Qisu — Equalizing Customs齊俗訓

To act by following one's nature is called the Way, and to attain that inborn nature is called power. Only after nature is lost is benevolence prized, and only after the Way is lost is right prized. So when benevolence and right stood up, the Way and its power moved away. When ritual and music were dressed up, plain simplicity scattered. When right and wrong took shape, the people were dazzled. When pearl and jade were held high, all under heaven fought. These four are the making of an age in decline and the use of a last age. Ritual is what parts high from low and makes the noble differ from the base. Right is what joins the meeting of ruler and minister, father and son, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, friend and friend. Now those in the world who practice ritual are respectful and yet spiteful, and those who practice right give out gifts and count it a favor. Ruler and minister hold each other in the wrong, and flesh and bone breed resentment. This is to lose the root of ritual and right, and so they are tangled together and full of blame. When water is heaped up, fish that eat one another are born in it. When earth is heaped up, beasts that couple with themselves are born in it. When ritual and right are dressed up, the root of falsehood and hiding is born. To blow on ashes and wish for nothing in the eye, to wade water and wish to stay dry, cannot be had. Of old the people were childlike and dim and did not know east from west. Their looks did not run beyond their feelings and their words did not spill over their deeds. Their clothes were warm enough and had no pattern. Their weapons were blunt and had no edge. Their singing was glad and had no turning. Their weeping was sad and had no voice. They dug wells and drank, they plowed fields and ate. They had nowhere to spread their beauty and did not seek to get it either. Kin did not tear down or praise one another, and friends did not resent one another or count favors. When ritual and right came to birth and goods and wealth were prized, cheating and falsehood sprouted and rose, blame and praise were tangled together, and resentment and favor went side by side. Then there was the beauty of Zeng Shen and Xiaoji, and the wickedness of Dao Zhi and Zhuang Qiao was born.

So where there are great carriages and dragon banners, feather canopies and hanging cap cords, teams of four and lines of riders, there must also be the wickedness of boring through walls and knocking at bars, of pulling out bolts and climbing over the guard. Where there are strange patterns and crowded embroidery, fine ramie and light silk gauze, there must be men in rush sandals who limp along, whose short hemp coats are not whole. So it is clear enough that high and low lean against each other and short and long shape each other. A toad becomes a quail and a water grub becomes a dragonfly, and both are born from what is not their kind. Only the sage knows their change. A Hu man sees hemp seed and does not know that cloth can be made of it. A Yue man sees down and does not know that felt can be made of it. So with one who does not get through to things it is hard to speak of change. Long ago Taigong Wang and Dan, the Duke of Zhou, received their fiefs and met each other. Taigong asked the Duke of Zhou, "With what will you govern Lu?" The Duke of Zhou said, "I will honor the honorable and hold the kin dear." Taigong said, "Lu will grow weak from this!" The Duke of Zhou asked Taigong, "With what will you govern Qi?" Taigong said, "I will raise up the worthy and put merit above." The Duke of Zhou said, "In a later age there will surely be rulers who are seized and killed!" After that Qi grew greater by the day and came to be hegemon, and in the twenty-fourth generation the Tian clan took its place. Lu was pared away by the day, and in the thirty-second generation it perished. So the Book of Changes says, "Tread on the frost, and hard ice is coming." The sage saw the end and the beginning in slight words!

So the hill of lees grew out of ivory chopsticks, and the roasting pillar grew out of a hot ladle. Zilu pulled a drowning man out and took an ox in thanks, and Confucius said, "Lu will surely love to save men from trouble." Zigong redeemed a man and would not take the money from the office, and Confucius said, "Lu will redeem men no more." Zilu took, and so urged men on to do good. Zigong gave way, and so stopped men from doing good. Confucius in his brightness knew the great from the small and the far from the near. He was one who got through to judgment. Seen from this, uprightness has its place and cannot be practiced for all to see. So conduct that is level with custom can be followed, and work that goes round within one's powers is easy to do. To flaunt what is false and beguile the age, to lift up one's conduct and go against the crowd, the sage does not make the custom of the people. Wide halls and roomy houses, joined doors and connected chambers, are what men are at ease in, but a bird that enters them grieves. High mountains and steep places, deep woods and thickets, are what tiger and leopard delight in, but a man who enters them is afraid. Streams and valleys, joined springs, heaped water and layered depths, are what the great turtle and the river lizard find easy, but a man who enters them dies. Xianchi and Chengyun, Jiushao and Liuying are what men delight in, but birds and beasts that hear them take fright. Deep ravines and sheer banks, tall trees and long branches, are what the gibbon and the monkey delight in, but a man who climbs them trembles. Shapes differ and natures run contrary, so what makes delight for one is what makes grief for another, and what makes safety for one is what makes danger for another. Out to all that heaven and earth cover and carry and all that the sun and the moon light up, each is let be easy in its nature, at peace in its dwelling, set where it belongs, and doing what it can.

