88
LEAVES FROM MY CHINESE SCRAPBOOK.
The manner in which the various powers of nature supplement and assist each other is then shown with much perspicacity:—
The energy of Heaven and Earth is not sufficient [of itself]; nor is the ability of the Sage, nor the usefulness of created things. For instance, the function of Heaven is to produce and to overshadow; the function of Earth, to shapen and to support; the function of the Sage, to instruct and to reform; and the function of things, to fulfil the purposes for which they were created. This being so, there are directions in which Heaven is deficient, but in which Earth excels; in which the Sage encounters obstruction, but in which things in general have free course. For it is clear that that which produces and overshadows cannot impart shape and support; that which shapens and supports cannot instruct and reform; and he who instructs and reforms cannot act in opposition to the natural purposes of things, which, being once fixed, can never depart from their proper stations in the universal economy. Therefore, the principle of Heaven and Earth, if not Yin, is Yang; the doctrine of the Sage, if not benevolent, is just; the natural property of a thing, if not soft, is hard;—all these follow their inherent properties, and never leave the stations to which they belong. Thus, given Life, there are living creatures which produce other living creatures; given Form, there are forms which impart form to others; given Sound [in the abstract], we have tones which present sounds [in the concrete]; given Colour, we have that which manifests chromatic phenomena; given Flavour, we have that by which we are enabled to perceive tastes. The actual beings produced from what has life themselves die; but the succession of births—the production of living things from living things—is endless. The forms imparted by that which has form are real enough; but that which imparted form in the first instance has no existence. The tones produced by sound [in the abstract] are audible; but the tone-producing sound has never gone forth. The hues manifested by colour are varied; but that which imparts those hues—colour in the abstract—-
