{"schema_version":1,"access":"public","rights":"Public-domain or compatibly licensed source editions; provenance is retained per record.","work":{"slug":"zhuangzi-inner-chapters","title":"Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters","author":"Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou)","tradition":"chinese","language":"lzh","genre":"philosophy","period":"4th c. BCE","source_url":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kanripo/KR5c0126/master/","original":{"text":"### Chapter 1 逍遙遊第一\n\n鯤之大，不知其幾千里也。\n化而為鳥，其名為鵬。\n鵬之背，不知其幾千里也；怒而飛，其翼若垂天之雲。\n是鳥也，海運則將徙於南冥。\n南冥者，天池也。\n齊諧者，志怪者也。\n曰：「鵬之徙於南冥也，水擊三千里，摶扶搖而上者九萬里，去以六月息者也。\n」野馬也，塵埃也，生物之以息相吹也。\n天之蒼蒼，其正色邪？\n其遠而無所至極邪？\n其視下也，亦若是則已矣。\n且夫水之積也不厚，則負大舟也無力。\n覆杯水於坳堂之上，則芥為之舟；置杯焉則膠，水淺而舟大也。\n風之積也不厚，則其負大翼也無力。\n故九萬里，則風斯在下矣，而後乃今培風；背負青天，而莫之夭閼者，而後乃今將圖南。\n蜩與學鳩笑之曰：「我決起而飛，槍榆枋，時則不至，而控於地而已矣，奚以之九萬里而南為？\n」適莽蒼者，三湌而反，腹猶果然；適百里者，宿舂糧；適千里者，三月聚糧。\n之二蟲又何知！\n小知不及大知，小年不及大年。\n奚以知其然也？\n朝菌不知晦朔，蟪蛄不知春秋，此小年也。\n楚之南有冥靈者，以五百歲為春，五百歲為秋；上古有大椿者，以八千歲為春，八千歲為秋。\n而彭祖乃今以久特聞，眾人匹之，不亦悲乎！\n湯之問棘也是已。\n窮髮之北有冥海者，天池也。\n有魚焉，其廣數千里，未有知其脩者，其名為鯤。\n有鳥焉，其名為鵬，背若泰山，翼若垂天之雲，摶扶搖羊角而上者九萬里，絕雲氣，負青天，然後圖南，且適南冥也。\n斥鴳笑之曰：「彼且奚適也？\n我騰躍而上，不過數仞而下，翱翔蓬蒿之間，此亦飛之至也。\n而彼且奚適也？\n」此小大之辯也。\n故夫知效一官，行比一鄉，德合一君，而徵一國者，其自視也亦若此矣。\n而宋榮子猶然笑之。\n且舉世而譽之而不加勸，舉世而非之而不加沮，定乎內外之分，辯乎榮辱之竟斯已矣。\n彼其於世未數數然也。\n雖然，猶有未樹也。\n夫列子御風而行，泠然善也，旬有五日而後反。\n彼於致福者，未數數然也。\n此雖免乎行，猶有所待者也。\n若夫乘天地之正，而御六氣之辯，以遊無窮者，彼且惡乎待哉！\n故曰：至人無己，神人無功，聖人無名。\n堯讓天下於許由，曰：「日月出矣，而爝火不息，其於光也，不亦難乎！\n時雨降矣，而猶浸灌，其於澤也，不亦勞乎！\n夫子立而天下治，而我猶尸之，吾自視缺然。\n請致天下。\n」許由曰：「子治天下，天下既已治也。\n而我猶代子，吾將為名乎？\n名者，實之賓也。\n吾將為賓乎？\n鷦鷯巢於深林，不過一枝；偃鼠飲河，不過滿腹。\n歸休乎君，予無所用天下為！\n庖人雖不治庖，尸祝不越樽俎而代之矣。\n」肩吾問於連叔曰：「吾聞言於接輿，大而無當，往而不反。\n吾驚怖其言，猶河漢而無極也；大有逕庭，不近人情焉。\n」連叔曰：「其言謂何哉？\n」曰：「藐姑射之山，有神人居焉，肌膚若冰雪，淖約若處子。\n不食五穀，吸風飲露。\n乘雲氣，御飛龍，而遊乎四海之外。\n其神凝，使物不疵癘而年穀熟，吾以是狂而不信也。\n」連叔曰：「然。\n」瞽者無以與乎文章之觀，聾者無以與乎鍾鼓之聲。\n豈唯形骸有聾瞽哉？\n夫知亦有之。\n是其言也，猶時女也。\n之人也，之德也，將旁礴萬物以為一，世蘄乎亂，孰弊弊焉以天下為事！\n之人也，物莫之傷，大浸稽天而不溺，大旱金石流土山焦而不熱。\n是其塵垢粃穅，將猶陶鑄堯舜者也，孰肯以物為事！\n「宋人資章甫而適諸越，越人斷髮文身，無所用之。\n堯治天下之民，平海內之政，往見四子藐姑射之山，汾水之陽，窅然喪其天下焉。\n」惠子謂莊子曰：「魏王貽我大瓠之種，我樹之成而實五石，以盛水漿，其堅不能自舉也。\n剖之以為瓢，則瓠落無所容。\n非不呺然大也，吾為其無用而掊之。\n」莊子曰：「夫子固拙於用大矣。\n宋人有善為不龜手之藥者，世世以洴澼絖為事。\n客聞之，請買其方百金。\n聚族而謀曰：「『我世世為洴澼絖，不過數金；今一朝而鬻技百金，請與之。\n』客得之，以說吳王。\n越有難，吳王使之將，冬與越人水戰，大敗越人，裂地而封之。\n能不龜手，一也；或以封，或不免於洴澼絖，則所用之異也。\n今子有五石之瓠，何不慮以為大樽而浮乎江湖，而憂其瓠落無所容？\n則夫子猶有蓬之心也夫！\n」惠子謂莊子曰：「吾有大樹，人謂之樗。\n其大本擁腫而不中繩墨，其小枝卷曲而不中規矩，立之塗，匠者不顧。\n今子之言，大而無用，眾所同去也。\n」莊子曰：「子獨不見狸狌乎？\n卑身而伏，以候敖者；東西跳梁，不避高下；中於機辟，死於罔罟。\n今夫斄牛，其大若垂天之雲。\n此能為大矣，而不能執鼠。\n今子有大樹，患其無用，何不樹之於無何有之鄉，廣莫之野，彷徨乎無為其側，逍遙乎寢臥其下。\n不夭斤斧，物無害者，無所可用，安所困苦哉！\n\n### Chapter 2 齊物論第二\n\n顏成子游立侍乎前，曰：「何居乎？\n形固可使如槁木，而心固可使如死灰乎？\n今之隱几者，非昔之隱几者也。\n」子綦曰：「偃，不亦善乎，而問之也！\n今者吾喪我，汝知之乎？\n女聞人籟而未聞地籟，女聞地籟而未聞天籟夫！\n」子游曰：「敢問其方。\n」子綦曰：「夫大塊噫氣，其名為風。\n是唯无作，作則萬竅怒呺。\n而獨不聞之翏翏乎？\n山林之畏佳，大木百圍之竅穴，似鼻，似口，似耳，似枅，似圈，似臼，似洼者，似污者；激者，謞者，叱者，吸者，叫者，譹者，宎者，咬者，前者唱于而隨者唱喁。\n泠風則小和，飄風則大和，厲風濟則眾竅為虛。\n而獨不見之調調，之刀刀乎？\n」子游曰：「地籟則眾竅是已，人籟則比竹是已。\n敢問天籟。\n」子綦曰：「夫吹萬不同，而使其自己也，咸其自取，怒者其誰邪！\n」大知閑閑，小知閒閒；大言炎炎，小言詹詹。\n其寐也魂交，其覺也形開，與接為構，日以心鬭。\n縵者，窖者，密者。\n小恐惴惴，大恐縵縵。\n其發若機栝，其司是非之謂也；其留如詛盟，其守勝之謂也；其殺如秋冬，以言其日消也；其溺之所為之，不可使復之也；其厭也如緘，以言其老洫也；近死之心，莫使復陽也。\n喜、怒、哀、樂、慮、嘆、變、慹、姚、佚、啟、態；樂出虛，蒸成菌。\n日夜相代乎前，而莫知其所萌。\n已乎，已乎！\n旦暮得此，其所由以生乎！\n非彼無我，非我無所取。\n是亦近矣，而不知其所為使。\n若有真宰，而特不得其眹。\n可行己信，而不見其形，有情而無形。\n百骸，九竅，六藏，賅而存焉，吾誰與為親？\n汝皆說之乎？\n其有私焉？\n如是皆有為臣妾乎？\n其臣妾不足以相治乎？\n其遞相為君臣乎？\n其有真君存焉？\n如求得其情與不得，無益損乎其真。\n一受其成形，不亡以待盡。\n與物相刃相靡，其行盡如馳，而莫之能止，不亦悲乎！\n終身役役而不見其成功，苶然疲役而不知其所歸，可不哀邪！\n人謂之不死，奚益！\n其形化，其心與之然，可不謂大哀乎？\n人之生也，固若是芒乎？\n其我獨芒，而人亦有不芒者乎？\n夫隨其成心而師之，誰獨且無師乎？\n奚必知代而心自取者有之？\n愚者與有焉。\n未成乎心而有是非，是今日適越而昔至也。\n是以無有為有。\n無有為有，雖有神禹，且不能知，吾獨且柰何哉！\n夫言非吹也，言者有言，其所言者特未定也。\n果有言邪？\n其未嘗有言邪？\n其以為異於鷇音，亦有辯乎，其無辯乎？\n道惡乎隱而有真偽？\n言惡乎隱而有是非？\n道惡乎往而不存？\n言惡乎存而不可？\n道隱於小成，言隱於榮華。\n故有儒墨之是非，以是其所非而非其所是。\n欲是其所非而非其所是，則莫若以明。\n物無非彼，物無非是。\n自彼則不見，自喻則知之。\n故曰彼出於是，是亦因彼。\n彼是方生之說也，雖然，方生方死，方死方生；方可方不可，方不可方可；因是因非，因非因是。\n是以聖人不由，而照之于天，亦因是也。\n是亦彼也，彼亦是也。\n彼亦一是非，此亦一是非。\n果且有彼是乎哉？\n果且無彼是乎哉？\n彼是莫得其偶，謂之道樞。\n樞始得其環中，以應無窮。\n是亦一無窮，非亦一無窮也。\n故曰莫若以明。\n以指喻指之非指，不若以非指喻指之非指也；以馬喻馬之非馬，不若以非馬喻馬之非馬也。\n天地一指也，萬物一馬也。\n道行之而成，物謂之而然。\n惡乎然？\n然於然。\n惡乎不然？\n不然於不然。\n物固有所然，物固有所可。\n無物不然，無物不可。\n可乎可，不可乎不可。\n不可乎不可，而可乎可。\n故為是舉莛與楹，厲與西施，恢恑憰怪，道通為一。\n其分也，成也；其成也，毀也。\n凡物無成與毀，復通為一。\n唯達者知通為一，為是不用而寓諸庸。\n庸也者，用也；用也者，通也；通也者，得也；適得而幾矣。\n因是已。\n已而不知其然，謂之道。\n勞神明為一而不知其同也，謂之朝三。\n何謂朝三？\n曰狙公賦芧，曰：「朝三而莫四。\n」眾狙皆怒。\n曰：「然則朝四而莫三。\n」眾狙皆悅。\n名實未虧而喜怒為用，亦因是也。\n是以聖人和之以是非而休乎天鈞，是之謂兩行。\n古之人，其知有所至矣。\n惡乎至？\n有以為未始有物者，至矣，盡矣，不可以加矣。\n其次以為有物矣，而未始有封也。\n其次以為有封焉，而未始有是非也。\n是非之彰也，道之所以虧也。\n道之所以虧，愛之所以成。\n果且有成與虧乎哉？\n果且無成與虧乎哉？\n有成與虧，故昭氏之鼓琴也；無成與虧，故昭氏之不鼓琴也。\n昭文之鼓琴也，師曠之枝策也，惠子之據梧也，三子之知幾乎，皆其盛者也，故載之末年。\n唯其好之也，以異於彼，其好之也，欲以明之。\n彼非所明而明之，故以堅白之昧終。\n而其子又以文之綸終，終身無成。\n若是而可謂成乎？\n雖我亦成也。\n若是而不可謂成乎？\n物與我無成也。\n是故滑疑之耀，聖人之所圖也。\n為是不用而寓諸庸，此之謂以明。\n今且有言於此，不知其與是類乎？\n其與是不類乎？\n類與不類，相與為類，則與彼無以異矣。\n雖然，請嘗言之。\n有始也者，有未始有始也者，有未始有夫未始有始也者。\n有有也者，有無也者，有未始有無也者，有未始有夫未始有無也者。\n俄而有無矣，而未知有無之果孰有孰無也。\n今我則已有謂矣，而未知吾所謂之其果有謂乎，其果無謂乎？\n天下莫大於秋豪之末，而大山為小；莫壽乎殤子，而彭祖為夭。\n天地與我並生，而萬物與我為一。\n既已為一矣，且得有言乎？\n既已謂之一矣，且得無言乎？\n一與言為二，二與一為三。\n自此以往，巧歷不能得，而況其凡乎！\n故自無適有以至於三，而況自有適有乎！\n無適焉，因是已。\n夫道未始有封，言未始有常，為是而有畛也，請言其畛：有左，有右，，有論，有議，有分，有辯，有競，有爭，此之謂八德。\n六合之外，聖人存而不論；六合之內，聖人論而不議。\n《春秋》經世，先王之志，聖人議而不辯。\n故分也者，有不分也；辯也者，有不辯也。\n曰：何也？\n聖人懷之，眾人辯之以相示也。\n故曰：辯也者，有不見也。\n夫大道不稱，大辯不言，大仁不仁，大廉不嗛，大勇不忮。\n道昭而不道，言辯而不及，仁常而不周，廉清而不信，勇忮而不成。\n五者园而幾向方矣，故知止其所不知，至矣。\n孰知不言之辯，不道之道？\n若有能知，此之謂天府。\n注焉而不滿，酌焉而不竭，而不知其所由來，此之謂葆光。\n故昔者堯問於舜曰：「我欲伐宗、膾、胥敖，南面而不釋然。\n其故何也？\n」舜曰：「夫三子者，猶存乎蓬艾之間。\n若不釋然，何哉？\n昔者十日並出，萬物皆照，而況德之進乎日者乎！\n」齧缺問乎王倪曰：「子知物之所同是乎？\n」曰：「吾惡乎知之！\n」「子知子之所不知邪？\n」曰：「吾惡乎知之！\n」「然則物無知邪？\n」曰：「吾惡乎知之！\n」雖然，嘗試言之。\n庸詎知吾所謂知之非不知邪？\n庸詎知吾所謂不知之非知邪？\n且吾嘗試問乎女：「民溼寢則腰疾偏死，鰌然乎哉？\n木處則惴慄恂懼，猨猴然乎哉？\n三者孰知正處？\n民食芻豢，麋鹿食薦，蝍且甘帶，鴟鴉耆鼠，四者孰知正味？\n猨猵狙以為雌，麋與鹿交，鰌與魚游。\n毛嬙、麗姬，人之所美也；魚見之深入，鳥見之高飛，麋鹿見之決驟。\n四者孰知天下之正色哉？\n自我觀之，仁義之端，是非之塗，樊然殽亂，吾惡能知其辯！\n齧缺曰：「子不知利害，則至人固不知利害乎？\n」王倪曰：「至人神矣！\n大澤焚而不能熱，河漢沍而不能寒，疾雷破山、風振海而不能驚。\n若然者，乘雲氣，騎日月，而遊乎四海之外。\n死生无變於己，而況利害之端乎！\n」瞿鵲子問乎長梧子曰：「吾聞諸夫子，聖人不從事於務，不就利，不違害，不喜求，不緣道；无謂有謂，有謂无謂，而遊乎塵垢之外。\n夫子以為孟浪之言，而我以為妙道之行也。\n吾子以為奚若？\n」長梧子曰：「是黃帝之所聽熒也，而丘也何足以知之！\n且女亦大早計，見卵而求時夜，見彈而求鴞炙。\n予嘗為女妄言之，女以妄聽之，奚？\n旁日月，挾宇宙？\n為其脗合，置其滑涽，以隸相尊。\n眾人役役，聖人愚芚，參萬歲而一成純。\n萬物盡然，而以是相蘊。\n予惡乎知說生之非惑邪！\n予惡乎知惡死之非弱喪而不知歸者邪！\n麗之姬，艾封人之子也。\n晉國之始得之也，涕泣沾襟；及其至於王所，與王同筐床，食芻豢，而後悔其泣也。\n予惡乎知夫死者不悔其始之蘄生乎！\n「夢飲酒者，旦而哭泣；夢哭泣者，旦而田獵。\n方其夢也，不知其夢也。\n夢之中又占其夢焉，覺而後知其夢也。\n且有大覺而後知此其大夢也，而愚者自以為覺，竊竊然知之。\n君乎，牧乎，固哉！\n丘也與女，皆夢也；予謂女夢，亦夢也。\n是其言也，其名為弔詭。\n萬世之後而一遇大聖，知其解者，是旦暮遇之也。\n「既使我與若辯矣，若勝我，我不若勝，若果是也，我果非也邪？\n我勝若，若不吾勝，我果是也，而果非也邪？\n其或是也，其或非也邪？\n其俱是也，其俱非也邪？\n我與若不能相知也，則人固受其黮闇。\n吾誰使正之？\n使同乎若者正之？\n既與若同矣，惡能正之！\n使同乎我者正之？\n既同乎我矣，惡能正之！\n使異乎我與若者正之？\n既異乎我與若矣，惡能正之！\n使同乎我與若者正之？\n既同乎我與若矣，惡能正之！\n然則我與若與人俱不能相知也，而待彼也邪？\n化聲之相待，若其不相待。\n和之以天倪，因之以曼衍，所以窮年也。\n何謂和之以天倪？\n曰：「是不是，然不然。\n是若果是也，則是之異乎不是也亦無辯；然若果然也，則然之異乎不然也亦無辯，所以窮年也。\n忘年忘義，振於無竟，故寓諸無竟。\n」罔兩問景曰：「曩子行，今子止；曩子坐，今子起；何其無特操與？\n」景曰：「吾有待而然者邪？\n吾所待又有待而然者邪？\n吾待蛇蚹蜩翼邪？\n惡識所以然！\n惡識所以不然！\n」昔者莊周夢為胡蝶，栩栩然胡蝶也，自喻適志與！\n不知周也。\n俄然覺，則蘧蘧然周也。\n不知周之夢為胡蝶與，胡蝶之夢為周與？\n周與胡蝶，則必有分矣。\n此之謂物化。\n\n### Chapter 3 養生主第三\n\n以有涯隨无涯，殆已；已而為知者，殆而已矣。\n為善无近名，為惡无近刑。\n緣督以為經，可以保身，可以全生，可以養親，可以盡年。\n庖丁為文惠君解牛，手之所觸，肩之所倚，足之所履，膝之所踦，砉然嚮然，奏刀騞然，莫不中音。\n合於《桑林》之舞，乃中《經首》之會。\n文惠君曰：「譆，善哉！\n技蓋至此乎？\n」庖丁釋刀對曰：「臣之所好者道也，進乎技矣。\n始臣之解牛之時，所見无非牛者。\n三年之後，未嘗見全牛也。\n方今之時，臣以神遇而不以目視，官知止而神欲行。\n依乎天理，批大郤，導大窾，因其固然。\n技經肯綮之未嘗，而況大軱乎！\n良庖歲更刀，割也；族庖月更刀，折也。\n今臣之刀十九年矣，所解數千牛矣，而刀刃若新發於硎。\n彼節者有間，而刀刃者无厚；以无厚入有間，恢恢乎其於遊刃必有餘地矣，是以十九年而刀刃若新發於硎。\n雖然，每至於族，吾見其難為，怵然為戒，視為止，行為遲。\n動刀甚微，謋然已解，如土委地。\n提刀而立，為之四顧，為之躊躇滿志，善刀而藏之。\n」文惠君曰：「善哉！\n吾聞庖丁之言，得養生焉。\n」公文軒見右師而驚曰：「是何人也？\n惡乎介也？\n天與，其人與？\n」曰：「天也，非人也。\n天之生是使獨也，人之貌有與也。\n以是知其天也，非人也。\n澤雉十步一啄，百步一飲，不蘄畜乎樊中。\n神雖王，不善也。\n」老聃死，秦失弔之，三號而出。\n弟子曰：「非夫子之友邪？\n」曰：「然。\n」「然則弔焉若此，可乎？\n」曰：「然。\n始也吾以為其人也，而今非也。\n向吾入而弔焉，有老者哭之，如哭其子；少者哭之，如哭其母。\n彼其所以會之，必有不蘄言而言，不蘄哭而哭者。\n是遁天倍情，忘其所受，古者謂之遁天之刑。\n適來，夫子時也；適去，夫子順也。\n安時而處順，哀樂不能入也，古者謂是帝之縣解。\n」指窮於為薪，火傳也，不知其盡也。\n\n### Chapter 4 人間世第四\n\n曰：「奚之？\n」曰：「將之衛。\n」曰：「奚為焉？\n」曰：「回聞衛君，其年壯，其行獨；輕用其國，而不見其過；輕用民死，死者以國量乎澤若蕉，民其无如矣。\n回嘗聞之夫子曰：『治國去之，亂國就之，醫門多疾。\n』願以所聞思其則，庶幾其國有瘳乎！\n」仲尼曰：「譆！\n若殆往而刑耳！\n夫道不欲雜，雜則多，多則擾，擾則憂，憂而不救。\n古之至人，先存諸己而後存諸人。\n所存於己者未定，何暇至於暴人之所行！\n且若亦知夫德之所蕩而知之所為出乎哉？\n德蕩乎名，知出乎爭。\n名也者，相軋也；知也者，爭之器也。\n二者凶器，非所以盡行也。\n且德厚信矼，未達人氣，名聞不爭，未達人心。\n而彊以仁義繩墨之言術暴人之前者，是以人惡有其美也，命之曰菑人。\n菑人者，人必反菑之，且苟為悅賢而惡不肖，惡用而求有以異？\n若唯无詔，王公必將乘人而鬭其捷。\n而目將熒之，而色將平之，口將營之，容將形之，心且成之。\n是以火救火，以水救水，名之曰益多。\n順始无窮，若殆以不信厚言，必死於暴人之前矣！\n且昔者桀殺關龍逢，紂殺王子比干，是皆脩其身以傴拊人之民，以下拂其上者也，故其君因其脩以擠之。\n是好名者也。\n昔者堯攻叢枝、胥敖，禹攻有扈，國為虛厲，身為刑戮，其用兵不止，其求實无已。\n是皆求名實者也，而獨不聞之乎？\n名實者，聖人之所不能勝也，而況若乎！\n雖然，若必有以也，嘗以語我來！\n」顏回曰：「端而虛，勉而一，則可乎？\n」曰：「惡！\n惡可！\n夫以陽為充孔揚，采色不定，常人之所不違，因案人之所感，以求容與其心。\n名之曰日漸之德不成，而況大德乎！\n將執而不化，外合而內不訾，其庸詎可乎！\n」「然則我內直而外曲，成而上比。\n內直者，與天為徒。\n與天為徒者，知天子之與己皆天之所子，而獨以己言蘄乎而人善之，蘄乎而人不善之邪？\n若然者，人謂之童子，是之謂與天為徒。\n外曲者，與人（之）為徒也。\n擎跽曲拳，人臣之禮也，人皆為之，吾敢不為邪！\n為人之所為者，人亦无疵焉，是之謂與人為徒。\n成而上比者，與古為徒。\n其言雖教，讁之實也。\n古之有也，非吾有也。\n若然者，雖直不為病，是之謂與古為徒。\n若是則可乎？\n」仲尼曰：「惡！\n惡可！\n大多政，法而不諜，雖固亦无罪。\n雖然，止是耳矣，夫胡可以及化！\n猶師心者也。\n」顏回曰：「吾无以進矣，敢問其方。\n」仲尼曰：「齋，吾將語若！\n有而為之，其易邪？\n易之者，暭天不宜。\n」顏回曰：「回之家貧，唯不飲酒不茹葷者數月矣。\n若此，則可以為齋乎？\n」曰：「是祭祀之齋，非心齋也。\n」回曰：「敢問心齋？\n」仲尼曰：「若一汝志，无聽之以耳而聽之以心，无聽之以心而聽之以氣！\n聽止於耳，心止於符。\n氣也者，虛而待物者也。\n唯道集虛。\n虛者，心齋也。\n」顏回曰：「回之未始得使，實自回也；得使之也，未始有回也；可謂虛乎？\n」夫子曰：「盡矣。\n吾語若！\n若能入遊其樊而无感其名，入則鳴，不入則止。\n无門无毒，一宅而寓於不得已，則幾矣。\n絕迹易，无行地難。\n為人使易以偽，為天使難以偽。\n聞以有翼飛者矣，未聞以无翼飛者也；聞以有知知者矣，未聞以无知知者也。\n瞻彼闋者，虛室生白，吉祥止矣。\n夫且不止，是之謂坐馳。\n夫徇耳目內通而外於心知，鬼神將來舍，而況人乎！\n是萬物之所化也，禹舜之所紐也，伏戲几蘧之所行終，而況散焉者乎！\n」葉公子高將使於齊，問於仲尼曰：「王使諸梁也甚重，齊之待使者，蓋將甚敬而不急。\n匹夫猶未可動也，而況諸侯乎！\n吾甚慄之。\n子嘗語諸梁也曰：『凡事若小若大，寡有不道以成懽。\n事若不成，則必有人道之患；事若成，則必有陰陽之患。\n若成若不成而後无患者，唯有德者能之。\n』吾食也執粗而不臧，爨无欲清之人。\n今吾朝受命而夕飲冰，我其內熱與！\n吾未至乎事之情，而既有陰陽之患矣；事若不成，必有人道之患。\n是兩也，為人臣者不足以任之，子其有以語我來！\n」仲尼曰：「天下有大戒二：其一，命也；其一，義也。\n子之愛親，命也，不可解於心；臣之事君，義也，无適而非君也，无所逃於天地之間。\n是之謂大戒。\n是以夫事其親者，不擇地而安之，孝之至也；夫事其君者，不擇事而安之，忠之盛也；自事其心者，哀樂不易施乎前，知其不可柰何而安之若命，德之至也。\n為人臣子者，固有所不得已。\n行事之情而忘其身，何暇至於悅生而惡死！\n夫子其行可矣！\n丘請復以所聞：凡交近則必相靡以信，遠則必忠之以言，言必或傳之。\n夫傳兩喜兩怒之言，天下之難者也。\n夫兩喜必多溢美之言，兩怒必多溢惡之言。\n凡溢之類妄，妄則其信之也莫，莫則傳言者殃。\n故《法言》曰：『傳其常情，无傳其溢言，則幾乎全。\n』且以巧鬭力者，始乎陽，常卒乎陰，泰至則多奇巧；以禮飲酒者，始乎治，常卒乎亂，泰至則多奇樂。\n凡事亦然。\n始乎諒，常卒乎鄙；其作始也簡，其將畢也必巨。\n〔夫言者，風波也；行者，實喪也。\n風波易以動，實喪易以危。\n故忿設无由，巧言偏辭。\n獸死不擇音，氣息茀然，於是並生心厲。\n剋核太至，則必有不肖之心應之，而不知其然也。\n苟為不知其然也，孰知其所終！\n故《法言》曰：『无遷令，无勸成，過度益也。\n』遷令勸成殆事，美成在久，惡成不及改，可不慎與！\n且夫乘物以遊心，託不得已以養中，至矣。\n何作為報也！\n莫若為致命。\n此其難者。\n」顏闔將傅衛靈公大子，而問於蘧伯玉曰：「有人於此，其德天殺。\n與之為无方，則危吾國；與之為有方，則危吾身。\n其知適足以知人之過，而不知其所以過。\n若然者，吾柰之何？\n」蘧伯玉曰：「善哉問乎！\n戒之，慎之，正女身哉！\n形莫若就，心莫若和。\n雖然，之二者有患。\n就不欲入，和不欲出。\n形就而入，且為顛為滅，為崩為蹶。\n心和而出，且為聲為名，為妖為孽。\n彼且為嬰兒，亦與之為嬰兒；彼且為无町畦，亦與之為无町畦；彼且為无崖，亦與之為无崖。\n達之，入於无疵。\n汝不知夫螳蜋乎？\n怒其臂以當車轍，不知其不勝任也，是其才之美者也。\n戒之，慎之！\n積伐而美者以犯之，幾矣。\n汝不知夫養虎者乎？\n不敢以生物與之，為其殺之之怒也；不敢以全物與之，為其決之之怒也；時其飢飽，達其怒心。\n虎之與人異類而媚養己者，順也；故其殺者，逆也。\n夫愛馬者，以筐盛矢，以蜄盛溺。\n適有蚊䖟僕緣，而拊之不時，則缺銜毀首碎胸。\n意有所至而愛有所亡，可不慎邪！\n」匠石之齊，至乎曲轅，見櫟社樹。\n其大蔽數千牛，絜之百圍，其高臨山十仞而後有枝，其可以為舟者旁十數。\n觀者如巿，匠伯不顧，遂行不輟。\n弟子厭觀之，走及匠石，曰：「自吾執斧斤以隨夫子，未嘗見材如此其美也。\n先生不肯視，行不輟，何邪？\n」曰：「已矣，勿言之矣！\n散木也，以為舟則沈，以為棺槨則速腐，以為器則速毀，以為門戶則液樠，以為柱則蠹。\n是不材之木也，无所可用，故能若是之壽。\n」匠石歸，櫟社見夢曰：「女將惡乎比予哉？\n若將比予於文木邪？\n夫柤梨橘柚，果蓏之屬，實熟則剝，剝則辱；大枝折，小枝泄。\n此以其能苦其生者也，故不終其天年而中道夭，自掊擊於世俗者也。\n物莫不若是。\n且予求无所可用久矣，幾死，乃今得之，為予大用。\n使予也而有用，且得有此大也邪？\n且也若與予也皆物也，柰何哉其相物也？\n而幾死之散人，又惡知散木！\n」匠石覺而診其夢。\n弟子曰：「趣取无用，則為社何邪？\n」曰：「密！\n若无言！\n彼亦直寄焉，以為不知己者詬厲也。\n不為社者，且幾有翦乎！\n且也彼其所保與眾異，而以義譽之，不亦遠乎！\n」南伯子綦遊乎商之丘，見大木焉有異，結駟千乘，將隱芘其所藾。\n子綦曰：「此何木也哉？\n此必有異材夫！\n」仰而視其細枝，則拳曲而不可以為棟梁；俯而視其大根，則軸解而不可以為棺槨；咶其葉，則口爛而為傷；嗅之，則使人狂酲，三日而不已。\n子綦曰：「此果不材之木也，以至於此其大也。\n嗟乎神人，以此不材！\n」宋有荊氏者，宜楸柏桑。\n其拱把而上者，求狙猴之杙者斬之；三圍四圍，求高名之麗者斬之；七圍八圍，貴人富商之家求禪傍者斬之。\n故未終其天年，而中道之夭於斧斤，此材之患也。\n故解之以牛之白顙者與豚之亢鼻者，與人有痔病者不可以適河。\n此皆巫祝以知之矣，所以為不祥也。\n此乃神人之所以為大祥也。\n支離䟽者，頤隱於齊，肩高於頂，會撮指天，五管在上，兩髀為脅。\n挫鍼治繲，足以餬口；鼓筴播精，足以食十人。\n上徵武士，則支離攘臂於其間；上有大役，則支離以有常疾不受功；上與病者粟，則受三鍾與十束薪。\n夫支離其形者，猶足以養其身，終其天年，又況支離其德者乎！\n孔子適楚，楚狂接輿遊其門曰：「鳳兮鳳兮，何如德之衰也！\n來世不可待，往世不可追也。\n天下有道，聖人成焉；天下无道，聖人生焉。\n方今之時，僅免刑焉。\n福輕乎羽，莫之知載；禍重乎地，莫之知避。\n已乎已乎，臨人以德！\n殆乎殆乎，畫地而趨！\n迷陽迷陽，无傷吾行！\n郤曲郤曲，无傷吾足！\n」山木自寇也，膏火自煎也。\n桂可食，故伐之；漆可用，故割之。\n人皆知有用之用，而莫知无用之用也。\n\n### Chapter 5 德充符第五\n\n常季問於仲尼曰：「王駘，兀者也，從之遊者與夫子中分魯。\n立不教，坐不議，虛而往，實而歸。\n固有不言之教，无形而心成者邪？\n是何人也？\n」仲尼曰：「夫子，聖人也，丘也直後而未往耳。\n丘將以為師，而況不若丘者乎！\n奚假魯國！\n丘將引天下而與從之。\n」常季曰：「彼兀者也，而王先生，其與庸亦遠矣。\n若然者，其用心也獨若之何？\n」仲尼曰：「死生亦大矣，而不得與之變；雖天地覆墜，亦將不與之遺。\n審乎无假而不與物遷，命物之化，而守其宗也。\n」常季曰：「何謂也？\n」仲尼曰：「自其異者視之，肝膽楚越也；自其同者視之，萬物皆一也。\n夫若然者，且不知耳目之所宜，而遊心乎德之和；物視其所一而不見其所喪，視喪其足猶遺土也。\n」常季曰：「彼為己，以其知得其心，以其心得其常心，物何為最之哉？\n」仲尼曰：「人莫鑑於流水而鑑於止水，唯止能止眾止。\n受命於地，唯松柏獨也在冬夏青青；受命於天，唯舜獨也正，幸能正生，以正眾生。\n夫保始之徵，不懼之實。\n勇士一人，雄入於九軍。\n將求名而能自要者，而猶若是，而況官天地，府萬物，直寓六骸，象耳目，一知之所知，而心未嘗死者乎！\n彼且擇日而登假，人則從是也。\n彼且何肯以物為事乎！\n」申徒嘉，兀者也，而與鄭子產同師於伯昏无人。\n子產謂申徒嘉曰：「我先出則子止，子先出則我止。\n」其明日，又與合堂同席而坐。\n子產謂申徒嘉曰：「我先出則子止，子先出則我止。\n今我將出，子可以止乎，其未邪？\n且子見執政而不違，子齊執政乎？\n」申徒嘉曰：「先生之門，固有執政焉如此哉？\n子而說子之執政而後人者也？\n聞之曰：『鑑明則塵垢不止，止則不明也。\n久與賢人處則无過。\n』今子之所取大者，先生也，而猶出言若是，不亦過乎！\n」子產曰：「子既若是矣，猶與堯爭善，計子之德，足以自反邪？\n」申徒嘉曰：「自狀其過以不當亡者眾，不狀其過以不當存者寡。\n知不可柰何而安之若命，唯有德者能之。\n遊於羿之彀中。\n中央者，中地也；然而不中者，命也。\n人以其全足笑吾不全足者眾矣，我怫然而怒；而適先生之所，則廢然而反。\n不知先生之洗我以善邪？\n吾與夫子遊十九年矣，而未嘗知吾兀者也。\n今子與我遊於形骸之內，而子索我於形骸之外，不亦過乎！\n」子產蹴然改容更貌曰：「子无乃稱！\n」魯有兀者叔山无趾，踵見仲尼。\n仲尼曰：「子不謹，前既犯患若是矣。\n雖今來，何及矣！\n」无趾曰：「吾唯不知務而輕用吾身，吾是以亡足。\n今吾來也，猶有尊足者存，吾是以務全之也。\n夫天无不覆，地无不載，吾以夫子為天地，安知夫子之猶若是也！\n」孔子曰：「丘則陋矣。\n夫子胡不入乎，請講以所聞！\n」无趾出。\n孔子曰：「弟子勉之！\n夫无趾，兀者也，猶務學以復補前行之惡，而況全德之人乎！\n」无趾語老聃曰：「孔丘之於至人，其未邪？\n彼何賓賓以學子為？\n彼且蘄以諔詭幻怪之名聞，不知至人之以是為己桎梏邪？\n」老聃曰：「胡不直使彼以死生為一條，以可不可為一貫者，解其桎梏，其可乎？\n」无趾曰：「天刑之，安可解！\n」魯哀公問於仲尼曰：「衛有惡人焉，曰哀駘它。\n丈夫與之處者，思而不能去也。\n婦人見之，請於父母曰『與為人妻寧為夫子妾』者，十數而未止也。\n未嘗有聞其唱者也，常和人而已矣。\n无君人之位以濟乎人之死，无聚祿以望人之腹。\n又以惡駭天下，和而不唱，知不出乎四域，且而雌雄合乎前。\n是必有異乎人者也。\n寡人召而觀之，果以惡駭天下。\n與寡人處，不至以月數，而寡人有意乎其為人也；不至乎期年，而寡人信之。\n國无宰，寡人傳國焉。\n悶然而後應，氾若而辭。\n寡人醜乎，卒授之國。\n无幾何也，去寡人而行，寡人卹焉，若有亡也，若无與樂是國也。\n是何人者也？\n」仲尼曰：「丘也嘗使於楚矣，適見㹠子食於其死母者，少焉眴若皆棄之而走。\n不見已焉爾，不得類焉爾。\n所愛其母者，非愛其形也，愛使其形者也。\n戰而死者，其人之葬也不以翣資；刖者之屨，无為愛之；皆无其本矣。\n為天子之諸御，不爪翦，不穿耳；取妻者止於外，不得復使。\n形全猶足以為爾，而況全德之人乎！\n今哀駘它未言而信，无功而親，使人授己國，唯恐其不受也，是必才全而德不形者也。\n」哀公曰：「何謂才全？\n」仲尼曰：「死生存亡，窮達貧富，賢與不肖毀譽，飢渴寒暑，是事之變，命之行也；日夜相代乎前，而知不能規乎其始者也。\n故不足以滑和，不可入於靈府。\n使之和豫，通而不失於兌；使日夜无郤而與物為春，是接而生時乎心者也。\n是之謂才全。\n」「何謂德不形？\n」曰：「平者，水停之盛也。\n其可以為法也，內保之而外不蕩也。\n德者，成和之脩也。\n德不形者，物不能離也。\n」哀公異日以告閔子曰：「始也吾以南面而君天下，執民之紀而憂其死，吾自以為至通矣。\n今吾聞至人之言，恐吾无其實，輕用吾身而亡吾國。\n吾與孔丘，非君臣也，德友而已矣。\n」闉跂支離无脤說衛靈公，靈公說之；而視全人，其脰肩肩。\n甕盎大癭說齊桓公，桓公說之；而視全人，其脰肩肩。\n故德有所長而形有所忘，人不忘其所忘而忘其所不忘，此謂誠忘。\n故聖人有所遊，而知為孽，約為膠，德為接，工為商。\n聖人不謀，惡用知？\n不斲，惡用膠？\n无喪，惡用德？\n不貨，惡用商？\n四者，天鬻也。\n天鬻也者，天食也。\n既受食於天，又惡用人！\n有人之形，无人之情。\n有人之形，故群於人，无人之情，故是非不得於身。\n眇乎小哉，所以屬於人也！\n謷乎大哉，獨成其天！\n惠子謂莊子曰：「人故无情乎？\n」莊子曰：「然。\n」惠子曰：「人而无情，何以謂之人？\n」莊子曰：「道與之貌，天與之形，惡得不謂之人？\n」惠子曰：「既謂之人，惡得无情？\n」莊子曰：「是非吾所謂情也。\n吾所謂无情者，言人之不以好惡內傷其身，常因自然而不益生也。\n」惠子曰：「不益生，何以有其身？\n」莊子曰：「道與之貌，天與之形，无以好惡內傷其身。\n今子外乎子之神，勞乎子之精，倚樹而吟，據槁梧而瞑。\n天選子之形，子以堅白鳴！\n\n### Chapter 6 大宗師第六\n\n知天之所為者，天而生也；知人之所為者，以其知之所知以養其知之所不知，終其天年而不中道夭者，是知之盛也。\n雖然，有患。\n夫知有所待而後當，其所待者特未定也。\n庸詎知吾所謂天之非人乎？\n所謂人之非天乎？\n且有真人而後有真知。\n何謂真人？\n古之真人，不逆寡，不雄成，不謨士。\n若然者，過而弗悔，當而不自得也。\n若然者，登高不慄，入水不濡，入火不熱。\n是知之能登假於道也若此。\n古之真人，其寢不夢，其覺无憂，其食不甘，其息深深。\n真人之息以踵，眾人之息以喉。\n屈服者，其嗌言若哇。\n其耆欲深者，其天機淺。\n古之真人，不知說生，不知惡死；其出不訢，其入不距；翛然而往，翛然而來而已矣。\n不志其所始，不求其所終；受而喜之，忘而復之，是之謂不以心捐道，不以人助天。\n是之謂真人。\n若然者，其心忘，其容寂，其顙頯；淒然似秋，煖然似春，喜怒通四時，與物有宜而莫知其極。\n故聖人之用兵也，亡國而不失人心；利澤施乎萬世，不為愛人。\n故樂通物，非聖人也；有親，非仁也；天時，非賢也；利害不通，非君子也；徇名失己，非士也；亡身不真，非役人也。\n若狐不偕、務光、伯夷、叔齊、箕子、胥餘、紀他、申徒狄，是役人之役，適人之適，而不自適其適者也。\n古之真人，其狀義而不朋，若不足而不承；與乎其觚而不堅也，張乎其虛而不華也；邴邴乎其似喜乎！\n崔乎其不得已乎！\n滀乎進我色也，與乎止我德也；厲乎其似世乎！\n謷乎其未可制也；連乎其似好閉也，悗乎忘其言也。\n以刑為體，以禮為翼，以知為時，以德為循。\n以刑為體者，綽乎其殺也；以禮為翼者，所以行於世也；以知為時者，不得已於事也；以德為循者，言其與有足者至於丘也；而人真以為勤行者也。\n故其好之也一，其弗好之也一。\n其一也一，其不一也一。\n其一與天為徒，其不一與人為徒。\n天與人不相勝也，是之謂真人。\n死生，命也，其有夜旦之常，天也。\n人之有所不得與，皆物之情也。\n彼特以天為父而身猶愛之，而況其卓乎！\n人特以有君為愈乎己，而身猶死之，而況其真乎！\n泉涸，魚相與處於陸，相呴以濕，相濡以沫，不如相忘於江湖。\n與其譽堯而非桀也，不如兩忘而化其道。\n夫大塊載我以形，勞我以生，佚我以老，息我以死。\n故善吾生者，乃所以善吾死也。\n夫藏舟於壑，藏山於澤，謂之固矣。\n然而夜半有力者負之而走，昧者不知也。\n藏小大有宜，猶有所遯。\n若夫藏天下於天下而不得所遯，是恆物之大情也。\n特犯人之形而猶喜之。\n若人之形者，萬化而未始有極也，其為樂可勝計邪！\n故聖人將遊於物之所不得遯而皆存。\n善夭善老，善始善終，人猶效之，又況萬物之所係，而一化之所待乎！\n夫道，有情有信，无為无形；可傳而不可受，可得而不可見；自本自根，未有天地，自古以固存；神鬼神帝，生天生地；在太極之先而不為高，在六極之下而不為深，先天地生而不為久，長於上古而不為老。\n狶韋氏得之，以挈天地；伏戲得之，以襲氣母；維斗得之，終古不忒；日月得之，終古不息；堪坏得之，以襲崑崙；馮夷得之，以遊大川；肩吾得之，以處大山；黃帝得之，以登雲天；顓頊得之，以處玄宮；禺強得之，立乎北極；西王母得之，坐乎少廣，莫知其始，莫知其終；彭祖得之，上及有虞，下及五伯；傅說得之，以相武丁，奄有天下，乘東維，騎箕尾，而比於列星。\n南伯子葵問乎女偊曰：「子之年長矣，而色若孺子，何也？\n」曰：「吾聞道矣。\n」南伯子葵曰：「道可得學邪？\n」曰：「惡！\n惡可！\n子非其人也。\n夫卜梁倚有聖人之才而无聖人之道，我有聖人之道而无聖人之才，吾欲以教之，庶幾其果為聖人乎！\n不然，以聖人之道告聖人之才，亦易矣。\n吾猶守而告之，參日而後能外天下；已外天下矣，吾又守之，七日而後能外物；已外物矣，吾又守之，九日而後能外生；已外生矣，而後能朝徹；朝徹，而後能見獨；見獨，而後能无古今；无古今，而後能入於不死不生。\n殺生者不死，生生者不生。\n其為物，无不將也，无不迎也；无不毀也，无不成也。\n其名為攖寧。\n攖寧也者，攖而後成者也。\n」南伯子葵曰：「子獨惡乎聞之？\n」曰：「聞諸副墨之子，副墨之子聞諸洛誦之孫，洛誦之孫聞之瞻明，瞻明聞之聶許，聶許聞之需役，需役聞之於謳，於謳聞之玄冥，玄冥聞之參寥，參寥聞之疑始。\n」子祀、子輿、子犁、子來四人相與語曰：「孰能以无為首，以生為脊，以死為尻，孰知死生存亡之一體者，吾與之友矣。\n」四人相視而笑，莫逆於心，遂相與為友。\n俄而子輿有病，子祀往問之。\n曰：「偉哉夫造物者，將以予為此拘拘也！\n曲僂發背，上有五管，頤隱於齊，肩高於頂，句贅指天。\n」陰陽之氣有沴，其心間而无事，跰𨇤而鑑于井，曰：「嗟乎！\n夫造物者又將以予為此拘拘也！\n」子祀曰：「女惡之乎？\n」曰：「亡，予何惡！\n浸假而化予之左臂以為雞，予因以求時夜；浸假而化予之右臂以為彈，予因以求鴞炙；浸假而化予之尻以為輪，以神為馬，予因而乘之，豈更駕哉！\n且夫得者，時也；失者，順也；安時而處順，哀樂不能入也。\n此古之所謂縣解也，而不能自解者，物有結之。\n且夫物不勝天久矣，吾又何惡焉！\n」俄而子來有病，喘喘然將死，其妻子環而泣之，犁往問之，曰：「叱！\n避！\n无怛化！\n」倚其戶與之語曰：「偉哉造化！\n又將奚以汝為，將奚以汝適？\n以汝為鼠肝乎？\n以汝為蟲臂乎？\n」子來曰：「父母於子，東西南北，唯命之從。\n陰陽於人，不翅於父母；彼近吾死而我不聽，我則悍矣，彼何罪焉！\n夫大塊載我以形，勞我以生，佚我以老，息我以死。\n故善吾生者，乃所以善吾死也。\n今大冶鑄金，金踊躍曰『我且必為鏌鋣』，大冶必以為不祥之金。\n今一犯人之形，而曰『人耳人耳』，夫造化者必以為不祥之人。\n今一以天地為大鑪，以造化為大冶，惡乎往而不可哉！\n」成然寐，蘧然覺。\n子桑戶、孟子反、子琴張三人相與友，曰：「孰能相與於无相與，相為於无相為？\n孰能登天遊霧，撓挑无極；相忘以生，无所終窮？\n」三人相視而笑，莫逆於心，遂相與友。\n莫然有間，而子桑戶死，未葬。\n孔子聞之，使子貢往待事焉。\n或編曲，或鼓琴，相和而歌曰：「嗟來桑戶乎！\n嗟來桑戶乎！\n而已反其真，而我猶為人猗！\n」子貢趨而進曰：「敢問臨尸而歌，禮乎？\n」二人相視而笑曰：「是惡知禮意！\n」子貢反，以告孔子，曰：「彼何人者邪？\n脩行无有，而外其形骸，臨尸而歌，顏色不變，无以命之。\n彼何人者邪？