprofitable to his nature, nor disturb the equilibrium of life by anything inconvenient to nature. Hence when such a person lets himself go and gives the reins to his ideas his system can serve to form a pattern for the empire.
The Confucian literateurs of the present day fail to dig into the root of the simple and pure nature and deal fundamentally with the culture of life, but try to restrain desires by rule when they break out. They do not draw from the true fountain of joy but in the effort at mending and patching they shut up the little joy that they have.
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This way of dealing with the genesis of appetites and desires is just as though the source of a river were not led into the proper and natural channel but allowed to burst
out anywhere indiscriminately and an attempt made to stop the rushing water by the hand. This would never succeed. Far better to deal with the water at the source and lead it into the natural channel at the fountain. The methods of the Confucianist in dealing with the people and pastoring them are just like the ways used in dealing with wild animals.
40 The rules and etiquettes are like the fetters and shackles to restrain animals. Will tying the legs with fetters and penning the people in enclosures succeed? Never! Even the very best disciples of Confucius did not succeed. Yen Hui, Chi Lou, Tzŭ Hsia, Jan Pei Niu were the expert disciples of Confucius. Nevertheless Yen had an untimely death. Chi Lou was mutilated in the war with Wei. Tzŭ Hsia lost the sight of his eyes through weeping for the loss of his son. Jan Pei Niu became leprous. All these men, great though they were, were buffeted by nature, and labouring under the restraints of life's handicaps, failed to reach the harmony of life. So Tseng, meeting Tzŭ Hsia, noticed that he was at one time thin, and fat at another time, and asked him the cause. "The fact is," Tzŭ Hsia replied, "when I went forth into the world and saw the pleasures pertaining to riches and honours I began to desire these. Returning again to college and listening to the doctrine of the Ancient Kings I had pleasure in these again. Being torn in mind between these two contending ideas I got wasted in body. The Law of the ancient kings triumphing, I got plump again,"—i.e., by freedom from inward strife. His mind, we may conclude, was neither satisfied with lusting for wealth and honours, nor was he averse to thinking of extravagant pleasure: it was only when he repressed his nature and suppressed these natural desires in the wish to follow the teaching of the Master that he found himself. Nevertheless though his heart was pure,
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and he suppressed his desires, yet the effort for self-mastery was artificial, therefore he failed to attain the full span of life through his inward conflict.
On the other hand, the Perfect Man eats just as he wants: he clothes his person as he feels necessary: he exercises his body as required: he satisfies the desires of nature: for the rest, he has no lust for empire: he gives up the desire for the gain of worldly goods. Placed as he is in the vast domain of Heaven, he can roam in this endless expanse: he ascends the regions of Heaven, he depends on the T‛ai I, the good God: he has all Heaven and Earth in the hollow of his hand for a plaything. Who will say that he is poor or thin and wasted?
The Confucianist, on the contrary, is unable to extract the root of desire from the mind, he can only restrain it. He is not able to extirpate the source of pleasure, he only curbs it when it appears. And to keep society from thieving and brigandage by fear of punishment is not such a good way as to extirpate the desire for thieving from the heart.41
The people of Yüeh (Chih Kiang), when they caught a python looked on it as the greatest delicacy. But the Chinese had a repugnance for it, it was valueless to them. Therefore, knowing its valuelessness, the covetous are able to renounce the lust for it: but if its use should become known even the unavaricious would desire it. The cause for a king bringing his kingdom to shame and destruction, injuring and abandoning the ancestral gods, and suffering death at the hands of his enemies, being derided by all the multitude, came from lust of gain. Chou Yü42 lusted for the bribe of the Great Bell and lost his kingdom. The prince of Yu hankered after the Tsui-Chi jade and became a captive. The sensual pleasures in which Duke Hsien indulged created a state of anarchy for four generations. Duke Huan loved the pleasures of the table and did not meet with a timely burial.43 The king of Hu found pleasure in sensual music and the dance of women
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and lost his best land.
Now these five men, if they had been satisfied with just enough to meet the cravings of nature and had renounced every wanton excess, and had taken their own manhood as the standard of life, unmoved by the inducement of the senses, they would not have met with the disasters that overtook them.
An archer cannot hit the mark without an arrow: but he who practises archery knows nothing of the craft of
making the tools. A charioteer cannot drive without reins: yet he who practises the art of driving knows nothing of the making of reins.
44
The man who knows that a fan is no use for him in winter, nor a fur in summer, will understand that the flux of life is but a minute speck.45 Therefore, to try and arrest the course of boiling by adding more water will not stop it. He who knows really the root of things will take the fire from underneath the pot: this will be effective.46