by Chuang Tzu
There are eight extreme conditions which limit people, three that assist and six repositories in the body. The eight things that bring trouble if someone has all eight in excess are: beauty, a good beard, height, size, strength, class, bravery and courage.
The three that will bring advancement are: following and copying others; bowing and scraping; and ambition to be better than others.
The six repositories are: knowledge that goes out to all things; bravery, determination and the many troubles they create; benevolence, righteousness and the many requests that arise; comprehending life in its essence – a massive task; understanding knowledge is a lesser thing; comprehending the great destiny you follow after – comprehending the lesser destiny, you are just swept along.
A man went to see the King of Sung and was given ten carriages, and with the ten carriages he went and showed off with them to Chuang Tzu.
Chuang Tzu said, ‘Up on the Yellow River there lives a family which earns enough to eat by weaving things out of rushes. Their son was diving in the very deepest pools when he found a pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold. His father said to him, “Bring me a stone and I will smash it to pieces. A pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold must have come from a pool nine levels deep, from under the chin of the Black Dragon. My son, to have got this pearl, the dragon must have been asleep, for had he been awake, you would have been cut to pieces, my son!” Now the kingdom of Sung, is it not really deeper than the nine levels pool; and the King of Sung, is he not really more ferocious than the Black Dragon? My boy, if you were able to get these carriages, he must have been asleep. For if the King of Sung had been awake, you would be in pieces by now, my lad!’
Someone offered Chuang Tzu a court post. Chuang Tzu answered the messenger, ‘Sir, have you ever seen a sacrificial ox? It is decked in fine garments and fed on fresh grass and beans. However, when it is led into the Great Temple, even though it most earnestly might wish to be a simple calf again, it’s now impossible!’
Chuang Tzu was dying and his followers wanted to provide a glorious funeral. Chuang Tzu said, ‘I will have Heaven and Earth as my shroud and coffin; the sun and moon as my symbols of jade; the stars for my pearls and jewels; all the forms of life as my mourners. I have everything for my funeral, what is there missing? What more could I need?’
His followers said, ‘We are worried, Master, that the crows and kites will eat you.’
‘Above ground I shall be eaten by crows and kites,’ said Chuang Tzu, ‘and below ground by worms and ants. Aren’t you just being rather partisan in wanting to feed only one of these groups, so depriving the others?
‘Trying to use what isn’t equal to produce equality is to be equally unequal. Trying to prove something by something uncertain is only certain to make things uncertain. The person whose eyesight is clear and thinks he understands is victim to these sights, whereas the one who is guided by the spirit perceives the reality. That there is a difference between what we see with our eyes and what we know through our spirit is a wisdom from long ago. But the fool relies upon his eyes and loses himself in what is merely human, and everything he does is just a façade – how sad!’
CHAPTER 33
Governing the World
There are many ways of running the world, and each of those who use a particular one considers theirs to be so good as to be incapable of improvement. In the past, this was known as the way of the Tao, but where is that now? I say, ‘There is nowhere where it is not.’ You say, ‘Where does the spirit come from? Where does enlightenment emerge from?’ ‘The sage brings them to be and the king completes them, and the origin is the One.’
The one who is not cut off from his primal origin is known as the Heavenly man.
The one not cut off from the true nature is known as the spiritual man.
The one who is not cut off from the truth, is known as the perfect man.
The one who views Heaven as the primal source, Virtue as the root and the Tao as a gate, and sees change and transformation as natural, such a one we call a sage.
The one who makes benevolence the model for kindness, righteousness the model for reason, ritual the model for behaviour, music the model for harmony, who is content in benevolence and pity, we call such a one a nobleman.
This is how the people should be governed: laws should be seen as defining difference, and their titles as indications of status. Comparison should be used to provide evidence and enquiry to establish decisions, so that they can be numbered one, two, three, four and so on, and thus give the hundred ranks their ranking. One should be observant in business, and should ensure adequate food and clothing, and that the cattle are fed and cared for and the grain stored. One should be concerned for the old, the infirm, the orphans and the widow.
The people of the past were so thorough! They were equals in spirituality and enlightenment, they were as all-seeing as Heaven and Earth. They tended all the forms of life and unified the whole world. Their care reached all people, they clearly perceived the roots of all things and they were attentive to even the smallest details. Their influence extended to the six directions and the four quarters, so that small and great, coarse or fine, there was no place that they were not. Their insights, as discernible in their laws and practices, were passed down from age to age in their codes and in the Histories. In Tsou and Lu122 there are scholars, gentlemen of the girdled class who can understand what is to be found in the Book of Poetry and the Book of History, in the Rites and the Music.
The Book of Poetry has the Tao of the will, the Book of History has the Tao of events, the Rites has the Tao of conduct, the Music has the Tao of harmony. The Book of Changes has the Tao illustrating the yin and yang and the Spring and Autumn Annals has the Tao of titles and procedures. These teachings are found across the face of the whole world, and in China they are mentioned by many of the hundred schools of philosophy of the Tao.
