OF THE TAO EXEMPLIFIED IN HISTORY 9 



principles of yours are useless as means to> abolish the dis- 

 tresses of the land. I want to hear something definite and 

 practical on the art of government." T'ien P'ien replied 

 that though his words contained nothing on government, yet 

 they could be made to apply. And he gave this illustration. 

 A forest is composed of raw timber, it has no> ready made 

 material. Wood must be dressed accordingly to suit the 

 need. Would the king kindly examine the principles he had 

 stated and adopt them to the needs of the government of 

 Ch'i. The King would find them adaptable. Though they 

 may not abolish the embarrassments of the country, yet this 

 is the Tao that moves Heaven and changes the world in the 

 evolutionary flux. The affairs of Ch'i are small in com- 

 parison." This episode exemplifies Lao Tan's statement: 



THE FORM THAT IS FORMLESS 



THE PHENOMENA THAT HAS NO SUBSTANCE 



The King wanted practical advice on the administration 

 of Ch'i, and T'ien P'ien gave him general principles. Now 

 the actual manufactured article is of less importance than 

 the trees of the forest since the one depends on the other. 

 The forest is nothing without rain; rain is nothing without 

 the operations of Yin and Yang; Yin and Yang are nothing 

 without the essential co-operating harmony; harmony is 

 nothing without the Tao. 1 



(4) A word of advice to the avaricious profiteer. True 

 self-interest. — When Sheng, the Duke of Pei, gained the 

 kingdom of Ching, and on his failing to distribute the 

 contents of the Treasury between the people, members of his 

 party after the lapse of seven days came in and told him, 

 "If what is gained illicitly is not distributed to the public 

 distress is sure to come. It is better to burn the treasures 

 if they can't be distributed amongst the people so that 

 disaster may not fall on us." Duke Pei wouldn't listen to 

 the advice. In nine days Duke She attacked the place and 

 having gained entrance distributed the goods in the treasury 

 •amongst the multitude : he also issued the munitions of 

 war, in the High Treasury, to the people. In consequence of 

 this he captured Duke Pei after investing his palace for 

 19 days. The Kingdom didn't really belong to Pei and his 

 desire for it may be said to be a piece of avarice. That he 

 failed to act generously towards the people and serve his 

 own true self-interest thereby showed that he was most 

 stupid as well as avaricious. The niggardliness of Duke Pei 



1 Dr. N. D. Hillis has a very pertinent remark bearing on this. 

 He says, "Some of our schools are open to criticism, because the 

 teachers emphasize facts to be known instead of the vision that sees 

 the fact. The teacher is the man who should teach how to see." 



