Fit for Emperors and Kings莊子 內篇 應帝王

Nieque asked Wang Ni four questions, and four times Wang Ni said he did not know. At this Nieque leapt up in great delight and went to tell Puyizi.

Puyizi said, "Do you know it only now? The Youyu clan did not come up to the Tai clan. The Youyu clan still held benevolence in his breast to draw people in, and he did win people, but he had never yet got out of the not-human. The Tai clan lay down at his ease and woke up blank. One time he took himself for a horse, another time he took himself for an ox. His knowing was true and to be trusted, and his virtue was deeply real, and he had never yet entered into the not-human."

Jianwu met Jieyu the madman. Jieyu the madman said, "What did Rizhongshi tell you?"

Jianwu said, "He told me this. If the ruler of men puts out of himself the rules and the right forms and the measures, who among the people would dare not listen and be changed by them?"

Jieyu the madman said, "This is cheating virtue. To govern the world with it is like wading the sea to dig a river channel, or making a mosquito carry a mountain.

Does the government of the sage govern what is outside? He makes himself upright and then acts, and he only sees to it that each can do his own work.

And the bird flies high to escape the harm of the stringed arrow, and the field mouse digs its hole deep under the sacred mound to escape the trouble of smoke and spade. Yet you know less than those two creatures."

Tian Gen was wandering on the south side of Mount Yin, and when he came to the bank of the Liao River he happened to meet the man with no name, and he asked him, "I beg to ask how the world is to be governed."

The man with no name said, "Away with you. You are a coarse man. Why is your question so unwelcome? I am about to be a companion to the maker of things. When I tire of that, I will ride the bird of the far and faint, go out beyond the six limits, wander in the village where nothing at all is, and dwell in the field of the wide and empty waste. What are you doing, coming with this governing of the world to stir my mind?"

He asked again, and the man with no name said, "Let your mind wander in the bland, join your breath with the still, follow things as they are of themselves, and leave no room for what is your own. Then the world will be governed."

Yangzi Ju went to see Lao Dan and said, "Suppose there is a man here who is quick and strong as an echo, who sees through things and is open and clear, and who never tires of studying the Way. May such a man be set beside a bright king?"

Lao Dan said, "To the sage such a man is one tied to small skills and bound to his craft, wearing out his body and fretting his mind. The markings of the tiger and the leopard bring on the hunt, and the nimbleness of the monkey and the quickness of the dog that takes the wildcat bring on the leash. May such a man be set beside a bright king?"

Yangzi Ju drew back startled and said, "I venture to ask about the government of the bright king."

Lao Dan said, "The government of the bright king is this. His merit covers the world, and he makes it seem not to come from himself. His changing reaches the ten thousand things, and the people do not lean on him. He is there, and no one takes up his name. He lets things delight in themselves. He stands in what cannot be fathomed, and he wanders where there is nothing."

In Zheng there was a shaman of spirit power named Ji Xian. He knew whether a man would die or live, survive or perish, meet ruin or blessing, live long or die young, and he set the year and the month and the day of it as a god might. When the people of Zheng saw him, they all dropped what they held and ran.

Liezi saw him, and his mind was drunk with it, and he came back and told Huzi, "At first I took the Way of my master to be the utmost, but there is something more utmost still."

Huzi said, "I have given you all the outward form of it, but not yet all its substance, and can you truly be said to have got the Way? With many hens and no cock, how are there to be eggs? You set the Way against the world and would have it trusted, and that is why the man is able to read your face. Try bringing him along. Let me show myself to him."

The next day Liezi came with him to see Huzi. When the man came out, he said to Liezi, "Ah, your master is a dead man. He will not live. He has not ten days left. I saw something strange in him. I saw wet ashes."

Liezi went in, weeping until his collar was soaked, and told Huzi.

Huzi said, "Just now I showed him the markings of earth, a sprouting that neither shakes nor stands straight. He must have seen me shutting off the workings of my virtue. Try bringing him again."

The next day he came with him again to see Huzi. When the man came out, he said to Liezi, "It is a lucky thing that your master met me. He is better. He is wholly alive. I saw the shut place stirring."

Liezi went in and told Huzi. Huzi said, "Just now I showed him heaven and earth, where name and substance do not enter, and the workings rise up from the heels. He must have seen me showing the good workings. Try bringing him again."

The next day he came with him again to see Huzi. When the man came out, he said to Liezi, "Your master is not even, and I have no way to read him. Let him become even, and I will read him again."

Liezi went in and told Huzi. Huzi said, "Just now I showed him the great emptiness where nothing wins out. He must have seen the workings of my breath in balance.

Where the great whale wheels about, the deep is a pool. Where the water stands still, the deep is a pool. Where the water runs, the deep is a pool. The pool has nine names, and three of them are used here. Try bringing him again."

The next day he came with him again to see Huzi. Before the man had even taken his stand he lost himself and ran. Huzi said, "Go after him."

Liezi went after him and could not catch him, and he came back and reported to Huzi, "He is gone already. He is lost already. I could not catch him."

Huzi said, "Just now I showed him what had not yet come out of my own source. I met him empty and winding, so that he did not know who or what I was. I let myself fall as he fell, I let myself flow as he flowed, and so he ran."

After that Liezi thought of himself as one who had never yet studied, and he went home and did not go out for three years. He cooked for his wife, and he fed the pigs as though he were feeding people. He took no side in affairs and made no one close. He turned the carved and polished back into the uncut block. Like a clod of earth he stood alone in his own body, and sealed up in the midst of all the tangle, he stayed one to the end.

Do not be the host of a name. Do not be the storehouse of schemes. Do not be the burden of affairs. Do not be the master of knowing.

Take the endless wholly into your body, and wander where there is no trace. Use up all you have received from heaven, and do not let what you have got be seen. Be empty, and that is all.

The utmost man uses his mind like a mirror. He does not send off and he does not welcome. He answers and he does not store away. So he can overcome things and take no wound.

The emperor of the southern sea was called Shu, and the emperor of the northern sea was called Hu, and the emperor of the middle was called Hundun.

Shu and Hu met from time to time in the land of Hundun, and Hundun treated them very well. Shu and Hu planned to repay the kindness of Hundun, and they said, "People all have seven holes, to see and hear and eat and breathe with. This one alone has none. Let us try boring them."

Every day they bored one hole, and on the seventh day Hundun died.