So the fool has something he has cultivated and the wise has something he falls short in. A pillar cannot pick the teeth, a basket cannot hold up a house. A horse cannot bear a heavy load, an ox cannot chase after speed. Lead cannot be made into a knife, bronze cannot be made into a crossbow. Iron cannot be made into a boat, wood cannot be made into a cauldron. Use each on what suits it and set each to what fits it, and then the ten thousand things are all of a piece and there is no way for one to pass another. A bright mirror is handy for lighting up a shape, but for holding food it is not as good as a bamboo basket. The pure coat of a sacrificial ox fits it for the offering in the temple, but for bringing on rain it is not as good as the black salamander. Seen from this, things have no noble and base. Prize them by what is prized in them, and there is no thing that is not noble. Hold them cheap by what is cheap in them, and there is no thing that is not cheap. Uncut jade is never too thick, a horn hairpin is never too thin. Lacquer is never too black, powder is never too white. These four run contrary to each other, yet what each is wanted for is the same, and their use is one. Of a fur coat and a straw cape, which is the urgent one? Meet rain and the fur coat is of no use. Go up into the hall and the straw cape is not worn. These take turns at being the usual thing. It is like boat and carriage, shield and shop stall and round tent, which of old have each what fits them. So when Laozi said, "Do not put the worthy above others," he meant not to bring the fish to a tree or sink the bird in a pool.

So when Yao governed all under heaven, Shun was minister of the masses, Xie was minister of war, Yu was minister of works, Houji was master of the great fields, and Xizhong was master of the crafts. In leading the myriad people, those who dwelt by water fished, those who dwelt in the hills cut wood, those who dwelt in the valleys herded, and those who dwelt on the flat farmed. The land fitted its work, the work fitted its tools, the tools fitted their use, and the use fitted the man. On marsh and bank they wove nets, on hill and slope they plowed fields, and so they got to trade what they had for what they had not, and what they were skilled at for what they were clumsy at. For this reason few fell away and turned their backs, and many listened and followed. It is like scattering chess pieces on the ground. The round ones run to the low wet place and the square ones stay on the high ground, each following where it is at ease. What high and low is there in that! It is like wind meeting a pipe. Touched of a sudden, each answers with its own clear or muddy note. A gibbon that gets a leafy tree does not leave it for a burrow. A badger that gets a bank does not go off and climb. No creature shuns what profits it and goes to what harms it. For this reason, though neighboring states looked across at one another and the sound of cocks and dogs carried between them, no footprint reached the borders of the lords and no cart track was laid a thousand li away, because each had found where it was at ease. So a state in disorder looks full, and a state well governed looks empty. A state that is perishing looks short, and a state that lasts looks to have more than enough. Empty does not mean it has no men. It means that all keep to their offices. Full does not mean it has many men. It means that all are out after the branch ends. To have more than enough does not mean much wealth. It means that wants are measured and affairs are few. To fall short does not mean it has no goods. It means that the people are restless and the spending is much.

So the laws and the records of the former kings were not what they made but what they followed, and their prohibitions and punishments were not what they did but what they kept. To govern things by things, one does not use things but concord. To govern concord, one does not use concord but men. To govern men, one does not use men but the ruler. To govern the ruler, one does not use the ruler but desire. To govern desire, one does not use desire but nature. To govern nature, one does not work upon nature but uses power. To govern power, one does not use power but the Way. Trace it to the nature of man. That it is rank and foul and cannot get clear and bright is because things have dusted it over. Among the Qiang, the Di, the Bo and the Zhai, babies are born all with one voice, but when they have grown, their speech cannot be got through even by two rounds of interpreters, because teaching and custom differ. Take a baby three months old and move it at birth to another country, and it cannot know the old custom it came from. Seen from this, clothing and the ways of ritual are not the nature of a man but what he takes in from outside. Bamboo by nature floats, but cut it into slips, bind them and throw them in water, and they sink, because it has lost its own body. Metal by nature sinks, but set it on a boat and it floats, because the force of things holds it up. Plain silk is white in its stuff, but dye it with black earth and it is black. Fine silk is yellow by nature, but dye it with cinnabar and it is red. The nature of man has no wickedness in it, but steeped long in custom it changes. Changed, it forgets its root and falls in with what looks like its nature.

So the sun and the moon would be bright, but floating clouds cover them. The waters of the He would be clear, but sand and stones foul them. The nature of man would be level, but likings and wants harm it. Only the sage can let things go and turn back to himself. A man bewildered aboard a boat does not know east from west, but when he sees the Dipper and the Pole Star he wakes. Nature too is the Dipper and the Pole Star of a man. If he has that by which to see himself, he does not lose the feel of things. If he has nothing by which to see himself, he moves and is beguiled and led astray. It is like swimming in Longxi, where the more one thrashes the deeper one sinks. Confucius said to Yan Hui, "I have forgotten my following you, and you have forgotten your following me. Even so, though you have forgotten, there is still in me something that is not forgotten." Confucius knew the root of it. Let desire loose and lose your nature, and your every move has never once been right. Govern the body with it and there is danger. Govern the state with it and there is disorder. Enter the army with it and there is defeat. For this reason one who has not heard the Way has no means of turning back to his nature. So the sage kings of old could find it in themselves, and their commands were carried out and their prohibitions stopped men, their names were handed down to later ages and their power was spread to the four seas. For this reason, whenever one is about to take up an affair, he must first level his thoughts and clear his spirit. When the spirit is clear and the thoughts are level, things can then be set right. It is like a seal pressed into clay. Straight, and what it gives is straight. Tilted, and what it gives is tilted. So Yao raised up Shun and settled it by his eyes, and Duke Huan took Ning Qi and decided it by his ears, and that was all. To throw away method and reckoning for this and trust to ear and eye, the disorder must be great.