Everywhere under Heaven is in great disarray, the worthy ones and the sages have no light to shed, the Tao and Virtue are no longer united, and the whole world tends to see one aspect and think that they have grasped the whole of it. They can be compared to the ear, the eye, the nose and the mouth. Each has its own light to shed but you cannot interchange their functions. Likewise, the hundred schools of philosophy have their points and each has its time of usefulness. Though this is true, nevertheless not one of them covers the whole truth, just like the scholar who lived in one corner. He tried to judge whether Heaven and Earth are beautiful, to grasp the principle of all forms of life, to calculate the worth of the ancient wise men. Yet it is rare indeed for one such as he to be able to encompass all the beauty of Heaven and Earth, or to describe that which is spiritual and clear.
As a result, the Tao which is within the sage and which manifests itself externally in the king fell into obscurity and was dulled, was constrained and became lost. The people of the whole world just followed their own desires and were their own judges. Sadly, the hundred schools persist, fated to never be able to unite again, or agree. The scholars of these later generations did not see the purity of Heaven and Earth united, and the great wisdom of the ancient ones of the Tao was scattered and torn by the world.
To show no model of extravagance to later generations, to leave all forms of life unaffected, to avoid embroidering ritual, to rule oneself by strict regulation in one’s behaviour so as to be ready to deal with crises, thus helping other generations: this was what the ancients took to be the Tao.
Mo Ti and Chin Hua Li heard of their opinions and were pleased. But they pursued them to great excess and and were too particular in applying the opinions to themselves. Mo Tzu wrote a treatise called ‘Against Music’, and united this with ‘Moderation in Economies’. He did not believe in singing during life, nor in mourning at death. He taught universal love and universal consideration. He forbade warfare and would allow no space in his Tao for anger. He thought study good and did not disagree with others. But he did not agree with the primal kings but rather att
acked the rituals and music of the ancient times.
The Yellow Emperor had Hsien Chih music, Yao had Ta Chung, Shun had Ta Shao, Yu had Ta Hsia, Tang had Ta Huo, King Wen had the music of the Pi Yung Hall and King Wu and Duke Chou created Wu music.
In ancient times the rituals for mourning outlined exactly what was due to the noble and the ordinary, the highest and the lowest. The coffin of the Son of Heaven had seven layers, those of the nobles five layers, those of the prime ministers had three layers, those of officers two layers. Now Mo Tzu only said there should be no singing during life, and at death no mourning. For everyone he would just have a plain wooden coffin, three inches thick and with no outer case. If he teaches people this, he can have no real affection for people. If he did this for his own funeral, then he does not have much affection for himself.
Yet this has not led to the ignoring of Mo Tzu’s Tao. Far from it, even though people continue to sing when he says no singing, people continue to feel like crying when he says no crying, people still want to be happy after he has said no happiness. Is what he advocates really human? A life that is laborious and a death which is insignificant: this Tao is one of great thoughtlessness. Making people sad and depressed by practices which are hard to follow cannot be seen as the Tao of the sage. It is universally against human nature, and the whole world rejects it. Even if Mo Tzu himself could stand it, how can the rest of the world be expected to live this way? With the whole world so opposed, this Tao has wandered far from the ways of the real king.
Mo Tzu thought a great deal of his Tao, saying, ‘In the past, when Yu held back the waters and controlled the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, he sent them to flow through the lands of the four barbarian tribes and the nine provinces. They were united with the three hundred rivers, the three thousand streams and the smaller streams too many to number. Yu himself carried the sandbags and dug with the spade, until he had united all the rivers of the whole world, and there was no hair left on his legs from his knee to his ankle. He washed his hair in the pouring rain and combed it with the harsh winds, while creating the ten thousand states. Yu was a great sage, but he wore out his body for the sake of the whole world.’ The result is that in later years Mohists wear skins and coarse cloth, wooden shoes or hemp sandals, never stop night or day, and view such fervent activity as their highest achievement. They say, ‘Anyone who cannot do this is not acting in the spirit of Yu and is not worthy of being called a Mohist.’
The followers of Hsiang Li Chin and the disciples of Wu Hou and the Mohists of the south such as Ku Huo, Chi Chih, Teng Ling Tzu and so forth, all recite the texts of Mo, but they argue and do not agree on these texts, calling each other heretical Mohists. In their debates they argue about hard and white, about sameness and difference, and they dispute the use of terms such as odd and even. They consider the main teacher of their group as a sage, each hoping that their particular one will be seen as the teacher by later generations. These same arguments continue up to the present time.
Mo Ti and Chin Ku Li had perfectly good ideas but were wrong in what they proceeded to do. They have made later generations of Mohists feel that they have to labour on until there is not a hair left on their calves, their driving ambition being to outdo each other. This is the height of their folly and the low point of their unity. Indeed, it is true that Mo Tzu was one of the good of this world and you will not find his equal. He was weary and worn, but do not despise him for he was a scholar of ability.
This should be the purpose of the heart:
not to be trapped by convention,
nor to be concerned with adornments;
not to be thoughtless in treating others,
nor to be in opposition to the crowd;
to want the whole world to live in peace and balance
for the sake of the people’s unity,
to look to the needs of others as well as yourself.