\n」孔子曰：「彼，遊方之外者也；而丘，遊方之內者也。\n外內不相及，而丘使女往弔之，丘則陋矣。\n彼方且與造物者為人，而遊乎天地之一氣。\n彼以生為附贅縣疣，以死為決𤴯潰癰，夫若然者，又惡知死生先後之所在！\n假於異物，託於同體；忘其肝膽，遺其耳目；反覆終始，不知端倪；芒然彷徨乎塵垢之外，逍遙乎无為之業。\n彼又惡能憒憒然為世俗之禮，以觀眾人之耳目哉！\n」子貢曰：「然則夫子何方之依？\n」曰：「丘，天之戮民也。\n雖然，吾與汝共之。\n」子貢曰：「敢問其方。\n」孔子曰：「魚相造乎水，人相造乎道。\n相造乎水者，穿池而養給；相造乎道者，无事而生定。\n故曰，魚相忘乎江湖，人相忘乎道術。\n」子貢曰：「敢問畸人。\n」曰：「畸人者，畸於人而侔於天。\n故曰：天之小人，人之君子；人之君子，天之小人也。\n」顏回問仲尼曰：「孟孫才，其母死，哭泣无涕，中心不慼，居喪不哀。\n无是三者，以善喪蓋魯國。\n固有无其實而得其名者乎？\n回壹怪之。\n」仲尼曰：「夫孟孫氏盡之矣，進於知矣。\n唯簡之而不得，夫已有所簡矣。\n孟孫氏不知所以生，不知所以死；不知就先，不知就後；若化為物，以待其所不知之化已乎！\n且方將化，惡知不化哉？\n方將不化，惡知已化哉？\n吾特與汝，其夢未始覺者邪！\n且彼有駭形而无損心，有旦宅而无情死。\n孟孫氏特覺，人哭亦哭，是自其所以乃。\n且也相與吾之耳矣，庸詎知吾所謂吾之乎？\n且汝夢為鳥而厲乎天，夢為魚而沒於淵。\n不識今之言者，其覺者乎，其夢者乎？\n造適不及笑，獻笑不及排，安排而去化，乃入於寥天一。\n」意而子見許由。\n許由曰：「堯何以資汝？\n」意而子曰：「堯謂我：『汝必躬服仁義而明言是非。\n』」許由曰：「而奚來為軹？\n夫堯既已黥汝以仁義，而劓汝以是非矣，汝將何以遊夫遙蕩恣睢轉徙之塗乎？\n」意而子曰：「雖然，吾願遊於其藩。\n」許由曰：「不然。\n夫盲者无以與乎眉目顏色之好，瞽者无以與乎青黃黼黻之觀。\n」意而子曰：「夫无莊之失其美，據梁之失其力，黃帝之亡其知，皆在鑪捶之間耳。\n庸詎知夫造物者之不息我黥而補我劓，使我乘成以隨先生邪？\n」許由曰：「噫！\n未可知也。\n我為汝言其大略。\n吾師乎！\n吾師乎！\n𩐋萬物而不為義，澤及萬世而不為仁，長於上古而不為老，覆載天地刻彫眾形而不為巧，此所遊已。\n」顏回曰：「回益矣。\n」仲尼曰：「何謂也？\n」曰：「回忘禮樂矣。\n」曰：「可矣，猶未也。\n」它日，復見，曰：「回益矣。\n」曰：「何謂也？\n」曰：「回忘仁義矣。\n」曰：「可矣，猶未也。\n」它日，復見，曰：「回益矣。\n」曰：「何謂也？\n」曰：「回坐忘矣。\n」仲尼蹴然曰：「何謂坐忘？\n」顏回曰：「墮枝體，黜聰明，離形去知，同於大通，此謂坐忘。\n」仲尼曰：「同則无好也，化則无常也。\n而果其賢乎！\n丘也請從而後也。\n」子輿與子桑友，而霖雨十日。\n子輿曰：「子桑殆病矣！\n」裹飯而往食之。\n至子桑之門，則若歌若哭，鼓琴曰：「父邪！\n母邪！\n天乎！\n人乎！\n」有不任其聲而趨舉其詩焉。\n子輿入，曰：「子之歌詩，何故若是？\n」曰：「吾思夫使我至此極者而弗得也。\n父母豈欲吾貧哉？\n天无私覆，地无私載，天地豈私貧我哉？\n求其為之者而不得也。\n然而至此極者，命也夫！\n\n### Chapter 7 應帝王第七\n\n齧缺因躍而大喜，行以告蒲衣子。\n蒲衣子曰：「而乃今知之乎？\n有虞氏不及泰氏。\n有虞氏，其猶藏仁以要人；亦得人矣，而未始出於非人。\n泰氏，其臥徐徐，其覺于于；一以己為馬，一以己為牛；其知情信，其德甚真，而未始入於非人。\n」肩吾見狂接輿。\n狂接輿曰：「日中始何以語女？\n」肩吾曰：「告我君人者以己出經式義度，人孰敢不聽而化諸！\n」接輿曰：「是欺德也；其於治天下也，猶涉海鑿河而使蚊負山也。\n夫聖人之治也，治外乎？\n正而後行，確乎能其事者而已矣。\n且鳥高飛以避矰弋之害，鼷鼠深穴乎神丘之下以避熏鑿之患，而曾二蟲之无知！\n」天根遊於殷陽，至蓼水之上，適遭无名人而問焉，曰：「請問為天下。\n」无名人曰：「去！\n汝鄙人也，何問之不豫也！\n予方將與造物者為人，厭，則又乘夫莽眇之鳥，以出六極之外，而遊无何有之鄉，以處壙埌之野。\n汝又何暇以治天下感予之心為？\n」又復問。\n无名人曰：「汝遊心於淡，合氣於漠，順物自然而无容私焉，而天下治矣。\n」陽子居見老聃，曰：「有人於此，嚮疾彊梁，物徹䟽明，學道不勌。\n如是者，可比明王乎？\n」老聃曰：「是於聖人也，胥易技係，勞形怵心者也。\n且也虎豹之文來田，猨狙之便執斄之狗來藉。\n如是者，可比明王乎？\n」陽子居蹴然曰：「敢問明王之治。\n」老聃曰：「明王之治，功蓋天下而似不自己，化貸萬物而民弗恃；有莫舉名，使物自喜；立乎不測，而遊於无有者也。\n」鄭有神巫曰季咸，知人之死生存亡，禍福壽夭，期以歲月旬日，若神。\n鄭人見之，皆棄而走。\n列子見之而心醉，歸，以告壺子，曰：「始吾以夫子之道為至矣，則又有至焉者矣。\n」壺子曰：「吾與汝既其文，未既其實，而固得道與？\n眾雌而无雄，而又奚卵焉！\n而以道與世亢，必信，夫故使人得而相汝。\n嘗試與來，以予示之。\n」明日，列子與之見壺子。\n出而謂列子曰：「嘻！\n子之先生死矣！\n弗活矣！\n不以旬數矣！\n吾見怪焉，見濕灰焉。\n」列子入，泣涕沾襟以告壺子。\n壺子曰：「鄉吾示之以地文，萌乎不震不止。\n是殆見吾杜德機也。\n嘗又與來。\n」明日，又與之見壺子。\n出而謂列子曰：「幸矣子之先生遇我也！\n有瘳矣，全然有生矣！\n吾見其杜權矣。\n」列子入，以告壺子。\n壺子曰：「鄉吾示之以天壤，名實不入，而機發於踵。\n是殆見吾善者機也。\n嘗又與來。\n」明日，又與之見壺子。\n出而謂列子曰：「子之先生不齊，吾无得而相焉。\n試齊，且復相之。\n」列子入，以告壺子。\n壺子曰：「鄉吾示之以太沖莫勝。\n是殆見吾衡氣機也。\n鯢桓之審為淵，止水之審為淵，流水之審為淵。\n淵有九名，此處三焉。\n嘗又與來。\n」明日，又與之見壺子。\n立未定，自失而走。\n壺子曰：「追之！\n」列子追之不及。\n反，以報壺子曰：「已滅矣，已失矣，吾弗及已。\n」壺子曰：「曏吾示之以未始出吾宗。\n吾與之虛而委蛇，不知其誰何，因以為弟靡，因以為波流，故逃也。\n」然後列子自以為未始學而歸，三年不出。\n為其妻爨，食豕如食人。\n於事无與親，雕琢復朴，塊然獨以其形立。\n紛而封戎，一以是終。\n无為名尸，无為謀府；无為事任，无為知主。\n體盡无窮，而遊无眹；盡其所受乎天，而无見得，亦虛而已。\n至人之用心若鏡，不將不迎，應而不藏，故能勝物而不傷。\n南海之帝為儵，北海之帝為忽，中央之帝為渾沌。\n儵與忽時相與遇於渾沌之地，渾沌待之甚善。\n儵與忽謀報渾沌之德，曰：「人皆有七竅以視聽食息，此獨无有，嘗試鑿之。\n」日鑿一竅，七日而渾沌死。","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/zhuangzi-inner-chapters/original.txt"},"translations":[{"id":"trn_zhuangzi_inner_chapters_mouseia","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"curated","note":"Mouseia's complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the classical Chinese of the seven inner chapters for fidelity, philosophical precision, wild beauty, humor, and structure.","text":"### Chapter 1 逍遙遊第一\n\nIn the darkness of the North Sea there is a fish; its name is the Kun. No one knows how many thousand li it is long. It changes and becomes a bird; its name is the Peng. The Peng's back — no one knows how many thousand li it stretches. Roused, it flies, its wings like clouds hanging from the sky. When the sea moves, this bird goes toward the darkness of the South. The South Sea is the Pool of Heaven.\n\nThe Qi Xie, a book of marvels, records it: \"When the Peng moves toward the South Sea, the water is struck for three thousand li; it beats upward on the whirlwind ninety thousand li, and goes off on the six months' breath.\" The wild horses of the air, the motes of dust — living things breathing their breath to one another. Is the blue of the sky its true color, or is it only distance that has no end? Looking down from above, it must be just the same.\n\nIf water is not piled deep enough, it lacks the strength to carry a great boat. Pour a cup of water into a hollow and a mustard seed will float there like a vessel; set the cup there and it sticks — the water is shallow and the boat is great. So if wind is not piled deep enough, it lacks the strength to bear great wings. Therefore beneath ninety thousand li the wind must gather underneath, and only then can the great bird lean on it; only then, back to the blue, face to the southern darkness, can it set out for the south.\n\nThe cicada and the little dove laugh at it: \"We rise and dart to the elm or the sapanwood; sometimes we never make it, and drop back to the ground. What use is going up ninety thousand li toward the south?\" If you go to the near green of the fields, three meals will serve and you come home with your belly full. If you go a hundred li, you pound grain through the night. If you go a thousand li, you gather provisions in three months. What do these two creatures know? Little knowledge cannot compass great knowledge; the short-lived cannot compass the long-lived. How do we know? The mushroom of the morning has no knowledge of the dark of the month and its full. The summer cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn: such is their little span. In Chu there grew a mingling tree whose spring and autumn were each five hundred years; in high antiquity grew the great chun, whose spring and autumn were each eight thousand years. And Pengzu is the one man famous for long life — all men would match him. Is it not sad that they should?\n\nThe questions of Tang also speak of it. In the reeds of the far north there is a dark sea, the Pool of Heaven. There is a fish, broad as several thousand li; no one knows its measure. Its name is the Kun. There is a bird, the Peng, with a back like Mount Tai, wings like clouds hung from heaven. It beats on the whirlwind ninety thousand li, above the clouds and the sky, and levels off toward the south, going to the South Sea. The quail of the marsh laughs at it: \"Where is it going? I leap up and come down, darting among the wormwood and the weeds; that is the utmost of flying. Where can it be going?\" — This is the difference between the small and the great.\n\nSo a man whose knowledge fits one office, whose conduct suits one district, whose virtue pleases one ruler and wins one country, looks at himself the way the quail does. Song Rongzi would still have laughed at him. Rongzi — the whole world praised him and he was not stirred; the whole world condemned him and he was not dismayed. He fixed the line between inner and outer and discerned the border of honor and disgrace. He was like that. Yet even he had not planted anything in the world.\n\nStill there was a man who rode the true courses of heaven and earth, breathing the six airs of the vital field, to wander the measureless. What would he lean on? Therefore it is said: the perfect man has no self; the spirit-man has no deed; the sage has no name.\n\nYao wished to cede the world to Xu You. \"The sun and moon are shining, yet the small torch will not go out — is its light not hard to sustain? The timely rains are falling, yet one keeps on watering — is that not a wasted labor? Sir, take your place, and the world will be well governed. I stand before it as its shadow. I ask you to have the world.\" Xu You answered: \"You govern the world, and the world is already governed. If I took your place, would I be doing it for the name? Name is the guest of what is real — would I play the guest? The wren nests in the deep wood and takes no more than one branch; the mole drinks from the river and takes no more than a bellyful. Go home, my lord, and forget it. The world is nothing to me. The priest of the sacrifices does not run to the kitchen on behalf of the chicken and the pig.\"\n\nJian Wu asked Lian Shu: \"I heard Jie Yu speak wild things, words without ground, going on and on without arriving. I was bewildered. Is it like the sky's great dark? Or is it a tie that has no knot?\" Lian Shu said: \"How do you know what he means? There was a man on the hill of Gushe: spirit-flesh dwells there, white skin and hair like a maiden. It does not eat the five grains; it draws in the wind and drinks the dew. It rides the cloud-vapor, drives the team of flying dragons, and wanders beyond the four seas. When its spirit gathers, things are kept from sickness and the grain grows ripe. I think that story is mad, and so I do not believe it.\" Jian Wu said: \"So it is. A leper could not speak of beauty.\"\n\nStill, there was a great tree on the side of a river of Song, the hun-chun; its roots were knotted for ropes yet no one could cut them straight; its trunk burst into burrs for boards yet no one could square them. If it stood by no road, no carpenter would look at it. Now your words — they are big and useless, and all men turn from them together. Wu said: \"Why do you not plant it in the village of nothing at all, in the broad wild of the border, and wander idly beside it, sleep free beneath it? It will not fall to the axe and will not come to harm. Uselessness — nothing can do it harm.\"\n\nHuizi said to Zhuangzi: \"The king of Wei gave me seeds of a great gourd. I planted them, and they grew to hold five bushels. Filled with water, they were too heavy to lift; cut in ladles, they were too flat and broad to hold anything. Not that the vessels are not great — but I saw no use in them, and broke them up.\" Zhuangzi said: \"So you are clumsy at using what is great. There was a man of Song who had a secret for a medicine that kept hands from chapping; his family were silk-washers through the winter. A traveler heard of it and asked to buy the secret for a hundred pieces of gold. The family gathered and said: 'We have washed silk for generations and never made more than a few pieces. Now in one morning we can sell the art for a hundred. Let us give it to him.' The traveler got it and spoke of it to the king of Wu. The Yue came against them; the king made him general of a fleet in winter, and he fought a water battle and dealt the Yue a great ruin; land was cut out for him in reward. The power to keep hands from chapping was one; one man had a fief by it, and another never got past washing silk — because the use to which they put it differed. Now you had a gourd holding five bushels: why did you not make of it a great float to ride the rivers and lakes, instead of fretting that it was too flat to hold anything? Your heart, sir, must be full of weeds.\"\n\nHuizi said to Zhuangzi: \"I have a great tree men call the chun. Its trunk bursts with knotted burrs that will not take a line; its small branches are twisted for hooks and squares. It stands by the road, and no carpenter looks twice. Now your words, sir — they are big and useless, and all men turn from them together.\" Zhuangzi said: \"Have you not seen the wildcat? It crouches low for the mouse; east and west it leaps, high and low; and the snare takes it, and it dies in a net. Then the yak — great as a cloud hanging from the sky, big enough, and unable to catch a mouse. Now you have a great tree and fret that it is useless. Why not plant it in the village of nothing at all, in the broad wild of the border, and wander idly beside it, sleep free beneath it? The axe will not reach it; nothing will shorten its days. If it cannot be put to use, what will ever wound it?\"\n\n### Chapter 2 齊物論第二\n\nZiqi of Nanguo sat leaning on his armrest, gazing at the sky and breathing slow, as if he had lost his companion. Yan Cheng Ziyou stood waiting before him. \"How is this?\" he asked. \"The body withered like dry wood, the mind like dead ashes! The man leaning on the armrest today is not the man who leaned on it before.\" Ziqi said: \"Yan, you have asked well. Today I lost myself. Do you understand? You have heard the piping of men, but not the piping of earth; heard the piping of earth, but not the piping of Heaven. There is a sound.\"\n\nZiyou said: \"May I hear it?\" Ziqi said: \"The great clod breathes out breath; its name is wind. It is not yet up; but when it is, the ten thousand hollows cry out. Have you not heard the long gale? In the great forest a hundred cubits square: the holes — like nostrils, like mouths, like ears, like sockets, like cups, like mortars, like pools, like wallowings; they roar like whistles, hiss like arrows, shout, snort, swallow, wail, moan, moan again. The front notes sing yu-yu; the back notes answer in the wind. A light wind: small harmony. A great wind: great harmony. And when the fierce gale has passed, the hollows empty out into silence. Have you not seen the trembling, the swaying?\" Ziyou said: \"So the piping of earth is these hollows; the piping of man is rows of bamboo. May I ask about the piping of Heaven?\" Ziqi said: \"It blows the ten thousand things each differently, letting each be itself. Each takes what it takes — who stirs them all?\"\n\nGreat knowledge: far-reaching. Small knowledge: fussy. Great words: plain and strong. Small words: chattering and endless. Asleep, the soul runs loose; waking, the body opens out. Day after day we meet; the heart digs its moats. Softly, solemnly, we close the nets; tightly, darkly, the traps go down. Small fears: anxious and off. Great fears: steady and slow. Words fly like arrows from a string — the judges of right and wrong. Held down, they swear their oaths, sealing the covenant of victory. They fade like autumn and winter — dying day by day. They drown in their own doings and cannot rise again; dark forces gather, and the old heart gives out. Nigh to death, the mind cannot be brought back to light. Joy and anger, sorrow and gladness, worry and sighing, wavering and fear, levity and abandon, indulgence and abandon: music out of empty holes, smoke-breath out of mushrooms. Day and night they go before us, and none knows where they sprout. Enough, enough! Morning and evening they are gotten — that is where they live.\n\nWithout those things there is no I; without the I there is nothing to take them. This is near to it — but we do not know what makes it so. It seems there is a true lord, yet no proof of him. We may trust that he exists, and not see his shape. The hundred joints, the nine openings, the six keepers of the inner house — all complete in me. Which do I hold nearest? Do you delight in them all, or is there some special favorite? If all are servants and servants, then none can govern the rest? Or do they take turns as lord and minister? Is there a true lord among them, whatever we find or not? To get him would neither add nor subtract one jot of its true nature. Born we go on and on — a blind going. Fight with things all our lives, galloping, and none can stop — is that not sad? Body grown to skin and bone, the mind keeping step with it — is that not a great sorrow? Is human life really such darkness, or is it I alone and no one else who is in the dark?\n\nThe mind has its own becoming; who knows what I call heaven? And if heaven, and not man? We act as the heart bids us, and still do not know what we are. We gallop on, and here we are; the body decays; things keep pace with it, and the flux is like a galloping horse — none can stop it, can they? Life between heaven and earth is like a white colt at a crack — gone in a flash. Surging, surging, all come forth; swelling, swelling, all enter. Change, stir: nothing does not begin to move; and nothing that moves does not cease to move. Already moved, already ceased: does not that grieve? Unmoving, unplanted, no growth — and life itself has come. Is not that the greatest dark? And in this darkness we speak: \"I,\" and not \"I.\" Does it have a shape? or does it have none? Take me and the thing I take to be before me — that is having, and having is done. Yet who can say there is no having? The secret is close, and small to its end; and it is great to its end, and easy.