Confucius on “Rest” (from the Lieh Tzu)
Tse Kung said to Confucius, “Master, I am aweary, and would fain have rest.”
“In life,” replied the sage, “there is no rest.”
“Shall I, then, never have rest?” asked the disciple.
“You will,” said Confucius. “Behold the tombs which lie around; some magnificent, some mean. In one of these you will find rest.”
“How wonderful is death” rejoined Tse Kung “The wise man rests, the worldly man is engulfed therein.”
“My son,” said Confucius, “I see that you understand. Other men know life only as a boon: they do not perceive that it is a bane. They know old age as a state of weakness: they do not perceive that it is a state of ease. They know death only as an abomination: they do not perceive that it is a state of rest.”
“How grand,” said Yen Tse, “is the old conception of death! The virtuous find rest, the wicked are ongulfed therein. In death, each reverts to that from which he came. The ancients regarded death as a return to, and life as an absence from, home.”
天瑞
列子
NEEDS PROOFING 乎貢倦於學。告仲尼日。間有所息。仲昆目。生些所息。子攻目。然則腦且無所乎。仲厄目。有清耳。望其慨。mw詞也。學如也。墳如也。高胡也。則知所必矣。子賀目。大龍死乎。君子。ι詣。小λ伏扭扭。仲尼目。路汝知之矣。人胥知是之樂。未知生之苦。如老之怨。未知老之飲。知死之題。未知死之息也。”咀于目。『叫“議之有死也。仁者息焉。不仁者快誨。死也者總之彼位。古者關死人岔路λ。(的}