by An Liu
an oyster’s ailment
but my profit.
Tigers’ claws and elephants’ tusks are
good for the animals
but harmful to me.68
17.196
An easy road and a fine horse make people want to gallop.
Drinking wine and feeling happy make people want to sing.
17.197
To do what you know is right can certainly be called decisiveness.
To do what you know is wrong can surely be called delusion.
17.198
An arrow’s speed cannot carry it more than two li. But if you go a hundred stages without resting,69 you can go a thousand li.
17.199
Sages live in the yin;
the masses live in the yang.70
Sages walk in the water
where they leave no traces;
the masses walk on frost
where their tracks remain.
17.200
Different notes cannot be heard from the same pitch pipe;
Different shapes cannot be accommodated within the same body.
17.201
The peasants work hard, and the nobleman is nourished thereby;
The foolish speak, and the man of knowledge selects therefrom.
17.202
If you abandon a flourishing forest to gather amid dead trees,
If you don’t shoot a swan but do shoot a crow,
It will be difficult to make plans with you.
17.203
If a broad hill has no gullies, the spring and streams cannot be very extensive. But even a narrow creek can fill a wetland of a thousand qing.71
17.204
If we see things in bright light, we can distinguish them [as clearly] as jade and stone.
If we see things in dim light, we must remain in doubt.
17.205
To take the immensity of the world and entrust it to the talent of a single person is like hanging a weight of a thousand jun on a single branch of a tree.
17.206
To carry one’s son while climbing a wall is considered unlucky. Should one person fall, two will be injured.
17.207
Someone who excels at initiating things is like a person who rides in a boat and sings a sad song. One person sings and a thousand others join in.
17.208
You cannot plow but you want grain;
you cannot weave but you want fine clothes.
Not to do the work but to look for the benefit—that is hard.
17.209
If there are some who flourish, there must be others who decline;
if there are some who wear fine silks, there must be others who wear coarse hemp.
17.210
There is a bird that stirs up the waves.72 On account of this, [even] the Earl of the [Yellow] River avoids the tides, for he fears the bird’s sincerity [of purpose].73 If even a single warrior comes forth [ready to] die, [an army of] a thousand chariots will not take it lightly.
17.211
If a cobra bites you, if you treat it with the hejin plant74 you will recover. There certainly are things that are very harmful75 yet can instead be beneficial.
17.212
A sage living in times of disorder is like being under a broiling sun in summer and waiting for dusk. Between the mulberry and the elm, the passage gets easier to bear.76
17.213
Though the water is level, it will certainly have waves.
Though the scale is correct, it will certainly have errors.
Though the markings on a measuring rule are consistent, there are sure to be discrepancies.
17.214
What is not a compass or a square cannot fix squares and circles;
What is not a level or a marking cord cannot establish the crooked and the straight.
Thus, those who use compasses, squares, levels, and marking cords also have compasses, squares, levels, and marking cords within them.
17.215
Only when the boat overturns do we see who are the skilled swimmers.
Only when the horses bolt do we see who are the good charioteers.
17.216
If you chew something and it has no flavor, you will not be able to get it down your throat.
If you look at something but it has no form, you will not be able to get a concept of it in your mind.
17.217
With a rhinoceros and a tiger behind you and the pearl of the marquis of Sui in front of you, do not try to grab [the pearl]. First avoid the calamity, and then go for the profit.
17.218
If you are pursuing a deer, you do not pay attention to rabbits; if you are making a deal for goods worth a thousand [pieces of] gold, you do not haggle over a penny or an ounce of silver.
17.219
Bows must first be adjusted; later you can seek out the strong ones.
Horses must first be trained; later you can seek out the fine ones.
People must first prove trustworthy; later you can seek out the able ones.
17.220
The potter discards a rope, but the chariot maker grabs it.
The butcher throws away a piece of scrap metal, but the blacksmith takes it.
Priorities differ.
17.221
The brilliance of a hundred stars does not compare to the radiance of the single moon.
The light from ten open windows is incomparably [brighter] than that from a single doorway.
17.222
An arrow from ten paces can penetrate rhinoceros hide [armor]. At its limit, though, it cannot pierce the thin white silk of Lu.77
17.223
Even something higher than Mount Tai cannot be seen if you turn your back; the tip of an autumn hair can be examined if you look at it.
17.224
Mountains produce metals but are cut by them.
Trees engender grubs but are eaten by them.
People generate affairs but are harmed by them.
17.225
Even a skillful foundryman cannot cast wood;
even a master carpenter cannot carve metal.
The form and nature [of the materials] make that so.
17.226
You do not carve a pure white jade;
you do not inscribe a beautiful pearl.
The basic material is more than enough [already].
Thus,
if it strides forth without resting, even a lame turtle can go a thousand li;
if you pile things up without stopping, you can amass a great heap.
17.226a
If a wall is made from earth, trees will grow from beneath it. They have no particular purpose [in doing so]; they just have an affinity for it.
