ZhuangziTaoismScholarly ReconstructionClassical ChineseShareZhuangzi 21Giles - 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›Tao.Zhuangzi 21ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1Which moves far more quickly even without body. 2Which can comprehend the whole universe, past and present alike. 3The walrus said to the centipede, "I hop about on one leg, but not very successfully. How do you manage all these legs you have?" 4"Walrus" is of course an analogue. But for the one leg, the description given by a commentator of the creature mentioned in the text applies with significant exactitude. 5"I don't manage them," replied the centipede. "Have you never seen saliva? When it is ejected, the big drops are the size of pearls, the small ones like mist. They fall promiscuously on the ground and cannot be counted. And so it is that my mechanism works naturally, without my being conscious of the fact." 6The centipede said to the snake, "With all my legs I do not move as fast as you with none. How is that?" 7"One's natural mechanism," replied the snake, "is not a thing to be changed. What need have I for legs?" 8The snake said to the wind, "I can manage to wriggle along, but I have a form. Now you come blustering down from the north sea to bluster away to the south sea, and you seem to be without form. How is that?" 9"'Tis true," replied the wind, "that I bluster as you say; but any one who can point at me or kick at me, excels me. 10On the other hand, I can break huge trees and destroy large buildings. That is my strong point. Out of all the small things in which I do not excel I make one great one in which I do excel. And to excel in great things is given only to the Sages." 11Everything has its own natural qualifications. What is difficult to one is easy to another. 12No illustration is given of the "eye" and "mind." "'Tis the half-length portrait," says Lin Hsi Chung, "of a beautiful girl;"--which is ingenious if not sound. 13When Confucius visited K'uang, the men of Sung surrounded him closely. 14This is a mistake. "K'uang" was in the Wei State, and it was by the men of Wei that Confucius was surrounded. 15Yet he went on playing and singing to his guitar without ceasing. 16"How is it, Sir," enquired Tzŭ Lu, "that you are so cheerful?" 17See p. 165. Tzŭ Lu would have been the first to be cheerful himself. 18"Come here," replied Confucius, "and I will tell you. For a long time I have been struggling against failure, but in vain. Fate is against me. For a long time I have been seeking success, but in vain. The hour has not come. 19"In the days of Yao and Shun, no man throughout the empire was a failure, though no one was conscious of the gain. In the days of Chieh and Chou, no man throughout the empire was a success, though no one was conscious of the loss. The times and circumstances were adapted accordingly. 20"To travel by water and not avoid sea-serpents and dragons,--this is the courage of the fisherman. To travel by land and not avoid the rhinoceros and the tiger,--this is the courage of hunters. When bright blades cross, to look on death as on life,--this is the courage of the hero. To know that failure is fate and that success is opportunity, and to remain fearless in great danger,--this is the courage of the Sage. Yu! rest in this. My destiny is cut out for me." 21Shortly afterwards, the captain of the troops came in and apologised, saying, "We thought you were Yang Hu; consequently we surrounded you. We find we have made a mistake." Whereupon he again apologised and retired. 22Yang Hu was "wanted" by the people of Wei, and it appears that Confucius was unfortunately like him in feature. But the whole episode is clearly the interpolation of a forger. 23A philosopher of the Chao State, whose treatise on the "hard and white" etc. is said to be still extant. See ch. ii. 24said to Mou of Wei, "When young I studied the TAO of the ancient Sages. When I grew up I knew all about the practice of charity and duty to one's neighbour, the identification of like and unlike, the separation of hardness and whiteness, and about making the not-so so, and the impossible possible. I vanquished the wisdom of all the philosophies. I exhausted all the arguments that were brought against me. I thought that I had indeed reached the goal. But now that I have heard Chuang Tzŭ, I am lost in astonishment at his grandeur. I know not whether it is in arguing or in knowledge that I am not equal to him. I can no longer open my mouth. May I ask you to impart to me the secret?" 25Kung Tzŭ Mou leant over the table and sighed. Then he looked up to heaven, and smiling replied, saying, "Have you never heard of the frog in the old well?