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The text of the first two sentences is difficult, and we deem our present version an improvement. 7 Literally the beginning seems to read thus: "Being insistent in disciplining the sense soul." Mr. Ng Poon Chew writes: "The first two characters are verbs, there is no question as to that. The word poh is commonly understood by the Chinese to be the passive half of the human soul equivalent to yin in nature."

The Manchu version (as Dr. Laufer informs me) in agreement with a Chinese quotation of this passage by Huai Nan Tze takes all these sentences as queries.


142:7 For an explanation of the text see "Emendations and Comments," pp. ix-x in the second issue of Lao-Tze's Tao-Teh-King.

Next: Chapter 11