For now he discovered that ignorance is true knowledge:--an explanation which I adopt only for want of a better. and went off and told P'u I Tzŭ. Of whom nothing definite is known. "Have you only just found that out?" said P'u I Tzŭ. "The Emperor Shun was not equal to T'ai Huang. A legendary ruler. For Shun, see ch. i. Shun was all for charity in his zeal for mankind; but although he succeeded in government, he himself never rose above the level of artificiality. Now T'ai Huang was peaceful when asleep and inactive when awake. At one time he would think himself a horse; at another, an ox. So effectually had he closed all channels leading to consciousness of self. His wisdom was substantial and above suspicion. His virtue was genuine indeed. And yet he never sank to the level of artificiality." He was a monarch after the pattern of TAO. * * * * * Chien Wu meeting the eccentric Chieh Yü, the latter enquired, saying, "What did Jih Chung Shih teach you?" Of the last nothing is known. The first two have been already mentioned in chs. i. and vi. "He taught me," replied Chien Wu, "about the laws and regulations which princes evolve, and which he said none would venture not to hear and obey." "That is a false teaching indeed," replied Chieh Yü. "To attempt to govern mankind thus,--as well try to wade through the sea, to hew a passage through a river, or make a mosquito fly away with a mountain! "The government of the truly wise man has no concern with externals. He first perfects himself, and then by virtue thereof he is enabled to accomplish what he wants. Passively, without effort of any kind. "The bird flies high to avoid snare and dart. The mouse burrows down below the hill to avoid being smoked or cut out of its nest. Is your wit below that of these two creatures?" That you should be unable to devise means of avoiding the artificial restraints of princes. Better than coercing into goodness is letting men be good of their own accord. T'ien Kên Of whom nothing is known. was travelling on the south of the Yin mountain. He had reached the river Liao when he met a certain Sage to whom he said, "I beg to ask about the government of the empire." "Begone!" cried the Sage. "You are a low fellow, and your question is ill timed. God has just turned me out a man. That is enough for me. Borne on light pinions I can soar beyond the cardinal points, to the land of nowhere, in the domain of nothingness. And you come to worry me with government of the empire!" But T'ien Kên enquired a second time, and the Sage replied, "Resolve your mental energy into abstraction, your physical energy into inaction. Allow yourself to fall in with the natural order of phenomena, without admitting the element of self,--and the empire will be governed." By virtue of natural laws which lead, without man's interference, to the end desired.