“The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao’s mighty deeds
All things under heaven sprang from it as existing (and named); that existence sprang from it as nonexistent (and not named).”
Ho-shang Kung, or whoever gave their names to the chapters of the Tao Te Ching , styles this fortieth chapter “Dispensing with the use (of means).” If the wish to use means arise in the mind, the nature of the Tao as “the nameless simplicity” has been vitiated; and this nature is celebrated in lines like those just quoted:—
“Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right, as of their will.”
I do not cull any passages from Chuang-tzŭ to illustrate these points. In his eleventh book his subject is government by “Let-a-be and the exercise of forbearance.”
This Tao ruled men at first, and then the world was in a paradisiacal state. Neither of our authorities tells us how