When Tai Chin Jen had gone, Hui Tzŭ presented himself, and the prince said, "Our friend is truly a great man. Sages are not his equal." "If you blow through a tube," replied Hui Tzŭ, "the result will be a note. If you blow through the hole in a sword-hilt, the result will be simply _whssh_. Yao and Shun have been belauded by mankind; yet compared with Tai Chin Jen they are but _whssh_." * * * * * When Confucius went to Ch'u, he stopped at a restaurant on Mount I. The servant to a man and his wife who lived next door, got up on top of the house. "Whatever is he doing up there?" asked Tzŭ Lu. "He is a Sage," replied Confucius, "under the garb of a menial. He buries himself among the people. So as to get into closer relation with them. He effaces himself at the wayside. Fame, he has none; but his perseverance is inexhaustible. Though his mouth speaks, his heart speaks not. He has turned his back upon mankind, not caring to abide amongst them. He has drowned himself on dry land. I think 'tis I Liao of Shih-nan." See p. 325. Tzŭ Lu asked to be allowed to go and call him; but Confucius stopped him, saying, "No. He knows that I know what he is. He knows that I have come to Ch'u to recommend him to the prince. And he looks on me as a toady. Under the circumstances, as he would scorn to hear the words of a toady, how much more would he scorn to see him in the flesh! How could you keep him?" Tzŭ Lu went to see, but the house was empty. * * * * * The border-warden of Ch'ang-wu said to Tzŭ Lao, Ch'in Lao, or Ch'in Chang, a disciple of Confucius. "A prince in his administrative details must not lack thoroughness; in his executive details he must not be inefficient. Formerly, in my ploughing I lacked thoroughness, and the results also lacked thoroughness. In my weeding I was inefficient, and the results were also inefficient. By and by, I changed my system. I ploughed deep, and weeded carefully, the result being an excellent harvest, more than I could get through in a year." Chuang Tzŭ, upon hearing this, observed, "The men of to-day in their self-regulation and their self-organisation are mostly as the Border-warden has described. They put their Godhead out of sight. They abandon their natural dispositions. They get rid of all feeling. They part with their souls, carried away by the fashion of the hour. "Those who lack thoroughness in regard to their natural dispositions suffer an evil tribe to take the place thereof. The physical senses. These grow up rank as reeds and rushes, at first of apparent value to the body, but afterwards to destroy the natural disposition. Then they break out, at random, like sores and ulcers carrying off pent-up humours." * * * * * Poh Chü was studying under Lao Tzŭ. "Let us go," said he, "and wander over the world."