CHAPTER XXIII. · 5

Kuo Hsiang says this means treating others as oneself. Lin Hsi Chung takes the "natural" or "spontaneous" view which is here adopted.

perfect duty to one's neighbour is not a matter of calculation; perfect wisdom takes no thought; perfect charity recognises no ties; perfect trust requires no pledges.'

"Discard the stimuli of purpose. Free the mind from disturbances. Get rid of entanglements to virtue. Pierce the obstructions to Tao.

"Honours, wealth, distinction, power, fame, gain,—these six stimulate purpose.

"Mien, carriage, beauty, arguments, influence, opinions,—these six disturb the mind.

Referring, of course, to the mien, carriage, etc. of others.

"Hate, ambition, joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure,—these six are entanglements to virtue.

"Rejecting, adopting, receiving, giving, knowledge, ability,—these six are obstructions to Tao.

The key to which is inaction.

"If these twenty-four be not allowed to run riot, then the mind will be duly ordered. And being duly ordered, it will be in repose. And being in repose, it will be clear of perception. And being clear of perception, it will be unconditioned. And being unconditioned, it will be in that state of[308] inaction by which there is nothing which cannot be accomplished.

"Tao is the sovereign lord of Tê.

Tê is the "virtue" of spontaneity.

Life is the glorifier of Tê.

By means of which it can be manifested.

Nature is the substance of life.

The code of which life is the embodiment.

The operation of that nature is action. The perversion of that action is error.

"People who know put forth physical power. People who know employ mental effort. But what people who know do not know is to be as the eye.

Which sees without looking.

"Emotion which is spontaneous is called virtue passive. Emotion which is not evoked by the external is called virtue active. The names of these are antagonistic; but essentially they are in accord.

All "virtue" should proceed from the real self, sc. from God.

"Yi was skilled in hitting the bull's-eye; but stupid at preventing people from praising him for so doing.

See ch. v.

The Sage devotes himself to the natural and neglects the artificial. For only the Perfect Man can[309] devote himself profitably to the natural and artificial alike. Insects influence insects;

So as to make others like themselves

because insects are natural. When the Perfect Man hates the natural, it is the artificially natural which he hates. How much more man's alternate naturalness and artificiality?

"If a bird falls in with Yi, Yi will get it. Such is his skill. And if the world were made into a cage, birds would have no place of escape. So it was that by cookery T'ang got hold of I Yin, and by five rams' skins Duke Mu of Ch'in got Po Li Ch'i. But had these princes not been themselves successful at getting, they never would have got these men.

Apocryphal stories both. I Yin was the successful and famous minister of the founder of the Shang dynasty. For Poh Li Ch'i, see p. 270.

"A one-legged man discards ornament, his exterior not being open to commendation. Condemned criminals will go up to great heights without fear, for they no longer regard life and death from their former point of view. And those who pay no attention to their moral clothing

Artificial virtues.