\n\nWords: not just wind. Words have something to say — but what they say is never fixed. So is there anything said, or nothing said? Words differ from the peeping of fledglings: they say it, or they say nothing. How is the Way hidden, that there should be true and false? How are words hidden, that there should be right and wrong? Where is the Way that it should not be? Where are words that they should not hold? The Way is hidden in small completions; words are hidden in vain flourish. Therefore come the quarrels of Confucians and Mohists, each calling the other wrong what he himself calls right, and right what the other calls wrong. To fix what is wrong by what is right, and what is wrong by what is right — better to shine a light.\n\nThings are nothing else: they are so. Things are nothing else: they are other. Nothing is not other; nothing is not so. Call it a bean: then a bean. Call it a horse: then a horse. So there is right and wrong; not-right and not-wrong. And the Way has no bounds, and words have no constancy: this is the field of the pivot. The pivot sits in the middle of the circle, where nothing can weigh upon it — answering without end. What is so is so now; what is not so is not so now. What is right is right now; what is wrong is wrong now. There is nothing that is not so; there is nothing that is not right. Take a stalk and a pillar, a leper and the beauty Xishi, the prodigal and the strange, the deceitful and the odd: the Way makes them one. Division is the making of completion; completion is the making of loss. But no thing is either made complete or lost — all is made one again. Only the far-reaching man knows how to fold the two into one. He does not act as a thing's servant, but lets it be led: this is holding to the middle, leaning on the daily sun. Leaning on it: to fold the two into one — the one has no speech and the two have no speech. But the one and the two are made three — and from there we go on; even the skilled reckoner cannot follow, how much less the common man! From having nothing, we have come to three. And what of the living? Move no further — come to the pivot and rest.\n\nNow nothing has a boundary, and nothing has a constancy. One may say \"from somewhere\" — but there is a \"somewhere\" and a \"nowhere.\" The great Way calls nothing early or late. Great words: they hold ten thousand things and pass no judgment. The world is even greater than autumn's last hair, and Mount Tai is small. No one lives longer than a stillborn child, and Pengzu died young. Heaven, earth, and I were born together; the ten thousand things and I are one. Since we are one, is there anything to say? Since it is one, can there be no speech? The one and the speech are two; two and one make three. From here even the skilled reckoner cannot go on, much less the common man. From being without, we come to having — three. And what of the living? Move no further: rest at the pivot.\n\nThe Way has no leaving; words have no blowing in. So comes the line \"there is a beginning.\" \"There is a not-yet beginning of the beginning.\" \"There is a not-yet beginning of that not-yet beginning.\" And so to being: \"there is being; there is nothing; there is a not-yet begun nothing; there is a not-yet begun not-yet begun nothing.\" And suddenly: there is nothing — and I do not know whether there is then being or nothing. Now I have said something, and I do not know whether what I have said is anything at all, or nothing at all.\n\nThere is nothing under heaven greater than the tips of autumn's hair, and Mount Tai is small. No one lives longer than a stillborn child, and Pengzu died young. Heaven, earth, and I were born together; the ten thousand things and I are one. Since we are one, what more is there to say? Since there is nothing more to say, have I not already said it? The one and the speech are two; two and one make three — and so on to the skilled reckoner's end. From no-thing we come to having: three. And what of the living? Rest at the pivot.\n\nThe Way has no boundaries; words have no constancy. But the habits of one \"I\" have their boundaries. So: left and right; and division and judgment; and rivalry and contention. These are the eight virtues. Beyond the world, the sage sets them aside and does not speak; within the world, he sets them forth and does not judge. The Spring and Autumn: the old records of the former kings — the sage settles them but does not dispute. So: divided and not spoken; spoken and not disputed. What is this called? The sage holds it whole; the ten thousand things hold their own. That is why he does not dispute. So the Way does not shine and speaks nothing; great debate does not call names. \"Benevolence\" acts and shows nothing; \"fidelity\" saves its tongue; \"fortitude\" wounds without malice; \"trust\" says nothing for it. Five squares ground down; square and sharp and gnawing; storehouse and fullness and evening — six pourings of the flood. The Way is hidden in small completions; words are hidden in too much flourish. So come the quarrels of the great and small schools: the light and the dark, the high and the low, the whole and the fragment, each calling its own right. Therefore: the government of the former kings — its aims set in stone for the whole world's good, and the disputation of the same schools. So it is said: the ten suns.\n\nThe ancient kings' records are dead, but their aim was to leave the government whole for the world's good. So the schools took them and each called its own reading right. Therefore: what is divided is spoken; what is spoken is disputed. Hence the sayings: \"the ten suns\" — and the sun indeed.\n\nWhere shall I go and not find it? What shall I say and not be one? Everything everywhere is \"it\"; everything everywhere is \"me.\" No thing is not \"it\"; no thing is not \"me.\" But if from \"me\" no \"it\" can be seen, and from \"it\" no \"me\" is seen, then we are like the chicken and the egg — both together, but never touching. The sage is a spirit in heaven and earth, yet he is not proud; he holds all things to be one and does not know them as many; he rests all upon the daily sun. Let me tell you about \"leaning on the two.\" Before things there is no \"it\"; after things there is no \"it.\" Before there is no \"it,\" there is a time when there was no \"it\"; before that, a time when there was no \"no-it.\" Suddenly there is \"it\" — and no \"no-it.\" And who can say whether there is then \"it\" or \"no-it\"?\n\nNow I have just said something; but I do not know whether what I have said really says anything or says nothing. Nothing under heaven is greater than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount Tai is small; no one lives longer than a stillborn child, and Pengzu died young. Heaven, earth, and I were born together, and the ten thousand things and I are one. Since we are one, is there anything more to say? Since there is nothing more to say, have I not said it? The one and the speech are two, two and one make three, and from here the skilled reckoner himself cannot go on. From no-thing we have come to having: three. And what of the living? Move no further.\n\nThe Way has no boundaries; words have no constancy. But the habits of one \"I\" have their boundaries. So: left and right; and division and judgment; and rivalry and contention. These are the eight virtues. Beyond the world, the sage sets them aside; within the world, he sets them forth and judges them not. The old records of the former kings he settles, but of them he does not dispute. Therefore: the divided is not spoken; the spoken is not disputed. Where does this show? The sage holds it whole; the ten thousand things hold their own; and so he does not dispute. So the Way does not shine; great speech does not call names; great benevolence is not benevolent; great fidelity does not save its tongue; great fortitude does not wound. The Way that shines is not the Way; speech that calls names is not great speech; the benevolent that acts is not whole; the faithful that argues is not faithful; the brave that wounds does not finish. Five squares ground down; square and gnawing; storehouse and evening: six pourings of the flood. The Way is hidden in small completions; words are hidden in too much flourish. And so the quarrels of the great and small schools.\n\nTo sleep: the soul runs loose. To wake: the body opens. We meet; the heart digs its moats. Softly, solemnly, the nets close; tightly, darkly, the traps go down. Great fears: steady and slow; small fears: anxious and off. Words like arrows from a string: the judges of right and wrong. Held down, they swear their oaths. They fade like autumn and winter; day by day they die. Drowned in their doings, they cannot rise. Dark forces gather, and the old heart gives out. Nigh to death, the mind cannot be brought back to light — joy and anger, sorrow and gladness, worry and sighing, wavering and fear, levity and abandon, indulgence and hurt: music out of empty holes, smoke-breath out of mushrooms. Day and night they go before us, and none knows where they sprout. Enough! Enough! Morning and evening they are gotten: that is where they live.\n\nOnce there was a beginning. I will speak of it: there is being, there is nothing, there is a not-yet begun nothing. And suddenly there is nothing. And I do not know whether there is then being or nothing. Now I have said something; but do I know whether the saying is anything at all or nothing at all?\n\nUnder heaven there is nothing greater than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount Tai is small. No one lives longer than a stillborn child, and Pengzu died young. Heaven, earth, and I were born together; the ten thousand things and I are one. Since we are one, is there anything to say? Since there is nothing to say, have I not said it? The one and the speech are two; two and one make three; and from here the reckoner cannot go on. From no-thing: three. And what of the living? Rest at the pivot.\n\nLet me say a word about the pivot. \"It is so\"; \"it is not so.\" \"It is right\"; \"it is wrong.\" Are they so, or not so? Are they right, or not right? If one and the other must each be both, then neither is. The pivot is the middle of the circle, where nothing can weigh upon it. So: use the light.\n\nThe tablets of the old kings are cold; but their aim was to leave government whole. So the schools took them up, and each called its own reading right, and the ten suns shone at once — the sun indeed.\n\nTake the fingers: they are not fingers if you take one to be not-a-finger. Take the horse: it is not a horse if you take one to be not-a-horse. Heaven and earth are one finger; the ten thousand things are one horse. What is so? Is it so because it is so? What is not so? Is it not so because it is not so? Something is so; something can be so. Something is not; something can be not. Why so? So. Why not so? Not so. Something is fixed; something can be fixed. Why fixed? Fixed. Why not fixed? Not fixed. Things are all fixed and all can be fixed. So there is nothing that is not so; nothing that is not fit. Therefore: a stalk and a pillar, a leper and Xishi, the prodigal and the strange: the Way makes them one. Division is completion; completion is loss. But no thing is complete or lost; all is made one again. Only the far-reaching man knows how to fold the two into one. He does not serve things; he lets them be led: that is holding to the middle, leaning on the daily sun. Leaning: the two are folded into one. The one has no speech, the two no speech. And the one and the two made three: and from there the reckoner cannot follow. From no-thing: three. And what of the living?\n\nThe ten thousand things are one. Which shall I call lovely? Which shall I call ugly? The ten thousand things are one horse. Which shall I call horse? Which shall I call not-horse? The Way has no leaving; words have no blowing. The great Way does not name; great words do not blow. \"Heaven and earth are one finger; the ten thousand things are one horse\": — so it is said.\n\nThe great Way does not name; great debate does not speak; great benevolence is not benevolent; great fidelity does not save its tongue; great fortitude does not wound. The five squares are ground down: square and sharp and gnawing. Therefore: the one who knows does not speak; the one who speaks does not know.\n\nWith the world I will not contend. \"Sheng\" and \"si\": you win, I lose — and what of it? \"Sheng\" and \"si\": I win, you lose — and what of it? Are we both right, or both wrong? Shall I and you look at it together? Or shall a third look with us? We cannot look at it together; we are men. Whom shall I bring to settle it? Bring one who agrees with you? He has already agreed with you — how can he settle it? Bring one who agrees with me? He has already agreed with me — how can he settle it? Bring one who differs from us both? He differs from us both — how can he settle it? Bring one who agrees with us both? He agrees with us both — how can he settle it? So then: neither I nor you nor any third can settle it. Shall we wait for another generation?\n\n\"What is leaning on the two?\" — \"It\" and \"not-it\"; \"right\" and \"not-right.\" If \"it\" and \"not-it\" must each be both, then neither is. The pivot sits in the middle of the circle; nothing can weigh upon it. So: use the light, and rest.\n\nChange the tongue: \"there is no other thing.\" Take \"it\" and \"not-it\": together they are one. The sage does not go by this way and that; he shines in Heaven. Then \"it\" is also right; \"not-it\" is also right. \"It\" is also so; \"not-it\" is also so. Does \"it\" have a right? Does \"it\" have a wrong? Does \"not-it\" have a right? Does \"not-it\" have a wrong? Both have their right and their wrong; both have their not-right and their not-wrong. So: is there \"it\" and \"not-it,\" or is there no \"it\" and no \"not-it\"? When \"it\" and \"not-it\" can no longer hold each other, that is called the hinge of the Way. The hinge begins in the circle, where nothing can weigh upon it. It is right without end; it is not-right without end. So: use the light.\n\nBut there is the \"today I go to Yue and arrived yesterday\": the impossible said as possible. Hold heaven and earth as one house; hold the ten thousand things as one horse: then who shall say which is \"it\" and which is \"not-it\"? Who shall say which is right and which is wrong? Cut the ten thousand things into one: that is the Way made whole. The Way has no division; words have no permanence. Make a division, and there is completion; make a completion, and there is loss. But no thing is complete or lost. All is made one again. Only the far-reaching man knows how to fold the two into one, and does not act as their servant, but lets them be led. That is holding to the middle. Nothing can weigh upon him. He leans on the daily sun; he rests in it; and so he is without end.\n\nThe men of old, their knowledge reached somewhere. Where did it reach? Some reached the point where nothing had yet been. That is the utmost: nothing to add. Some reached the point where there were things, but no boundaries between them. Some reached the point where there were boundaries, but no rights and wrongs. Where right and wrong shine out, the Way is wounded. The Way wounded: love is made. Were there completions and losses? Yes: Zhao Wen played the lute; Shi Kuang kept the time; Huizi leaned on the wutong. The knowledge of these three was at its height, and so to the end of their days they were famous. But because they were famous they went on, and their going was a mistake. Did Wen's son finish his father's lute? All his life he accomplished nothing. Were there such as these? Yes. And there were others: Sun Shu said, \"There is no division and no completion.\" He lost himself and reached the point where there is nothing. And there were three: and were they like the great teacher? Or were they not?\n\nThe knowledge of the men of old reached the utmost. Some reached the point where there was nothing at all: the utmost, the whole, nothing to add. Next, they held there were things but no boundaries. Next, they held there were boundaries but no rights and wrongs. The bright shining of right and wrong wounds the Way. The Way wounded: love is born. Were there completions and losses? Zhao Wen drummed the lute; Shi Kuang nodded the time; Huizi leaned on the wutong tree. The knowledge of these three masters neared the height of all under heaven, and so to the end of their days they shone. And because they shone, they went on, and their going was not like the going of others. Were they like the teacher? Or not like him? Their shining made them known; and they failed to die as themselves.