ZhuangziTaoismScholarly ReconstructionClassical ChineseShareZhuangzi 31Giles - 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›Hsü Wu Kuei.Zhuangzi 31ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1Argument:--TAO is passionless--Immorality of the moral--Obstructions to natural virtue--The evils of action--Too much zeal--The outward and visible--The inward and spiritual--Illustrations. 2Hsü Wu Kuei, introduced by Nü Shang, went to see Wu Hou of Wei. 3A hermit, a minister, and a prince, respectively. 4The Prince greeted him sympathisingly, and said, "You are suffering, Sir. You must have endured great hardships in your mountain life that you should be willing to leave it and visit me." 5"It is I who should sympathise with your Highness, not your Highness with me," answered Hsü Wu Kuei. "If your Highness gives free play to passion and yields to loves and hates, then the natural conditions of your existence will suffer. 6And if your Highness puts aside passion and abjures loves and hates, then your senses of sight and hearing will suffer. 7It is I who should sympathise with your Highness, not your Highness with me." 8The Prince was too astonished to reply; and after a while Hsü Wu Kuei continued, "I will try to explain to your Highness how I judge of dogs. The lowest in the scale will eat their fill and then stop, like a cat. Those of the middle class are as though staring at the sun. The highest class are as though they had parted with their own individuality. 9"But I do not judge of dogs as well as I judge of horses. I judge of horses as follows. Their straightness 10must be that of a line. Their curve must be that of an arc. Their squareness, that of the square. Their roundness, that of the compasses. 11One commentator applies all this to the shape of the animals. 12These are the horses of the State. They are not equal to the horses of the Empire. The horses of the Empire are splendid. They move as though anxious to get along, as though they had lost the way, as though they had parted with their own individuality. Thus, they outstrip all competitors, over the unstirred dust, out of sight!" 13The Prince was greatly pleased and smiled. But when Hsü Wu Kuei went out, Nü Shang asked him, saying, "What can you have been saying to his Highness? Whenever I address him, it is either in a pacific sense, based upon the Canons of Poetry, History, Rites, and Music; or in a belligerent sense, based upon the Golden Roster or the Six Plans of Battle. 14I have transacted with great success innumerable matters entrusted to me, yet his Highness has never vouchsafed a smile. What can you have been saying to make him so pleased as all this?" 15"I merely told him," replied Hsü Wu Kuei, "how I judged of dogs and horses." 16"Was that all?" enquired Nü Shang, incredulously. 17"Have you not heard," said Hsü Wu Kuei, "of the outlaw of Yüeh? After several days' absence from his State, he was glad to meet any one he had known there. After a month, he was glad to meet any one he had even seen there. And after a year, he was glad to meet any one who was in any way like to his fellow-countrymen. Is not this a case of absence from one's kind increasing the desire to be with them? 18"Thus a man who had fled into the wilderness, where bishop-wort chokes the path of the weasel and stoat, now advancing, now stopping,--how he would rejoice if the footfall of a fellow-creature broke upon his ear. And how much more were he to hear the sound of a brother's, of a relative's voice at his side. Long it is, I ween, since his Highness has heard the voice of a pure man at his side!" 19Hsü Wu Kuei went to visit the Prince. The latter said, "Living, Sir, up in the hills, and feeding upon berries or satisfying yourself with leeks, you have long neglected me. Are you now growing old? Or do you hanker after flesh-pots and wine? Or is it that mine is such a well-governed State?" 20"I am of lowly birth," replied Hsü Wu Kuei. "I could not venture to eat and drink your Highness' meat and wine. I came to sympathise with your Highness." 21"What do you mean?" cried the Prince? "What is there to sympathise about?" 22"About your Highness' soul and body," replied Hsü Wu Kuei. 23"Nourishment is nourishment," said Hsü Wu Kuei. 24"Being high up does not make one high, nor does being low make one low. Your Highness is the ruler of a large State, and you oppress the whole population thereof in order to satisfy your sensualities. But your soul is not a party to this. The soul loves harmony and hates disorder. For disorder is a disease. Therefore I came to sympathise. How is it that your Highness alone is suffering?" 