Book 128 (part 12)

All things begin from nothing and end in nothing. Their birth and their death are only the creations of our thought, the going and coming of the primary ether. When we have penetrated to the non-reality of life and death, what remains of the body of so many feet?' 247:3 The 'Creator' or 'Maker' ( ) is the Tâo. 248:1 Compare this description of Dze-yü's deformity with that of the poor Shû, in IV, 8. 248:2 Such is the submission to one's lot produced by the teaching of Tâoism. 248:3 Compare the same phraseology in III, par. 4, near the end. In correcting Mr. Balfour's mistranslation of the text, Mr. Giles himself falls into a mistranslation through not observing that the p. 249 is passive, having the that precedes as its subject (observe the force of the after in the best editions), and not active, or governing the that follows. 249:1 Compare the account of the scene at Lâo-dze's death, in III, par. 4. 249:2 Here comes in the belief in transformation. 249:3 The name of a famous sword, made for Ho-lü, the king of p. 250 Wû (B. C. 514-494). See the account of the forging of it in the , ch. 74. The mention of it would seem to indicate that Dze-lâi and the other three men were of the time of Confucius. 250:1 These three men were undoubtedly of the time of Confucius, and some would identify them with the Dze-sang Po-dze of Ana. VI, i, Mäng Kih-fan of VI, 13, and the Lâo of IX, vi, 4. This is very unlikely. They were Tâoists. 250:2 Or, 'without end.' 250:3 Or, 'Some time went by silently, and.' 251:1 In accordance with the ancient and modern practice in China of calling the dead back. But these were doing so in a song to the lute. 251:2 Or, 'they do not regulate their doings (in the usual way).' 252:1 The idea that the body is composed of the elements of earth, wind or air, fire, and water. 252:2 A strange description of himself by the sage. Literally, 'I am (one of) the people killed and exposed to public view by Heaven;' referring, perhaps, to the description of a living man as 'suspended by a string from God.' Confucius was content to accept his life, and used it in pursuing the path of duty, according to his conception of it, without aiming at the transcendental method of the Tâoists. I can attach no other or better meaning to the expression. 253:1 Misled by the text of Hsüang Ying, Mr. Balfour here reads instead of . 253:2 Here, however, he aptly compares with the language of Christ in Matthew vii. 28.--Kwang-dze seems to make Confucius praise the system of Tâoism as better than his own! 253:3 Must have been a member of the Ming or Ming-sun family of Lû, to a branch of which Mencius belonged. 254:1 The people set such store by the mourning rites, that Mäng-sun felt he must present the appearance of observing them. This would seem to show that Tâoism arose after the earlier views of the Chinese. 254:2 I adopt here, with many of the critics, the reading of instead of the more common . 254:3 This is to me very obscure. 254:4 Are such dreams possible?