ZhuangziTaoismScholarly ReconstructionClassical ChineseShareZhuangzi 19Giles - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableGilesLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Zhuangzi 1Zhuangzi 2Zhuangzi 3Zhuangzi 4Zhuangzi 5Zhuangzi 6Zhuangzi 7Zhuangzi 8Zhuangzi 9Zhuangzi 10Zhuangzi 11Zhuangzi 12Zhuangzi 13Zhuangzi 14Zhuangzi 15Zhuangzi 16Zhuangzi 17Zhuangzi 18Zhuangzi 19Zhuangzi 20Zhuangzi 21Zhuangzi 22Zhuangzi 23Zhuangzi 24Zhuangzi 25Zhuangzi 26Zhuangzi 27Zhuangzi 28Zhuangzi 29Zhuangzi 30Zhuangzi 31Zhuangzi 32Zhuangzi 33Zhuangzi 34Zhuangzi 35Zhuangzi 36Zhuangzi 37Zhuangzi 38Zhuangzi 39Zhuangzi 40›Exercise Of Faculties.Zhuangzi 19ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1Argument:--TAO unattainable by mundane arts--To be reached through repose--The world's infancy--The reign of peace--Government sets in--TAO declines--The true Sages of old--Their purity of aim. 2Those who exercise their faculties in mere worldly studies, hoping thereby to revert to their original condition; and those who sink their aspirations in mundane thoughts, hoping thereby to reach enlightenment;--these are the dullards of the earth. 3The ancients, in cultivating TAO, begat knowledge out of repose. When born, this knowledge was not applied to any purpose; and so it may be said that out of knowledge they begat repose. Knowledge and repose thus mutually producing each other, harmony and order were developed. Virtue is harmony; TAO is order. 4Virtue all-embracing,--hence charity. TAO all-influencing,--hence duty to one's neighbour. From the establishment of these two springs loyalty. Then comes music, an expression of inward purity and truth; followed by ceremonial, or sincerity expressed in ornamental guise. If music and ceremonial are ill regulated, the empire is plunged into confusion. And to attempt to correct others while one's own virtue is clouded, is to set one's own virtue a task for which it is inadequate, the result being that the natural constitution of the object will suffer. 5Primeval man enjoyed perfect tranquillity throughout life. In his day, the Positive and Negative principles were peacefully united; spiritual beings gave no trouble; the four seasons followed in due order; nothing suffered any injury; death was unknown; men had knowledge, but no occasion to use it. This may be called perfection of unity. 6All things, all conditions, were ONE. 7At that period, nothing was ever made so; but everything was so. 8By and by, virtue declined. Sui Jen 9ruled the empire. There was still natural adaptation, 10A further decline in virtue. Shên Nung 11ruled the empire. There was peace, but the natural adaptation was gone. 12Again virtue declined. Yao and Shun ruled the empire. Systems of government and moral reform were introduced. Man's original integrity was scattered. Goodness led him astray from TAO; 13But for goodness, evil could not exist. 14Then he discarded natural instinct and took up with the intellectual. Mind was pitted against mind, but it was impossible thus to settle the empire. So art and learning were added. But art obliterated the original constitution, and learning overwhelmed mind; upon which confusion set in, and man was unable to revert to his natural instincts, to the condition in which he at first existed. 15Thus it may be said that the world destroys TAO, and that TAO destroys the world. And the world and TAO thus mutually destroying each other, how can the men of TAO elevate the world, and how can the world elevate TAO? TAO cannot elevate the world; neither can the world elevate TAO. Though the Sages were not to dwell on mountain and in forest, their virtue would still be hidden;--hidden, but not by themselves. 16Those of old who were called retired scholars, were not men who hid their bodies, or kept back their words, or concealed their wisdom. It was that the age was not suitable for their mission. If the age was suitable and their mission a success over the empire, they simply effaced themselves in the unity which prevailed. If the age was unsuitable and their mission at failure, they fell back upon their own resources and waited. Such is the way to preserve oneself. 17Those of old who preserved themselves, did not ornament their knowledge with rhetoric. They did not exhaust the empire with their knowledge. They did not exhaust virtue. They kept quietly to their own spheres, and reverted to their natural instincts. What then was left for them to do? 18TAO does not deal with detail. Virtue does not take cognizance of trifles. Trifles injure virtue; detail injures TAO. Wherefore it has been said, "Self-reformation is enough." He whose happiness is complete has attained his desire. 19Of old, attainment of desire did not mean office. It meant that nothing could be added to the sum of happiness. But now it does mean office, though office is external and is not a part of oneself. That which is adventitious, comes. Coming, you cannot prevent it; going, you cannot arrest it. Therefore, not to look on office as the attainment of desire, and not because of poverty to become a toady, but to be equally happy under all conditions,--this is to be without sorrow. 20But now-a-days, both having and not having 21are causes of unhappiness. From which we may infer that even happiness is not exempt from sorrow. 22Wherefore it has been said, "Those who over-estimate the external and lose their natural instincts in worldliness,--these are the people of topsy-turvydom." 23We are left in the dark as to the authorship of the numerous quotations in this and the preceding chapter. It is, however, a point of minor importance, neither chapter having the slightest claim to be regarded as the genuine work of Chuang Tzŭ. ‹Previous chapterZhuangzi 18Next chapterZhuangzi 20›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the United States via Project Gutenberg