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Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> Heaven and Earth -> 5

許由The teacher of Yao was Xu You;
許由齧缺of Xu You, Nie Que;
齧缺王倪of Nie Que, Wang Ni;
王倪of Wang Ni, Bei-yi.
許由Yao asked Xu You, saying,
齧缺 'Is Nie Que fit to be the correlate of Heaven?
王倪。」(If you think he is), I will avail myself of the services of Wang Ni to constrain him (to take my place).'
許由 Xu You replied,
天下'Such a measure would be hazardous, and full of peril to the kingdom!
齧缺 The character of Nie Que is this
- he is acute, perspicacious, shrewd and knowing,
ready in reply, sharp in retort, and hasty;
his natural (endowments) surpass those of other men,
but by his human qualities he seeks to obtain the Heavenly gift;
he exercises his discrimination in suppressing his errors,
but he does not know what is the source from which his errors arise.
Make him the correlate of Heaven!
He would employ the human qualities, so that no regard would be paid to the Heavenly gift.
Moreover, he would assign different functions to the different parts of the one person.
Moreover, honour would be given to knowledge, and he would have his plans take effect with the speed of fire.
使Moreover, he would be the slave of everything he initiated.
Moreover, he would be embarrassed by things.
Moreover, he would be looking all round for the response of things (to his measures).
Moreover, he would be responding to the opinion of the multitude as to what was right.
Moreover, he would be changing as things changed, and would not begin to have any principle of constancy.
How can such a man be fit to be the correlate of Heaven?
Nevertheless,
as there are the smaller branches of a family and the common ancestor of all its branches,
he might be the father of a branch,
but not the father of the fathers of all the branches.
Such government (as he would conduct) would lead to disorder.
It would be calamity in one in the position of a minister,
。」 and ruin if he were in the position of the sovereign.'


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