ZhuangziTaoismScholarly ReconstructionClassical ChineseShareZhuangzi 29Giles - 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 29ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1So that there was nothing which did not lend its aid. 2Jen Ch'iu asked Confucius, saying, "Can we know about the time before the universe existed?" 3"We can," replied Confucius. "Time was of old precisely what it is now." 4At this rebuff, Jen Ch'iu withdrew. Next day he again visited Confucius and said, "Yesterday when I asked you that question and you answered me, I was quite clear about it. To-day I am confused. How is this?" 5"Your clearness of yesterday," answered Confucius, "was because my answer appealed direct to your natural intelligence. Your confusion of to-day results from the intrusion of something other than the natural intelligence. 6You have passed from "simple apprehension" to "judgment." 7There is no past, no present, no beginning, no end. 8To-day will be the yesterday of to-morrow. 9To have posterity before one has posterity,--is that possible?" 10Jen Ch'iu made no answer, and Confucius continued, "That will do. Do not reply. If life did not give birth to death, and if death did not put an end to life, surely life and death would be no longer correlates, but would each exist independently. What there was before the universe, was TAO. TAO makes things what they are, but is not itself a thing. Nothing can produce TAO; yet everything has TAO within it, and continues to produce it without end. 11And the endless love of the Sage for his fellow-man is based upon the same principle." 12Yen Yüan asked Confucius, saying, "Master, I have heard you declare that there may be no eagerness to conform, no effort to adapt. If so, pray how are we to get along?" 13Reach that condition which is only attained by adaptation to environment. 14"The men of old," replied Confucius, "practised physical, but not moral, modification. 15They adapted themselves to the requirements of matter, while their hearts remained the same. 16The men of to-day practise moral, not physical modification. 17They allow their hearts to be influenced while resisting the exigencies of the external. 18Let your modification extend to the external only. Internally, be constant without modification. 19"How shall you modify, and how shall you not modify? How reconcile the divergence?--By not admitting division. 20I.e. "by being constant without modification," says Lin Hsi Chung. 21"There was the garden of Hsi Wei, the park of the Yellow Emperor, the palace of Shun, the halls of T'ang and Wu. 22The allusion appears to be to schools of learning, like the Grove of Academus. See chs. vi, xii. 23These were perfect men; but had they been taught by Confucianists and Mihists, they would have hammered one another to pieces over scholastic quibbles. How much more then the men of to-day? 24"The perfect Sage, in his relations with the external world, injures nothing. Neither does anything injure him. And only he who is thus exempt can be trusted to conform and to adapt. 25"Mountain forests and loamy fields swell my heart with joy. But ere the joy be passed, sorrow is upon me again. 26Joy and sorrow come and go, and over them I have no control. 27"Alas! the life of man is but as a stoppage at an inn. He knows that which comes within the range of his experience. Otherwise, he knows not. He knows that he can do what he can do, and that he cannot do what he cannot do. But there is always that which he does not know and that which he cannot do; and to struggle that it shall not be so,--is not this a cause for grief? 28"The best language is that which is not spoken, the best form of action is that which is without deeds. 29Then conformity and adaptation are not required. 30Spread out your knowledge and it will be found to be shallow." 31It will by no means cover the area of the knowable. "Read this chapter," says one critic, "and the Tripitaka and the Mahâyâna will open out before you as beneath a sharp-edged blade." ‹Previous chapterZhuangzi 28Next chapterZhuangzi 30›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