That ear and eye can decide a thing is a turning back to feeling and nature. When hearing is lost in blame and praise and the eye runs riot in color, and one would still have affairs come out right, that is hard. A man loaded with grief weeps when he hears a song, and a man loaded with joy laughs when he sees a mourner. To take delight in what is sad and to grieve at what should make one laugh, what is loaded in a man makes it so. For this reason emptiness is prized. So strike water and waves rise. Let the breath fall into disorder and wits go dark. With dark wits one cannot govern. With water in waves one cannot make a level. So the sage king holds to the One and does not let it go, and the feel of the ten thousand things is exhausted, and the four tribes and the nine provinces submit. The One is the most noble thing, and nothing under heaven is a match for it. The sage entrusts himself to what has no match, and so the lives of the people hang upon him. One who practices benevolence must judge by grief and joy, and one who practices right must make it clear by taking and giving. But the eye sees no more than ten li, and if one would light up all the people within the seas, grief and joy cannot reach so far. Without the stored wealth of all under heaven, if one would make the myriad people rich, profit cannot be enough. Moreover joy and anger and grief and delight are what feeling brings of itself. So weeping breaking out at the mouth and tears coming from the eyes are all things that swelled up within and took shape outside. It is like water flowing downward and smoke seeking upward. Who is there that pushes them!

So one who forces his weeping, though he wear himself sick, is not sad, and one who forces closeness, though he laugh, is not in accord. Feeling breaks out within and the sound answers outside. So the bowl of food of Xi Fuji was better than the Chuiji jade of Duke Xian of Jin, and the bundle of dried meat of Zhao Xuanmeng was worthier than the great bell of Zhi Bo. So a rich show of ritual is not enough to make love plain, while a heart in earnest can draw in those far off. Gongxi Hua cared for his parents as though he were among friends, and Zeng Shen cared for his parents as though he were serving a stern lord and a fierce ruler, yet in the caring they were one. A Hu man flicks a bone, a Yue man cuts his arm, and in the middle states they smear their mouths with blood. What they go by differs, but in the pledging they are one. The Sanmiao bind up their hair, the Qiang tie their collars, the middle states wear cap and hairpin, and the Yue crop their hair, yet in the dressing they are one. By the law of the Emperor Zhuanxu a woman who did not give way to a man on the road was driven off at the crossroads, and in the capitals of today men and women knock feet and brush shoulders in the street, yet in the custom they are one. So the rites of the four tribes are not the same, and all honor their ruler and love their parents and respect their elder brother. The customs of the Xianyun run the other way, and all are tender to their children and strict toward those above them. Birds in flight make a line and beasts at rest make a herd. Who taught them! Lu wore the ritual of the scholars and practiced the art of Confucius, yet its land was pared away and its name sank low, and it could not hold the near dear or bring the far to come. King Goujian of Yue cropped his hair and marked his body, and had no leather cap and no robe with a tablet in the sash, and none of the bowing and bending demeanor, yet he beat Fuchai at the Five Lakes, faced south and was hegemon over all under heaven, and the twelve lords along the Si all led the Nine Yi to court. In the states of the Hu, the Mo and the Xiongnu they let the body go slack and their hair hang loose, they sprawl like a winnowing basket and speak back to front, yet those states have not perished, and it is not certain that they are without ritual. King Zhuang of Chu with his skirts caught up and a broad gown had his commands carried out under heaven, and at last was hegemon over the lords. Duke Wen of Jin in coarse hemp cloth and a ewe's fleece, with leather to carry his sword, set his awe over all within the seas. Must the ritual of Zou and Lu alone be called ritual!

For this reason one who enters a country follows its custom, and one who enters a house avoids what that house will not have named. Break no prohibition on entering, cross no one in going forward, and though you go to the Yi and the Di and to the country of the naked and lay your cart tracks beyond the far quarters, you will meet no trouble. Ritual is the outward form of the real, and benevolence is kindness made plain. So ritual follows the feelings of men and makes measure and form for them, and benevolence wells up and shows itself in the face. That ritual should not go beyond the real and benevolence should not spill over kindness is the way of a well governed age. The three years of mourning force upon men what they cannot reach, and help out feeling with pretense. The three months of mourning cut grief short and press hard upon nature. The Ru and the Mo do not trace the feelings of men from beginning to end, and work at carrying out rules that run against each other, and the five degrees of mourning dress. Let grief be held within the feelings and burial match what was given in life, force upon men nothing they cannot do, cut short nothing that men can lay down of themselves, and let measure not lose what is fitting, and blame and praise will have nothing to grow from. Of old they were not ignorant of the crowded rites of going up and coming down and turning about, or of the steps taken to Caiqi and Sixia. They held it a waste of days and a bother to the people with no use in it, and so they made ritual only enough to help the real along and make the meaning plain. Of old they were not unable to set out bells and drums, to fill the air with pipe and flute, to raise shield and axe and shake feather and oxtail. They held that it wasted goods and threw government into disorder, and so they made music only enough to bring gladness together and let the mind out, and joy did not run over into sound. They were not unable to drain the country and wear the people down, to empty the storehouses and use up the wealth, to put pearls in the mouth of the dead and lay jade on him like scales and bind him cord by cord and follow him out to the grave. They held that it brought the people to want and cut off their work with no gain to dry bones and rotting flesh, and so they made burial only enough to gather the body in and cover it and hide it away.

