Yu Piao is said to have been one of the pre-historic rulers of China. Readers of the _Tao-Tê-Ching_ (ch. xiv) will here find another nail for the coffin of that egregious fraud. See _The Remains of Lao Tzŭ_, p. 14. Also ch. xxii of this work. It fills heaven and earth. It embraces the six cardinal points.' Now you desired to listen to it, but you were not able to grasp its existence. And so you were confused. "My music first induced fear; and as a consequence, respect. I then added amazement, by which you were isolated. From consciousness of your surroundings. And lastly, confusion; for confusion means absence of sense, and absence of sense means TAO, and TAO means absorption therein." * * * * * When Confucius travelled west to the Wei State, Yen Yüan The "John" among the disciples of Confucius. He closed a pure and gentle life at the early age of 32, to the inexpressible grief of the Sage. asked Shih Chin, Chief musician of the Lu State. saying, "What think you of my Master?" "Alas!" replied Shih Chin, "he is not a success." "How so?" enquired Yen Yüan. "Before the straw dog has been offered in sacrifice," replied Shih Chin, "it is kept in a box, wrapped up in an embroidered cloth, and the augur fasts before using it. But when it has once been offered up, passers-by trample over its body, and fuel-gatherers pick it up for burning. Then, if any one should take it, and again putting it in a box and wrapping it up in an embroidered cloth, watch and sleep alongside, he would not only dream, but have nightmare into the bargain. The thing being uncanny. From which it would appear that the use of the straw dog was to induce dreams of future events. "Now your Master has been thus treating the ancients, who are like the dog which has already been offered in sacrifice. He causes his disciples to watch and sleep alongside of them. Consequently, his tree Beneath which he used to teach. has been cut down in Sung; they will have none of him in Wei; in fact, his chances among the Shangs and the Chous are exhausted. Is not this the dream? And then to be surrounded by the Ch'êns and the Ts'ais, seven days without food, death staring him in the face,--is not this the nightmare? "For travelling by water there is nothing like a boat. For travelling by land there is nothing like a cart. This because a boat moves readily in water; but were you to try to push it on land you would never succeed in making it go. Be in harmony with your surroundings. Now ancient and modern times may be likened unto water and land; Chou and Lu to the boat and the cart. To try to make the customs of Chou succeed in Lu, is like pushing a boat on land: great trouble and no result, except certain injury to oneself. Your Master has not yet learnt the doctrine of non-angularity, of self-adaptation to externals.