________________
74
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
BK. XXIII.
BOOK XXIII.
Part III. Section I.
Kắng-sang Kha !. 1. Among the disciples of Lâo Tan there was a Kăng-sang Kha, who had got a greater knowledge than the others of his doctrines, and took up his residence with it in the north at the hill of Wei-lêi 3. His servants who were pretentious and knowing he sent away, and his concubines who were officious and kindly he kept at a distance ; living (only) with those who were boorish and rude, and employing (only) the bustling and ill-mannered 4. (After three years there was great prosperity o in Wei-lêi, and the people said to one another, 'When Mr. Kăngsang first came here, he alarmed us, and we thought him strange; our estimate of him after a short acquaintance was that he could not do us much good; but now that we have known him for years, we find him a more than ordinary benefit. Must he not be near being a sage? Why should you not
1 See vol. xxxix, p. 153.
• The term in the text commonly denotes servants.' It would seem here simply to mean 'disciples.'
8 Assigned variously. Probably the mount Yü in the Tribute of Yü,'—a hill in the present department of Tăng-kâu, Shan-tung.
4 The same phraseology occurs in Bk. XI, par. 5; and also in the Shih, II, vi, 1, q. v.
That is, abundant harvests. The of the common text should, probably, be F .
Digitized by Google