\n\nDo not let the outside wound the inside; do not let the inside wound the outside. Do not go with the light and see only what shines; do not go with the dark and see only what is dark. The world runs to them; they rise in ranks; but he alone in the middle is without desire. Hold still: the still man is the honored one of Heaven and earth, the honored one of the ten thousand things. Rest: breathe the long breath. Slow of speech: like a child. Weak: like a motherless one. Idle: like a house with no owner. The coming ones have nowhere to set their banners; the going ones cannot follow. That is why the old saying: \"Do not open the gate of Heaven; hold to the house of virtue.\" Light and dark go together; day and night keep their places — and one is alive with them. Spring and autumn follow each other; the year passes; things come and go. From this: the hinge of Heaven. The hinge of Heaven: nothing, and yet everything. And he who has nothing does not have it; he who has everything does not have it. The bright shines; the spirit moves; from this all things spring. From the unseen the forms are born; from the formless the life is born. The thing keeps its place. Without limits, without a door, the whole is one and there is nothing outside. He who grasps this is called \"the storehouse of Heaven.\"\n\nThe equalizing of things: near to it, and it is done. But I do not know what makes it so. It seems there is a true ruler; and no sign of him. Trust him, and he does not show his shape. The hundred bones, the nine openings, the six organs, all present and complete in me: which do I feel nearest to me? Do you delight in them all? Or is there a master among them? If all are servants, are they not too many for one master? Or do they serve in turns as lord and servant? There must be a true ruler among them: whether we find him or not does not add to him or take from him. One born goes on and on: a blind going. He gallops after things all his life and never turns: is it not sorrow? And though he keeps on galloping to the end, and comes to weariness and death, still he does not return: is it not sad? Is the man of heaven truly without feeling, or do I alone feel it and no one else?\n\nLong ago Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly: fluttering here and there at his pleasure, a self that knew what it wanted. He did not know he was Zhou. Suddenly he woke, and there he was: solid Zhou. He does not know whether he is Zhou who dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there is surely some division. This is called the turning of things into one another.\n\n### Chapter 3 養生主第三\n\nOur life has an end; and knowledge has none. To chase the endless with the ended is weariness — nothing more! To know there is no cure, and go on chasing: weariness — nothing more! Do good, and keep clear of a name for it; do not do evil, and keep clear of a name for that too. Take the middle way as your rope and cord: then you may keep the body whole, keep the nature whole, nourish what is within, and live out the years Heaven gave.\n\nThe cook of Ding was cutting up an ox for Lord Wenhui. Where his hand touched, where his shoulder leaned, where his foot pressed, where his knee drove in — whish! the flesh fell apart with a sound like music. The knife never hesitated; the rhythm ran true: the Mulberry Grove dance, the Jingshou of the ancient hymns. Lord Wenhui said: \"How does your art come to such a height?\" The cook laid down the knife and answered: \"What your servant loves is the Way; it goes beyond mere art. When I first began, I saw the ox whole. Three years on, I no longer saw the whole. Now I meet it with the spirit and not with the eyes; sense stops, and the spirit moves. I follow the natural pattern; the great seams open, the great hollows give way; I guide the knife where the structure turns. And so the ligament and sinew never catch, much less the great bone. A good cook changes his knife once a year: he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month: he hacks. This knife of mine is nineteen years old. It has opened several thousand oxen, and its edge is as if it had just left the whetstone. Between the joints there is room, and the blade has no thickness: put what has no thickness into a place that has room — and there is room to spare! That is why after nineteen years the blade is like new. Still, when I come to a knotted place and see it will be hard, I take care; my gaze settles; my hand slows; the knife slides, hardly moving — and it falls apart like a clod crumbling to the ground. I stand with the knife in my hand, look all round me, linger — and am content, and wipe the knife and put it away.\" Lord Wenhui said: \"Wonderful! From a cook's words I have learned how to nourish life.\"\n\nThe officer of the right gate lost one foot. His heels were cut, and his heart was heavy with it; he had done no wrong to his body. \"Why should he grieve?\" said someone. \"Heaven's hand had made him one-legged; the man's foot was cut, not his heaven. His nature was whole.\"\n\nThe pheasant of the marsh takes ten steps for a peck, a hundred steps for a drink; but it does not wish to be kept in a cage. Though there it would be full of spirit and well fed, it would not be free and happy.\n\nWhen Lao Dan died, Qin Shi went out to the mourning and cried out three times, and came away. A disciple asked: \"Were you not the Master's friend?\" \"I was.\" \"Then is it right to mourn him so?\" Qin Shi said: \"It is right. The men he mourned with, he thought were mourners of men, but they were not. Of old we called them 'the men who escape the trimming.' They may blame whom they have no cause to blame. One comes to the world at the right time; the master went at the right time: dwell in the time, dwell in the change, and sorrow and joy cannot enter. The ancients called this the loosening of the bonds of God.\"\n\nThe wick burns out: the fire is carried on; and we do not know when it will end.\n\n### Chapter 4 人間世第四\n\nYan Hui went to see Confucius and asked leave to go. \"Where are you going?\" \"To Wei.\" \"What will you do there?\" \"I have heard the state of Wei: its lord is young and rules alone; he acts rashly and sees no fault of his own. He uses his people lightly; the dead fill the country like cut reeds; no place for the people to turn. I have heard from you, sir: 'Leave the state that is well governed; go to the state in disorder. A physician's door: many are the sick who come.' I wish to go by what I have learned, and see if the state may be healed.\"\n\nConfucius said: \"Alas! You are going to your hurt. The Way does not wish to be scattered about. If you scatter it, you will be scattered; if you gather, men will gather against you. The man who has the Way does not wish the fame of the Way. Do you understand? If you go and speak of virtue and honor to the young lord, you will be showing him the fault of others. The famous man tears down the one who is not famous. He will set the great men against you, and they will strive to cut you down. Your eyes will go dark; your face will go gray; your mouth will beg to mend it; your look will turn to the wish to please. Fire on fire, water on water: this is adding to what is already too much. The first word will be believed; but the end of it — you will not be believed. You will be ruined before the man who hears you.\"\n\n\"Yet the man who is good stands firm; the man who is not good does not stand. If your virtue is deep and your truth clear, though he be young and rash, still the man of Wei will find a use for you. If your honor is high and your fame great, he will hear your words. If you go as one man to another, and speak no fault of the great, why should you be hurt?\"\n\nStill, \"goodness, truth, fame\" — that is the way of the great house of Ji? Or is it not? He sets two things before you: fame and truth. Fame: men strive for it, and strive to win it. Truth: men keep it, and so they honor it. But if a man is made great by the fame of his goodness, he will be made great and grieve. If a man is set upon the truth of his fame, he will be set upon and slain. Both would be like the man who wanted to be loved by all, and so was loved by all men: all men were close to him, and he was close to them, and no man was set apart by him. But the first of the great men of old was of another kind. He would not go into another man's house; he would not keep another man's state; he would keep his own heart and be true. What could the fame of such a one be? Or would it be of the same kind as yours?\n\nAnd if you speak of the law, the young lord will say: \"He is a man of the law; he loves the people. To love the people is to give them rest.\" He will lay your law on the people and kill them with it. And you will have a man who is a fire, and you will see that he who is a fire is not seen. And you will fall in the same ruin. And then: and of the truth of the law, the law of the truth: and the man who is of the truth of the law — he will be of the truth of the law, and he will not be of the law.\n\nDo not make the truth your name; do not make the law your fame. The fast of the heart: he does not go by the ear but by the heart. The ear stops at the hearing; the heart stops at the sign; the breath, empty, takes all things in. The Way gathers in the empty; and the empty is the fast of the heart.\n\nHe who has not heard it in himself has ears and eyes; he who has heard it in himself has no ears and no eyes; and the man of the Way is empty, and the empty is his house. The fast of the heart: it is not fasting of the belly.\n\nYan Hui asked: \"Before I found it, I was Hui. When I found it, there was no Hui.\" Confucius said: \"So it is. You are empty. Go into the net of men, and be not moved by them. Enter the net, but be not of it. If they will hear you, sing; if they will not, be still. No door, no medicine, one heart to bring them in: dwell in the never-ending, and be in the house of the never-ending.\"\n\nYan Hui asked: \"What is the fasting of the heart?\" Confucius said: \"Make your will one. Do not listen with the ear, but with the heart; do not listen with the heart, but with the breath. The ear stops at what it hears; the heart stops at what it signs. The breath is empty and takes all things in. The Way gathers in the empty; the empty is the fast of the heart.\" Yan Hui said: \"Before this, Hui had a Hui. Since then, there has been no Hui. Is that being empty?\" Confucius said: \"Yes. Now you may go to the lord of Wei. Tell me what you do there.\"\n\nYan Hui said: \"I shall stand straight and not bend; I shall be as I am.\" \"No. That is not enough. He will see through it; his face will change; and you will bend. The fire is in you. What good is the way of the old kings to the man of today? You will be hurt.\" Yan Hui said: \"Then I shall be upright within and bent without; I shall serve Heaven, and know that my lord and I are both the children of Heaven. Shall I be blamed for weeping with those who weep? Shall I be blamed for singing with those who sing? I shall be straight in myself, and be as the men of Wei are: without blame.\" Confucius said: \"No. Still not enough. Too much seeking to be right; too much holding to the inward; the outward too open. You will not be blamed; but you will not go far.\" Yan Hui said: \"Then I shall be as the lord of Wei: I shall not be different from him, and I shall not be his. I shall be in his house and not of his house.\" Confucius said: \"No. Not enough. Too much the same; not enough the other. You will not be blamed, but you will not go far.\" Yan Hui said: \"I have nothing more to say. May I ask what to do?\" Confucius said: \"The fast of the heart. You cannot go to Wei with a full heart. Go empty.\"\n\nYan Hui said: \"What is the fast of the heart?\" Confucius said: \"Make your will one. Do not listen with the ear; listen with the heart. Do not listen with the heart; listen with the breath. The ear stops with the ear; the heart stops with the heart. The breath is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness: that is the fast of the heart.\" Yan Hui said: \"Before, Hui was Hui. Since this, there is no Hui. Is that emptiness?\" Confucius said: \"Yes. Go to the lord of Wei, and you may move him. Do not move a ghost; move a man. Hear the wind in the trees and the rain on the roof; see the light of Heaven and earth. Be as the hall is empty. What is not full is light; what is light is bright; what is bright is empty. And the empty: the men of old called it the house of the empty. If you go to Wei, go as an empty house, and be welcome.\"\n\nYan Hui said: \"I have not yet gone out of myself. Is that not enough?\" Confucius said: \"Before you go out, you have the self. Go out and be without it. Heaven has made you; Heaven has made him. Why should you be different? And if Heaven made you one man and not another, what of it? You go into his house and are welcome; you go out and are not seen. Be as the empty house; go and do.\"\n\n\"May I ask what Heaven made and what man makes?\" \"Heaven made: the horse has four feet. Man makes: the bridle on the horse's head. Heaven made the footless; man made the shoe. Heaven made the horn; man made the crown. To keep the whole of what Heaven gave and not lose it: that is to keep Heaven whole. Do not fear: you will not be blamed. Do not be glad: you will not lose. Do not be dark: you will not be lit by others. Be as the wood is in the fire; be as the fire is in the wood. And then you may go, and not be blamed for going.\"\n\nThe world runs after one kind of knowing; and that knowing is not the knowing of the Way. It goes out and turns back, and cannot stop: is that not a shame? It knows \"this\" and does not know \"that\"; it knows \"that\" and does not know \"this.\" One who is held in what he knows is a dead man; he is not a man of the Way. He who is lit by his own light is not lit. And the light that is lit by another light is not lit. Nothing is darker than the closed; nothing is lighter than the open. Nothing is more closed than the man who knows; nothing is more open than the man who knows he does not know. So the old saying: \"He who knows he does not know is best; he who does not know and thinks he knows is sick.\" And he who is sick of it and knows it is not sick. The sage is not sick; he knows the sickness and so is not sick.\n\nConfucius asked Yan Hui: \"Your family is poor; why do you not go into office?\" Yan Hui said: \"I have no wish to. I have land outside the city walls, enough for rice and porridge; I have a garden within the walls, enough for hemp and silk; I play the lute, and that is enough for my hand; the Way I have learned from you, sir, is enough for my heart.\" Confucius said: \"Wonderful, your return! Your fields are few, but you would have more; your office is none, but you would have one. The man who has no wish to go out into the world, who has heard the Way and keeps it, who has no wish to be known — he is not easily troubled. He who has lost his own heart may gain it again. He who has lost himself may find himself. He who knows the joy of Heaven has no grief in life and no fear in death.\"\n\nConfucius asked Zi Sang Hu: \"Twice you were driven from Lu; your tree was cut in Song; you lost your standing in Wei; you are friendless in Shang and Zhou. What trouble did you bring, that you meet with such things?\" Zi Sang Hu said: \"Shall I speak of what would not help me? My mother died young and my father married again, and I have no brother, and I am poor and without friends. I have no clothes but these, and no house but this. How could I wish for more? I have heard it said: 'Do not go against what is given; do not lose what is true.' I go with it, and am not against it. Long ago I heard the words of the great man: 'To go with the world and not be against it; to go out and not be seen.' If I had gone with the world, I should have been seen; and then I should have had to please the world, and be lost. But I am my own man, and the world does not know me. So I am poor without friends. It is Heaven that has put me here; not I.