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Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> The Way of Heaven -> 3.2

The ruler precedes, and the minister follows;
the father precedes, and the son follows;
the elder brother precedes, and the younger follows;
the senior precedes, and the junior follows;
the male precedes, and the female follows;
the husband precedes, and the wife follows.
This precedence of the more honourable and sequence of the meaner
is seen in the (relative) action of heaven and earth,
圣人 and hence the sages took them as their pattern.
The more honourable position of heaven and the lower one of earth
are equivalent to a designation of their spirit-like and intelligent qualities.
The precedence of spring and summer
and the sequence of autumn and winter
mark the order of the four seasons.
In the transformations and growth of all things,
every bud and feature has its proper form;
and in this we have their gradual maturing and decay,
the constant flow of transformation and change.
Thus since Heaven and Earth, which are most spirit-like,
are distinguished as more honourable and less, and by precedence and sequence,
how much more must we look for this in the ways of men!
In the ancestral temple it is to kinship that honour is given;
in court, to rank;
齿in the neighbourhoods and districts, to age;
in the conduct of affairs, to wisdom;
such is the order in those great ways.
If we speak of the course (to be pursued in them), and do not observe their order,
we violate their course.
If we speak of the course, and do not observe it,
why do we apply that name to it?


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