25"I have long desired to see you," answered the Prince. "I wish to love my people, and by cultivation of duty towards one's neighbour to put an end to war. Can this be done?" 26"It cannot," replied Hsü Wu Kuei. "Love for the people is the root of all evil to the people. Cultivation of duty towards one's neighbour in order to put an end to war is the origin of all fighting. If your Highness starts from this basis, the result can only be disastrous. 27"Everything that is made good, turns out bad. 28And although your Highness should make charity and duty to one's neighbour, I fear they would be spurious articles. For the inward intention would appear in the outward manifestation. The adoption of a fixed standard 29I.e. of the personal standard of individuals. See pp. 305, 306. 30would lead to complications. And revolutions within lead to fighting without. Surely your Highness would not make a bower into a battlefield, nor a shrine of prayer into a scene of warfare! 31This, of course, refers to the mind. 32"Have nothing within which is obstructive of virtue. Seek not to vanquish others in cunning, in plotting, in war. If I slay a whole nation and annex the territory in order to find nourishment for my passions and for my soul,--irrespective of military skill, wherein does the victory lie? 33"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" 34"If your Highness will only abstain, that will be enough. Cultivate the sincerity that is within your breast, so as to be responsive to the conditions of your environment, and be not aggressive. The people will thus escape death; 35and what need then to put an end to war?" 36When the Yellow Emperor went to see TAO upon the Chü-tz'ŭ Mountain, Fang Ming was his charioteer, Ch'ang Yü sat on his right, Chang Jo and Hsi P'êng were his outriders, and K'un Hun and Hua Chi brought up the rear. 37Commentators tear this passage to tatters. 38On reaching the wilds of Hsiang-ch'êng, 39these seven Sages lost their way and there was no one of whom to ask the road. By and by, they fell in with a boy who was grazing horses, and asked him, saying, "Do you know the Chü-tz'ŭ Mountain?" 40"And can you tell us," continued the Sages, "where TAO abides?" 41"This is a strange lad," cried the Yellow Emperor. "Not only does he know where the Chü-tz'ŭ Mountain is, but also where TAO abides! Come tell me, pray, how would you govern the empire?" 42"I should govern the empire," said the boy, "just the same as I look after my horses. What else should I do? 43"When I was a little boy and used to live within the points of the compass, 44my eyes got dim of sight. An old man advised me to mount the chariot of the sun 45and visit the wilds of Hsiang-ch'êng. My sight is now much better, and I continue to dwell without the points of the compass. I should govern the empire in just the same way. What else should I do?" 46"Of course," said the Yellow Emperor, "government is not your trade. Still I should be glad to hear what you would do." 47The boy declined to answer, but on being again urged, cried out, "What difference is there between governing the empire and looking after horses? See that no harm comes to the horses, that is all!" 48Thereupon the Emperor prostrated himself before the boy; and addressing him as Divine Teacher, took his leave. 49Divine Teacher means "inspired by God." The term used is that employed in modern times for the head or Pope of debased Taoism, often wrongly rendered as the "Master of Heaven." 50If schemers have nothing to give them anxiety, they are not happy. If dialecticians have not their premisses and conclusion, they are not happy. If critics have none on whom to vent their spleen, they are not happy. Such men are the slaves of objective existences. 51Those who attract the sympathies of the world, start new dynasties. Those who win the people's hearts, take high official rank. Those who are strong undertake difficulties. Those who are brave encounter dangers. Men of arms delight in war. Men of peace think of nothing but reputation. Men of law strive to improve the administration. Professors of ceremony and music cultivate deportment. Moralists devote themselves to the obligations between man and man. 52Take away agriculture from the husbandman, and his classification is gone. Take away trade from the merchant, and his classification is gone. Daily work is the stimulus of the labourer. The skill of the artisan is his pride. If money cannot be made, the avaricious man is sad. If his power meets with a check, the boaster will repine. Ambitious men love change. 