\"\n\nConfucius said: \"So it is. The way of the world is full of men who would use you; and you are not of that way. You hold to what is within; and the world does not know you. There is no man so lost as the man who has lost his own heart; no man so poor as the man who has lost himself. If you go into the world with the Way, the world will come to you; and you may be lost in it. If you go against the world with the Way, the world will come against you; and you may be lost in it. But the man of the Way goes neither with it nor against it; he goes alone, and the world does not know him. And so: he is not lost.\"\n\nZhuangzi said: \"Men know the use of the useful, but none knows the use of the useless.\"\n\n### Chapter 5 德充符第五\n\nIn Lu there was a man with his toes cut off, Wang Tai, who had as many followers as Confucius. Chang Ji asked Confucius: \"Wang Tai is a crooked man; yet he divides the state of Lu with you. He neither teaches nor argues; but those who come to him empty go home full. Is there such a thing as wordless teaching? Can the whole man be reached?\" Confucius said: \"This man is a sage. I have been slow, and gone after him. I too will go to him as a learner. And not only the men of Lu: I would lead the whole world to him.\"\n\nChang Ji said: \"He is a man with his feet cut off, and yet he is greater than you, Master. What kind of man is he?\" Confucius said: \"Life and death are great things, and yet they do not move him. Though heaven and earth fall, he will not fall with them. He keeps the truth of what has no change, and lets things take their change; he holds to the center of change.\" Chang Ji said: \"What do you mean?\" Confucius said: \"Look at it from the difference of things: liver and gall are as far apart as Chu and Yue. Look at it from what is the same in them: the ten thousand things are one. So it is with him: he does not know what his ears and eyes are for; he lets his heart wander in the harmony of virtue. He sees things as one, and does not see what is lost in them. And the loss of a foot: he would see it as a clod of earth falling away.\"\n\nShen Tu Jia was a man with his feet cut off. He studied under Bo Hun Wu Ren, together with Zichan of Zheng. Zichan said to Shen Tu Jia: \"Let me go out first and you stay; or you go first and I stay.\" Next morning they were again in the same room. Zichan said to Shen Tu Jia: \"Shall I go out first or you? If I go out first, you wait for me; if you go out first, I wait for you. I am going out now. Will you not yield, or will you not stay?\" Shen Tu Jia said: \"Here is a man with his feet cut off, in the house of a great teacher. Does he still strive for the place of one who goes first? You have a name and a form, sir, and you make a show of your body. You would go first. You are a mirror to a man and yet you make a show: not much!\"\n\nZichan said: \"If you are what you are, is a crooked man like me to be set right? Look into yourself, and you will see your own fault.\" Shen Tu Jia said: \"Men who claim their own fault do not speak so. I have been here a long time, and you have not seen me. You do not know me. You came in with your eyes open and did not see; you went out with your feet moving and did not feel. You are like a man with a mirror in his breast who will not look into it: you will come to nothing in yourself.\"\n\nThere was a man of Shen Shan with his toes cut off, who hobbled on his heels to see Confucius. Confucius said: \"You were not careful; you broke the law and got this hurt. Now you have come to me: what can be done?\" The man said: \"It was my own want of care: I lost my body. But I have come because there is still something worth more than the body, and I want to keep it whole. Heaven covers all; earth carries all. I took you, sir, for Heaven and earth. I did not know you were like this.\" Confucius said: \"I am not worthy. Go in, sir; I will speak with you.\" The man went out.\n\nConfucius said to his disciples: \"You are disciples of learning. Learn from this man: he has lost a foot and still seeks to mend the fault of long ago. How much more should those whose virtue is whole seek it? And he does not seek to be known, and does not hold to his own form. He goes in and out of the gates of the teacher, and is not judged.\"\n\nLord Min of Zheng said to Zichan of Zheng: \"Let me go in first and you stay; or you stay and I go in.\" Next morning they were together in the hall. Lord Min said: \"Yesterday you said: 'Let me go in first and you stay; or you stay and I go in.' Now I am going in. Will you stop me, or will you go in? And see: the great hall of a ruler is not a place to stand and be seen.\" Zichan said: \"In the house of the master there is no ruler. And you would make much of your form?\" Lord Min said: \"I have lost my form, and I am with those who have their form whole. You do not know me, and you make much of your form.\"\n\nIn Wei there was a hideous man, Ai Tai Tuo. Men loved him. He lived with men, and they were glad of him; women saw him and said to their parents: \"Better a wife than this man's concubine.\" He had never led men; he only answered when others called him. He had no power to save men from hunger and cold, and no wisdom to decide a single case. Yet men gathered to him from far and near. He must have had in him what was neither form nor flesh; and what he gave was not given in words; and yet he kept the love of all who came to him from ten generations.\n\nConfucius said: \"Once I went to Chu, and saw young pigs leap about a dead sow and then run from her. They knew her no more by her body than by the thing that went before in her. In life she was their mother; in death she was not. The sword is kept in its case for its steel; the man is loved for the thing that went before him. And so: if a man is whole in the thing that is before the body, his form may fall away and he is not forgotten. A war-captive who has lost both feet does not care for shoes; the body is gone, and the ornament goes. In serving Heaven there is no loss of what is true; in serving men there is no loss of the form. The man who holds the whole truth does not lose it.\"\n\nLord Ai of Lu asked Confucius about Ai Tai Tuo. \"He was a hideous man in Wei, and men loved him. He had no power to save men from hunger and cold, and no wisdom to decide a case; and yet men came to him from far and near. He must be whole in what is before the body. I would know what he is.\" Confucius said: \"I was once on a journey to Chu, and saw young pigs leap about a dead sow and run from her. They saw that she was not as she was; they did not see her as she was. In life she loved them; in death she left them. A war-captive whose feet are cut off does not care for shoes. In the men of Heaven and earth this is not so; they do not lose what is true. He whose truth is whole does not need the form; he who keeps the form has lost the truth.\"\n\nLord Ai said: \"What is a man whole in truth?\" Confucius said: \"Look at a man with his feet cut off: his shoes are nothing to him, for the foot is gone. Heaven and earth give all men their forms; and the form is not lost in the man of truth. He does not change with what changes; he does not grieve with what is lost; he sees what is before him as nothing. He keeps the truth and does not lose it. He is whole in truth, and men go to him. What is in him that holds men? It is not the form; it is what is in the form; and that no form can hold. And so it is said: the man who is whole in truth does not need the form; the form is not the truth; he who loves the form is not the man of truth.\"\n\nLord Ai said to Confucius the next day: \"I am a ruler of a state, and the lord of all the men within its gates. Yet when I stood before this man, I was not master of myself. I wished to give him the state. He would not have it; he looked as if he had no wish to be rich, and went. I am ashamed: I gave him the state, and he went away. What kind of man is he?\" Confucius said: \"I have heard that there is a man of truth who has not shown himself to the world. I have not seen him. But this man: he is whole in truth, and the men of his time love him.\"\n\nLater, Confucius told Chang Ji: \"I went to Wei, and saw the man. He is ugly: he has no beauty of form. And the men who came to him did not leave him. He had nothing to say, and they went home full. I have not heard of such a man. I say: he is a man whole in truth, and the truth is not in the form; it does not come by words. He is a man: yet no man.\"\n\nZhuangzi said: \"There are men who are whole in truth and not in form; there are men who are whole in form and not in truth. Whole in truth and not in form: they are loved. Whole in form and not in truth: they are not loved. And so: a man may have the truth and no form; he may have the form and no truth. Do not love the form; do not lose the truth.\"\n\nHuizi said to Zhuangzi: \"Men are born without form. Is it not hard that they should have it?\" Zhuangzi said: \"It is the truth that has no form. Do not love the form; do not lose the truth.\"\n\n### Chapter 6 大宗師第六\n\nTo know what Heaven does and what man does: that is the utmost. Heaven does: it is Heaven that gives life to the ten thousand things. Man does: man gives to what is given him, and does not lose what he has been given. Not to lose what is given: that is to hold to what is true. And to keep to what is true and not lose it: that is not to lose Heaven. But how can it be said that Heaven is not man and man is not Heaven? There must first be a true man, and then there can be true knowledge.\n\nWhat is a true man? In the true men of old there was no dreaming in sleep and no waking with care. They did not taste of the sweetness of life; they did not fear the coming of death. They came without joy and went without resistance. They went as they came: that is all. They did not forget their beginning; they did not seek their end. They took what came and were glad; they lost it and were glad again. That is called not wounding the Way with the heart. And so: one who breathes from the heels is deep; one who breathes from the throat is shallow. The slave of desire is shallow in his knowledge. The true men of old did not know the love of life nor the hate of death. To be born: they did not rejoice; to die: they did not resist. They went lightly; they came lightly. They did not forget their beginning; they did not seek their end. They took it, and it was gone; they raised it, and it came back. That is called not wounding the heart with the Way, and not helping Heaven with man. This is called the true man.\n\nSuch a one: his heart was still; his face was calm; his brow was cool. Spring came to him; autumn came to him; and with the four seasons he kept the balance of the ten thousand things, and none knew where it would end. A weapon of war may kill a state; but it cannot kill the man of Heaven. A flood may drown a kingdom; but it cannot drown the man of Heaven. Cold and heat may wound the ten thousand things; but they cannot wound the man of Heaven. The thief may steal a state; but he cannot steal the man of Heaven. And so the man of Heaven stands in the midst of things, and things come to him, and he does not go to things. This is called the true man.\n\nThe true men of old: their knowledge was of the one. They did not love the few; they did not fear the many. They did not plan; they did not fail. They did not repent of what was past; they did not lean on what was to come. They went up and were not glad; they went down and were not lost. They were quiet and calm, and took what came as the season brings it. This is called the true man.\n\nThe true men of old: their sleep was without dreams; their waking was without care. Their food was without relish; their breath was deep. The true man breathes from his heels; the crowd breathes from the throat. They who bend before others breathe from the throat: their words are like the vomit of the full. The men of old, deep in the hidden, knew no love of life and no hate of death. Their going out was not far; their coming in was not near. They went as they came: that is all. They did not forget where they began; they did not ask where they would end. They took it with joy and lost it with joy. They forgot their head and tail; they did not hold to the middle; they took what came as the season: this is called the true man.\n\nDeath and life are fate; and the constant moving of them: Heaven. As a man cannot ask to be the son of his father and mother and go to them in love, so he cannot ask to be with the Way. But the world holds the Way to be its father and mother. Is it so? But to say the Way is not so: that is not to say the Way. To hold the Way as our father and mother: that is near. To hold it as a mere body that is dried and rotten: that is not to hold it. We are not our own; we are something else's. And that other: it is the one that is in all things and does not go out of them. And to hold to the one that is in all things and does not go out: that is to hold to the true.\n\nWe take the great mold and cast us in it, and go with the mold, and do not grieve: then we may speak of the wandering of the great breath. And if we take the great mold and cast us in it, and go with the mold and do not grieve: then the mold is as a father and mother to us. And we are cast in it, and it casts us and casts us, day and night without end: and we cannot choose our casting. And the casting of the ten thousand things: and we are cast with them; and in the casting is the sweetness; and in the casting the going out and coming in.\n\nNow the great mold casts us in the form of man, and we are glad; and a thousand times ten thousand it casts us, and we do not know the end of it. To be a man and be glad of it: and yet the mold casts us a thousand times and we do not know the end. To go with the mold and not grieve: only the true man.\n\nWe love our mothers not because they are lovely, but because they are our mothers; and we love the mold because it casts us. If we love it as our mother, we are safe. If we go with it as water flows, we lose nothing. Therefore it is said: we are not our own; we are something else's. And that other: it is in us and does not go out.\n\nFour men looked at each other and smiled, and became friends: Zi Si, Zi Yu, Zi Li, Zi Lai. Then one of them said: \"Who can make nothing the head, life the back, death the tail? Who knows that life and death, going and staying, are one body? He may be our friend.\" The four looked at each other and smiled, and did not speak, and their hearts were friends.\n\nThen Zi Yu fell ill, and Zi Si went to see him. \"Great is the Maker of Things!\" he cried. \"What has he made of you — twisted like this!\" The man was bent double: his five pipes were up; his chin hid his navel; his shoulder was higher than his head; his neck pointed to the sky. The breath in him came and went; yet his heart was light and untroubled. He crawled to the well and looked at himself: \"Alas! The Maker of Things has twisted me like this!\" \"Do you hate it?\" he asked. \"No. Why should I hate it? If he were to change my left arm into a cock, I should have it cry the watch. If he changed my right arm into a crossbow, I should have it shoot a dove. If he changed my seat into wheels and my spirit into a horse, I should ride in it, and need no other team. And when the time comes to go, I go; and the time to stay, I stay: in peace, in peace. I do not grieve. The man who is not sad at the loss of what he had, and is not sad at what is to come, is the man who has climbed the tower of Heaven and gone in. The old men did not flee from prison; the young men did not flee from battle. To be cast is to go: and in the going, in the staying, there is peace. And so it is said: the great mold casts us; and we are cast day and night without end; and we cannot choose the casting. To be at peace with the time and in the flow: then sorrow and joy cannot come in. The men of old called this the loosening of the bonds of God. And he who cannot be his own man is the servant of what made him, and cannot be a man.\"\n\nThen Zi Lai fell ill, and Zi Li went to see him. \"Great is the Maker of Things!\" he cried. \"What has he made of you — twisted like this!\" The man was swollen and full of dropsy; his navel was high; his legs were festering. And yet he lay in bed and hummed to himself, easy and untroubled. He said to Zi Li: \"Do you hate it?