When Shun of old was buried at Cangwu, the market did not change its stalls. When Yu was buried on Mount Kuaiji, the farmers did not change their furrows. They were clear about the line between life and death and got through to what is fitting in lavishness and in thrift. A state in disorder is not so. Word and deed go against each other, feeling and face run the other way, ritual is dressed up till it is a bother and music made rich till it runs riot, death is held high till it harms life, and mourning is drawn out till it is a display. So custom is fouled in the world and blame and praise sprout in the court, and for this reason the sage sets them aside and does not use them. Right is following the pattern and doing what is fitting. Ritual is taking feeling for a body and making forms for it. Right is what is fitting. Ritual is the body of the thing. Long ago the Youhu clan practiced right and perished, for they knew right and did not know what was fitting. Lu put ritual in order and was pared away, for it knew ritual and did not know the body of it. In the sacrifices of the Youyu clan the altar of the soil was of earth, they sacrificed to the middle of the roof, they buried in the level fields, their music was Xianchi and Chengyun and Jiushao, and their dress honored yellow. The Xiahou clan used pine for the altar of the soil, sacrificed at the doorway, walled the grave and set fans about it, their music was Xiayue and Jiucheng and Liuyi and Liulie and Liuying, and their dress honored blue. In the ritual of the Yin people the altar of the soil was of stone, they sacrificed at the gate, they planted pines at the grave, their music was Dahuo and Chenlu, and their dress honored white. In the ritual of the Zhou people the altar of the soil was of chestnut, they sacrificed at the hearth, they planted cypress at the grave, their music was Dawu and Sanxiang and Jixia, and their dress honored red. Ritual and music ran counter and the rules of dress were contrary, yet not one of them lost the kindness owed to near kin and distant kin, or the order of high and low.

To take up the laws and records of one ruler now and fault with them the customs handed down through the generations is like gluing down the bridges and tuning the zither. So a bright ruler makes ritual and right into his clothing and divides off measures of conduct to make his belt. Clothing is enough if it covers the shape, follows the old books, goes with what is hollow and what bends, is easy on the body and suits the walk, and does not work at strange and pretty looks or at trimming the corners. A belt is enough if it ties the knot and gathers the lapel, binds tight and holds fast, and is not in haste for figured patterns or for the □ that is open and short. So he makes ritual and right and practices the highest power, and is not tied down by the Ru and the Mo. What is called brightness is not called so for seeing that other thing. It is seeing oneself, no more. What is called sharpness of ear is not called so for hearing that other thing. It is hearing oneself, no more. What is called reaching through is not called so for knowing that other thing. It is knowing oneself, no more. For this reason the body is where the Way is lodged. Get the body and the Way is got. When the Way is got, seeing is bright, hearing is sharp, speech is fair, and action is followed. So when the sage cuts and shapes things it is like a workman hewing and chiseling and cutting tenons, or a cook slicing and parting and dividing. At every turn he finds what fits, and nothing is broken or harmed. The clumsy workman is not so. Too big, and it is blocked and will not go in. Too small, and it is loose and does not close all round. His mind moves and his hand goes crooked, and it grows uglier. When the sage cuts and shapes a thing he splits it and parts it, takes it apart and scatters it. When it has run over and been lost, he measures it again by the One. When it has come out of its root, he brings it back to its gate. When it has been carved and polished, he returns it to the uncut block. Joined, they are the Way and its power. Parted, they are the outward forms. Turning, it goes into the dark deep. Scattering, it answers to what has no shape. How should ritual and right and the measures of conduct ever reach the bottom of the root of the highest government! Those in the world who are clear about affairs mostly leave the root of the Way and its power and say that ritual and right are enough to govern all under heaven. With such men one cannot speak of method.

What is called ritual and right is the laws and records and customs of the Five Emperors and the Three Kings, the tracks of one age. It is like the straw dog and the earthen dragon when they are first made. They are patterned in blue and yellow and wrapped in figured embroidery and bound with red silk, the invoker puts on his dark robes, and the high officer in court robe and cap goes out to meet them and to send them off. But once they have been used they are a clod of earth and a bunch of weeds, and who then holds them dear! So in the time of Shun the Youmiao would not submit, and Shun set his government in order and laid his weapons down, and took up shield and axe and danced. In the time of Yu there was great rain under heaven, and Yu had the people heap earth and pile firewood and choose the hills to live on. When King Wu attacked Zhou he carried with him the one who stood for the dead, and all within the seas was not yet settled, so he did not begin the three years of mourning. Yu met the trouble of the flood and the work of dikes and ponds, and so one who died in the morning was buried at evening. All these are how the sage answered the time and matched the change, saw the shape of things and did what fitted. To keep up shield and axe now and laugh at hoe and spade, to know the three years and fault the single day, is to go along with the ox and fault the horse, and to laugh at the yu note with the zhi note. To answer change with this is no different from plucking one string and looking for the Jixia. To wish to match change and answer the time with the changes of one age is like wearing hemp cloth in winter and fur in summer. One aim will not do for a hundred shots, and one coat will not carry through the year. The aim must answer the height, and the coat must suit cold and heat.

