| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: granted to all who desired to do so.
23. Two presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board of Rites
were dismissed for disobeying the Emperor's orders that memorials
should be allowed to come to him unopened.
24. The governorships of Hupeh, Kuangtung, and Yunnan were
abolished as being a useless expense to the country.
25. Schools of instruction in the preparation of tea and silk
were ordered established.
26. The slow courier posts were abolished in favour of the
Imperial Customs Post.
27. A system of budgets as in Western countries was approved.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.
47. 1. Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes
place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees
the Tao of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the
less he knows.
2. Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave
their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished
their ends without any purpose of doing so.
48. 1. He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to
increase (his knowledge); he who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks)
from day to day to diminish (his doing).
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: rather speak to through the bars of my helmet than
barefaced.''
``Get thine iron pot on thy head then, friend
Sluggard, as quickly as thy nature will permit,''
said the hermit, ``while I remove these pewter
flagons, whose late contents run strangely in mine
own pate; and to drown the clatter---for, in faith,
I feel somewhat unsteady---strike into the tune
which thou hearest me sing; it is no matter for the
words---I scarce know them myself.''
So saying, he struck up a thundering _De profundis
Ivanhoe |