This should be the purpose of the heart and this is what the ancient ones considered to be the Tao’s way. Sung Chien and Yin Wen heard of these ideas and were pleased. They made their hats in the shape of Hua Mountain as their distinguishing feature. In their intercourse with all forms of life, they accepted difference as given. They discoursed upon the nature of the heart and they sought a unity proceeding from the heart. By such concerns they sought to unite everyone in joyfulness and to harmonize all within the boundaries of the oceans. Their greatest desire was to see this achieved everywhere, by their efforts. They could face insults and not be disturbed; they struggled to save the people from warfare; they aimed to prevent aggression and to silence arms and thus to deliver future generations from violence. In pursuit of such ideals, they walked across the whole world, advising the high and teaching the low, and even though the world would not listen, they just continued even more strongly and would not give up. So it is said that high and low were tired of seeing them, but they never gave up putting themselves forward.
Indeed, this is so, but they did too much for others and too little for themselves, saying, ‘All that we ask and need is five pints of rice and this will suffice.’ It is inconceivable that the Master had enough by this means. Even though the followers were hungry, they never forgot the whole of the world, persevering day and night without ceasing, saying, ‘We have to take care to preserve lives!’ What wonderful aims these masters have for their generation! They say, ‘The nobleman does not scrutinize others too harshly, nor does he take from others to adorn himself.’ If an idea does not benefit the world, then they see that it’s not worth struggling with. They see banning aggression and ridding the world of violence as their major area of concern, and see diminishing their own desires and feelings as an internal goal. They sought this both on a grand scale and a small scale, both in subtle things and in the more common way, and when they had perfected this, they stood tall.
This was the way of the ancient one who followed the Tao:
public-spirited and completely non-partisan,
flexible and not fixed upon one idea,
open-minded and without a guide,
following others without a second thought,
not casting anxious glances,
not using knowledge to make plots,
not choosing one thing rather than another,
instead going with all:
this was the way of the ancient one who followed the Tao.
Peng Meng, Tien Pien and Shen Tao123 heard of these ideas and were delighted. They believed that all the various forms of life are held in the Tao. They said, ‘Heaven can overarch but not support; Earth can support but not overarch; the great Tao embraces all but cannot distinguish between them. We conclude that all forms of life have that which they can do and that which they cannot do. It is said, if you select, you abandon comprehensibility; if you contrast, then you lose perfection. But the Tao leaves out nothing whatsoever.’
So it was that Shen Tao put aside knowledge and any concern for himself, went where he could not avoid going, seeking always to be without interest and pure in all that he did, seeing this as being true to the Tao, and saying that understanding is not understanding, thus viewing knowledge as dangerous and struggling to be rid of it. He was without ambition and so he was carefree, taking no responsibility and scorning those in the world who praised the worthy. Drifting and unconcerned, he did nothing and laughed at those whom the world saw as sages. Cutting corners, smoothing the rough, he flowed and twisted with all things. He ignored right and wrong and simply worked at avoiding trouble. Having nothing to gain from knowledge or reflection, and with no understanding of what was going on, he went through life with a lofty ease and disregard. He walked only when he was pushed, and only started when he was forced to. He was like a whirlwind, like a feather spinning round and round, like the turning of a grindstone. He had integrity, he was without any wrong, without failure or excess, whether in action or in stillness. How was this possible? Those who are without knowledge are free from the tribulations of self-promotion, from the entrapment that a
rises from working with knowledge. Whether moving or resting, he never left the proper path, and throughout his life was never praised. I would like to be one without knowledge, not trapped in the teachings of a sage. Such people, like the very earth itself, never lose the Tao. People in positions of authority laughed at him together, saying, ‘Shen Tao’s Tao is not for the living but is the way for those who are already dead, which is why they are so odd.’
Tien Pien was the same, for he studied under Peng Meng and understood that one should not make distinctions. Peng Meng’s master said, ‘The Tao of the scholars of old taught that nothing is right and nothing is wrong. Their essence was like the wind; how can it be expressed in words?’ But he was always opposed to the views of others, never seeing things as they saw them, and he was prone to cut corners. What they named the Tao he said was not the Tao, and what was called right he always had to argue might be wrong. Peng Meng, Tien Pien and Shen Tao did not properly understand the Tao. Nevertheless, they had all had the chance to hear about it.
To consider the origin as pure and that which emerges as coarse; to view accumulation as inadequate; to live by oneself in peace and with spiritual clarity, this is what in ancient times was known as the way of the Tao. Kuan Yin124 and Lao Tzu heard these ideas and were pleased. They founded their system upon the belief that nothing exists ultimately, and they were guided in this by the notion of the great one. Gentleness and weakness combined with humility and self-emptying were its distinguishing features and its core was the prevention of harm to all forms of life.
Kuan Yin said, ‘One who does not exist in self sees others as they really are. His movement is like water, his calmness like a mirror, his response is like that of an echo. When he is empty, he seems to have forgotten; unmoving, he is as still as water; peaceful, he is as one with all; he views success as failure, and he never tries to take the lead but always to follow.’