\" \"No,\" said Zi Li. \"Why should I hate it? I shall be scattered: a cock, and I shall crow the watch; a crossbow, and I shall shoot the dove; wheels, and a horse, and I shall ride; and I shall need no other team. In the going there is peace; in the staying, peace. And in the peace there is no fear. And so the men of old called it the loosening of the bonds of God. The father says to the son: 'Go here; go there; go up; go down.' And the son goes, and is not blamed. And the great mold casts us, and we are cast day and night without end; and we cannot choose the casting; and we are at peace with it, and it is peace.\"\n\nThen Zi Sang Hu, Meng Zi Fan, and Zi Qin Zhang were friends. One said to the others: \"Who can be with others and not be with them? Who can go with them and not go? Who can climb the sky and wander in the mist, and play with the sun and moon outside the world of man, and take no thought of whether there is life or death, but only of the one that is without beginning and without end?\" The three looked at each other and smiled, and their hearts were friends, and they did not speak.\n\nThen Zi Sang Hu died. He had not yet been buried, and Confucius heard of it, and sent Zi Gong to help at the mourning. Zi Gong found one making music, and one stringing a lute, and the two singing together: \"Ah, Sang Hu! Ah, Sang Hu! You have gone back to what is true, and we are still men!\" Zi Gong went in and said: \"Is this not a breach of the rites, to sing at a corpse?\" The two looked at each other and laughed: \"What does the man know of the rites?\"\n\nZi Gong came back and told Confucius: \"What kind of men are they? They have no care for their goodness and no care for the rites, and they sing at a corpse, and do not grieve: I do not know what to call them. What kind of men are they?\" Confucius said: \"They are men who wander outside the mold; and I am a man who wanders inside it. Outside and inside do not meet; and I sent you to mourn: it was my fault. They are the companions of the Maker of Things, and they go with him as one man. They take life as a swelling, and death as a going. They do not know the head and tail of them; they do not know the beginning and end; they take what comes, and are not troubled by it; and they wander in the fire of the world and are not burned. How could they trouble themselves with the little rites of the world, and make a show of them to the crowd?\"\n\nZi Gong said: \"Then what does the Master follow?\" Confucius said: \"I am a man of Heaven's punishment. Yet I seek the Way with you.\" Zi Gong said: \"May I hear of the Way?\" Confucius said: \"The fish forgets itself in rivers and lakes; men forget themselves in the arts of the Way. The fish forgotten in the river and lake: it is well with them. Men forgotten in the arts of the Way: it is well with them. So it is said: to mend what is crooked in the honored one, and to forget what is crooked in the poor. He who goes with what is true is at rest; and so he forgets the crooked in the honored one, and forgets the crooked in the poor. He who goes with what is true, and rests in the flow of it, forgets his feet: the shoe fits. He forgets his waist: the belt fits. He forgets right and wrong: the heart fits. He does not change within; he does not go with the without; and so he is at ease with what comes, and does not lose what he is. And so it is said: he forgets the beginning and the end; he forgets the middle; he takes what comes as it comes; and he is with the one that has no beginning and no end.\"\n\nYi Er Zi saw Xu You. Xu You said: \"What did Yao give you?\" Yi Er Zi said: \"Yao said to me: 'You must practice kindness and do right.' Then I shall be free.\" Xu You said: \"Why do you come here? Yao has already branded you with kindness and right, and cut off your wandering in the wide and free, the place of rest.\" Yi Er Zi said: \"Still I wish to wander in the boundary of the wide.\" Xu You said: \"Not so. The blind have no love for beauty of face or eye; the crooked have no love for the patterned gown: for the power to see has left them.\" Yi Er Zi said: \"Yet the true woman has lost her form; and the brave soldier has lost his strength; and the great officer of Qi has lost his corn. And men have their forms and their strength and their corn, and yet are glad. And if the Maker of Things gives it back to them, will he not give me what I had? And if he will not give it to me, then the fault is Heaven's, and not the fault of the Maker of Things. Then I shall not be blamed.\" Xu You said: \"Who knows? I will sing you a song: 'O wanderer, wanderer, I go with the mold, and do not know where I go; O fool, fool, I go with the mold, and do not know where I stay; I am dark; I am mad; I do not know the end; I go with it in the mold, and the mold does not leave me. And so it is from the beginning that I am with the mold.' What would you do with the Maker of Things?\"\n\nYan Hui said to Confucius: \"I am getting better.\" Confucius said: \"What do you mean?\" \"I have forgotten the rites and music.\" \"That is good; but not enough. One day I will tell you: I am getting better.\" \"What do you mean?\" \"I have forgotten kindness and right.\" \"That is good; but not enough. Another day: I am getting better.\" \"What do you mean?\" \"I can sit and forget.\" Confucius was startled: \"What do you mean by sitting and forgetting?\" Yan Hui said: \"I let fall my limbs; I put away my hearing and my sight; I part from my form; I put out my knowledge; and I am made one with the great opening. That is what I call sitting and forgetting.\" Confucius said: \"If you are one with it, you have no love of things; if you are changed, you have no constancy. And you — you are a true man indeed! I ask to be your follower.\"\n\nZi Yu and Zi Sang were friends, and Zi Qin Zhang was their friend. Zi Sang had not been buried when Confucius sent Zi Gong to help. Zi Gong found one singing, and one playing, and the two singing together. And so: it is not the Way that is crooked, but the form that is crooked; and he who has the whole has no form, and he who has the form is not whole.\n\nAnd so the fish forget themselves in the rivers and lakes, and men forget themselves in the arts of the Way.\n\n### Chapter 7 應帝王第七\n\nNie Que asked four questions of Wang Ni, and four times got no answer. Nie Que leaped up for joy and went to tell Pu Yi Zi. Pu Yi Zi said: \"Have you only now learned it?\" Nie Que asked Wang Ni four questions, and four times Wang Ni said, \"I do not know.\" Then Nie Que leaped for joy. How so? The Teacher had told him: \"He who knows to say he does not know is deeper than he who knows to say he knows.\"\n\nJie Yu, the madman of Chu, passed by the gate of Confucius singing: \"O phoenix, O phoenix, how is your virtue faded! The future cannot be waited for; the past cannot be chased. The world has peace: the born go on living. The world has no way: there is no luck in being a ruler. When the earth has its grain, men have their food. When men have their food, they are content. And I: I am content; I am content; and yet my virtue is not gone. The coming danger cannot be cut; the going blessing cannot be kept. The world is darker than a hole; the world is deeper than a well. The world is colder than ice; the world is warmer than fire. Happily I know the way; the wind does not carry me; I go with it, and am not hurt. The false does not know the true; the true does not know the false.\"\n\nThe Heavenly Root wandered by the sunlit side of Mount Yin. It came to the land of Liao, and met the Nameless Man, and said: \"I wish to ask about governing the world.\" The Nameless Man did not answer. The Heavenly Root asked again. The Nameless Man said: \"Go away, you dull thing! Why ask me such disagreeable questions? I was going to ride the lightness of the bird that rides the emptiness, out past the six limits of the world, into the land of nothing at all, to the village of the unbounded. What have you to do with me, bringing your talk of kindness and right, this sack of nothingness, to disturb me?\" The Heavenly Root asked again, and the Nameless Man said: \"Let your wandering mind be one; let your breath be quiet; let Heaven be your guide; and things will order themselves, and the ten thousand things will be melted into dust.\"\n\nThe man of Yang Zi Ju saw Lao Dan, and said: \"Here is a man quick as the echo, strong as the surest, clearsighted and discerning, learning the Way and never resting. Can he stand beside the true king?\" Lao Dan said: \"Next to the true king, such a man is a clumsy servant, tied and bound. He wears out his own nature. A true king is not so: he goes out of himself and forgets; his benefits cover ten thousand generations, and he does not think of them as his. He does not lift himself above things; he does not make a name in the world; he rides the truth and wanders in the formless; his teaching comes from what has no name.\"\n\nZheng had a spirit-shaman, Ji Xian, who could tell men their deaths and their lives, their survival and their ruin, their misfortune and their blessing, their long life and their early end — to the very year, month, week, and day, like the spirits themselves. The people of Zheng fled when they saw him. Lie Zi went out to see him, and came back drunk with admiration. He told Hu Zi: \"I thought your teaching was the deepest; now I have found something deeper still.\" Hu Zi said: \"I have shown you the outside of it, not the inside — and you have found the Way? All hens and no cock: how can there be eggs? Take the crowd and show him me.\" Next day Lie Zi brought the shaman to see Hu Zi. The shaman went out and said to Lie Zi: \"Alas! Your master is dying! Not long for this world! I saw something strange: wet ashes!\" Lie Zi went in, weeping, and told Hu Zi. Hu Zi said: \"Show him me again: I was showing him the earth's stillness. Neither sprouting nor stirring, the stillness of the deep mountain: he saw me in my stillness. Try again.\" Another day the shaman came, and went out and said: \"Wonderful! Your master is whole again! There is a sign of life in him! I saw the moving of his good state!\" Lie Zi went in and told Hu Zi. Hu Zi said: \"I was showing him Heaven's ground: neither name nor substance, but the breath of the true spring. He saw me in my good state. Try again.\" Another day the shaman came, and went out and said: \"Your master is not whole. I cannot read him. Let him settle, and then I will come again.\" Lie Zi went in and told Hu Zi. Hu Zi said: \"I was showing him the great abyss where the deep is deep: the whale that swallows. He saw me in my depth. Try again.\" Another day the shaman came, and before he had settled he turned and ran. Hu Zi said: \"Chase him!\" Lie Zi ran, but could not catch him; and came back and said: \"He is gone; I could not hold him.\" Hu Zi said: \"I showed him nothing that comes from anywhere. I showed him the face I had before I came out of my mother; the face of the thing that is not a thing; the face of the beginning of things, before there was anything; the face that is one with everything, and has no beginning of anything. He ran.\"\n\nThe ruler of the South Sea was Shu; the ruler of the North Sea was Hu; the ruler of the Middle was Hundun. Shu and Hu met at times in the land of Hundun, and Hundun treated them well. Shu and Hu wished to repay his kindness. \"All men have seven openings, to see, hear, eat, and breathe,\" they said; \"this one alone has none. Let us bore him some.\" Each day they bored one opening; and on the seventh day Hundun died.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/zhuangzi-inner-chapters/translations/trn_zhuangzi_inner_chapters_mouseia.txt"},{"id":"trn_zhuangzi_inner_chapters_plain","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"plain","note":"Mouseia's complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from all seven inner chapters of the classical Chinese text.","text":"### Chapter 1 逍遙遊第一\n\nIn the far north there is a fish called the Kun. It's so huge nobody knows how many thousands of miles long it is. It turns into a bird called the Peng. The Peng's back is so huge nobody knows how many thousands of miles wide it is. When it takes off, its wings hang over the sky like clouds. When the sea churns, it heads for the southern ocean. The southern ocean is the great pool of heaven.\n\nAn old book of wonders called the Qi Xie tells about it: \"When the Peng heads south, the water splashes for three thousand miles. It rides a whirlwind up ninety thousand miles, and it flies for six months before it rests.\" The mist near the ground, the floating dust — all living things breathe and push each other along. Is the deep blue of the sky its real color, or just what distance looks like? Seen from above, it would look the same way.\n\nIf water isn't deep enough, it can't float a big boat. Pour a cup of water into a dent in the floor: a mustard seed floats there like a ship, but a cup sticks — the water's too shallow for a big vessel. It's the same with wind: if there isn't enough of it, big wings can't be held up. So there has to be ninety thousand miles of wind under the great bird, and only then can it ride it, spread its blue-backed wings toward the south, and set off.\n\nA cicada and a little dove laugh at it: \"We fly up as hard as we can toward an elm or a tree, and sometimes we don't even make it and fall back down. What's all this about ninety thousand miles up and heading south?\" If you're going to the nearby market, you just need three meals and you come home full. If you're going a hundred miles, you grind grain the night before. If you're going a thousand miles, you gather food for three months. What do these two little creatures understand? Small knowledge can't reach big knowledge. A short life can't understand a long one. How do we know? A mushroom that lives one morning doesn't know what a month is. A summer cicada doesn't know what spring and autumn are: their lives are just too short. In Chu there's a tree where one spring lasts five hundred years. In ancient times there was a great chun tree where one spring lasted eight thousand years. And Pengzu, famous for living long, is what everyone wants to copy — isn't that sad?\n\nTang asked about it too. In the bare north there's a dark sea, heaven's pool. There's a fish miles wide, and no one knows how big. Its name is Kun. There's a bird named Peng, its back like Mount Tai, its wings like clouds hanging from the sky. It rides the whirlwind ninety thousand miles up, above the clouds, levels off, and heads for the south sea. A little quail in the marsh laughs: \"Where's it going? I hop up and come down, fluttering among the weeds. That's the best flying there is. What's it think it's doing?\" That's the difference between small and big.\n\nSo a man smart enough for one job, good enough for one village, decent enough for one ruler, compares himself to this quail. Song Rongzi would laugh at him. The whole world could praise Rongzi and it wouldn't change anything; the whole world could condemn him and he wouldn't care. He knew what was really him and what was just the world's opinion. Even so, he hadn't quite planted himself anywhere.\n\nBut there is someone who rides what's true in heaven and earth, who breathes with the seasons, and wanders beyond limits. What would he depend on? That's why it's said: the perfect person has no self; the spiritual person has no accomplishments; the sage has no name.\n\nYao wanted to hand the whole world to Xu You. \"The sun and moon are already shining, and yet I keep lighting this little torch — it's pointless, right? The rain has already fallen, and I keep hauling water — it's a waste. Please take over, and everything will be run well. I'm just in the way. Please take it.\" Xu You said: \"You run the world, and it's already running well. If I took over, would I do it for the title? A title is just the shadow of the real thing — do I look like I'm chasing shadows? A little bird nesting in a huge forest needs one branch. A mole drinking from a river needs one bellyful. Go home — I don't need the world. The cook who runs the sacrificial feast doesn't step in for the kitchen helper.\"\n\nJian Wu asked Lian Shu: \"I heard Jie Yu talking wild nonsense, going on and on, no beginning or end. I was shocked. Is it like the endless sky? Or is it just crazy talk?