Ssŭma Ch‘ien's Historical Records
9781465576569
5 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Lao-Tze said to Confucius, "The men about whom you talk are dead, and their bones are moldered to dust; only their words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets his opportunity, he mounts aloft; but when the time is against him, he is carried along by the force of circumstances. I have heard that a good merchant, though he have rich treasures safely stored, appears as if he were poor; and that the superior man, though his virtue be complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will. They are of no advantage to you— this is all I have to tell you." Confucius said to his disciples after the interview: "I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But the runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow. But there is the dragon: I can not tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven. To-day I have seen Lao-Tze, and can only compare him to the dragon." Lao-Tze cultivated the Tao and its attributes, the chief aim of his studies being how to keep himself concealed and remain unknown. He continued to reside at the capital of Chau, but after a long time, seeing the decay of the dynasty, he left it and went away to the barrier-gate, leading out of the kingdom on the northwest. Yin Hsi, the warden of the gate, said to him, "You are about to withdraw yourself out of sight. Let me insist on your first composing for me a book." On this, Lao-Tze wrote a book in two parts, setting forth his views on the Tao and its attributes, in more than 5000 characters. He then went away, and it is not known where he died. He was a superior man, who liked to keep himself unknown. Those who attach themselves to the doctrine of Lao-Tze condemn that of the Literati, and the Literati on their part condemn Lao-Tze, verifying the saying, "Parties whose principles are different can not take counsel together." Lao-Tze taught that by doing nothing others are as a matter of course transformed, and that rectification in the same way ensues from being pure and still.