For this reason, when the age differs affairs change, and when the time shifts custom alters. So the sage judges the age and sets up laws, and follows the time and takes up affairs. The kings of high antiquity raised the mound on Mount Tai and cleared the ground at Liangfu, more than seventy sages, and their laws and measures were not the same. It was not that they worked at running against each other. The times and the ages differed. For this reason one does not take for law the law they had already made, but takes for law that by which it was made a law. What makes a law is what shifts along with change. That a man can shift along with change is where the highest nobility lies. The songs of Huliang can be followed, but what made him sing cannot be done. The laws of the sage can be looked at, but what made him frame them cannot be traced. The words of a skilled speaker can be listened to, but what made him speak cannot be given shape. The sword Chunjun is not to be doted on, but the skill of Ou Ye is to be prized. Now Wang Qiao and Chisongzi blew and breathed out and in, spat out the stale and took in the new, left the shape behind and put knowing away, held to the plain and turned back to the true, and so wandered in the dark and fine and reached up to the clouds and the sky. To wish to learn their Way now without getting how they nursed the breath and settled the spirit, and only to copy their breathing out and breathing in, their bending at times and stretching at times, plainly cannot ride the clouds and mount on high. The Five Emperors and the Three Kings made all under heaven light and the ten thousand things small, made death and life even and change one and the same, held the heart of the great sage and mirrored in it the feel of the ten thousand things, above were friends with the bright spirits and below were fellows with the making and shaping of things.

To wish to learn their Way now without getting their clarity and brightness and dark holiness, and to hold instead to their laws and records and standing orders, plainly cannot make government. So it is said, "To get ten sharp swords is not as good as getting the skill of Ou Ye. To get a hundred running horses is not as good as getting the reckoning of Bo Le." The uncut block at its greatest has no shape and no form, and the Way at its finest has no measure. So the roundness of heaven is not got with a compass, and the squareness of earth is not got with a carpenter's square. The past that goes and the present that comes are called zhou. The four quarters and above and below are called yu. The Way is between them, and no one knows where it is. So one whose sight does not go far cannot be spoken with about what is great, and one whose wits are not wide cannot be talked with about what is highest. Long ago Feng Yi got the Way and dived into the great rivers, and Qianju got the Way and dwelt on Kunlun. Bian Que used it to cure sickness, Zaofu used it to drive horses, Yi used it to shoot, Chui used it to hew. What they did was different in each case, but what they went by was one. Those who take in the Way and get through to things have no ground for faulting one another. It is like watering fields from the same pond, where the water each takes is the same. Butcher an ox and cook the flesh, and one man makes it sour and another sweet. They fry it and boil it and roast it and broil it, and the tastes are made ten thousand ways, yet the root of it is the body of one ox. Fell the pian and the nan and the yuzhang and split them and cut them, and some become inner and outer coffins and some become pillars and beams. They are hewn and cut and pried and trimmed, and the uses are ten thousand, yet it is the uncut wood of one tree.

So the words of the hundred schools point opposite ways, yet in falling in with the Way they are one body. It is like the gathering of silk and bamboo and metal and stone. The music is the same, and though the tunes of each house differ, none loses the body of it. Bo Le and Hanfeng, Qin Ya and Guan Qing each judged by different marks, but in knowing horses they were one. So the Three Augusts and the Five Emperors had laws and records of differing ways, but in winning the hearts of the people they were alike. So Tang entered Xia and used its laws, and King Wu entered Yin and practiced its rites. These were what Jie and Zhou perished by, and what made the government of Tang and Wu. So though graver and saw lie ready, none but a good workman can master the wood. Though furnace and bellows and mold are set up, none but a skilled smith can work the metal. Tu Niutu took nine oxen apart in one morning, and his knife would still shave hair. Cook Ding used his knife nineteen years, and the knife was as though it had just come from the whetstone. Why? Because he wandered in the spaces where there is nothing. Compass and square, hook and marking line are the tools of skill, but they are not what makes skill. A zither without strings, even Shi Wen could not make a tune on it, and strings by themselves cannot make sadness. Strings are the tools of sadness, but not what makes sadness. As for the workman who makes the linked trigger, the turning opening, the hidden catch and the dazzling joints, who enters the fineness of the dark and dark, the last reach of the spirit's tuning, who wanders in the spaces where there is nothing between mind and hand and never comes to a border with things, a father cannot teach that to his son. When the blind music master lets his mind go and takes the measure of things, copies the spirit and dances the more, and gives it shape upon the strings, an elder brother cannot make that plain to a younger.

Now what makes level is the water level, and what makes straight is the marking line. To make level and straight while standing outside line and level is an art that cannot be shared. So strike the gong note and the gong answers, pluck the jue note and the jue stirs. This is like sounds answering each other. But that a note with no match among the five should set all twenty-five strings answering is the Way that is not handed on. So the desolate is the ruler of shape, and the silent is the master of sound. Right and wrong under heaven have nothing fixed about them. Each age calls right what it holds right and wrong what it holds wrong, so that what is called right and wrong differs in each, and all hold themselves right and others wrong. Seen from this, there are affairs that fall in with oneself, and they were never right from the start. There are affairs that go against one's mind, and they were never wrong from the start. So one who seeks the right is not seeking the pattern of things but seeking what falls in with himself, and one who puts away the wrong is not striking at wickedness but putting away what goes against his mind. What goes against me is not surely out of accord with another. What falls in with me is not surely no fault in the eyes of custom. The right of the utmost right has no wrong in it, and the wrong of the utmost wrong has no right in it. This is true right and wrong. As for what is right here and wrong there, and wrong here and right there, this is called one right and one wrong. This one right and wrong is a corner and a bend. The right and wrong that is truly one is the whole of space and time.

