The Huainanzi
Page 9
Fathers were spared the grief of mourning their sons.
Elder brothers were spared the sadness of mourning their younger brothers.
Children did not become orphans.
Wives did not become widows.
Double rainbows did not appear.
Baleful stars did not occur.11
This is all the result of the Potency with which they were imbued. [1/1/10–17]
1.3
The most exalted Way
generates the myriad things but does not possess them,
completes the transforming images12 but does not dominate them.
Creatures that walk on hooves and breathe through beaks, that fly through the air and wriggle on the ground,
depend on it for life, yet none understands its Potency;
depend on it for death, yet none is able to resent it.
Those who attain it and profit are unable to praise it;
those who use it and lose are unable to blame it.
It gathers and collects yet is not any richer for it.
It bestows and confers yet it not diminished by it.
It cycles endlessly yet cannot be fathomed.
It is delicate and minute yet cannot be exhausted.
Pile it up, but it will not get higher;
Collapse it, but it will not get lower.
Add to it, but it will not increase.
Take away from it, but it will not decrease.
Split it, but it will not get thinner.
Kill it, but it will not be destroyed.
Bore into it, but it will not deepen.
Fill it in, but it will not get shallower.
Hazy! Nebulous! You cannot imagine it.
Nebulous! Hazy! Your use will not exhaust it.
Dark! Obscure! It responds formlessly.
Deep! Penetrating! It does not act in vain.
It rolls and unrolls with the firm and the pliant.
It bends and straightens with the yin and the yang. [1/1/19–24]
1.4
In ancient times when Feng Yi and Da Bing rode chariots, they rose up in thunder carts and entered the cloudy rainbow. They roamed in the ethereal mists and galloped in the hazy and nebulous. Going farther and farther and higher and higher, they reached the pinnacle. They traversed the frost and snow but left no tracks. Illuminated by the light of the sun, they cast no shadows. Spiraling around, they ascended the whirlwind. Traversing mountains and rivers, they strode over Mount Kunlun. Pushing through the Chang He [gate] they surged through the gateway of Heaven.13
If we compare this with the charioteering in recent times, although there are lightweight carts and good horses, strong whips and sharp prods, they cannot compete with or overtake them.14
Therefore, the Great Man
calmly has no worries
and placidly has no anxieties
He takes
Heaven as his canopy;
Earth as his carriage;
the four seasons as his steeds,
and yin and yang as his charioteers.
He rides the clouds and soars through the sky to become a companion of the power that fashions and transforms us. Letting his imagination soar and relaxing his grip, he gallops through the vast vault [of the heavens].
When appropriate, he canters [his steeds].
When appropriate, he gallops them.
He orders the master of rain to moisten the byways
And directs the master of wind to sweep away the dust.
He takes lightning as his lash
and thunder as his chariot wheels.
Above, he roams freely in the misty and murky realms.
Below, he emerges from the gateway of the boundless.
Having observed all around and illuminated everything
He returns to guarding [the One] in order to remain whole.
He superintends the four corners [of Earth]
Yet always turns back to the central axis.
Thus,
with Heaven as your canopy, nothing will be uncovered.
With Earth as your carriage, nothing will be unsupported
With the four seasons as your steeds, nothing will be unemployed.
With yin and yang as your charioteers, nothing will be incomplete.
Therefore, why is it that
he hastens forth but does not wobble;
goes far but does not weary;
his four limbs do not weaken;
his perceptual acuity does not diminish;
and he comprehends the shapes and outlines of the eight outlying regions and the nine fields of the heavens? It is because he grasps the handles of the Way and roams in the land of the inexhaustible. [1/1/26–1/2/11]
1.5
Therefore,
the affairs of the world cannot be deliberately controlled.
You must draw them out by following their natural direction.
The alterations of the myriad things cannot be fathomed.
You must grasp their essential tendencies and guide them to their homes.
When a water mirror comes in contact with shapes, it is not because of wisdom and precedent that it is able to flawlessly reflect the square, round, crooked, and straight.15 Therefore, the echo does not respond at random, and the shadow does not independently arise. They mimic sounds and forms and tacitly grasp them.
That which is tranquil from our birth is our heavenly nature. Stirring only after being stimulated, our nature is harmed. When things arise and the spirit responds, this is the activity of perception. When perception comes into contact with things, preferences arise. When preferences take shape and perception is enticed by external things, our nature cannot return to the self, and the heavenly patterns are destroyed.16
Thus those who break through to the Way do not use the human to change the heavenly. Externally they transform together with things, but internally they do not lose their genuine responses.
They attain Nothing, but their needs are provided for.
They are always on the move but find a place to lodge for the night.
Small and great, tall or short, each has its proper role. The myriads spring forth and leap and prance in profusion, yet they do not lose track of their norms.17
So when they rest above, the people do not find them heavy.
When they are located in front, the multitudes do not injure them.
