It is said that sadness and happiness are corruptions of Virtue; joy and anger are errors of the Tao; goodness and evil are contrary to Virtue. So, for the heart to be without sadness and happiness, is to have perfected Virtue. To be one and changeless, this is to have perfected stillness; to encounter no opposition is to have perfected emptiness; to have no dealings with anything is to have perfected indifference; to have no feelings of dissent is to have perfected purity. So it is said that, if the body is overworked and is allowed no rest, it will collapse, and if the spirit is employed without stopping, it becomes tired and eventually reaches exhaustion.
Water, if not mixed with other things, is by nature clear, and if it is not stirred up, it is level. However, if it is blocked and cannot flow, it cannot remain clear. This is like the Virtue of Heaven. It is said that to be innocent and pure, free from contamination, still and level, never changing, detached and acting without action, is to move with Heaven and to follow the Tao of sustaining the spirit. To have a sword like Kan Yueh, you must look after it in a special box and hardly dare use it, for this is the greatest of treasures. The spirit emanates in all four directions, without restriction, rising to Heaven and sinking down to enfold the Earth. It changes and nourishes all forms of life yet no one can find its shape. Its title is Harmony in the Supreme.
It is only the Tao of true simplicity which guards the spirit; if you are guarded and never lost, you become one with the spirit. In being one you are in communion with the Order of Heaven. Peasant wisdom says, ‘The common people prize profit above all else; the worthy scholar, fame; the wise man, ambition and the sage his essential purity.’ Simplicity means no mixing; purity means an unimpaired spirit. The one who manifests simplicity and purity can truly be called the true man.
CHAPTER 16
The Deceived and Ignorant Ones
These are the people who are called the deceived and ignorant ones: those who seek to improve their innate nature by means of vulgar learning in order to return to their origin, and those who wish to control their desires by following vulgar ways of thinking in the hope of achieving illumination.
The ancient ones ruled by the Tao:
they developed their understanding in calm;
knowledge was their life, yet they did nothing with knowledge.
When knowledge and calm nourish each other,
then harmony and order emerge as from innate nature.
Virtue is harmony; the Tao is order.
When Virtue enfolds everything, there is benevolence.
When the Tao is set out in order, there is righteousness.
When righteousness is clearly understood and all adhere to it, there is loyalty.
When the centre is pure and true and returns to its proper form, there is music.
When sincerity is articulated through the body and is expressed in style, there is ritual.
However, following ritual and music in an inappropriate way will lead the whole world into confusion. When someone tries to correct others, his own Virtue is clouded over, and his Virtue will no longer reach all others. Trying to do so will destroy everyone’s innate nature.
Even in chaos, the ancient ones were centred, for they were one with their generation and followed the paths of simplicity and silence. In those times, yin and yang were in harmony, ghosts and spirits did nothing wicked, the four seasons followed each other, all forms of life were without injury and no living thing suffered early death. The people had knowledge but they did not use it; all this was perfect Oneness. In those times no one planned anything, for everyone maintained constant spontaneity.
This was the case until the time when Virtue deteriorated and then Sui Jen and Fu Hsi came to govern everything below Heaven, with the result that there was compliance but no unity. Virtue continued to deteriorate and then Shen Nung and the Yellow Emperor came to govern everything below Heaven, with the result that there was satisfaction but no compliance. Virtue continued to deteriorate and then Yao and Shun came to govern all below Heaven, with the result that, ruling by decrees and grand plans, they polluted the purity of nature and destroyed simplicity. The Tao was abandoned and Good substituted. Virtue was put at risk for the sake of opportunity. Then innate nature was abandoned and hearts allowed to determine their own way. Heart linked with heart through knowledge, but were unable to give the world peace. Pomp and ceremony were added to this knowledge. This displaced simplicity and the heart was swamped, resulting in the people being confused and disobedient, with no way back to true innate nature nor to their origin.
Perceiving this, we can see how the world has lost the Tao, and the Tao has lost this world. In this sort of world, how can the Tao lead the world, or a person of the Tao be seen by this world, or the world come to appreciate the Tao? The Tao cannot direct the world, nor the world direct the Tao. Even if the sage does not retreat to the centre of the forest and mountains, nevertheless his Virtue is still hidden, whether he likes it or not.
These hidden so-called scholars of old did not hide themselves and refuse to be seen. They did not close the doors on their words and refuse to let them out. They did not shut away their wisdom and refuse to share it. But those times were all haywire. If it had been possible for them to act, they