53Thus, men are always doing something; inaction is to them impossible. They observe in this the same regularity as the seasons, ever without change. They hurry to destruction, dissipating in all directions their vital forces, alas! never to return. 54Chuang Tzŭ said, "If archers who aimed at nothing and hit something were accounted good shots, everybody in the world would be another Yi. 55"If there was no general standard of right in the world," continued Chuang Tzŭ, "but each man had his own, then everybody would be a Yao. Could this be so?" 56"Very well," said Chuang Tzŭ. "Now there are the Confucianists, the Mihists, the schools of Yang 57making with your own five in all. Pray which of these is right? 58"Possibly it is a similar case to that of Lu Chü? 59--A disciple said to him, 'Master, I have attained to your TAO. I can do without fire in winter: I can make ice in summer.' 60"'You merely avail yourself of latent heat and latent cold,' replied Lu Chü. 'That is not what I call TAO. I will demonstrate to you what my TAO is.' 61"Thereupon he tuned two lutes, and placed one in the hall and the other in the adjoining room. And when he struck the Kung note on one, the Kung note on the other sounded; when he struck the chio note on one, the chio note on the other sounded. This because they were both tuned to the same pitch. 62"But if he changed the interval of one string, so that it no longer kept its place in the octave, and then struck it, the result was that all the twenty-five strings jangled together. There was sound as before, but the influence of the key-note was gone. Is this your case?" 63"The Confucianists, the Mihists, and the followers of Yang and Ping," replied Hui Tzŭ, "are just now engaged in discussing this matter with me. They try to overwhelm me with argument or howl me down with noise. Yet they have not proved me wrong. Why then should you?" 64"A man of the Ch'i State," replied Chuang Tzŭ, "sent away his son into the Sung State, to be a door-keeper, with maimed body. 65Doorkeepers in ancient times were, for obvious reasons, deprived of their feet. 66But a vase, which he valued highly, he kept carefully wrapped up. 67Thus Hui Tzŭ sacrifices the greater to the less. 68"He who would seek for a stray child, but will not leave his home, is like to lose him. 69Thus restricted to his four antagonistic schools is Hui Tzŭ's search for TAO. 70"If a man of Ch'u, who was sent away to be a door-keeper, began, in the middle of the night, when no one was about, to fight with the boatman, I should say that before his boat left the shore he would already have got himself into considerable trouble." 71A maimed man (Hui Tzŭ) should avoid quarrels. His own share of TAO is insufficient even for himself. 72Chuang Tzŭ was once attending a funeral, when he passed by the grave of Hui Tzŭ. Turning to his attendants, he said, "A man of Ying 73who had his nose covered with a hard scab, no thicker than a fly's wing, sent for a stone-mason to chip it off. The stone-mason plied his adze with great dexterity while the patient sat still and let him chip. When the scab was all off, the nose was found to be uninjured, the man of Ying never having moved a muscle. 74"When Yüan, prince of Sung, heard of this, he summoned the stone-mason and said, 'Try to do the same for me.' 75"'I used to be able to do it Sire,' replied the stone-mason, 'but my material has long since perished.' 76"And I too, ever since he perished, have been without my material, having no one with whom I can speak." 77A generous compliment to an old adversary. 78"There was no one," says Lin Hsi Chung, "in all Chuang Tzŭ's generation who could understand him; neither is there any one now, at this late date, any more than there was then." 79Kuan Chung being at the point of death, Duke Huan went to see him. 80"You are ill, venerable Sir," said the Duke, "really ill. You had better say to whom, in the event of your getting worse, I am to entrust the administration of the State." 81"Whom does your Highness wish to choose?" enquired Kuan Chung. 82Kuan Chung and Pao Yü are the "Damon and Pythias" of China. 83"He will not," said Kuan Chung. "He is pure, incorruptible, and good. With those who are not like himself, he will not associate. And if he has once heard of a man's wrong-doing, he never forgets it. If you employ him in the administration of the empire, he will get to loggerheads with his prince and to sixes and sevens with the people. It would not be long before he and your Highness fell out." 84"Whom then can we have?" asked the Duke. 85"There is no alternative," replied Kuan Chung; "it must be Hsi P'êng. He is a man who forgets the authority of those above him, and makes those below him forget his. Ashamed that he is not the peer of the Yellow Emperor, 86he grieves over those who are not the peers of himself. 