Page:Zhuang Zi - translation Giles 1889.djvu/241

CAP. XVII.] : Kuei was a prince of the Yen State, who was humbugged into imitating the glorious example of Yao and abdicating in favour of his minister Chih. Three short years of power landed the latter in all the horrors of a general revolution.

T'ang and Wu


 * See ch. xii.

got the empire by fighting. By fighting, Poh Kung lost it.


 * A revolutionary leader who, on the failure of his scheme, ended his life by strangulation. See the Tso Chuan, 16th year of Duke Ai.

From which it may be seen that the rationale of abdicating or fighting, of acting like Yao or like Chieh, must be determined according to the opportunity, and may not be regarded as a constant quantity.

"A battering-ram can knock down a wall, but it cannot repair the breach.


 * This sentence has sorely puzzled all commentators.

Different things are differently applied.

"Ch'ih-Chi and Hua Liu could travel 1,000 li in one day, but for catching rats they were not equal to a wild cat.


 * Two of the eight famous steeds of Muh Wang, a semi-historical ruler of old.

Different animals possess different aptitudes.

"An owl can catch fleas at night, and see the tip of a hair, but if it comes out in the daytime its eyes are so dazzled it cannot see a mountain. Different creatures are differently constituted.

"Thus, as has been said, those who would have right without its correlative, wrong; or good