\" Lian Shu said: \"How would you understand his meaning? There's a spirit-person living on the Guye mountain: skin like snow, gentle as a young girl. She doesn't eat grain; she breathes the wind and drinks the dew. She rides clouds and mist, drives flying dragons, and wanders beyond the four seas. When her spirit focuses, nothing gets sick and the crops ripen. I think that story is crazy, so I don't believe it.\" Jian Wu said: \"Right. A leper can't talk about beauty.\"\n\nBut there's a huge tree by the Song river called the chun. Its trunk is so knotted you can't measure it straight; its branches are so twisted no tool fits them. It stands by the road and no carpenter even looks at it. Your words are like that — big and useless, and everyone ignores them. Zhuangzi said: \"Why not plant it in the village of Nothing At All, out in the empty plains, and wander freely beside it, sleep easily under it? No axe will ever come for it; nothing can shorten its life. Being useless — nothing can hurt it.\"\n\nHuizi told Zhuangzi: \"The king of Wei gave me giant gourd seeds. I grew gourds big enough to hold five bushels. Filled with water, too heavy to lift. Cut into ladles, too flat to scoop anything. They're huge — but useless — so I smashed them.\" Zhuangzi said: \"You're just clumsy with big things. There was a man in Song who knew how to make a hand lotion that stopped skin cracking in winter. His family were silk-washers. A traveler offered a hundred gold pieces for the recipe. The family met and said: 'We've washed silk forever and never made more than a few coins. Now we can make a hundred gold in one morning — sell it.' The traveler got it and told the king of Wu, whose enemy Yue attacked in winter. The man led the navy, won the sea battle, and got a slice of land as reward. The same lotion: one man got land, another never got past washing silk — because they used it differently. You had a gourd holding five bushels. Why not tie it to your belt as a float and drift down the rivers and lakes, instead of whining it was too flat to scoop with? Your head is full of weeds, friend.\"\n\nHuizi told Zhuangzi: \"I have a big tree people call the chun. Its trunk is too knotted for measuring, its branches too twisted for tools. It stands by the road and nobody looks at it. Your words are like that tree — big and useless.\" Zhuangzi said: \"Ever seen a wildcat? It crouches low waiting for a mouse, leaps east and west, up and down — and then gets caught in a trap and dies. Then there's the yak — huge as a cloud hanging from the sky, plenty big enough, and can't even catch a mouse. You have a big tree and worry it's useless. Plant it in the village of Nothing At All, in the wide empty plains. Wander beside it; sleep under it. No axe will cut it down; nothing will kill it. If it's no use for anything, what could ever hurt it?\"\n\n### Chapter 2 齊物論第二\n\nZiqi of Nanguo sat leaning on his armrest, staring at the sky, breathing slowly, like he'd lost himself. His student Yan Cheng Ziyou stood in front of him and said: \"What's going on? Your body's like dried-out wood, your mind like dead ashes. The man leaning here today isn't the man who leaned here yesterday.\" Ziqi said: \"Yan, good question. Just now I lost myself. Do you understand? You've heard human music, but you've never heard earth's music. You've heard earth's music, but you've never heard heaven's music.\"\n\nZiyou asked: \"Tell me.\" Ziqi said: \"The great earth breathes out — we call it wind. When it's calm, nothing happens. When it blows, every hole and hollow cries out. Haven't you heard it in the deep forest? Hollows shaped like noses, mouths, ears, sockets, cups, mortars, puddles, puddles again. They whistle, hiss, shout, suck, yell, wail, moan, and moan again. First notes answer second notes. A light breeze makes a small chorus; a great gale makes a huge one. When the storm passes, all the holes go silent. Haven't you seen it — everything swaying, swinging?\" Ziyou said: \"So earth's music is the hollows, human music is bamboo pipes. What's heaven's music?\" Ziqi said: \"It blows through everything in a thousand different ways, letting each thing be itself. Everything picks its own sound. Who's making it all happen?\"\n\nBig knowledge is broad and easy. Small knowledge picks at details. Big speech is plain and strong. Small speech is endless babble. Asleep, our minds drift; awake, our bodies open to the world. All day we deal with people, and our hearts dig hidden battle lines. Sometimes we're careful and hesitant; sometimes we're trapping each other. Small fears leave us shaky; big fears leave us stunned. Words fly like arrows — aimed at who's right and who's wrong. When we're pinned down, we swear oaths to protect our wins. Then we fade like autumn into winter, dying a little every day. We sink into what we're doing and can't climb out — dark feelings pile up, and the old heart wears out. Near death, nothing can bring the mind back to sunlight. Joy, anger, sadness, happiness, worry, sighing, hesitating, fear, flippancy, wildness, indulgence: like music from empty pipes, like mushrooms breathing out steam. They appear in us day and night, and nobody knows where they grow. Stop! Stop! Morning and evening, that's where we live.\n\nWithout them, there's no me. Without me, they have nothing to happen to. We're close to understanding this — but nobody knows what makes it work. It seems like there's a true boss behind it all, though we can't find any proof. We believe he's real, but we can't see his shape. My body has a hundred joints, nine openings, six organs — all here, complete. Which one do I love most? Do you like them all equally? Or is one the boss of the rest? If they're all just servants, how can they rule themselves? Or do they take turns being boss? There must be one true ruler, whether we find him or not — it wouldn't add to him or subtract from him. Once we're born, we just keep going, blindly. We fight with the world our whole lives, galloping, and nothing stops us. Isn't that sad? Body growing old, mind dragging along behind — isn't that a great sorrow? Is human life really this dark, or is it just me?\n\nThe mind forms itself; but what makes it tick — is that heaven, or is it us? We do what we feel like doing, and we can't say what we really are. We run and run until the body wears out. Life between heaven and earth flies past like a white colt passing a crack in the wall — a blink. Everything surges out; everything pours back in. Things shift and move; nothing stays put. Then it all stops moving. Doesn't that hurt? If nothing ever moved or grew, there'd be no life at all. Isn't that the biggest puzzle of all? And in this fog we say \"me, me\" as if there were a real me. Is there? Who knows?\n\nTalk isn't just blowing wind — talk is meant to say something. But what it says is never fixed. So is anything really said, or nothing said? We think our words are different from baby-bird chirps. Are they? Is the Way hiding somewhere, so there's true and false? Are words hiding something, so there's right and wrong? Where is the Way you can't walk? What words make no sense? The Way gets buried in little clever points. Words get buried in fancy flourishes. That's why Confucians and Mohists fight — each calling the other wrong about what they call right. Wanting to fix what's wrong using what you're sure is right — better to just shine a light on the whole thing.\n\nThere's nothing that isn't \"that\"; there's nothing that isn't \"this.\" From where you stand, you can't see \"this.\" You only know \"this\" by understanding \"that.\" So: \"that\" comes from \"this,\" and \"this\" follows from \"that.\" It's relative. Even so: something is born and something dies at the very same moment; something dies and something is born right there. Nothing isn't approved; nothing isn't disapproved. So the sage skips the arguments and shines with plain heaven-light: that \"this\" is also \"that,\" and \"that\" is also \"this.\" \"That\" has its right and wrong; \"this\" has its right and wrong. Is there really a difference between \"that\" and \"this,\" or isn't there? When \"that\" and \"this\" lose their opposites, that's the center of the Way. The center has no edges; it sits in the middle where everything can happen. So: use your light.\n\nThings are just things: call them so, they're so. Call them other, they're other. Nothing isn't \"other\"; nothing isn't \"so.\" From a stalk to a pillar, from a leper to the beauty Xishi, from weird to wonderful: the Way makes them all one. Splitting is the same as completing; completing is the same as losing. Nothing is ever really finished or ruined — everything becomes one again. Only the truly clear-minded know how to connect the two into one. They don't labor over things — they let everything flow. That's leaning on the everyday light: use it, and it works.\n\nWhy all the fuss? Divide something and it's \"complete\"; complete it and it's \"damaged.\" Nothing is ever really complete or damaged — everything comes back around to being one. The Way has no walls; words have no permanent rules. The wise one sits in the middle of the circle where nothing can push on him — responding without end. Right now it's \"so\"; right now it's \"not so.\" Right now it's \"right\"; right now it's \"wrong.\" There's nothing that isn't so; there's nothing that isn't right. So the sage doesn't argue — he shines with the plain light of heaven.\n\nThe world's one big family; the ten thousand things are one horse. Everyone gets called names; everyone gets called right and wrong. Just walk on. Being clever about \"this\" and \"that\" only ties you up. Forgetting them, you're free. That's the Way.\n\nLong ago, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly — flying happily wherever it wanted, a self with its own plans. He didn't know he was Zhou. Suddenly he woke up, and there he was: solid Zhou. He doesn't know if he's Zhou who dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he's Zhou. There's a real gap between Zhou and the butterfly. That's what it means when things turn into each other.\n\n### Chapter 3 養生主第三\n\nLife has a limit, but knowledge doesn't. Chasing the unlimited with the limited wears you out. Knowing this and still chasing — wears you out even worse. Do good, but don't chase a good reputation. Avoid evil, but don't chase a name for avoiding it either. Follow your natural middle path: then you can keep your body whole, keep your nature whole, feed your family, and live out your full years.\n\nCook Ding was cutting up an ox for Lord Wenhui. Every touch of his hand, lean of his shoulder, stomp of his foot, shove of his knee — whish! — the meat fell apart in rhythm, like music, matching the ancient dance. Lord Wenhui said: \"How did you get this good?\" The cook put down his knife: \"I care about the Way, not just knife skills. When I started, I saw the whole ox. Three years later, I stopped seeing the whole thing. Now I meet it with my spirit, not my eyes. My senses stop; my spirit moves. I follow the natural structure — the big openings, the big hollows. I use the knife where the shape allows it. That's why my blade never catches on tendons, let alone bone. A good cook changes knives once a year — he cuts. A mediocre cook, once a month — he hacks. My knife is nineteen years old. It's carved thousands of oxen, and the blade is still like it just came off the stone. Between the joints there's room, and my blade has no thickness. Put nothing into space, and there's room to spare! Still, when I hit a tricky knot, I slow down, focus, move gently — and the whole thing falls apart like dirt crumbling. I stand there with the knife, look around, take my time, feel satisfied — and clean the blade and put it away.\" Lord Wenhui said: \"Amazing! From a cook I've learned how to live.\"\n\nThe gatekeeper lost a foot. He was sad about it. Someone said: \"You didn't cause it. Heaven made you one-legged; men just took the other foot. Your nature is still whole.\"\n\nThe pheasant in the marsh walks ten steps for one peck, a hundred steps for one drink — but it doesn't want to live in a cage. Even fed and happy there, it wouldn't be free.\n\nWhen Lao Dan died, Qin Shi went to the wake, cried out three times, and left. A student said: \"Weren't you his friend? Is that a proper way to mourn?\" Qin Shi said: \"Yes. I thought everyone here was a real friend of the master — turns out they're not. When your time comes, you go. Live in the moment, accept the change, and sorrow and joy can't get in. The ancients called this being released from heaven's bonds.\"\n\nThe candle burns out, but the flame passes on — and nobody knows where it ends.\n\n### Chapter 4 人間世第四\n\nYan Hui asked Confucius for permission to travel. \"Where?\" \"To Wei.\" \"Why?\" \"I heard the ruler of Wei is young and stubborn. He acts carelessly and never sees his own mistakes. He wastes his people's lives — the dead fill the country like dry reeds. You taught me: leave the well-run country; go to the mess. A doctor's door is crowded with patients. I want to use your teaching and see if Wei can be healed.\"\n\nConfucius said: \"You'll get yourself killed. The Way shouldn't be scattered around. If you pile it up, people will fight you. If you go preaching virtue at this young ruler, you're basically pointing out everyone's flaws — and famous men destroy whoever makes them look bad. They'll attack you. Your eyes will go dull, your face gray, your words desperate, your expression fake. It'll be like adding fire to fire, water to water. Your first words might be believed, but by the end they won't. You'll be ruined by the very man you came to help.\"\n\n\"Still — good people stand firm. If your goodness is solid and your heart clear, maybe the ruler will use you. If your reputation is high enough, he might even listen. What if you just talk to him man-to-man, and never criticize the powerful — then you won't get hurt, right?\"\n\nFame and truth: he'll want both. People chase fame. People protect what's true. But if he gets famous for being good, he'll want more and more fame — and suffer for it. If he's obsessed with proving himself right, he'll fight anyone who disagrees. Both are like a man who wants everyone to love him — and gets so loved he can't move. The greatest people of old did it differently. They didn't try to fix others; they kept their own hearts whole.\n\nFasting of the heart: don't listen with your ears — listen with your mind. Don't listen with your mind — listen with your breath. The ear stops at sounds; the mind stops at thoughts. The breath is empty and open, ready for everything. The Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness is the fast of the heart.\n\nYan Hui asked: \"Before this, I was Hui. Now, there is no Hui. Is that emptiness?\" Confucius said: \"Yes. Now you can go see the ruler of Wei.\"\n\nYan Hui asked: \"What is the fast of the heart?\" Confucius said: \"Make your will one. Don't listen with your ears; listen with your mind. Don't listen with your mind; listen with your breath. The ear stops at sounds. The mind stops at thoughts. The breath is empty, open to everything. The Way lives in emptiness. Emptiness is the fast of the heart.\"\n\nYan Hui said: \"Before today, Hui was Hui. Since today, there's no Hui. Is that it?\" Confucius said: \"That's it. Go to Wei. If they listen, sing; if not, be still. Don't push. One heart, no doors, no plans — and you can enter.\"\n\nThe world runs after one kind of knowing, and it isn't the Way. It runs out and comes back, never stopping. It knows \"this\" and misses \"that.\" A person stuck in what they know is spiritually dead. The sage doesn't need anyone else's light — his own is enough. Nothing is darker than the closed mind; nothing brighter than the open one. The one who knows he doesn't know is best. The one who doesn't know but thinks he knows is sick. The one who knows he's sick isn't sick. The sage isn't sick — he treats the sickness, and so it doesn't hurt him.\n\nConfucius asked Yan Hui: \"You're poor. Why not take a government job?\" Yan Hui said: \"I don't want one. I have a small farm outside the city — enough for rice porridge. I have a garden — enough for clothes. I play the lute — enough music. And your teaching — enough for my mind.\" Confucius said: \"Wonderful! Contentment is real wealth.