The Three Principle Texts of Daoism translated by ... - Bad Request

weariness of old age, but not its peacefulness. Theythink of the evils of death, but not of the repose which itconfers."Knowing Who to Side withYEN TZU said: “How excellent was the ancients' viewof death!—bringing rest to the good and subjection to thewicked. Death is the boundary-line of Virtue.“That is, Death abolishes all artificial and temporarydistinctions between good and evil, which only holdgood in this world of relativity.“The ancients spoke of the dead as kuei-jên (men whohave returned). But if the dead are men who havereturned, the living are men on a journey. Those who areon a journey and think not of returning have cutthemselves off from their home. Should any one man cuthimself off from his home, he would incur universalreprobation. But all mankind being homeless, there isnone to see the error. Imagine one who leaves his nativevillage, separates himself from all his kith and kin,dissipates his patrimony and wanders away to the fourcorners of the earth, never to return: what manner ofman is this? The world will surely set him down as aprofligate and a vagabond. On the other hand, imagineone who clings to respectability and the things of this