Breaking Open Trunks莊子 外篇 胠篋

To guard against the thief who prizes open the box and rifles the bag and opens the chest, one binds it tight with cords and makes the locks fast. This is what the age calls knowing.

But when the great thief comes, he shoulders the chest and takes up the box and carries off the bag, and his one fear is that the cords and the locks may not be tight enough.

Then is not what was just now called knowing in fact something piled up for the great thief?

So let me try to set it out. Among the things the age calls knowing, is there one that is not piled up for the great thief? Among the things it calls sageliness, is there one that does not guard the great thief?

How do I know it is so? In the old days in Qi the neighboring towns were within sight of one another and the sound of cocks and dogs carried from one to the next, and the land where the nets were spread and the plow and the hoe went in was more than two thousand li square. Within all its borders, the setting up of the ancestral temple and the altars of earth and grain, and the ordering of towns and dwellings and districts and villages, when was any of it not modeled on the sage?

Then in one morning Tian Chengzi killed the ruler of Qi and stole his state. And was it only the state he stole? He stole its rules of sageliness and knowing along with it.

So Tian Chengzi had the name of a robber, and yet his person rested in the ease of Yao and Shun. The small states did not dare call him wrong, and the great states did not dare punish him, and for twelve generations his house held Qi. Then is this not stealing the state of Qi, and stealing its rules of sageliness and knowing along with it, and so guarding his robber's person?

Let me try to set it out. Among the things the age calls the utmost knowing, is there one that is not piled up for the great thief? Among the things it calls the utmost sageliness, is there one that does not guard the great thief?

How do I know it is so? In the old days Long Feng was beheaded, Bi Gan had his breast cut open, Chang Hong had his bowels drawn out, and Wu Zixu rotted in the water. Worthy as these four men were, they did not escape being put to death.

So a follower of Robber Zhi asked Robber Zhi, "Do thieves too have a Way?"

Robber Zhi said, "Where could one go and there be no Way? To guess out what is stored away in the room is sageliness. To go in first is courage. To come out last is rightness. To know whether it can be done or not is knowing. To share out evenly is benevolence. There has never been anyone in the world who became a great thief without these five."

Looked at in this way, a good man cannot stand without getting the Way of the sage, and Robber Zhi cannot go about his work without getting the Way of the sage. In the world the good men are few and the men who are not good are many, so the sage does the world little good and much harm.

So it is said: when the lips are gone the teeth are cold, when the wine of Lu was thin Handan was besieged, and when the sage is born the great thief rises.

Smash the sage and let the robbers go, and the world will begin to be governed. When the stream dries the valley is empty, and when the hill is leveled the pool is filled. Once the sage is dead the great thief does not rise, and the world is level and without trouble.

While the sage does not die the great thief does not stop. To use the sage over and over to govern the world is to profit Robber Zhi over and over.

Make pecks and bushels to measure with, and he steals the pecks and bushels along with it. Make scales and weights to weigh with, and he steals the scales and weights along with it. Make tallies and seals to make things trusted, and he steals the tallies and seals along with it. Make benevolence and rightness to set things straight, and he steals benevolence and rightness along with it.

How do I know it is so? The man who steals a belt buckle is put to death, and the man who steals a state becomes a feudal lord. And at the gate of the feudal lord the men of right conduct are to be found. Is this not stealing benevolence and rightness and the knowing of the sage?

So the man who follows the great thief and rises to be a feudal lord, and steals benevolence and rightness along with the profit of pecks and bushels and scales and tallies and seals, cannot be urged on by the reward of the high carriage and the cap of office, and cannot be held back by the threat of the axe. That Robber Zhi is profited over and over in this way, so that he cannot be held back, is the fault of the sage.

So it is said: the fish cannot leave the deep pool, and the sharp instruments of a state must not be shown to others.

The sage is the sharp instrument of the world, and he is not to be put on show before the world.

So cut off sageliness and throw away knowing, and the great thief stops. Throw away the jade and break the pearls, and the small thief does not rise. Burn the tallies and smash the seals, and the people become plain and simple. Break the pecks and snap the scales, and the people do not quarrel. Wipe out every holy law in the world, and only then can things be talked over with the people.

Pull the six pitches apart and scatter them, melt down and cut through the pipes and the zithers, and stop up the ears of Shi Kuang, and then for the first time each man in the world will keep his own hearing. Do away with patterns, scatter the five colors, and glue shut the eyes of Li Zhu, and then for the first time each man in the world will keep his own sight. Break and cut through the hook and the marking line, throw away the compass and the square, and snap the fingers of Gong Chui, and then for the first time each man in the world will have his own skill.

So it is said: great skill looks clumsy.

Pare away the conduct of Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu, clamp shut the mouths of Yang Zhu and Mo Di, and push benevolence and rightness away, and the virtue of the world will begin to be darkly one.

When each man keeps his own sight, the world is not melted away. When each man keeps his own hearing, the world is not tied down. When each man keeps his own knowing, the world is not confused. When each man keeps his own virtue, the world does not go crooked.

Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu and Yang Zhu and Mo Di and Shi Kuang and Gong Chui and Li Zhu all set their virtue up outside themselves and made the world flash and blur, and there is no use for them in the law.

Do you alone not know the age of utmost virtue?

In the old days, in the time of the Rongcheng clan, the Dating clan, the Bohuang clan, the Zhongyang clan, the Lilu clan, the Lichu clan, the Xuanyuan clan, the Hexu clan, the Zunlu clan, the Zhurong clan, the Fuxi clan and the Shennong clan, the people knotted cords and used them. They found their food sweet, their clothes fine, their customs pleasant and their dwellings restful. Neighboring states were within sight of one another and the sound of cocks and dogs carried from one to the next, and yet the people grew old and died without going back and forth. A time like this was government at its utmost.

Now it has come to this, that the people crane their necks and stand on their heels and say, "In such a place there is a worthy man," and they shoulder their food and hurry off to him. Within, they cast off their parents. Without, they leave the service of their ruler. Their footprints run out to the borders of the feudal lords and their carriage tracks are tangled a thousand li away. This is the fault of those above for loving knowing.

When those above truly love knowing and have no Way, the world falls into great confusion.

How do I know it is so? When there is much knowing of bows and crossbows, of bird nets and stringed arrows and traps, the birds are thrown into confusion above. When there is much knowing of hooks and bait and nets and fish baskets, the fish are thrown into confusion in the water. When there is much knowing of pitfalls and nets and snares, the beasts are thrown into confusion in the marshes. When there is much shifting of deceit and poisonous scheming, of slippery talk of hard and white and forced talk of same and different, the age is confused by argument.

So whenever the world falls into great confusion, the crime lies in loving knowing.

So all in the world know how to seek what they do not know, and none knows how to seek what he already knows. All know how to call wrong what they think is not good, and none knows how to call wrong what they already think is good. This is why there is great confusion.

So above, the brightness of the sun and the moon is thrown out of order. Below, the essence of the hills and the streams is melted away. In between, the giving of the four seasons is broken down. Down to the wriggling insects and the fluttering things, there is nothing that does not lose its nature.

How far it has gone, this throwing of the world into confusion by the love of knowing. It has been so from the Three Dynasties down. The plain and simple people are cast aside and the busy flatterer is delighted in. The bland and the doing of nothing are let go and the chattering purpose is delighted in, and the chattering has already thrown the world into confusion.