Now I would choose the right and dwell in it and choose the wrong and put it away, but I do not know what the world calls right and wrong, and so I do not know which is right and which is wrong. Laozi said, "Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish." The easygoing man says, do not stir it often. The man who cuts close says, just get the salt and the sour into it, no more. Duke Ping of Jin spoke out of turn, and Music Master Kuang took up his zither and struck at him, and he stumbled and his lapel brushed the wall of the hall. Those about him wanted to plaster it over, but Duke Ping said, "Leave it! Let it stand for my fault." Confucius heard of it and said, "It was not that Duke Ping felt no pain in his body. He wished to bring men who would remonstrate." Han Fei heard of it and said, "When ministers lose ritual and are not put to death, this is letting a fault go. There is a reason, then, why Duke Ping was no hegemon!" A guest once presented a man to Fuzi, and when the guest had gone out Fuzi said, "Your guest has three faults in him. He looked at me and smiled, and that is arrogance. He talked and never named his teacher, and that is turning his back. His acquaintance is shallow and his words were deep, and that is disorder." The guest said, "He looked at his lord and smiled, and that is openness. He talked and never named his teacher, and that is getting through. His acquaintance is shallow and his words were deep, and that is loyalty." So the guest's bearing was one and the same, and one man made him a gentleman and another a small man, because the eyes they looked from differed.

So when what men take up and what they lay down agree, words are held loyal and they grow closer. When the man himself is held at a distance, his plan may be right and still be suspected. When a true mother treats the scabs on her child's head and the blood runs down to his ear, those who see it call her love utmost. Put it in the hands of a stepmother, and those who pass by call it spite. The facts of the thing are one, and those who look on them differ. From the top of a wall an ox looks like a sheep and a sheep like a pig, because the place one stands is high. Look at your face in a basin of water and it is round; in a cup it is long. The shape of the face has not changed from what it was. That it is round in one and long in the other is because what one peers into differs. Though I would set myself straight now and wait upon things, how should I know from where the world peers at me! To turn and change and race along with the world is like running from the rain, where wherever you go you are wet. To want always to be in emptiness is to find there is an emptiness one cannot make, and to be empty of oneself without working at emptiness is what men long for and cannot reach. So one who gets through to the Way is like the axle of a cart, which does not turn of itself and yet goes a thousand li with the hub, spinning at a source without end. One who does not get through to the Way is like a man bewildered. Tell him east and west and south and north, and where he stands it is all clear, but turn one bend and of a sudden he has lost it and is bewildered again. So to be another man's servant all one's life is like a weathervane meeting the wind, which is not fixed for a moment.

So the sage takes the Way for his body and turns back to his nature, and does not change and so waits for change, and comes near to getting free. In a well governed age the body of things is easy to keep, its affairs are easy to do, its rites are easy to carry out, and its charges are easy to meet. So a man does not hold two offices and an office does not hold two kinds of work, and scholar and farmer and craftsman and merchant live in separate townships and separate districts. For this reason farmer talks with farmer about strength, scholar with scholar about conduct, craftsman with craftsman about skill, and merchant with merchant about reckoning. So the scholar leaves no conduct undone and the farmer no merit unmade, the craftsman has no galling work and the merchant no goods that break him. Each is at ease in his nature, and they cannot meddle with one another. So when Yi Yin raised earthworks, he had the long-shanked tread the hoe and the strong-backed carry the earth, the one-eyed take the levels and the hunchbacked do the plastering. Each had what fitted him, and the natures of men were made even. The Hu are handy with horses and the Yue with boats. Their shapes differ and their kinds differ, and if their work is swapped it goes wrong. Out of place they are held cheap. With the force of things behind them they are prized. The sage gathers them all and uses them, and the reckoning of it is one. To know beforehand and see far off and look clear through a thousand li is the height of a man's talent, but a well governed age does not ask it of the people. Wide learning and a strong memory, a mouth that argues and words that never run short, are the beauty of a man's wits, but a bright ruler does not seek them in those below. To look down on the age and hold things light and take no stain from custom is the high conduct of a scholar, but a well governed age does not make it the teaching of the people. A spirit-like mechanism hidden and shut, a graver that leaves no track, are the fineness of a man's skill, but a well governed age does not make it the work of the people.

So Chang Hong and Music Master Kuang knew misfortune and fortune beforehand and left no plan unsaid in their words, yet they could not share an office with the crowd. Gongsun Long broke down argument and set word against word, parted same from different and pulled hard apart from white, yet he could not share a road with the crowd. Beiren Wuze held Shun in the wrong and threw himself into the pool of Qingling, yet he cannot be made a model for the world. Lu Ban and Mozi made a kite of wood and flew it, and for three days it did not come down, yet they cannot be made the craftsmen of a state. So one whose height cannot be reached cannot be the measure of men, and one whose conduct cannot be come up with cannot be the custom of a country. To lift the light and the heavy and not be out by a grain the sage does not use, but hangs them on the balance. To look at high and low and not be off by a foot or an inch the bright ruler does not trust to, but seeks it from the level. Why? Because a man's talent cannot be used alone, while measures can be handed down through the ages. So the government of a state can be kept up even with the foolish, and the rules of an army can be used by weighing the moment. Wait for Yaoniao and Feitu before harnessing, and no one in the world will ride in a cart. Wait for Xi Shi and Mao Qiang before taking a wife, and one will go through life without a household. Yet men are enough of themselves without waiting for the great ones of old, because they use what there is, all of it together. The thoroughbred gets through a thousand li in a day, and the poor horse does ten stages and gets there too in ten days. Seen from this, a man's talent is not enough to rely on alone, while the art of the Way can be practiced in common. The laws of a disordered age set the measure so high that no crime reaches it, lay charges so heavy that no punishment can master them, and make prohibitions so dangerous that none dare carry out the killing. When the people are worn down by these three charges, they dress up their wits and cheat those above them, and break into wickedness and look for a way out.

