Starlight asked No Existence, ‘Master, do you exist? Or do you not exist?’
Starlight could get no answer, but he looked upon the form of the other and saw a deep void. All day long he stared but could see nothing, listened but heard nothing, reached out his hand but held nothing.
Starlight said, ‘Perfect! Who can reach such heights? I can imagine existence and non-existence but not non-existing non-existence; yet here we have non-existence of non-existence, how amazing!’
The swordsmith of the Grand Marshal was eighty years old, but he had not lost any of his skills. The Grand Marshal said, ‘Master, you are so skilful! Do you have the Tao?’
He said, ‘I do have the Tao. From the age of twenty onwards I have been devoted to making swords. I pay no heed to anything else, I look at nothing but swords. By being so constant I am now able to do it without thinking. Time brings one to such art, so imagine how much more significant this would be for one who used the same method but never ignored anything. Everything would depend on him and everything would be achieved!’
Jan Chiu asked Confucius, ‘Is it possible to know anything about what there was, before Heaven and Earth?’
Confucius replied, ‘It is. As it was in the past, so it is now.’
Jan Chiu got no further and left. The next day he saw Confucius again and said, ‘Yesterday I asked if it’s possible to know anything of what there was before Heaven and Earth and you said, Master, “It is. As it was in the past so it is now.” Yesterday that seemed fine to me, but now it seems problematic. What does all this mean?’
Confucius said, ‘Yesterday it was clear to you, because your spirit was ready for such an answer. Now it is problematic because you are no longer responding in the spirit, are you? There is no past, nor present, no beginning and no end. Is it possible to say that you had grandsons and sons before you had grandsons and sons?’
Jan Chiu did not answer. Confucius said, ‘Enough, don’t try to answer! Don’t use life to give birth to death, don’t use death to bring death to life. Do death and life depend upon each other? They are both held within the One. What was there before Heaven and Earth, was it a thing? That which creates things each in their own way is not a thing. Things that are produced cannot come before things that produce them because these already exist. Likewise, they were produced by things existing before them, and so on through time. The sage’s love of humanity never ends and is based on this way of seeing.’
Yen Yuan asked Confucius, ‘Master, I have heard you say that you should not welcome anything in, nor move out to greet anything. I would like to know how this is done.’
Confucius said, ‘The people of old didn’t change inwardly in the midst of external changes. Today people change inwardly but pay no attention to the externals. To note the changes around but not to change oneself is not to change. Where is change to be found? Where is there no change? How can one be affected by changes of the external? One needs to hold back from others.
‘Hsi Wei had his park and the Yellow Emperor his garden. The Lord Shun had his palace and Tang and Wu had their manors. Then amongst the noblemen there were those such as the teachers of the Literati and the Mohists whose teachings caused people to begin considering what was right and what was wrong and arguing with each other, and the present day is even worse! Sages, in their dealings with others, do them no harm; those who do no harm cannot themselves be harmed. Only the person who does no harm can welcome others in or go out to meet them.
‘The mountains and forest delight! The hills and valleys delight! However, this delight of mine ends and sadness comes. When sadness and joy come, I cannot prevent them. When they go, I cannot stop them. How distressing that the people of this world are but rest-houses for things. They know what they encounter but they do not know what they do not encounter. They know how to do the things they know, but not how to do those things they do not know. Not knowing, not doing, this is what traps humanity. Still some people attempt to escape from the inevitable. This is how it goes! Perfect speech is no speech; perfect action is no action. To know only what is known is a tragedy.’
CHAPTER 23
Keng Sang Chu
One of the followers of Lao Tzu was Keng Sang Chu, who had grasped something of Lao Tzu’s teaching of the Tao. He went north and settled at the mountain of Wei Lei. He dismissed those servants of his who were brisk and efficient. He sent away any of his concubines who were kind and benevolent. Into his home he took the off-hand and rude, and employed the indolent and aggressive. Three years later Wei Lei had become a very prosperous place. The people of Wei Lei said to each other, ‘When Master Keng Sang came here, we were frightened of him. Now, if we think about it day to day, there doesn’t seem to be sufficient for everyone, but if we reckon him by the years, we can see there is more than enough to go round. It is possible that he really is a sage! Perhaps we should revere him as our priest before the dead and put all our altars of the grain
