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

going up ninety thousand li in order to start for thesouth?" . . . Those two little creatures,--what shouldthey know? Small knowledge has not the compass ofgreat knowledge any more than a short year has thelength of a long year. How can we tell that this is so?The mushroom of a morning knows not the alternationof day and night. The chrysalis knows not thealternation of spring and autumn. Theirs are short years.But in the State of Ch'u there is a tortoise whose springand autumn are each of five hundred years' duration.And in former days there was a large tree which had aspring and autumn each of eight thousand years'duration. Yet P'eng Tsu [2] is still, alas! an object of envyto all.notes[1] The li is about one-third of an English mile.[2] The Methuselah of China.2.There is nothing under the canopy of heaven greaterthan the tip of an autumn spikelet. A vast mountain is asmall thing. Neither is there any age greater than that ofa child cut off in infancy. P'eng Tsu himself died young.The universe and I came into being together; and I, andeverything therein, are One.