So even with steep laws and stern punishments their wickedness cannot be stopped. Why? Because the strength is not there. So the saying goes, "A bird at the end pecks, a beast at the end □, a man at the end cheats." This is what it means. The judgment of the Way and its power is like the sun and the moon. South of the Jiang or north of the He cannot change where it points, and a thousand li of galloping cannot change where it stands. What men take up and lay down, and the ways of ritual, are like houses and dwellings. The east house calls it the west house and the west house calls it the east house, and even with Gao Yao to order it their places cannot be fixed. So men may take up and lay down the same things, and blame and praise lie with custom. Their minds and their conduct may be level, and want or success lies with the time. That Tang and Wu heaped up conduct and piled up good can be come up to. That they met the age of Jie and Zhou was given by heaven. To have the mind of Tang and Wu now without the time of Jie and Zhou, and still to wish to make the work of a hegemon king, is far from likely. Long ago King Wu held the dagger-axe and grasped the battle-axe to attack Zhou and beat Yin, and then put the tablet in his sash and leaned on a staff as he came to court. When King Wu had died and the people of Yin turned against him, the Duke of Zhou trod the eastern palace and trod the mounting stone, took the place of the Son of Heaven, set his back to the screen and received the lords at court, banished Caishu and put Guanshu to death, beat Yin and made an end of Shang, sacrificed to King Wen in the Hall of Light, and in the seventh year gave the government back to King Cheng. That King Wu put arms first and letters after was no change of mind. It was answering the time. That the Duke of Zhou banished an elder brother and put a younger to death was no want of benevolence. It was setting disorder straight.

So when affairs go round with the age, merit is made, and when work falls in with the time, a name is set up. Long ago Duke Huan of Qi gathered the lords with carriages of state, and then went home and used axe and battle-axe in his own country. Duke Wen of Jin gathered the lords with war chariots, and then went home and practiced ritual and right in his own country. Huan was soft first and hard after, and Wen was hard first and soft after, yet their commands were carried out under heaven and they held the lords by their power alike, because they looked closely into the turns of circumstance. The ruler of Lu wished to make Yan He his minister, and he would not have it, and when men were sent ahead with gifts of silk he broke through his wall and fled, and so became the manifest valor of all under heaven. Had he met Shang Yang or Shen Buhai, punishment would have reached three branches of his kin, and how much more his own person! The world often names the men of old and holds their conduct high, and when there are men in its own age who are the same it does not know enough to prize them. It is not that their talent is lower. The time does not suit them. So six thoroughbreds and four fine steeds are not as handy as a hollowed log for crossing the Jiang and the He, and being in the world is like that. For this reason a man who makes merit is plain in his conduct and careful about the time. Men of the world now hold him worthy who makes merit, hold him wise who gets the better of trouble, hold him foolish who meets with hardship, and hold him dull who dies for his honor. I say that each of them carried his own thing to the end, no more. Prince Bi Gan was not ignorant that Jizi let his hair down and feigned madness and so got off with his life, but he delighted in straight conduct and loyalty to the end and dying for his honor, and so did not do it. Bo Yi (伯夷) and Shu Qi were not unable to take a stipend and hold office and make their merit, but they delighted in leaving the world and lifting their conduct high and cutting themselves off from the crowd, and so did not work at it. Xu You and Shan Juan were not unable to soothe all under heaven and settle all within the seas and do the people good, but they were ashamed to let things trouble their harmony, and so did not take it. Yu Rang and Yao Li were not ignorant of delighting in a household and settling wife and children and living on as they might, but they delighted in pushing sincerity into deeds and dying for their lord for certain, and so did not stay.

Look at Bi Gan from Jizi, and he is a fool. Look at Jizi from Bi Gan, and he is low. Look at Bo Yi from Guan Zhong and Yan Ying, and he is dull. Look at Guan Zhong and Yan Ying from Bo Yi, and they are greedy. What they take up and lay down faults the other, what they like and want runs contrary, and each delights in his own work. Who then shall be made to set it right? Zengzi said, "Strike a boat in the water, and the birds hear it and fly up high, and the fish hear it and hide in the deep." So what each runs to differs, and all get what is easy for them. So when Huizi went past Mengzhu with a hundred carriages in his train, Zhuangzi saw him and threw away the fish he had left. The pelican drinks water by the peck and it is not enough. The eel and the sturgeon take into the mouth what is no more than a drop of dew and die. Zhi Bo had the three parts of Jin and his wants were not filled. Lin Lei and Rong Qiqi wore clothes like a hanging straw cape and their minds felt no lack. Seen from this, aims and conduct differ in each. How then should one fault another! One who holds life heavy does not harm himself for gain. One who sets up his honor meets hardship and does not take the easy way out. One who is greedy for a stipend sees gain and does not look to himself. One who loves a name does not snatch what is not right. To argue these against one another is like ice and charcoal, or hook and marking line. When will they ever meet! Put the sage in the middle of them, and he covers them all and takes them in together, and there is nothing to call right or wrong. Flying birds go by nests, and the fox and the wildcat go by burrows. The nest builder builds his nest and gets his perch in it. The burrow digger digs his burrow and gets his lodging in it. What men take up and lay down, their conduct and their sense of right, are also where a man perches and lodges. To delight in what one is at ease in and carry to the end what one's own feet stand on is what is called a man made whole.

