"In this sense, you may use your ears and eyes to communicate within, but shut out all wisdom from the mind. Let the channels of your senses be to your mind what a window is to an empty room. And there where the supernatural Something which is and yet is not, like the landscape seen in, and yet not in, a room. can find shelter, shall not man find shelter too? This is the method for regenerating all creation. By passive, not by active, virtue. It was the instrument which Yü and Shun employed. It was the secret of the success of Fu Hsi and Chi Chü. Shall it not then be adopted by mankind in general?" Who stand much more in need of regeneration than such worthies as were these ancient Emperors. Tzŭ Kao, Duke of Shê, A district of the Ch'u State. being about to go on a mission to the Ch'i State, asked Confucius, saying, "The mission my sovereign is sending me on is a most important one. Of course, I shall be received with all due respect, but they will not take the same interest in the matter that I shall. And as an ordinary person cannot be pushed, still less a Prince, I am in a state of great alarm. "Now you, Sir, have told me that in all undertakings great and small, TAO alone leads to a happy issue. Otherwise that, failing success, there is to be feared punishment from without, and with success, punishment from within; while exemption in case either of success or non-success falls only to the share of those who possess the virtue required. _I.e._ those to whom the issue, as regards their own reward or punishment, is a matter of the completest indifference. The term _virtue_, here as elsewhere unless specially notified, should be understood in the sense of exemplification of TAO. "Well, I am not dainty with my food; neither am I always wanting to cool myself when hot. However, this morning I received my orders, and this evening I have been drinking iced water. I am so hot inside. Before I have put my hand to the business I am suffering punishment from within; and if I do not succeed I am sure to suffer punishment from without. Thus I get both punishments, which is really more than I can bear. Kindly tell me what there is to be done." "There exist two sources of safety," Confucius replied. "One is _Destiny_: the other is _Duty_. A child's love for its parents is destiny. It is inseparable from the child's life. A subject's allegiance to his sovereign is duty. Beneath the canopy of heaven there is no place to which he can escape from it. These two sources of safety may be explained as follows. To serve one's parents without reference to _place_ but only to the service, is the acme of filial piety. To serve one's prince without reference to the _act_ but only to the service, is the perfection of a subject's loyalty. To serve one's own heart so as to permit neither joy nor sorrow within, but to cultivate resignation to the inevitable,--this is the climax of Virtue.