The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 50 of 57 · tr. James Legge
Book VI (part 11)
243:4 Men at a very early time came to believe in the existence of their spirits after death, and in the existence of a Supreme Ruler or God.
It vas to the Tâo that those concepts were owing.
243:5 The primal ether out of which all things were fashioned by the interaction of the Yin and Yang.
This was something like the p.
244 current idea of protoplasm; but while protoplasm lies down in the lower parts of the earth, the Thâi-kî was imagined to be in the higher regions of space.
244:1 The Tâo is independent both of space and time.
244:2 A prehistoric sovereign.
244:3 A name for the constellation of the Great Bear.
244:4 Name of the spirit of the Khwan-lun mountains in Thibet, the fairy-land of Tâoist writers, very much in Tâoism what mount Sumêru is in Buddhism.
244:5 The spirit presiding over the Yellow River;--see Mayers's Manual, pp.
54, 55.
244:6 Appears here as the spirit of mount Thâi, the great eastern mountain; we met with him in I, 5, but simply as one of Kwang-dze's fictitious personages.
244:7 Appears before in Bk.
II; the first of Sze-mâ Khien's 'Five Tîs;' no doubt a very early sovereign, to whom many important discoveries and inventions are ascribed; is placed by many at the head of Tâoism itself.
244:8 The second of the 'Five Tîs;' a grandson of Hwang-Tî.
I do not know what to say of his 'Dark Palace.' 245:1 The Spirit of the Northern regions, with a man's face, and a bird's body, &c.
245:2 A queen of the Genii on mount Khwän-lun.
See Mayers's Manual, pp.
178, 179.
245:3 Phäng Zû has been before us in Bk.
I.
Shun is intended by 'the Lord of Yü.' The five Chiefs;--see Mencius, VI, ii, 7.
245:4 See the Shû, IV, viii; but we have nothing there of course about the Milky Way and the stars.--This passage certainly lessens our confidence in Kwang-dze's statements.
245:5 Perhaps the same as Nan-po Dze-khî in Bk.
IV, par.
7.
245:6 Must have been a great Tâoist.
Nothing more can be said of him or her.
245:7 Only mentioned here.
246:1 So the is explained.
246:2 Standing by himself, as it were face to face with the Tâo.
246:3 Amid all changes, in life and death, the possessor of the Tâo, has peace.
246:4 Meaning writings; literally, 'the son of the assisting pigment.' p.
247 We are not to suppose that by this and the other names that follow individuals are intended.
Kwang-dze seems to have wished to give, in his own fashion, some notion of the genesis of the idea of the Tâo from the first speculations about the origin of things.
247:1 We need not suppose that these are the names of real men.
They are brought on the stage by our author to serve his purpose.
Hwâi-nan makes the name of the first to have been Dze-shui ( ).
247:2 Compare the same representation in Bk.
XXIII, par.
10.
Kû Teh-kih says on it here, 'The head, the spine, the rump-bone mean simply the head and tail, the beginning and end.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
[auto] The text references a Supreme Ruler, God, and various spirits presiding over natural features.
All passages →Apophatic Theologytheology
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The Tâo is described as independent of space and time, transcending ordinary categories.
All passages →Cosmic Dualismtheology
Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.
[auto] The text explicitly describes the interaction of Yin and Yang as the force fashioning all things from primal ether.
All passages →Divine Simplicitytheology
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The Tâo is presented as a singular source independent of spatial and temporal composition.
All passages →Emanation Hierarchycosmology
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The passage outlines a flow from the Tâo to primal ether and then to things via Yin and Yang interaction.
All passages →Monadcosmology
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
[auto] The passage defines the Tâo as an independent first principle from which concepts and existence derive.
All passages →Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
[auto] It states that all things were fashioned from a single primal ether originating in the Tâo.
All passages →Related passages · 8 parallels
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Shared concept: Anthropomorphism — Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery. (derived)
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Shared concept: Anthropomorphism — Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery. (derived)