YANG CHU said : 

"Po-cheng-tse-kao1 would not part with a hair of his body for the benefit of others. He quitted

1 Po-cheng-tse-kao was a Taoist of the time of Yao.

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his country and became a ploughman. The great Yü did not profit by his own body, which grew quite emaciated. 

"If the ancients by injuring a single hair could have rendered a service to the world, they would not have done it ; and had the universe been offered to a single person, he would not have accepted it. 

"As nobody would damage even a hair, and nobody would do a favour to the world, the world was in a perfect state."

Ch in-Tse asked Yang Chu : 

"If by pulling out a hair of your body you would aid mankind, would you do it ? "

Yang Chu answered : 

"Mankind is surely not to be helped by a single hair."

Ch in-Tse said : 

"But supposing it possible, would you do it ? "

Yang Chu gave no answer. 

Thereupon Chin-Tse told Meng-sun-Yang, who replied : 

"I will explain the Master s meaning.

"Supposing for tearing off a piece of your skin you were offered ten thousand gold pieces, would you do it ?"

Ch in-Tse said : 

"I would."

1 The great Yü, the controller of the great flood, which task so occupied him that he entirely forgot his own wants.

54 SELF-SACRIFICE 

Meng-sun-Yang again asked : 

"Supposing for cutting off one of your limbs you were to get a kingdom, would you do it ? "

Ch'in-Tse was silent. 

"See now,"said Meng-sun-Yang. "A hair is unimportant compared with the skin, and the skin also is unimportant compared with a limb. "However, many hairs put together form a skin, and many skins form a limb. Therefore, though a hair is but one among the many molecules composing the body, it is not to be disregarded."

Ch'in-Tse replied : 

"I do not know how to answer you. If I were to ask Lao-tse and Kuan-Yin,1 your opinion, would be found right, and so also if I were to consult great Yü and Me-ti."

Meng-sun-Yang upon this turned round to his disciples, and spoke of something else.