by An Liu
2.8
For these reasons, sages entrust their spirits to the Numinous Storehouse and return to the beginning of the myriad things.
They peer into Dark Obscurity
and listen to the soundless.
In the midst of Dark Obscurity, they alone see luminescence.
In the midst of the silent and still, they alone shine forth.
Their use of it is in not using it;
only by not using it are they able to use it.
Their knowing of it is in not knowing it;
only by not knowing it are they able to know it.
If Heaven were not stable, the sun and moon would have no support.
If Earth were not stable, the grasses and trees would have nowhere to be planted.
If what is established within your person is not tranquil, “that’s it!” and “that’s not!” cannot take form. For these reasons, only when there is a Genuine Person is there Genuine Knowledge. If what I grasp is not clear, how do I know that what I call knowledge is not ignorance? [2/14/1–5]
Now to accumulate wisdom and multiply generosity,
gather up love and concentrate kindness.
With a glorious reputation, love and protect the myriad people and hundred clans, causing them to be joyful and delight in their natures; this is Humaneness.
To achieve great merit,
establish an illustrious name,
support ruler and minister,
correct superiors and inferiors,
distinguish kin from stranger,
sort out the noble and the base,
preserve the endangered kingdoms,
continue the broken [ancestral] lines.
To break off the rebellious and control the disorderly, revive destroyed ancestral temples, and establish those with no descendants; this is Rightness.
To block off the nine orifices,
to store up the attention of the mind,
to discard hearing and vision,
to return to having no awareness,
to vastly wander outside the dust and dirt and freely roam in the activity of effortless, to inhale the yin and exhale the yang, and to completely harmonize with the myriad things; this is Potency.
For these reasons,
when the Way is scattered, there is Potency.
When Potency leaks away, there is Humaneness and Rightness.
When Humaneness and Rightness are established, the Way and its Potency are abandoned.48 [2/14/7–11]
2.9
Take a tree of a hundred hand spans in diameter, cut it down, and make it into sacrificial goblets. You
engrave them with knives and awls,
sprinkle them with blue and yellow.
[They are] elaborately adorned and brilliantly inlaid,
[with] dragons, snakes, tigers, and leopards,
intricately finished with patterns and designs.
Yet as soon as one breaks, it [is discarded] in a ditch. Comparing a sacrificial goblet to what is discarded in the ditch, though as to ugliness and beauty they are different, yet in having lost the nature of wood, they are equal.
For this reason,
the words of one whose spirit pours away are elaborate;
the conduct of one whose Potency is blocked is artificial.
If you lack the Utmost Essence internally, yet perceive words and conduct externally, you will not be able to avoid becoming enslaved to material things. If in your choosing and rejecting your conduct is artificial, this is to seek Essence externally. If Essence leaks out completely but conduct is not curbed, this disturbs the mind and agitates the spirit, confusing and disordering the source.
What you preserve is not stable: outwardly you are steeped in the fashionable customs of the age.
Your mistakes are already made: inwardly your pure clarity is sullied.
Thus you are apprehensive to the last, never knowing a moment of contentment. [2/14/13–18] For this reason, sages inwardly cultivate the techniques of the Way and do not adorn themselves externally with Humaneness and Rightness. They are unaware of the demands49 of the ears and eyes and wander in the harmony of the Quintessential Spirit.
Those who are so,
below survey the three springs,
above inspect the nine heavens,
broadly span the six coordinates,
bind and unite the myriad things,
Such are the wanderings of the sages.
The Genuine flow into utmost emptiness and wander in the wilds of extinction;
they ride the gryphon and follow the sphinx;50
they gallop beyond the bounds [of the world];
and rest beneath the roof [of the cosmos].51
They use ten suns as a lamp and command the wind and rain.
They subjugate the Duke of Thunder,52
employ Kuafu,53
take Mi Fei54 as a concubine,
take the Weaver Girl as a wife.55
What between Heaven and Earth could be worthy of their ambition? Thus,
Emptiness and Nothingness are the lodging place of the Way;
equilibrium and simplicity are the basic fabric of the Way. [2/14/20–24]
When people belabor their spirits and disturb their essence, rationally searching for things externally, they all lose their spiritlike brilliance and expel it from its abode. Thus one who has frozen will use a double robe in spring, and one who has suffered heatstroke will hope for a cool breeze in autumn. When there is sickness within, it will always leave its complexion externally. The sweet osmanthus relieves cataracts;56 the snail cures iritis; both these are medicines that can treat the eye. If people take these without cause, it will certainly obscure their vision. [2/14/26–2/15/1]
2.10
That by which the sages overawe the world has never been surpassed by the Genuine.
That by which the worthy condescend to the vulgar has never been noticed by the sages.