87"To share one's virtue with others is called true wisdom. To share one's wealth with others is reckoned meritorious. To exhibit superior merit is not the way to win men's hearts. To exhibit inferior merit is the way. There are things in the State he does not hear; there are things in the family he does not see. 88There is no alternative; it must be Hsi P'êng." 89Of whom commentators give no further notice. 90The prince of Wu took a boat and went to the Monkey Mountain, which he ascended. When the monkeys saw him, they fled in terror and hid themselves in the thicket. One of them, however, disported himself carelessly, as though showing off its skill before the prince. The prince took a shot at it; but the monkey, with great rapidity, seized the flying arrow with its hand. Then the prince bade his guards try, the result being that the monkey was killed. 91The skill of the poor monkey availed nothing against the cloud of arrows discharged by the guards. On peut être plus fin qu'un autre, mais on ne peut pas être plus fin que tous les autres. 92Thereupon the prince turned to his friend Yen Pu I, and said, "That monkey flaunted its skill and its dexterity in my face. Therefore it has come to this pass. Beware! Do not flaunt your superiority in the faces of others." 93Yen Pu I went home, and put himself under the tuition of Tung Wu, 94with a view to get rid of such superiority. He put aside all that gave him pleasure and avoided gaining reputation. And in three years his praise was in everybody's mouth. 95was sitting leaning on a table. He looked up to heaven and sighed, at which juncture Yen Ch'êng Tzŭ entered and said, "How, Sir, can such an important person as yourself be in body like dry wood, in mind like dead ashes?" 96Instead of exerting yourself for the benefit of mankind. The speaker, says one commentator, was "a disciple." 97"I used to live in a cave on the hills," replied Tzŭ Chi. "At that time, T'ien Ho, 98The famous founder of the later House of Ch'i. 99because he once saw me, was thrice congratulated by the people of Ch'i. Now I must have given some indication by which he recognised me. 100I must have sold for him to buy. For had I not manifested myself, how would he have recognised me? Had I not sold, how could he have bought? 101"Alas! I grieve over man's self-destruction. 102And then I grieve over one who grieves for another. And then I grieve over him who grieves over one who grieves for another! And so I get daily farther and farther away." 103And become like dry wood, my soul absorbed into TAO. 104When Confucius went to Ch'u, the prince entertained him at a banquet. Sun Shu Ao stood up with a goblet of wine in his hand, and I Liao of Shih-nan poured a libation, saying, "On such occasions as this, the men of old were wont to make some utterance." 105"Mine," replied Confucius, "is the doctrine of wordless utterances. Shall I who make no utterances, make utterance now? 106"I Liao of Shih-nan played with his ball, and the trouble of two houses was arranged. 107A man of great strength who refused to aid in settling a State quarrel. He was a great ball player,--whatever that may have been. 108Sun Shu Ao remained quietly in repose, and the men of Ying threw down their arms. 109No one dared attack them, so powerful was the prestige of their minister. 110I should want a three-foot tongue indeed! 111To achieve more by talk than these two achieved by inaction. 112"Theirs was the TAO of inaction. His was the argument of silence. Wherefore, for TÊ 113and for speech to stop at the unknowable,--this is perfection. 114"With undivided TAO, TÊ cannot be coincident. 115No argument can demonstrate the unknowable. Subdivision into Confucianists and Mihists only makes confusion worse confounded. 116"The sea does not reject the streams which flow eastward into it. Therefore it is immeasurably great. The true Sage folds the universe in his bosom. His good influence benefits all throughout the empire, without respect to persons. Born without rank, he dies without titles. He does not take credit for realities. 117But attributes it all to circumstances. 118"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. 119A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker. How much less in the case of greatness? And if doing great things is not enough to secure greatness, how much less shall it secure virtue? 120"In point of greatness, there is nothing to be compared with the universe. Yet what does the universe seek in order to be great? 