| | 田子方: |
孔子見老聃，老聃新沐，方將被髮而乾，慹然似非人。孔子便而待之，少焉見曰：「丘也眩與？其信然與？向者先生形體掘若槁木，似遺物離人而立於獨也。」老聃曰：「吾遊心於物之初。」 |
| Tian Zi-fang: |
Confucius went to see Lao Dan, and arrived just as he had completed the bathing of his head, and was letting his dishevelled hair get dry. There he was, motionless, and as if there were not another man in the world. Confucius waited quietly; and, when in a little time he was introduced, he said, 'Were my eyes dazed? Is it really you? Just now, your body, Sir, was like the stump of a rotten tree. You looked as if you had no thought of anything, as if you had left the society of men, and were standing in the solitude (of yourself).' Lao Dan replied, 'I was enjoying myself in thinking about the commencement of things.' |
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孔子曰：「何謂邪？」曰：「心困焉而不能知，口辟焉而不能言，嘗為汝議乎其將。至陰肅肅，至陽赫赫；肅肅出乎天，赫赫發乎地；兩者交通成和而物生焉，或為之紀而莫見其形。消息滿虛，一晦一明，日改月化，日有所為，而莫見其功。生有所乎萌，死有所乎歸，始終相反乎無端，而莫知其所窮。非是也，且孰為之宗！」 |
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Confucius said, 'What do you mean?' Lao Dan replied, 'My mind is so cramped, that I hardly know it; my tongue is so tied that I cannot tell it; but I will try to describe it to you as nearly as I can. When the state of Yin was perfect, all was cold and severe; when the state of Yang was perfect, all was turbulent and agitated. The coldness and severity came forth from Heaven; the turbulence and agitation issued from Earth. The two states communicating together, a harmony ensued and things were produced. Some one regulated and controlled this, but no one has seen his form. Decay and growth; fulness and emptiness; darkness and light; the changes of the sun and the transformations of the moon: these are brought about from day to day; but no one sees the process of production. Life has its origin from which it springs, and death has its place from which it returns. Beginning and ending go on in mutual contrariety without any determinable commencement, and no one knows how either comes to an end. If we disallow all this, who originates and presides over all these phenomena?' |
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孔子曰：「請問遊是。」老聃曰：「夫得是，至美至樂也。得至美而遊乎至樂，謂之至人。」孔子曰：「願聞其方。」曰：「草食之獸不疾易藪，水生之蟲不疾易水，行小變而不失其大常也，喜怒哀樂不入於胸次。夫天下也者，萬物之所一也。得其所一而同焉，則四支百體將為塵垢，而死生終始將為晝夜而莫之能滑，而況得喪禍福之所介乎！棄隸者若棄泥塗，知身貴於隸也，貴在於我而不失於變。且萬化而未始有極也，夫孰足以患心！已為道者解乎此。」 |
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Confucius said, 'I beg to ask about your enjoyment in these thoughts.' Lao Dan replied, 'The comprehension of this is the most admirable and the most enjoyable (of all acquisitions). The getting of the most admirable and the exercise of the thoughts in what is the most enjoyable, constitutes what we call the Perfect man.' Confucius said, 'I should like to hear the method of attaining to it.' The reply was, 'Grass-eating animals do not dislike to change their pastures; creatures born in the water do not dislike to change their waters. They make a small change, but do not lose what is the great and regular requirement (of their nature); joy, anger, sadness, and delight do not enter into their breasts (in connexion with such events). Now the space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity. When they possess that unity and equally share it, then the four limbs and hundred members of their body are but so much dust and dirt, while death and life, their ending and beginning, are but as the succession of day and night, which cannot disturb their enjoyment; and how much less will they be troubled by gains and losses, by calamity and happiness! Those who renounce the paraphernalia of rank do it as if they were casting away so much mud - they know that they are themselves more honourable than those paraphernalia. The honour belonging to one's self is not lost by any change (of condition). Moreover, a myriad transformations may take place before the end of them is reached. What is there in all this sufficient to trouble the mind? Those who have attained to the Dao understand the subject.' |
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孔子曰：「夫子德配天地，而猶假至言以修心，古之君子，孰能脫焉？」老聃曰：「不然。夫水之於汋也，無為而才自然矣。至人之於德也，不修而物不能離焉，若天之自高，地之自厚，日月之自明，夫何修焉！」 |
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Confucius said, '0 Master, your virtue is equal to that of Heaven and Earth, and still I must borrow (some of your) perfect words (to aid me) in the cultivation of my mind. Who among the superior men of antiquity could give such expression to them?' Lao Dan replied, 'Not so. Look at the spring, the water of which rises and overflows - it does nothing, but it naturally acts so. So with the perfect man and his virtue - he does not cultivate it, and nothing evades its influence. He is like heaven which is high of itself, like earth which is solid of itself, like the sun and moon which shine of themselves - what need is there to cultivate it?' |
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孔子出，以告顏回曰：「丘之於道也，其猶醯雞與！微夫子之發吾覆也，吾不知天地之大全也。」 |
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Confucius went out and reported the conversation to Yan Hui, saying, 'In the (knowledge of the) Dao am I any better than an animalcule in vinegar? But for the Master's lifting the veil from me, I should not have known the grand perfection of Heaven and Earth.' |