17.227
The Way of employing people is like drawing fire from a mirror:
If you’re too far away [from the tinder], you won’t get anything;
if you’re too close, it won’t work.
The right [distance] lies between far away and close.
17.228
Observing the dawn, he [calculates] the shift [of the sun] at dusk;
measuring the crooked, he tells [how far] something departs from the straight and level.
When a sage matches things up, it is as if he holds up a mirror to their form; from the crooked [reflection], he can get to the nature [of things].
17.229
Yang Zhu came to a fork in the road and shed tears because he could go either south or north.
Mo Di saw raw silk and wept because it could be dyed either black or yellow.78
17.230
The accord between [one who] leaves and [one who] stays behind is like a bell and a chimestone tuned in the same way. After a thousand years of separation, they would still [make] the same note together.
17.231
Birds that are not harmful are not shot, even if they are nearby;
birds that are a nuisance are not allowed to escape, even if they are far away.
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br /> 17.232
If you buy wine that has turned sour,
if you buy meat that is spoiled,
and you still go back to the wineshop or the butcher that is not far from your home, you must really be someone who likes to seek things close by.
17.233
If you respond to
cheating with cheating
and deceit with deceit, it is like
wearing a straw cape to douse a fire
or digging a ditch to stop the water. Your problems will just proliferate.
17.234
Xi Shi and Mao Qiang were not alike in their appearance but in judging their good points, the world considered them equally beautiful.
Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang made laws that were different, but in winning the hearts of the people they were alike.
17.235
Sages
raise matters at the proper time and
accomplish things by following natural [tendencies].
When it rains hard, they prepare rain barrels;
When it is dry, they construct an earthen dragon [to pray for rain].
17.236
While weaving, a woman from Linzi thought of her absent [lover]; thus the cloth she made was coarse. If there is a beautiful woman [left] at home, her cloth will be like unraveled threads.
17.237
[Music] in the zhi and yu modes79 is something the ears of the vulgar cannot comprehend. But if it is [something with] a catchy consonance and quick tempo, they will sit down and enjoy it.
17.238
If you walk past a storehouse with hands clasped behind your back, it would be strange if you did not have robbery in mind.
Likewise, someone who has been disrespectful to a person’s ghost walks past their ancestral shrine and sets its branches aquiver.
17.239
Yang Chufu of Jin attacked Chu and saved Jiang.80
Thus releasing a captive does not rely on removing the yoke;81 it relies on attacking [the one] wielding the stick.
17.240
If the tree is large, its roots grip strongly;
if a mountain is high, its foundation is firm.
The longer your stride, the farther you will go;
the bigger your body, the more spread out your bones and joints will be.
17.241
If a madman hurts someone, no one will resent him personally.
If a small child scolds an elderly person, no one will hate [the child].
The intent to do evil is absent.
17.242
Wei Sheng’s trustworthiness82 was not as good as Sui Niu’s deceit [which saved his country].83 Yet how much less [admirable] is one who is never trustworthy?
17.243
The one who worries over the father’s illness is the son, but the one who cures him is the physician.
The one who presents sacrifices is the celebrant, but the one who prepares them is the cook.
Translated by Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major
1. Commentators generally agree that the text is corrupted here. It currently reads cao shi zhi lie bu , “the Cao clan’s tattered cloth,” but the Gao You commentary evinces that the character (clan) is an interpolation. Moreover, the word is a lexical variant for , which means “baby’s swaddling cloth.” According to Gao You, a folk cure for insect bites was to burn a soiled swaddling cloth and apply the ashes to the affected area. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:1728–29n.6.
2. The qiu was a type of noxious insect, not clearly identifiable.
3. A huang was a type of ritual jade implement in the shape of a half disk. For the half disk of the Xiahou clan, part of the ducal regalia of the state of Lu, see 7.6, 13.15, and 16.90.
4. One ren is eight Chinese feet.
5. During an eclipse, according to legend.
6. Lau, HNZ 17/169/1. According to legend, a kind of flying snake.
7. According to legend, the sun is personified as a three-legged crow that flies across the sky each day. The zhuizha is a legendary bird, perhaps resembling a dove, that announces the dawn even before the cock does, thus rousing the sun crow from its sleeping perch on the Fusang Tree in the east.
8. Ancestor Peng was a descendant of Zhuan Xu who was enfeoffed by the sovereign Shun at Peng. According to legend, he lived to be more than eight hundred years old. This paradox is quoted from Zhuangzi 2 (ZZ 2/5/21). The point is that there is no fixed standard of comparison; a baby who dies young is long-lived compared with a mayfly, whereas Ancestor Peng was short-lived compared with a mountain.
9. We follow Lau (who himself is following Yu Yue) in emending these three lines in accordance with Lüshi chunqiu, chap. 4. See Knoblock and Riegel 2000, 72. See also Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:1736n.5. The line “the greatest cook does not carve” is apparently a reference to the famous “Cook Ding” passage in Zhuangzi, chap. 3. Note, however, that the unemended form of this line can be understood to mean “the greatest dou [ritual vessel] does not display [sacrificial] offerings,” which resonates with 16.137: “The Zhou royal ding [ritual vessels] are not used for cooking but cannot be considered valueless.”