\"\n\nConfucius asked Zi Sang Hu: \"Twice exiled from Lu. Your tree cut down in Song. Stripped of office in Wei. No friends in Shang or Zhou. What did you do to deserve this?\" Zi Sang Hu said: \"My mother died young; my father remarried; I have no brothers; I'm poor and alone. I have no clothes but these, no house but this. What could I want? I was taught: don't fight what you're given; don't lose what's true. I go along with it, and I'm not against it. The great man of old said: 'Go with the world, and don't be seen.' If I had gone along with the world, I'd have been seen — and lost. But I'm my own man, and the world doesn't recognize me. So I'm poor and alone. It's heaven that put me here, not me.\"\n\nZhuangzi said: \"Everyone knows how useful the useful is. Nobody knows how useful the useless is.\"\n\n### Chapter 5 德充符第五\n\nIn Lu there was a man named Wang Tai whose foot had been cut off as punishment. He had as many students as Confucius. Chang Ji asked Confucius: \"Wang Tai is a convicted criminal, yet he's half-famous in the state of Lu, like you. He doesn't teach; he doesn't argue. People come to him empty and go home full. Is there such a thing as wordless teaching? How does he do it?\" Confucius said: \"That man is a sage. I've been slow — I should go learn from him too. And not just Lu: I'd bring the whole world to him.\"\n\nChang Ji said: \"He's a one-footed ex-convict, and he's outshining you. What kind of man is he?\" Confucius said: \"Life and death are huge things, and they don't shake him. Even if heaven and earth collapsed, he wouldn't fall. He sees what never changes, and lets everything else change. He holds to the center.\"\n\nShen Tu Jia had his feet cut off as punishment, and studied under the teacher Bo Hun Wu Ren along with the minister Zichan. Zichan said: \"Let me exit first, or you exit first.\" The next day they were in the same room again, and Zichan said: \"I'm leaving now. Will you give way, or not? You're blocking a minister.\" Shen Tu Jia said: \"I'm a criminal standing in a great teacher's house, and you're worried about exit order? You've got a name and a body, and you show off your body. Not much of a mirror, are you?\"\n\nZichan said: \"If you're past wanting anything, why should a crooked man like me fix you? Look at yourself first.\" Shen Tu Jia said: \"People who own their faults don't talk like you. I've been here a long time, and you never even noticed me. You looked and didn't see; you walked and didn't feel. You have a mirror inside and refuse to look into it. Good luck with that.\"\n\nIn Wei there was an incredibly ugly man, Ai Tai Tuo. Men loved him. Women who met him told their parents: \"Rather than marry anyone else, I'd be his concubine.\" He never led anyone; he only responded when spoken to. He couldn't feed anyone or settle a single court case — yet people flocked to him from everywhere. He must have had something beyond looks or words that made everyone love him. Ten generations would have stayed.\n\nConfucius said: \"Once in Chu I saw baby pigs jumping around a dead mother pig, then suddenly running away. They saw her body was there, but she wasn't in it anymore. The sword is kept in its case for the metal. The person is loved for what's behind the face. If a man's true self is whole, his body can fall apart and nobody forgets him. A war prisoner without feet doesn't care about shoes — the foot is gone. What Heaven and Earth gave him isn't gone. That's what matters.\"\n\nLord Ai of Lu asked Confucius about Ai Tai Tuo: \"He was hideous, and men loved him. He couldn't feed anyone, couldn't judge a case — yet people came from far away. He must be whole in something beyond the body. Tell me about him.\" Confucius said: \"I once traveled to Chu and saw baby pigs following a dead sow, then running off. They saw the body, but the life was gone. A prisoner without feet doesn't care about shoes. When someone is whole inside, the outside doesn't matter.\"\n\nLord Ai said: \"Then what is being whole inside?\" Confucius said: \"Look at a man who lost his feet — shoes mean nothing to him. Heaven and Earth gave everyone their shape; the man whole in truth doesn't lose it. He doesn't change with change; he doesn't grieve over loss. He sees what's coming and isn't rattled. That's being whole inside.\"\n\nLord Ai said: \"He sounds amazing. I'm a king over a whole country, but when I met him, I forgot I was king. I offered him the state. He refused and left. I was ashamed.\" Confucius said: \"He's a sage. I haven't met anyone like him.\"\n\nZhuangzi said: \"Some people are whole inside but broken outside; some are beautiful outside and hollow inside. Whole inside and broken outside — people love them. Beautiful outside and hollow — they don't. Don't love the shape; don't lose the truth.\"\n\nHuizi said to Zhuangzi: \"People are born without a fixed shape. Isn't that hard?\" Zhuangzi said: \"Truth has no shape. Don't love the shape; don't lose the truth.\"\n\n### Chapter 6 大宗師第六\n\nKnow what Heaven does and what people do: that's the top of knowledge. Heaven gives life to everything. People take what they're given and don't lose it. Not losing it is keeping what's true. And keeping what's true means not losing heaven. But how can you say heaven isn't human and humans aren't heaven? You have to be a real person before you can have real knowledge.\n\nWhat is a real person? The real people of old didn't dream restlessly, didn't wake up worrying. They didn't savor food; they didn't fear death. They came without joy, left without fighting it. They didn't forget where they started; they didn't wonder where they'd end. They took what came happily and gave it back happily. That's called not letting the mind damage the Way.\n\nThe real person's heart is calm; face is still; forehead cool. Spring and autumn pass through him and he stays balanced with the ten thousand things. A weapon can destroy a country but can't kill the man of heaven. A flood can drown a land but can't drown him. Cold and heat can hurt everything else, but not him. A thief can steal a state, but not the man of heaven. That's the real person.\n\nReal people of old: their knowledge reached the One. They didn't love the few, didn't fear the many. They didn't scheme; they didn't fail. They didn't regret the past, didn't lean on the future. Going up, no joy; going down, no loss. Calm and quiet, they took what came with the season. That's the real person.\n\nReal people of old: slept without dreams, woke without worries. Ate without cravings; breathed deeply. A real person breathes from his heels; ordinary people breathe from the throat. The cramped and submissive breathe shallow, and their words come out half-digested.\n\nDeath and life are fate. Their constant cycle is heaven. A man can't choose his parents; but the world treats the Way as its father. True or not? Who can say? But treating the Way as parent is close to it.\n\nWe're cast into a mold and we don't grieve — that's wandering with the great breath. If we're cast and cast again, day and night, without end, and we can't choose the casting — to be at peace with the flow: then sorrow and joy can't get in. The ancients called that being freed from heaven's ropes. If you can't be your own master, you're the servant of whatever made you.\n\nFour friends looked at each other and smiled — Zi Si, Zi Yu, Zi Li, Zi Lai. One said: \"Who can make Nothing the head, Life the spine, Death the tail? Who knows that life and death and going and staying are one body? That's our friend.\" They smiled and didn't speak; their hearts were already friends.\n\nThen Zi Yu got sick. Zi Si visited: \"Amazing! The Maker has twisted you like this!\" Zi Yu was bent double — chin at his navel, shoulder above his head. But his breathing was easy, his heart light. He crawled to the well, looked at himself: \"Wow. The Maker has really bent me up!\" \"Do you hate it?\" \"No, why would I? If he turned my left arm into a rooster, I'd crow at dawn. If he turned my right arm into a crossbow, I'd shoot a bird. If he made my hips into wheels and my spirit into a horse, I'd ride! When it's time to go, I go. When it's time to stay, I stay. Peace, peace. No grief.\"\n\nThen Zi Lai got sick, swollen with illness, and lay there humming to himself, completely calm. Zi Li visited and cried out: \"Amazing! The Maker has twisted you like this!\" Zi Lai said: \"Do I hate it? Why? I'll be scattered: a rooster, and I'll crow; a crossbow, and I'll shoot; wheels and a horse, and I'll ride. Peace in the going; peace in the staying. No fear.\"\n\nZi Sang Hu, Meng Zi Fan, and Zi Qin Zhang were friends. One said: \"Who can be with others without really being with them? Who can leave without leaving? Who can climb the sky, wander the mist, play with the sun and moon outside the world of men, and forget life and death — just the One, beginningless and endless?\" The three smiled and said nothing: their hearts were already friends.\n\nThen Zi Sang Hu died. Confucius sent Zi Gong to help with the funeral. Zi Gong found the friends singing and playing the lute beside the body: \"Ah, Sang Hu! You've gone back to the truth — and we're still stuck being human!\" Zi Gong burst in: \"Singing at a corpse? Isn't that against the rites?\" The two friends looked at each other and laughed: \"What does this man know about the rites?\"\n\nZi Gong went back and told Confucius. Confucius said: \"They are people who wander outside the mold. I wander inside it. Outside and inside don't meet — sending you to mourn was my mistake. They are companions of the Maker. They treat life as a swelling, death as a drain. They don't know their own beginning or end. They take what comes and aren't bothered; they wander in the fires of the world and aren't burned. How could they bother with little ceremonies for a crowd?\"\n\nZi Gong said: \"Then what do you follow?\" Confucius said: \"I am one punished by heaven. Still, I seek the Way with you.\" Zi Gong said: \"Tell me about the Way.\" Confucius said: \"Fish forget themselves in rivers and lakes; people forget themselves in the arts of the Way. Fish in open water: fine. People in the Way: fine.\"\n\nYi Er Zi visited Xu You. Xu You asked: \"What did Yao teach you?\" Yi Er Zi said: \"Yao told me to practice kindness and do right.\" Xu You said: \"Then what are you doing here? Yao has already branded you with kindness and right — you can't wander free.\"\n\nYi Er Zi said: \"Still, I'd like to try.\" Xu You said: \"Not possible. A blind man can't love beautiful faces. A lame man can't love patterned robes — the capacity's gone.\" Yi Er Zi said: \"But the true woman lost her beauty; the brave warrior lost his strength; the great officer lost his land — and still they were glad. If the Maker can give back to them, why not to me?\" Xu You said: \"Who knows? I'll sing you a song: 'O wanderer, I go with the mold and don't know where I go. O fool, I go with the mold and don't know where I stay. I'm dark; I'm mad; I don't know the end. I move with the mold, and the mold doesn't leave me.' What would you do with the Maker of Things?\"\n\nYan Hui told Confucius: \"I'm improving.\" Confucius said: \"How?\" \"I've forgotten rites and music.\" \"Good — but not enough.\" Later: \"I'm improving.\" \"How?\" \"I've forgotten kindness and right.\" \"Good — but not enough.\" Later: \"I'm improving.\" \"How?\" \"I can sit and forget.\" Confucius jumped: \"What do you mean, sit and forget?\" Yan Hui said: \"I let my limbs fall away; I dismiss my senses; I drop my body; I put out my knowledge; and I merge with the great opening. That's sitting and forgetting.\" Confucius said: \"If you're one with it, no preferences. If you're transformed, no fixed self. You've become a real person — I'd like to be your student.\"\n\nThe fish forget themselves in the rivers and lakes. People forget themselves in the arts of the Way.\n\n### Chapter 7 應帝王第七\n\nNie Que asked Wang Ni four questions, and got no answer four times. Nie Que leaped up with joy and ran to tell Pu Yi Zi. Pu Yi Zi said: \"So you finally understand?\" He had asked and gotten \"I don't know\" — and leaped for joy. Why? Because the one who knows he doesn't know is deeper than the one who knows.\n\nJie Yu, the madman of Chu, passed Confucius's gate singing: \"Phoenix, oh phoenix, how your virtue has faded! You can't wait for the future; you can't chase the past. When the world has peace, the born just live. When the world loses the Way, rulers are just bad luck. Earth provides grain; people have food. Enough! Enough! My virtue isn't gone. The coming danger can't be cut off; the going blessing can't be kept. The world is darker than a hole; deeper than a well. Colder than ice; hotter than fire. Luckily I know the way out: the wind doesn't carry me; I go with it and am not hurt.\"\n\nThe Heavenly Root was wandering by the sunny side of Mount Yin, and came to the land of Liao, where he met the Nameless Man. He asked: \"I want to know about governing the world.\" The Nameless Man didn't answer. He asked again. The Nameless Man said: \"Get lost, you bore! Why ask me such dreary questions? I was about to ride the lightness of the empty sky, past the six limits of the world, into the land of Nothing At All, the village of the unbounded. What do I care about your kindness and right, this bag of troubles? Get away!\"\n\nYang Zi Ju saw Lao Dan and said: \"Here's a man quick as an echo, strong as the surest, sharp-eyed and clear, studying the Way without resting. Can he stand next to a true king?\" Lao Dan said: \"Next to a true king, he's a clumsy servant. He wears out his own nature. A true king isn't like that: he forgets himself; his benefit reaches ten thousand generations, and he doesn't claim it. He doesn't raise himself above things; he doesn't make a name. He rides the truth and wanders the formless; his teaching has no name.\"\n\nZheng had a spirit-shaman, Ji Xian, who could predict death, life, luck, ruin, blessings, misfortune, long life, early death — down to the exact year, month, week, and day. People fled when they saw him coming. Lie Zi went to see him and came back dazzled. He told his teacher Hu Zi: \"I thought your teaching was the deepest — now I've found something deeper!\" Hu Zi said: \"I showed you the outside, not the inside — and you think you've found the Way? All hens, no rooster: how do you get eggs? Bring the crowd and show him me.\"\n\nThe next day, Lie Zi brought the shaman. The shaman came out and said: \"Your master is dying! Any day now! I saw something strange — wet ashes!\" Lie Zi ran in weeping. Hu Zi said: \"I was showing him the stillness of earth. Neither sprouting nor moving: the deep mountain's stillness. He saw my stillness. Bring him again.\"\n\nAnother day, the shaman came and left saying: \"Lucky man! Your master is recovering! I saw signs of life!\" Lie Zi told Hu Zi. Hu Zi said: \"I was showing him heaven's ground: no name, no substance, but the true spring breathing. He saw my good state. Bring him again.\"\n\nAnother day: \"Your master is inconsistent. I can't read him. Let him settle, and I'll come back.\" Hu Zi said: \"I showed him the great abyss, the deep where the deep is deep. He saw my depth. Bring him again.\"\n\nAnother day, the shaman came, and before he'd even settled in place, he turned and ran. Hu Zi said: \"Chase him!\" Lie Zi ran but couldn't catch him, and came back: \"He's gone.\" Hu Zi said: \"I showed him nothing that comes from anywhere. I showed him the face I had before my mother bore me; the face of the thing that isn't a thing; the beginning before anything began; the face that is one with everything and starts from nothing. He ran.\"\n\nThe ruler of the South Sea was Shu; the ruler of the North Sea was Hu; the ruler of the Center was Hundun (Chaos). Shu and Hu often met in Hundun's land, and Hundun always treated them wonderfully. Shu and Hu wanted to repay him. \"All people have seven holes — eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth — to see, hear, eat, and breathe. He alone has none. Let's bore him some.\" Each day they bored one hole. On the seventh day, Hundun died.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/zhuangzi-inner-chapters/translations/trn_zhuangzi_inner_chapters_plain.txt"}],"retex_markdown_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/zhuangzi-inner-chapters/retex.md"}}