All the world returns to them
The wicked and perverse fear them.
It is because they do not compete with the myriad things that none is able to compete with them. [1/2/11–19]
1.6
Now if someone spends an entire day pole-fishing along a riverbank he will not be able to fill up even a hand basket. Even though he may have hooked barbs and sharp spears, fine line and fragrant bait, and, in addition, the skills of Zhan He or Juan Xuan,18 he would still be unable to compete with the catch hauled in by a trawling net. Or suppose a bowman were to stretch out the famous Wuhao bow and fit it with the fine arrows from Qi and add to this the craft of Yi or Feng Mengzi.19 If he wanted to hunt birds in flight, he would still be unable to match the amount caught by a gauze net. Why is this? It is because what he is holding is small [by comparison].
If you stretch out the world and make it your basket
and follow the courses of rivers and oceans and make them your trawling net,
How could you lose any fish or miss any birds?
Thus the arrow cannot match the spear; the spear cannot match the trawling net; but the trawling net cannot match the Formless Image.20 [1/2/21–25] Now if you let go of the great Way and rely on inferior methods,21 this is no different from using a crab to catch a rat or a frog to catch a flea: it is insufficient to prevent wickedness and block depravity. It will only cause disorder to increase.
In ancient times, Gun22 of Xia made a city wall twenty-four feet high,23 but the Lords of the Land turned against him and those who dwelled beyond the seas had deceitful hearts. [His son] Yu24 understood that t
he world had become rebellious and thereupon knocked down the wall, filled in the moat surrounding the city, gave away their resources, burned their armor and weapons, and treated everyone with beneficence. And so the lands beyond the Four Seas respectfully submitted, and the four Yi tribes brought tribute. When he assembled the Lords of the Land on Mount Du, there were people from myriad principalities who brought in gifts of jade and silk. Thus when a deceitful heart is hidden in your chest, your inner purity will not glisten and your spiritlike Potency will not be whole. When what lies within your own person is not known to you, how can people from afar cherish you? Therefore when the armor is hard, the weapons are sharper; when city walls are built, battering rams are made. It is like using boiling water to reduce the boil: the disorder will simply increase. Therefore if you lash a snapping dog or whip a kicking horse in order to teach them, although you be as gifted as Yi Yin25 or Zaofu,26 you will not be able to transform them in this way. But if the heart that wishes to harm others disappears from within you, then you can pull the tail of a hungry tiger; how much more can you tame such things as dogs and horses?
Therefore those who embody the Way are relaxed and never exhausted.
Those who rely on [inferior] methods work hard but achieve little. [1/3/1–7]
Resorting to harsh laws and arbitrary punishments is not the practice of hegemons and kings.
Repeatedly using sharp whips is not the method of those who travel far.
Li Zhu’s27 vision was so acute that he could pick out the tip of a needle beyond a hundred paces, but he could not see the fish in the deep.
Music Master Kuang’s28 hearing was so accurate that he could harmonize the tones of the eight winds, yet he could not hear anything beyond ten li.
Thus relying on the talents of one person is insufficient to govern a holding of three mou. But if you comply with the norms of the Way29 and follow the naturalness of Heaven and Earth, then none within the six coordinates will be able to be your equal.
Therefore, when Yu drained the flood,
he followed the water as his master.
When the Divine Farmer30 sowed grain,
he followed the seedlings as his teacher. [1/3/9–13]
1.7
Plants like duckweed take root in water.
Plants like trees take root on land.
Birds beat their wings in the air in order to fly.
Wild beasts stomp on solid ground in order to run.
Serpents and dragons live in the water.
Tigers and leopards live in the mountains.
This is the nature of Heaven and Earth.31
When two pieces of wood are rubbed together, they make fire.
When metal and fire are pushed together, the metal becomes molten.
Round things always spin.
Hollow things excel at floating.
This is their natural propensity.
Therefore, when spring winds arrive, then sweet rains will fall; they vitalize and nurture the myriad things.
Those with wings sit on their nests and hatch eggs.
Those with hair gestate and give birth to their young.
Grasses and trees become lush and flowering.
Birds and wild beasts have eggs and embryos.
No one sees what effects these things, but these achievements are completed.
The autumn winds cause frost to descend,
and the living things [that are reached by the frost] are snapped and injured.
Eagles and falcons hawkishly seize [their prey];
swarming insects hibernate;
grasses and trees die back to their roots;
fish and tortoises plunge together into the deep.
No one sees what effects these things; they just disappear into the Formless.
Tree dwellers nest in the woods;
water dwellers live in caves.
Wild beasts have beds of straw;
human beings have houses.
Hilly places are suitable for oxen and horses.
For travel by boat, it is good to have a lot of water.
The Xiongnu produce rancid animal-skin garments,
The Gan and Yue [peoples] make thin clothes of pueraria fabric.32
Each produces what it urgently needs
in order to adapt to the aridity or dampness.
