Confucius went west to hide the books in the Zhou vault, and Tzu-Lu told him:
“I heard that Lao Tzu was among the chroniclers in Zhou. But he resigned his position and returned to his home. Should you go to him for help if you, a teacher, want to hide books?
“Wonderful,” said Confucius and went to Lao Tzu, but he refused to help, and Confucius began to convince him, setting out all twelve principles.
“Too long,” Lao Tzu interrupted him and said, “I want to hear the most important thing.”
“The most important thing is mercy and justice,” answered Confucius.
- May I ask you what is the character of the merciful and just? - asked Lao Tzu.
“Okay,” replied Confucius. - Without mercy you cannot become a noble husband; without justice one cannot even be born a noble husband. Mercy and justice - this is the character of a true person. How could it be otherwise?
“Let me ask,” said Lao Tzu, “what do you call mercy and justice?”
- To rejoice from the heart along with all things, to love everyone without partiality. These are the feelings of mercy and justice,” Confucius answered.
- ABOUT! Almost like in the speeches of the last ones. Isn't loving everyone absurd? Impartiality - isn't it partiality? - said Lao Tzu. - If you, teacher, do not want the Celestial Empire to lose its shepherds, you should wish for it the same constancy as that of heaven and earth. After all, of course, the sun and moon will shine, the stars and planets will have their own order, there will be flocks of birds and herds of animals, and trees will grow upward. If you, teacher, acted, imitating their properties, followed their path, you would have already achieved the true. Why so zealously preach about mercy and justice, as if searching for a lost son with the beat of drums? Ah, you, teacher, bring confusion to a person’s character!
Confucius asked Lao Tzu:
- Can a person be called wise who masters the path, as if imitating the strong: making the impossible possible, the untrue true; or the sophist who says that it is as easy for him to separate the solid and the white as to distinguish the luminaries in the sky?
“This is a fussy little servant who trembles in his soul and tires his body in vain. After all, the ability of a dog to drive a yak, the dexterity of a monkey, comes from the mountains and forests,” replied Lao Tzu. “I’ll tell you, Qiu, about what cannot be heard, what cannot be told.” Many have a head and legs, but no heart or hearing. But there are none who, having a body, exist together with those who have neither body nor form. The causes of movement and rest, death and birth, destruction and appearance are not in people themselves, but some of the causes are controlled by people. I will liken the one who forgets about all things, forgets about nature, to someone who has forgotten himself. Only the one who has forgotten about himself will be called one who has merged with nature.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru