Salvation from the ills of which they and their systems had been the cause.
Alas, they know not shame, nor what it is to blush!
"Until I can say that the wisdom of Sages is not a fastener of cangues, and that charity and duty to one's neighbour are not bolts for gyves, how should I know that Tsêng and Shih are not the forerunners
_Lit._ "sounding arrows," used by bandits as a signal for beginning the attack.
The meaning intended is that _good_ cannot exist without its correlative _evil_.
"Therefore I said, 'Abandon wisdom and discard knowledge, and the empire will be at peace.'"
These words have been incorporated in ch. xix of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_. The present rendering somewhat modifies the view I expressed on p. 16 of _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_.
The Yellow Emperor sat on the throne for nineteen years, and his laws obtained all over the empire.
Said by some commentators to be another name for Lao Tzŭ, but if so, then it must have been Lao Tzŭ as he existed, an incarnation of TAO, before his appearance in the Confucian age.
was living on Mount K'ung-t'ung, he went thither to see him, and said, "I am told, Sir, that you are in possession of perfect TAO. May I ask in what perfect TAO consists? I desire to avail myself of the good influence of heaven and earth in order to secure harvests and feed my people. I should also like to control the Two Powers of nature
The _Yin_ and the _Yang_. See pp. 82, 120.
in order to the protection of all living things. How can I accomplish this?"
"What you desire to avail yourself of," replied Kuang Ch'êng Tzŭ, "is the primordial integrity of matter. What you wish to control are the disintegrators thereof. Ever since the empire has been _governed_ by you, the clouds have rained without waiting to thicken, the foliage of trees has fallen without waiting to grow yellow, the brightness of the sun and moon has paled, and the voice of the flatterer is heard on every side. How then speak of perfect TAO?"
The Yellow Emperor withdrew. He resigned the Throne. He built himself a solitary hut. He lay upon straw. For three months he remained in seclusion, and then went again to see Kuang Ch'êng Tzŭ.
The latter was lying down with his face to the south. The Yellow Emperor approached after the manner of an inferior, upon his knees. Prostrating himself upon the ground he said, "I am told, Sir, that you are in possession of perfect TAO. May I ask how my self may be preserved so as to last?"