Now,
a puddle in an ox’s footprint will not have [even] a one-foot carp;
a piled-earth hillock will not have [even] a tree one fathom in height.57
Why is this so? Because their limits are narrow and small and cannot accommodate what is grand and large. How much more is this true of what cannot envelope these very things? This is even further from the grandeur of mountains and abysses. When human beings grapple with the age, inevitably their form becomes entangled and their spirit depletes; thus they cannot avoid exhaustion. If I can be bound and harnessed, it is certainly because my destiny is grounded externally [to myself]. [2/15/1–4]
In an age of Utmost Potency, [people]
contentedly slept in boundless realms
and moved [between] and lodged in indeterminate dwellings.
They clasped Heaven and Earth and discarded the myriad things. They took primal chaos as their gnomon and floated freely in a limitless domain. For this reason, the sages [merely] inhaled and exhaled the qi of yin and yang, and none of the myriad living things failed to flourish as they acknowledged [the sages’] Potency in harmonious compliance. At this time nothing was directed or arranged; separately and autonomously [things] completed themselves. Mixed and merged, simple and undispersed, they blended into a unity, and the myriad things were greatly abundant. For this reason, even if you had the knowledge of [Archer] Yi there was nothing for which to use it.58
When the age declined, in the reign of Fuxi, his Way was obscure and indistinct. He contained Potency and embraced harmony, broadcasting them subtly and comprehensively, yet even so knowledge first stirred and sprouted. [The people] all wanted to part from their childlike and ignorant mind and awareness appeared in the midst of Heaven and Earth; thus their Potency was vexed and could not be unified.
Coming to the age of the Divine Farmer and the Yellow Emperor,59 they
split and sundered the Great Ancestor,
examining and directing Heaven and Earth,
enumerating the Nine Vacancies,
and demarcating the Nine Bounda
ries.60
They clasped yin and yang,
kneaded the hard and the soft,
split the branches, and sorted the leaves.
The myriad things and hundred clans were each given structure and rule. At this, the myriad people all were alert and awake, and there were none who did not straighten up to listen and look. Thus they were orderly but could not be harmonized.
Coming down to the age of Kun Wu61 and the descendants of the Xia,
desires attached to things;
hearing and sight were lured outward,
[so that] nature and destiny lost their [proper] attainment.
Coming down to the house of Zhou, decadence dispersed simplicity; [people] deserted the Way for artifice; they were miserly of Potency in conduct; and cleverness and precedence sprouted. When the Zhou house declined, the kingly Way was abandoned. The Confucians and Mohists thus began enumerating their Ways and debating, dividing up disciples, and reciting. From then on, broad learning cast doubt on the sages; elaborate deceit tyrannized the masses. They played and sang and drummed and danced, embroidering the Odes and Documents to purchase fame and praise in the world. They
proliferated rituals of ascending and descending,
adorned costumes of aprons and caps.
The assembled masses were insufficient for the extremes of their alterations; the collected wealth [of the world] was insufficient to meet their expenses. At this, the myriad people first forgot the trail and abandoned the path; all wanted to practice their own knowledge and artifice, seeking to force conditions62 on the age and crookedly acquire fame and profit. For this reason, the common people were unleashed to profligacy and lost the root of the Great Ancestor. The [current] age being bereft of nature and destiny is the product of gradual decline; its origins are distant. [2/15/6–20]
For this reason,
the learning of the sage:
seeks to return nature to its origin
and to set the mind to roaming in emptiness.
The learning of the knowledgeable:
seeks to connect nature to the great expanse [of the world]
and to awaken to stillness and quiescence.
The vulgar learning of the age is not like this.
It tugs at Potency
and drags at nature.
Internally it vexes the five orbs;
externally it belabors the ears and eyes.
Then one begins to pick at the wriggling and curling minutiae of things; moving and swaying with Humaneness, Rightness, Ritual, and Music. You lord your conduct and project your cunning over the world, seeking title, fame, and reputation from the age. This I am too ashamed to do. [2/15/22–25]
For this reason, having the world does not compare with being content. Being content does not compare with wandering carefree through the ends and beginnings of things and penetrating the frontier between Something and Nothing. [Those who are] thus
are not more encouraged if the whole age praises them;
are not more melancholy if the whole age contradicts them.
They are firm in the boundary between life and death and comprehend the guiding pattern of honor and disgrace. Though raging fires and flooding waters wreak havoc throughout the world, their spirit remains undiminished in their breasts. Those who are like this view the realm of the world as flying feathers and floating twigs. How could they be willing to busily make things their affairs? [2/16/1–4]
2.11
The nature of water is clear, yet soil sullies it.
The nature of humans is tranquil, yet desires disorder it.
What human beings receive from Heaven are [the tendencies]
for ears and eyes [to perceive] colors and sounds,
for mouth and nose [to perceive] fragrances and tastes,
for flesh and skin [to perceive] cold and heat.
