CHAPTER XII SELF-SACRIFICE AND SELF-AGGRANDISEMENT

Sacred-Texts Taoism   

YANG CHU said:

   "Po-chêng-tse-kao¹ would not part with a hair of his body for the benefit of others. He quitted p. 53 his country and became a ploughman. The great Yü¹ did not profit by his own body, which grew quite emaciated.

   "If the ancients by injuring a single hair could have rendered a service to the world, they would not have done it; and had the universe been offered to a single person, he would not have accepted it.

   "As nobody would damage even a hair, and nobody would do a favour to the world, the world was in a perfect state."

   Ch’in-Tse asked Yang Chu:

   "If by pulling out a hair of your body you would aid mankind, would you do it?"

   Yang Chu answered:

   "Mankind is surely not to be helped by a single hair."

   Ch’in-Tse said:

   "But supposing it possible, would you do it?"

   Yang Chu gave no answer.

   Thereupon Ch’in-Tse told Meng-sun-Yang, who replied:

   "I will explain the Master's meaning.

   "Supposing for tearing off a piece of your skin you were offered ten thousand gold pieces, would you do it?"

   Ch’in-Tse said:

   "I would."

p. 54

   Meng-sun-Yang again asked:

   "Supposing for cutting off one of your limbs you were to get a kingdom, would you do it?"

   Ch’in-Tse was silent.

   "See now," said Meng-sun-Yang. "A hair is unimportant compared with the skin, and the skin also is unimportant compared with a limb.

   "However, many hairs put together form skin, and many skins form a limb. Therefore, though a hair is but one among the many molecules composing the body, it is not to be disregarded."

   Ch’in-Tse replied:

   "I do not know how to answer you. If I were to ask Lao-tse and Kuan-Yin,¹ your opinion would be found right, and so also if I were to consult great Yü and Me-ti."

   Meng-sun-Yang upon this turned round to his disciples, and spoke of something else.

Footnotes

p. 52

¹ Po-chêng-tse-kao was a Taoist of the time of Yao.

p. 53

¹ The great Yü, the controller of the great flood, which task so occupied him that he entirely forgot his own wants.

p. 54

¹ The Taoist philosopher.