Each accords with where it lives
in order to protect against the cold and the heat.
All things attain what is suitable to them;
things accord with their niches.
From this viewpoint, the myriad things definitely accord with what is natural to them, so why should sages interfere with this? [1/3/15–22]
1.8
To the south of the Nine Passes, tasks on dry land are few, while tasks on water are many. So the people cut their hair and tattoo their bodies in order to resemble scaly creatures. They wear short pants, not long trousers, in order to make swimming easier. And they have short sleeves in order to make poling their boats easier. In doing this, they are adapting [to their natural environment].
To the north of the Yanmen Pass, the Di tribes do not eat grain. They devalue the aged and value the strong, and it is a custom to esteem those with strength of vital energy. People there do not unstring their bows, nor do they remove the bridles from their horses. In doing this, they are adjusting [to their natural environment].
Thus when Yu went to the Country of the Naked, he removed his clothes when he entered and put them back on when he left. In doing this he was adapting [to his natural environment]. Nowadays, if those who transplant trees neglect the yin and the yang aspects of their natures, then none will not wither and die. Thus if you plant a mandarin orange tree north of the Yangzi, it will transform into an inedible orange. A mynah bird cannot live beyond [i.e., to the north of] the Qi River, and if a badger33 crosses [to the south of] the Min River, it will die. Physical form and innate nature cannot be changed,34 and propensity and locale cannot be shifted.
Therefore,
those who break through to the Way return to clarity and tranquillity.
Those who look deeply into things end up not acting on them.
If you use calmness to nourish your nature,
and use quietude to transfix your spirit,
then you will enter the heavenly gateway. [1/3/24–1/4/3]
What we call “Heaven”
is pure and untainted,
unadorned and plain,
and has never begun to be tainted with impurities.
What we call “human”
is biased because of wisdom and precedent.
Devious and deceptive,
it is what looks back to past generations and interacts with the vulgar.
Thus,
that the ox treads on cloven hooves and grows horns
and that the horse has a mane and square hooves,
This is heavenly [i.e., natural].
Yet to put a bit in a horse’s mouth
and to put a ring through an ox’s nose,
This is human.
Those who comply with Heaven roam with the Way.
Those who follow the human interact with the mundane.
Now,
you cannot talk to a fish in a well about great things because it is confined by its narrow space.
You cannot talk to a summer bug about the cold because it is restricted to its season.
You cannot talk to petty scholars about the Utmost Way because they are confined by the mundane and bound up by their teaching.
Thus sages
do not allow the human to obscure the heavenly
and do not let desire corrupt their genuine responses.
They hit the mark without scheming;
they are sincere without speaking;
they attain without planning;
they complete without striving.
Their vital essence circulates into the Magical Storehouse, and they become human along with what fashions and transforms them. [1/4/5–
10]
1.9
When an excellent swimmer sinks and an excellent rider falls, it is because, contrary to expectations, each has taken what he is fond of and used it to make misfortune for himself.
Therefore,
those who are fond of striving never miss falling into a trap,
and those who compete for gain are never not exhausted.
In ancient times, the strength of Gong Gong was such that he butted his head against Buzhou Mountain and caused the earth to tilt toward the southeast. He competed with Gao Xin35 in order to become the thearch. Subsequently he disappeared into an abyss; his entire clan was destroyed; and the ancestral sacrifices of his clan line were cut off. The king of Yue fled to a cave in the mountains, but the people of Yue smoked him out,36 and subsequently he had no choice [but to return with them].
When we look at things from this point of view,
attainment lies with the right moment and does not lie in competing with others.
Good order lies in the Way and does not lie in sages.
The soil lies beneath things and does not compete to be higher than them. Thus it is secure and in no danger.
Water flows downward and does not compete to take the lead. Thus it moves quickly without delay. [1/4/12–16]
In ancient times, Shun plowed on Mount Li. After a year the farmers competed to occupy the stony fields while they relinquished the fertile fields to one another. He fished on the riverbank. After a year the fishermen fought to occupy the rapids and shallows while they gave the remote coves and deep pools to one another. During this time his mouth did not speak, and his hands did not direct with banners. He held a mysterious potency in his mind, and he transformed things so rapidly it seemed spiritlike. If Shun had not had this awareness, although his mouth could argue so cogently that every household would be persuaded, he would not have been able to transform even a single person. Therefore the Way that cannot be spoken of is incredibly vast! Now he was able to regulate the San Miao and subjugate the Feathered People, to move to the Country of the Naked, and to receive tribute from the Sushan. It was not because he announced titles and proclaimed edicts that he was able to adjust their mores and change their customs; it was only because of his mental activity that he was able to do that. How could laws and measures, punishments and restrictions, enable him to achieve this?
Therefore,
sages internally cultivate the root [of the Way within them]