So one who judges by the Way gathers them all and makes them even. In the way of governing a state there are no harsh commands above, no bothersome government in the offices, no false conduct among the scholars, and no excess of cleverness among the craftsmen. Their affairs run by the constant rule and are not stirred up, and their vessels are whole and are not dressed up. A disordered age is not so. Men of conduct pull one another up by who stands higher, men of ritual vie in false show, carriages are carried to the last point of carving and polishing, vessels chase after cutting and openwork, those who seek goods struggle for what is hard to get and make treasures of it, those who carp at writing dwell on what is crowded and confusing and call it wit, and they vie in strange arguments and hang on long without settling anything, with no gain to government. Craftsmen make strange contrivances that take a year and more to finish and are of no wide use. So the law of Shennong says, "When a man is in his full strength and does not plow, someone under heaven goes hungry for it. When a woman is of age and does not weave, someone under heaven goes cold for it." So he plowed himself and his wife wove with her own hands, to go before all under heaven. In leading the people he did not prize goods that are hard to get and did not make vessels of useless things. For this reason one who did not put his strength into plowing had no means of nourishing his life, and one who did not put her strength into weaving had no means of covering her shape, and having more than enough or falling short came home to each. Clothing and food were plentiful and overflowing, wickedness did not arise, all was quiet and glad and without trouble, and all under heaven was even and level. So Kong Qiu and Zeng Shen had nowhere to spread their goodness, and Meng Ben and Cheng Jing had nowhere to use their fierceness. The custom of an age in decline is to use wits and skill and cheating and falsehood to dress up a crowd of useless things, to prize the goods of far quarters and treasure wealth that is hard to get, and not to store up what living needs. They thin the plainness of all under heaven and split its uncut block, and they yoke horses and oxen and pen them up. They churn the myriad people into disorder and take the clear for the muddy, and nature and fate are blown about, and all is stirred up and scheming. Uprightness and good faith spill away, and men lose their feelings and their nature. And then there are kingfisher feathers and rhinoceros and ivory, embroidered robes and figured patterns to trouble their eyes, grain-fed beasts and millet and rice and the sweet smells of Jing and Wu to make their mouths greedy, bell and drum and pipe and flute, silk and bamboo and metal and stone to drown their ears, and things taken up and laid down, conduct and right, rules of ritual and slander and talk to set their minds scheming. And then the hundred families seethe and boil in disorder, they go about at dusk chasing gain, they are tangled and thin, law and right fault each other, and conduct and gain run contrary.

Even ten Guan Zhongs could not govern it. The rich man's carriage and clothes are of figured brocade, his horse's trappings are set with oxtail and ivory, his curtains and mats and cushions are of embroidered silk and braid, and blue and yellow cross each other past all likeness. The poor man in summer wears hemp cloth with a rope for a belt, holds beans in his mouth and drinks water to fill his belly and bear the heat, and in winter his sheepskin coat is falling apart and his short hemp coat does not cover his shape, and he warms himself at the mouth of the hearth. As households on the register and men of the common roll there is no difference between them, yet the distance between rich and poor is like that between a ruler and a slave, and there is no measuring it. One who rides on strange arts and false and wicked dealing has enough for himself in a single age, and one who keeps to the straight and works the pattern and will not snatch what is not his does not get free of hunger and cold. To wish meanwhile that the people would leave the branch and turn back to the root is to open the source and dam the stream. Carving and polishing, cutting and openwork harm the work of farming. Brocade and embroidery and braid harm the work of women. When farming is left off and women's work is harmed, that is the root of hunger and the source of cold. That men to whom hunger and cold come together can keep from breaking the law and facing the axe has not been heard of, past or present. So holding office or living low lies with the time and not with conduct, and gain or harm lies with fate and not with wits. Among the troops of a beaten army even the brave run away, and the general cannot stop them. In the ranks of a winning army even the coward dies in his place, and fear cannot make him run.

So when the Jiang and the He burst and a whole district is sunk, father and son and elder and younger brother leave one another and run, and they struggle up the hills and slopes and climb the high mounds, and the light of foot get up first and cannot look back at one another. When the world is glad and minds are level, men grieve even at the sight of a man from a neighboring state drowning, and how much more at their own kin! So when a man is safe himself his kindness reaches the neighboring state, and his own aims drop away for it. When he is in danger himself he forgets his kin, and no one can undo it. A swimmer cannot pull out a drowning man, because his own hands and feet are hard pressed. A man who is burned cannot put out the fire, because his own body is in pain. When the people have more than enough they give way, and when they fall short they fight. Give way, and ritual and right are born. Fight, and violence and disorder rise. Knock at a door and ask for water, and no one refuses, because there is plenty of it. In the woods no one sells firewood and on the lake no one sells fish, because there is more than enough. So when things are plentiful wants grow few, and when what is sought is enough fighting stops. In the time of the king of Qin some men pickled their own children, because there was not gain enough. When the Liu clan held the government, a lone man took in an orphan, because there was wealth to spare. So when the age is well governed the small man keeps to right rule and gain cannot tempt him, and when the age is in disorder the gentleman does wickedness and the law cannot stop him.