10. This persuasion is quoted from Zhuangzi 19 (ZZ 19/50/22–23). See also Mair 1997, 177.
11. For the mythical path of the sun across the sky, see 3.25; and Major 1993, 102–5.
12. Following the interpretation of Gao You. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:1741n.5.
13. That is, the actual constituents of a physical body, but the term also is a metaphor for blood relatives.
14. Centipedes were said to bore into the ear. See 20.38.
15. Interestingly, 16.15 seems to make the opposite point: “When a wall has crumbled, it is superior to when it was standing” (because it has returned to its origin).
16. Jian is an abrasive stone or grit used to shape jade. Similar comments about grit appear in 16.81 and 19.5. Bi and yuan were types of disk-shaped jade ritual implements, known in China from predynastic antiquity. See 17.2.
17. The phrase shi bu bian , which we translate as “his situation is not conducive to it,” implies both that the crippled person’s ability is impaired relative to an ordinary person’s and that his strength is inferior to the tiger’s. Compare 17.80.
18. Miwu (Ligusticum wallichii, known as Sichuan lovage) is used medicinally to treat headache, menstrual cramps, and other painful symptoms.
19. Both Shang Pian and Sang Lin are mythical divine beings.
20. By means of which she created everything in the world.
21. Peng Meng was a legendary archer of high antiquity. Having learned all that Yi could teach of the art of archery, he killed his teacher so as to be the greatest archer in the world. See Mencius 4B.24. He appears in 1.6 as Feng Mengzi.
22. A similar statement appears in 7.12.
23. See chap. 16, n. 9.
24. Literally gu zao , “drum herald,” understood by commentators as referring to an owl.
25. Supposedly, thick owl soup was traditionally served in the fifth month. This whole sentence is rather obscure, and its interpretation is heavily dependent on the glosses of commentators. See Zhang Shuangdi 1997, 2:1752n.14.
26. Zuozhuan, Xi 2. See also 7.16, 10.47, 11.7, and 18.5.
27. Compare 7.16 and 17.145.
28. The terms chuiche and chanyue are extremely obscure. Chuiche means something like “pounding cart,” which some commentators take as a reference to carts with solid (i.e., spokeless) wheels made from single logs. Commentators differ on the meaning of chanyue (or jue), but the most plausible explanation appears to be that it refers to a type of cart whose wheel, hub, and axle are made as separate pieces, as is the standard Chinese chariot.
29. For the term junxing , “ruler of form,” see 16.91. See also the “ruler of [all] notes” (yin zhi jun ) in 3.29 and 6.4.
30. Presumably, a reference to the flow and ebb of waves on a beach.
31. See 16.133.
32. One qing equals a hundred mu; one mu equals about one-sixth acre.
&nbs
p; 33. Compare the use of shi bu bian here and in 17.43. In both cases, the combination of external conditions and inherent capabilities makes the task difficult.
34. Xiang Tuo was a precocious youngster who at the age of seven supposedly instructed Confucius. The story is subjected to an extended critique by Wang Chong in Lun heng 78.
35. This paraphrases Zhuangzi 7 (ZZ 7/20/20), where it is attributed to Laozi; it does not, however, appear in the received version of the Daodejing. This saying, with minor variations in wording, also appears in 10.92 and 14.4. Here we take zha as a phonetic loan for cuo (or ce) , “pursuit,” as in those earlier occurrences of the passage.
36. The same statement appears in 16.119.
37. The deities of such neglected temples are impoverished and willing to accept whatever sacrifices they can get.
38. This statement betrays unfamiliarity with leopards, which often climb trees.
39. Gnomons (biao ) can be used to determine both direction and distance. See 3.43–3.45.
40. In other words, someone whose sturdiness has never been tested cannot be considered sturdy.
41. Liuxia Hui was a grandee of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period. He is much praised in the Mencius as a moral paragon.
42. In other words, it undergoes metamorphosis and becomes a pupa.
43. Youshi , said to be a kind of mineral.
44. This refers to oysters growing pearls and to elephants losing their tusks. The statement thus appears to reflect a mistaken belief that elephants shed their tusks as deer shed their antlers. See also 16.107 and 17.195.
45. Reading he as suan , as suggested by Lau, HNZ, 176n.2.
46. To make a weir to trap fish.
47. Both zhong and long mean “burial mound.”
48. Both li and deng are kinds of bamboo rain-covers.
49. Ancient Chinese texts were typically written in vertical columns, so “below” here has the meaning of “next.”
50. This is apparently a criticism of eremitism: if you retire from office after spending some time in the “dust” of the world of affairs, that is permissible, but to refuse to engage in public affairs at all is not in accordance with the Way.