Therefore, for the perfect man who is unavoidably summoned to power over his fellows, there is naught like _Inaction_. It is not according to the spirit of TAO that a man should shirk his mortal responsibilities. On the contrary, TAO teaches him how to meet them. By means of inaction he will be able to adapt himself to the natural conditions of existence. And so it is that he who respects the State as his own body is fit to support it, and he who loves the State as his own body, is fit to govern it. This last sentence is attributed by Huai Nan Tzŭ to Lao Tzŭ, and has been incorporated in the _Tao-Tê-Ching_, ch. xiii. It is curious that Chuang Tzŭ should say nothing about its authorship, and perhaps even more curious that Kuo Hsiang, his editor and commentator of the fourth century A.D., should say nothing either about the claims of Lao Tzŭ or the _Tao-Tê-Ching_. And if I can refrain from injuring my internal economy, and from taxing my powers of sight and hearing, sitting like a corpse while my dragon-power is manifested around, in profound silence while my thunder-voice resounds, the powers of heaven responding to every phase of my will, as under the yielding influence of inaction all things are brought to maturity and thrive,--what leisure then have I to set about governing the world? Some of this passage is repeated in ch. xiv. Ts'ui Chü A casual personage. asked Lao Tzŭ, saying, "If the empire is not to be governed, how are men's hearts to be kept in order?" "Be careful," replied Lao Tzŭ, "not to interfere with the natural goodness of the heart of man. Man's heart may be forced down or stirred up. In each case the issue is fatal. "By gentleness, the hardest heart may be softened. But try to cut and polish it,--'twill glow like fire or freeze like ice. In the twinkling of an eye it will pass beyond the limits of the Four Seas. In repose, profoundly still; in motion, far away in the sky. No bolt can bar, no bond can bind,--such is the human heart." "Of old, the Yellow Emperor first caused charity and duty to one's neighbour to interfere with the natural goodness of the heart of man. In consequence of which, Yao and Shun wore the hair off their legs in endeavouring to feed their people. They disturbed their internal economy in order to find room for charity and duty to one's neighbour. They exhausted their energies in framing laws and statutes. Still they did not succeed. "Thereupon, Yao confined Huan Tou on Mount Tsung; drove the chief of San-miao and his people into San-wei, and kept them there; and banished the Minister of Works to Yu Island. These words are quoted (with variants) from the _Shu Ching_ or Canon of History. They refer to individuals who had misconducted themselves in carrying out the new _régime._ But they were not equal to their task, and through the times of the Three Princes The Great Yü, T'ang, and Wên Wang, founder of the Chou dynasty.