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

the foundations whereon it rested were unknown. Itappeared like a stupendous cloud-mass to the view. Thesights and sounds it offered to eye and ear, the scentsand flavours which abounded there, were such as existnot within mortal ken. The King verily believed that hewas in the Halls of Paradise, tenanted by God Himself,and that he was listening to the mighty music of thespheres. He gazed at his own palace on the earth below,and it seemed to him no better than a rude pile of clodsand brushwood.It seemed to the King as if his stay in this place lasted forseveral decades, during which he gave no thought to hisown kingdom. Then the magician invited him to makeanother journey, and in the new region they came to,neither sun nor moon could be seen in the heavensabove, nor any rivers or seas below. The King's eyes weredazed by the quality of the light, and he lost the powerof vision; his ears were stunned by the sounds thatassailed them, and he lost the faculty of hearing. Theframework of his bones and his internal organs werethrown out of gear and refused to function. [1] Histhoughts were in a whirl, his intellect became clouded,and he begged the magician to take him back again. Onthis, the magician gave him a shove, and the Kingexperienced a sensation of falling through space . . .When he awoke to consciousness, he found himselfsitting on his throne just as before, with the selfsameattendants round him. He looked at the wine in front ofhim, and saw that it was still full of sediment; he lookedat the viands, and found that they had not yet lost their