Procurator

散人 a person not harnessed with duties; 散才，散儒 (AC) unconventional scholar. http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Lindict/

the meaning of 器 in old texts is misunderstood. both in DDJ and in confucian literature, it means "talented persons". So, the entire chapter is a HR policy for the government. last line says: if those who come from the uncarved block (produced as per process decribed above)are employed in governing then the resulting system of governing can not be damaged/cut/carved. The logic being that uncarved block is uncarvABLE.

http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%B7%A6&submitButton1=Etymology you are correct, some of them in bronze do have "mouth", whether its an actual mouth element is open to debate. but majority have "work" - a wooden dirt tamper. the implication might be that ppl were left-handed then as a rule, which later has been reversed.

it is worth noting that the character for left had element of work, and the char. for right had element for mouth.

feel the compassion, eh?

good , now after david verdesi wang liping is being exposed as a greedy leach. dont be played for suckers folks, that is all there is to say.

no worrries Marblehead you did not miss anything. its the translator who got lost in grammar and mistook "the knowledge" for worldly thinking and knowing. the text in fact talks about the "the knowledge of the essence" and "stopping mundane thinking" as a way to preserve own life. 精也者，氣之精者也。this essence is the essence of qi 氣道乃生，when qi is inhaled the essence is born 生乃思，when born it gives rise to true intent 思乃知，true intent gives rise to a true knowledge 知乃止矣。true knowledge gives rise to stability 凡心之形，if the heart is snared in external shapes 過知失生。the true knowledge is gone and life is lost.

i am ignorant of that expression so i dont know:)). the supreme good in this chapter as well as in the whole chinese national idea is the well-being of the nation-state and of the wise ones who cunningly husband the populace. the only virtue that the populace can have is to be obedient. to the wise ones. they are so wise that they make use of not obedient ones as well, w/o getting attached to either. this is one of rare chapters that has no relation directly to self-cultivation. its all about politics that is so machiavellian that it will eat machiavelly for breakfast. so much for the meaning. linguistically the chapter is based on play on words. skillful=good=obedient.

heh:)) notice if you will that "good" in chinese is "obedient" . only obedient ones are good. what do u make of this?

27 善行無轍迹，good riding means not following beaten path 善言無瑕讁；good speech means not assigning blame 善數不用籌策；good counting means not using counting chips 善閉無關楗而不可開，good lock means no obvious bolts but is impossible to unlock 善結無繩約而不可解。good knot means no obvious knots but is impossible to untie. 是以聖人 similarly to above, the wise men 常善救人，故無棄人；are always good at saving and husbanding people that is why they do not discard any 常善救物，故無棄物。are always good at saving and husbanding things, that is why they do not discard any 是謂襲明。it is called carrying out wisdom. (MWD 故善人，善人之師；So, those that are good - those are led by the wise ones 不善人，善人之資也。those that are not good - those are husbanded by the wise ones 不貴其師，不愛其資，雖知乎大迷，是胃眇要。 The wise ones do not value the led ones, do not love husbanded ones, they just know that leading and husbanding is one big scheme, which is the most wondrous for governing. Meaning of the chapter: while bad people lack in good qualities as are unpicable locks and untieable knots, the latter are however supremely useful so the bad people must be also useful for something. So the good/obedient ones are led, not good/obedient ones are husbanded like so much cattle. Both of them have their uses. But the most Important thing is for the sage not to get attached to either category in the grand scheme of supreme good.

nah, he is confused To carry on without change: 因襲，沿襲 carry on (old custom, etc.); To trace: 曳光彈 [yi4guang1dan4]↓. 申明 [shen1ming2], v.t., to make clear, declare (reason for visit, etc.). the common meaning is carry on wisdom

manitou is correct pointing out the pertinency issue. as usual the whole paragraph is translated without any regard to pertinency. becouse, what is the connection between 1. no knots.2 saving all men. 3 inner light its a disjointed par for the course.

here the thing is that the meaning of the chapter is cristal clear however it is so way off the common frame of reference that it IS unthinkable. "by becoming empty one gets rid of the physical body and lives forever w/o it. no body = no danger" simple as that. 致虛極，守靜篤。萬物並作，吾以觀復。夫物芸芸，各復歸其根。歸根曰靜，是謂復命。復命曰常，知常曰明。不知常，妄作凶。知常容，容乃公，公乃王，王乃天，天乃道，道乃久，沒身不殆。

one does not. only the destined, who is born with "bones of a xian" does.

http://chinese.dsturgeon.net/text.pl?node=48603&if=en&remap=gb ))

no wonder you are confused, most of ppl are. the simple truth is that there was no such thing as separate confucianism or daoism back then or even now. those are meaningless western constructs. as to the specific section post it here for reference and i will explain it based on chinese original. current translations are pretty much worthless.

its the edible grains - barley, wheat, rice etc. the point made here is that the most precious life sustaining substance in material world is food, represented by the five grains. which in turn are spiritual in origin.

heh, your lady is right on the money, hats off to her. but what can u do? as they say "there is one born every minute"

oh the mods did not like the stolen pens part, huh? it figures.

well, i dont think that was what he was getting at;but yours is a thoughtful question. see, much of the form WAS indeed borrowed from CHINESE buddhism. however the substance of chinese buddhism is daoism repackaged. so the substance of the "new" development that was the Quanzheng school was and is unadulterated early practices of taoism, its the external form that was tweaked a bit.

i heart u 2

chunjie kuaile!

u just presented the material that refutes yr argument: "he met two xians who instructed him in series of SECRET rituals" and obviously graduated him.

that is a really strange thing to say for a historically well versed expert as YM surely is. of course there WAS a strict graduation path in any daoist tradition. one wonders what daoism YM talking about, a pop one? then he is right. uh-huh..that is why koujue is so ubiquitous a term.