121"He who understands greatness in this sense, seeks nothing, loses nothing, rejects nothing, never suffers injury from without. He takes refuge in his own inexhaustibility. He finds safety in according with his nature. This is the essence of true greatness." 122Tzŭ Chi had eight sons. He ranged them before him, and summoning Chiu Fang Yin, said to him, "Examine my sons physiognomically, and tell me which will be the fortunate one." 123"K'un," replied Chiu Fang Yin, "will be the fortunate one." 124"In what sense?" asked the father, beaming with delight. 125"K'un," said Chiu Fang Yin, "will eat at the table of a prince, and so end his days." 126Thereupon Tzŭ Chi burst into tears and said, "What has my son done that this should be his fate?" 127"Eating at the table of a prince," replied Chiu Fang Yin, "will benefit the family for three generations. How much more his father and mother! But for you, Sir, to go and weep is enough to turn back the luck from you. The son's fortune is good, but the father's bad." 128"Yin," said Tzŭ Chi, "I should like to know what you mean by calling K'un fortunate. Wine and meat gratify the palate, but you do not say how these are to come. 129"Supposing that to me, not being a shepherd, a lamb were born in the south-west corner of my hall; or that to me, not being a sportsman, quails were hatched in the north-east corner. If you did not call that uncanny, what would you call it? 130"My sons and I do but roam through the universe. With them I seek the joys of heaven; with them I seek the fruits of earth. With them I engage in no business; with them I concoct no plots; with them I attempt nothing out-of-the-way. With them I mount upon the truth of the universe, and do not offer opposition to the exigencies of our environment. With them I accommodate myself naturally; but with them I do not become a slave to circumstances. Yet now the world is rewarding me! 131"Every uncanny effect must be preceded by some uncanny cause. Alas! my sons and I have done nothing. It must be the will of God. Therefore I weep." 132Shortly afterwards, when K'un was on his way to the Yen State, he was captured by brigands. To sell him as he was, would be no easy matter. To sell him without his feet would be easy enough. So they cut off his feet and sold him into the Ch'i State, where he became door-keeper to Duke Chü and had meat to his dinner for the rest of his life. 133Commentators make terrible havoc here. 134Yeh Ch'üeh meeting Hsü Yu, said to him, "Where are you going?" 135"Away from Yao!" replied the latter. 136"What do you mean?" asked Yeh Ch'üeh. 137"Yao," said Hsü Yu, "thinks of nothing but charity. I fear he will become a laughing-stock to the world, and that in future ages men will eat one another. 138"There is no difficulty in winning the people. Love them and they will draw near. Profit them and they will come up. Praise them and they will vie with one another. But introduce something they dislike, and they will be gone. 139"Love and profit are born of charity and duty to one's neighbour. Those who ignore charity and duty to one's neighbour are few; those who make capital out of them are many. 140"For the operation of these virtues is not disinterested. It is like lending gear to a sportsman. 141Wherefore, for one man to dogmatise for the good of the whole empire, is like splitting a thing at a single blow. 142Without reference to method or the requirements of the case in point. 143"Yao knows that good men benefit the empire. But he does not know that they injure it. Only those on a higher level than good men know this. 144"There are nincompoops; there are parasites; there are enthusiasts. 145"A man who learns from a single teacher, and then goes off exultant, satisfied with his acquirements though ignorant that there was a time when nothing existed,--such a one is a nincompoop. 146"Parasites are like the lice on a pig's back. They choose bald patches, which are to them palaces and parks. The parts between the toes, the joints, the dugs, and the buttocks, are to them so many comfortable and convenient resting-places. They know not that one day the butcher will tuck up his sleeves and spread straw and apply fire, and that they will perish in the singeing of the pig. As they sow, so do they reap. This is to be a parasite. 147"Of enthusiasts, Shun is an example. Mutton does not care for ants; it is the ants which care for the mutton. Mutton has a frowsy smell; and there is a frowsiness about Shun which attracts the people. Therefore it was that after three changes of residence, when he came to the Têng district, he had some hundred thousand families with him. 148"Then Yao, hearing of his goodness, appointed him to a barren region, trusting, as he said, that Shun's arrival would enrich it. When Shun took up this appointment, he was already old, and his intellect was failing; yet he would not cease work and retire from office. He was, in fact, an enthusiast. 