| The Seldom Seen: |
Someone said: Sima Qian said that the Five Classics are not as concise as the Laozi. In one's whole life one could not exhaust their variations, and until one's death, one could not fully examine their content.
Yangzi said: If this were so, then the Duke of Zhou and Confucius merely confused and harmed later generations. When people studied in the past, they still had to plow the land and support themselves, yet within three years they could penetrate one text. As for people studying today, not only do they ornament the Classics with flowery [commentary], they also proceed to embroider their belts and the carrying cases for the texts. What does this have to do with the Laozi?
The other said: Can the commentaries of the scholars be made more concise?
Yangzi said: They could be condensed, explained and put in order. |