--The frog said to the turtle of the eastern sea, 'Happy indeed am I! I hop on to the rail around the well. I rest in the hollow of some broken brick. Swimming, I gather the water under my arms and shut my mouth. I plunge into the mud, burying my feet and toes; and not one of the cockles, crabs, or tadpoles I see around me are my match. [Fancy pitting the happiness of an old well against all the water of Ocean!] Why do you not come, Sir, and pay me a visit?' 26"Now the turtle of the eastern sea had not got its left leg down ere its right had already stuck fast, so it shrank back and begged to be excused. It then described the sea, saying, 'A thousand li would not measure its breadth, nor a thousand fathoms its depth. In the days of the Great Yü, there were nine years of flood out of ten; but this did not add to its bulk. In the days of T'ang, there were seven years out of eight of drought; but this did not narrow its span. Not to be affected by duration of time, not to be affected by volume of water,--such is the great happiness of the eastern sea.' 27To be impervious to external influences. 28"At this the well-frog was considerably astonished, and knew not what to say next. And for one whose knowledge does not reach to the positive-negative domain, 29to attempt to understand Chuang Tzŭ, is like a mosquito trying to carry a mountain, or an ant to swim a river,--they cannot succeed. And for one whose knowledge does not reach to the abstrusest of the abstruse, but is based only upon such victories as you have enumerated,--is not he like the frog in the well? 30"Chuang Tzŭ moves in the realms below while soaring to heaven above. For him north and south do not exist; the four points are gone; he is engulphed in the unfathomable. For him east and west do not exist. Beginning with chaos, he has gone back to TAO; and yet you think you are going to examine his doctrines and meet them with argument! This is like looking at the sky through a tube, or pointing at the earth with an awl,--a small result. 31The area covered by an awl's point being infinitesimal. 32"Have you never heard how the youth of Shou-ling went to study at Han-tan? They did not learn what they wanted at Han-tan, and forgot all they knew before into the bargain, so that they returned home in disgrace. And you, if you do not go away, you will forget all you know, and waste your time into the bargain." 33Kung Sun Lung's jaw dropped; his tongue clave to his palate; and he slunk away. 34Another spurious episode, as is evident from its general weakness, not to mention repetitions of figures and allusions taken from other chapters. 35Chuang Tzŭ was fishing in the P'u when the prince of Ch'u sent two high officials to ask him to take charge of the administration of the Ch'u State. 36Chuang Tzŭ went on fishing, and without turning his head said, "I have heard that in Ch'u there is a sacred tortoise which has been dead now some three thousand years. And that the prince keeps this tortoise carefully enclosed in a chest on the altar of his ancestral temple. Now would this tortoise rather be dead and have its remains venerated, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?" 37"It would rather be alive," replied the two officials, "and wagging its tail in the mud." 38"Begone!" cried Chuang Tzŭ. "I too will wag my tail in the mud." 39Hui Tzŭ was prime minister in the Liang State. Chuang Tzŭ went thither to visit him. 40Some one remarked, "Chuang Tzŭ has come. He wants to be minister in your place." 41Thereupon Hui Tzŭ was afraid, and searched all over the State 42for three days and three nights to find him. 43Then Chuang Tzŭ went to see Hui Tzŭ, and said, "In the south there is a bird. It is a kind of phœnix. Do you know it? It started from the south sea to fly to the north sea. Except on the wu-t'ung tree, 44it would not alight. It would eat nothing but the fruit of the bamboo, drink nothing but the purest spring water. An owl which had got the rotten carcass of a rat, looked up as the phœnix flew by, and screeched. 45Are you not screeching at me over your kingdom of Liang?" 46Chuang Tzŭ and Hui Tzŭ had strolled on to the bridge over the Hao, when the former observed, "See how the minnows are darting about! That is the pleasure of fishes." 47"You not being a fish yourself," said Hui Tzŭ, "how can you possibly know in what consists the pleasure of fishes?" 48"And you not being I," retorted Chuang Tzŭ, "how can you know that I do not know?" 49"If I, not being you, cannot know what you know," urged Hui Tzŭ, "it follows that you, not being a fish, cannot know in what consists the pleasure of fishes." 50"Let us go back," said Chuang Tzŭ, "to your original question. You asked me how I knew in what consists the pleasure of fishes. Your very question shows that you knew I knew. 51I knew it from my own feelings on this bridge." 52From my own feelings above the bridge I infer those of the fishes below. ‹Previous chapterZhuangzi 20Next chapterZhuangzi 22›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