149"So it is that the spiritual man dislikes a crowd. For where there is a crowd there is diversity, and where there is diversity advantage does not accrue. He is therefore neither very intimate, nor very distant. He clings to virtue and nourishes a spirit of harmony, in order to be in accord with his fellow-men. This is to be a divine man. 150"Leave wisdom to ants. Strive for what fishes desire. 151"Leave attractiveness to mutton. Use your eyes to contemplate, your ears to listen to, your mind to consider, their own internal workings. For him who can do these things, his level will be that of a line, his modifications in due and proper season. 152"Therefore, the divine man trusts to the natural development of events. He does not strive to introduce the artificial into the domain of the natural. Accordingly, life is a gain and death a loss, or death is a gain and life a loss. 153"For instance, drugs. They are characteristically poisonous. Such are Chieh-Kêng, Chi-Yung, and Shih-Ling. Circumstances, however, make of each a sovereign remedy. The list is inexhaustible. 154Chieh-Kêng is the Platycodon grandiflorum. It is used by Chinese doctors as a tonic, astringent, and vermifuge. 155"When Kou Chien encamped with three thousand armed warriors at Kuei-ch'i, 156Leading the men of Wu to attack the Yüeh State. 157saw that defeat would be followed by a rally. Yet he could not foresee the evil that was to come upon himself. Wherefore it has been said, 'An owl's eyes are adapted to their use. A crane's leg is of the length required. 'Twould be disastrous to shorten it.' 158This illustration has been used in ch. viii, p. 101. 159"Thus it has been said, 'The wind blows and the river suffers. The sun shines and the river suffers.' But though wind and sun be both brought into relation with the river, it does not really suffer therefrom. Fed from its source, it still continues to flow on. 160The Sage too has a source from which the nourishment of his soul is supplied. 161"The relation between water and earth is determinate. The relation between a man and his shadow is determinate. The relation between thing and thing is determinate. 162"The relation between eye and vision is baneful. 163The relation between ear and hearing is baneful. The relation between mind and object is baneful. The relation between all kinds of capacity and man's inner self is baneful. If such banefulness be not corrected, disasters will spring up on all sides. Retrogression is hard to achieve, and success long in coming. Yet alas! men regard such capacities as valuable possessions. 164"The destruction of States and the ceaseless slaughter of human beings result from an inability to examine into this. 165"The foot treads the ground in walking; nevertheless it is the ground not trodden on which makes up the good walk. A man's knowledge is limited; but it is upon what he does not know that he depends to extend his knowledge to the apprehension of God. 166"Knowledge of the great ONE, of the great Negative, of the great Nomenclature, of the great Uniformity, of the great Space, of the great Truth, of the great Law,--this is perfection. 167"The great ONE is omnipresent. The great Negative is omnipotent. The great Nomenclature is all-inclusive. The great Uniformity is all-assimilative. The great Space is all-receptive. The great Truth is all-exacting. The great Law is all-binding. 168"The ultimate end is God. He is manifested in the laws of nature. He is the hidden spring. At the beginning, he was. 169This, however, is inexplicable. It is unknowable. But from the unknowable we reach the known. 170"Investigation must not be limited, nor must it be unlimited. 171It must be undertaken from the standpoint of the unconditioned. 172In this vague undefinedness there is an actuality. Time does not change it. It cannot suffer diminution. May we not then call it our great Guide? 173"Why not bring our doubting hearts to investigation thereof? And then, using certainty to dispel doubt, revert to a state without doubt, in which doubt is doubly dead?" 174Doubt dispelled leaves conviction firmer still. 175Lin Hsi Chung says that this essay begins with the subtle to end in the abstruse. "The force of language," adds he, "can no farther go!" ‹Previous chapterZhuangzi 30Next chapterZhuangzi 32›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