The instinctive responses are the same in everyone, but some penetrate to spiritlike illumination, and some cannot avoid derangement and madness. Why is this? That by which they [these tendencies] are controlled is different.
Thus,
the spirit is the source of consciousness. If the spirit is clear, then consciousness is illumined.
Consciousness is the storehouse of the mind. If consciousness is impartial, then the mind is balanced.
No one can mirror himself in flowing water, but [he can] observe his reflection in standing water because it is still.
No one can view his form in raw iron, but [he can] view his form in a clear mirror because it is even.
Only what is even and still can thus give form to the nature and basic tendencies of things. Viewed from this perspective, usefulness depends on what is not used. Thus when the empty room is pristine and clear, good fortune will abide there.63
If the mirror is bright, dust and dirt cannot obscure it.
If the spirit is clear, lusts and desires cannot disorder it.
To work at reclaiming the Quintessential Spirit once it has already overflowed externally is to lose the root and seek it in the branches. If external and internal do not tally and you desire to interact with things; if you cover your mysterious light and seek to know [things] with the ears and eyes; this is to discard your brilliance and follow your blindness. This is called “losing the Way.” When the mind goes somewhere, the spirit swiftly lodges there. By returning the spirit to emptiness, this lodging dissolves and is extinguished.64 This is the wandering of the sage. [2/16/6–15]
Thus those in antiquity who ordered the world invariably penetrated the basic tendencies of nature and destiny. Their taking and giving were not necessarily the same, [but] they were as one in uniting with the Way.
You do not refrain from wearing fur in summer because you cherish it but because it is too hot for your person.
You do not refrain from using a fan in winter to conserve it but because it is too cold for comfort.
The sages
assess their bellies and eat;
measure their frames and dress.
They compose themselves, that is all; from whence can the mind of greed and dissipation arise?
Thus,
a person who can have the world is invariably someone who will not strive for it.
A person who can possess fame and praise is invariably someone who will not scurry in search of them.
The sage has broken through to it. Having broken through to it, the mind of lust and desire is external [to him]. [2/16/17–21]
2.12
The disciples of Confucius and Mozi all teach the techniques of Humaneness and Rightness to the age, yet they do not avoid destruction. If they personally cannot practice [their teachings], how much less may those they teach?65 Why is this? Because their Way is external. To ask the branches to return to the roots: if even Xu You could not do it, how much less the common people? If you genuinely break through to the basic tendencies of nature and destiny, so that Humaneness and Rightness adhere [to your actions], how then can choosing and discarding suffice to confuse your mind? [2/16/23–25]
If
the spirit has no obstruction and the mind has no burden,
if they are pervasively comprehending and minutely penetrating,
calm and quiescent and free of tasks,
without any congealing or stagnancy,
attentive in empty stillness,
then
power and profit cannot lure them;
logicians cannot delight them;
sounds and colors cannot corrupt them;
beauty cannot debauch them;
wisdom cannot move them;
courage cannot frighten them;
This is the Way66 of the Genuine. Those who are like this shape and forge the myriad things and in their being human are conjoined with what creates and transforms.
Amid Heaven and Earth,
in space and time,
nothing can destroy or impede them.
What generates life is not life;
what transforms things is not transformation.67
Their spirits:
cross Mount Li or the Taihang [Mountains] and have no difficulty;
enter the Four Seas or the Nine Rivers and cannot be trapped;
lodge in narrow defiles and cannot be obstructed;
spread across the realm of Heaven and Earth and are not stretched.
If you do not penetrate to this [point],
though your eyes enumerate a group of one thousand sheep,
though your ears distinguish the tones of the eight winds,
your feet perform the “Northern Bank”68 dance;
your hands execute the “Green Waters”69 rhythm;
your intelligence encompasses Heaven and Earth;
your brilliance illuminates the sun and moon;
your disputations unknot linked jewels;
your words add luster to jade and stone;
These will still be of no aid to governing the world. [2/16/27–2/17/6]
2.13
Tranquillity and calmness are that by which the nature is nourished.
Harmony and vacuity are that by which Potency is nurtured.
When what is external does not disturb what is internal, then our nature attains what is suitable to it.
When the harmony of nature is not disturbed, then Potency will rest securely in its position.
Nurturing life so as to order the age,
embracing Potency so as to complete our years,
This may be called being able to embody the Way.
Those who are like this:
Their blood and pulse have no sluggishness or stagnation;
their five orbs have no diseased qi;
calamity and good fortune cannot perturb them;
blame and praise cannot settle on them like dust;
thus can they reach the ultimate. [However,] if you do not have the age, how can you succeed? If you have the right character but do not meet your time, you will not even be able to safeguard your person. How much less so one who is without the Way! [2/17/8–11]