10 TIIE OPERATIONS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



was in no way different from the love of the owl for ita 

 young. 1 This agrees with Lao Tzu's saying : 



IT IS ENOUGH TO CARRY A FULL VESSEL, DON'T TRY 

 TO ADD TO IT AND MAKE IT TO OVERFLOW 



TRYING TO SHARPEN A POINT ALREADY SHARP MAY 

 MAKE IT HARD TO KEEP AN EDGE AT ALL. 



(5) Character is the essential thing in a ruler. Hereditary 

 power is useless. — Chao Chien Tzu adopted Hsiang Tzu as 

 his heir. Tung Ngo Yu objected on the grounds of Wu Hsu's 

 (Hsiang Tzu) obscurity, holding he was not fit to be a 

 successor. Chien Tzu replied, "that his character was such 

 as to ensure success. He would bear indignity for the sake 

 of the kingdom." 



Some time after, Chih Pei when drinking with Hsiang 

 Tzu slapped his face. A minister suggested he should be 

 put to death for this, but Hsiang Tzu, the King, argued that 

 the deceased Prince had adopted him because he could bear 

 personal indignity for the throne. "Do you think," he said, 

 "that he put me in this place to slay people?" After the 

 passing of ten months Chih Pei invested Hsiang Tzu at 

 Ching Yang. Hsiang Tzu divided his army and attacked 

 him on either side and routing Chih Pei slew him and made 

 his skull into a drinking vessel. This confirms Lao Tzu's 

 saying : 



* HE WHO IS CONSCIOUS OF HIS PROW T ESS BUT AT THE 



SAME TIME WHO MAINTAINS GENTLENESS AND 



PATIENCE 

 IS HE TO WHOM WILL FLOW ALL THE STREAMS OF 



EMPIRE. 



(6) The inspired man is the discerning man. — Yeh Ch'ueh 

 sought to know the Tao from Pei I. Pei I replied, "If you 

 correct your deportment, and guard your eyes from wander- 

 ing, the blessings of Heaven will come down on yon." "If 

 you preserve your knowledge, and rectify your standards the 

 Spirit will soon settle on your person : and virtue will abide 

 with you. If you exercise the Tao< it will make its abode 

 with you. Unsophisticated as a newly born calf never asking 

 the why or wherefore of its origin" — but before he had 

 finished this sentence, Yeh Ch'ueh seemed to have lost 

 interest in what Pei I was saying, so he got up and departed 

 singing this ditty as he was going, "His form and limbs 

 look withered and dried up : his mind looks dead like ashes. 

 Truly I don't know how to deal with such a show of stupidity. 

 I have no mind to- talk to him. What kind of a man is he- 

 really?" This just confirms Lao Tzu's saying: 



"CAN HE W T HO IS CLEAR ON EVERY MATTER BE 

 WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE IN DISCERNMENT?" 



2 The owl eats its young. 



