Letting the World Be莊子 外篇 在宥

I have heard of letting the world be and leaving it alone, but I have not heard of governing the world.

To let it be is to fear that the world will run past its own nature. To leave it alone is to fear that the world will shift from its own virtue. If the world does not run past its nature and does not shift from its virtue, what is there to govern?

Long ago, when Yao governed the world, he made the world glad, and people delighted in their own nature. This is not calm. When Jie governed the world, he made the world weary, and people suffered in their own nature. This is not joy.

What is neither calm nor joyful is not virtue. In all the world there is nothing that lasts long without virtue.

When a man rejoices greatly, he leans toward the yang. When he rages greatly, he leans toward the yin. When yin and yang both lean, the four seasons do not arrive and the harmony of cold and heat is not made. Does this not turn back and harm the body of a man?

It makes joy and anger lose their places, dwelling lose its constancy, thought fail to reach itself, and the middle of the way fail to form its pattern. Then the world first grows boastful and quarrelsome, overbearing and fierce, and after that come the deeds of Robber Zhi and of Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu.

So all the world is not enough to reward the good, and all the world is not enough to punish the bad. Great as the world is, it is not enough for reward and punishment.

Ever since the Three Dynasties men have clamored and made reward and punishment their business to the end. What leisure have they to rest in the true state of their nature and their fate?

And if you delight in clear sight, this is to run to excess in color. If you delight in keen hearing, this is to run to excess in sound. If you delight in benevolence, this throws virtue into disorder. If you delight in rightness, this goes against reason. If you delight in ritual, this abets skill. If you delight in music, this abets excess. If you delight in sageliness, this abets artifice. If you delight in knowing, this abets fault.

If the world would rest in the true state of its nature and its fate, these eight may stay or may go. If the world would not rest in the true state of its nature and its fate, then these eight begin to twist and tangle and throw the world into disorder, and the world honors them and holds them dear. How deep the delusion of the world is. Is it something that merely passes by and is gone? They fast to speak of it, they kneel to offer it, they drum and sing and dance to it. What am I to do about this?

So when a gentleman has no choice but to preside over the world, there is nothing like doing nothing. Only in doing nothing does he rest in the true state of his nature and his fate. So one who values his own body above the world may be entrusted with the world, and one who loves his own body more than the world may have the world handed to him.

So if a gentleman can keep from undoing his five organs and from plucking out his keen hearing and clear sight, then he sits like a corpse and appears like a dragon, is silent as an abyss and sounds like thunder. His spirit moves and heaven follows. At ease and doing nothing, the ten thousand things gather like rising steam. What leisure have I to govern the world?

Cui Qu asked Lao Dan, "If the world is not governed, how can the human mind be made good?"

Lao Dan said, "Take care not to meddle with the human mind. The human mind is pushed down and pressed up, and going up and down it is imprisoned and killed. Soft and yielding, it melts what is hard and strong. It is cut square and carved. Its heat is a scorching fire, its cold is frozen ice. Its speed is such that in the time it takes to lower the head and raise it again it strokes twice beyond the four seas. At rest it is deep and still. In motion it hangs from heaven. Rearing up and not to be tied down, such is the human mind alone.

Long ago the Yellow Emperor first meddled with the human mind through benevolence and rightness. Yao and Shun then wore the flesh from their thighs and the hair from their shins to nourish the bodies of the world. They grieved their five organs to make benevolence and rightness, and strained their blood and breath to lay down laws and measures. Even so there were things they could not overcome.

Yao then cast Huandou out to Mount Chong, hurled the Sanmiao to Mount Sanwei, and banished Gonggong to Youdu. This was a failure to overcome the world.

When it came to the Three Kings the world was greatly alarmed. Below there were Jie and Robber Zhi, above there were Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu, and the Confucians and the Mohists all arose. Then joy and anger suspected each other, folly and knowing cheated each other, good and bad faulted each other, falsehood and truth mocked each other, and the world declined. Great virtue was no longer one, and nature and fate were scattered. The world loved knowing, and the hundred families searched until they were spent.

Then the adze and the saw shaped them, the ink line and the marking cord killed them, the mallet and the chisel settled them. The world was heaped in great disorder, and the crime lay in meddling with the human mind.

So worthy men lie hidden beneath the crags of the great mountains, and the lord of ten thousand chariots trembles with worry above in his hall.

In this age those put to death lie pillowed upon each other, those in cangues jostle each other, those maimed by punishment look upon each other. And now the Confucians and the Mohists begin to stand on tiptoe and bare their arms among the fetters and the manacles.

Ah, how far it has gone. How deep their want of shame, that they do not know disgrace. I do not know that sagely knowing is not the wedge of the cangue, nor that benevolence and rightness are not the lock and pin of the fetters. How should I know that Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu are not the whistling arrow of Jie and Robber Zhi?

So it is said, 'Cut off sageliness, cast away knowing, and the world will be greatly ordered.'"

In the nineteenth year after the Yellow Emperor ascended the throne as Son of Heaven, his commands were carried out through the world. He heard that Guangchengzi was on Mount Kongtong, and he went to see him and said, "I have heard that you have reached the utmost Way. I venture to ask about the essence of the utmost Way. I wish to take the essence of heaven and earth to help the five grains and to nourish the people. I wish also to govern yin and yang and so bring the living multitude to fullness. How should this be done?"

Guangchengzi said, "What you wish to ask about is the substance of things. What you wish to govern is the leavings of things. Since you began to govern the world, the cloud vapors rain before they gather, the grass and the trees fall before they yellow, and the light of the sun and the moon grows ever more barren. How should the narrow mind of a flatterer be fit to speak of the utmost Way?"

The Yellow Emperor withdrew, gave up the world, built a room apart, spread white rushes, and lived quietly for three months. Then he went again to ask.

Guangchengzi lay with his head to the south. The Yellow Emperor came forward on his knees from the downwind side, bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, and asked, "I have heard that you have reached the utmost Way. I venture to ask how one should order the body so that it may last long."

Guangchengzi sprang up and said, "A good question. Come, I will tell you the utmost Way.

The essence of the utmost Way is deep and dark. The end of the utmost Way is dim and silent. Look at nothing, listen to nothing, hold your spirit in stillness, and the body will right itself. Be still, be clear. Do not weary your body, do not shake your essence. Then you can live long.

When the eyes see nothing, the ears hear nothing, and the mind knows nothing, your spirit will guard the body, and the body will live long. Take care of what is within you, close off what is without. Much knowing brings ruin.

For you I went up above the great brightness and reached the source of the utmost yang. For you I entered the gate of the deep and dark and reached the source of the utmost yin. Heaven and earth have their offices, yin and yang have their storehouses. Guard your body with care and things will grow strong of themselves.

I have guarded the One and dwelt in its harmony. So I have tended my body for twelve hundred years, and my body has never grown old."

The Yellow Emperor bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, and said, "Guangchengzi may be called heaven itself."

Guangchengzi said, "Come, I will tell you. Those things have no end, yet men all think they end. Those things cannot be measured, yet men all think they have a limit.

One who gains my Way becomes an emperor above and a king below. One who loses my Way sees the light above and becomes earth below.

Now all the teeming things are born of earth and return to earth. So I shall leave you and enter the gate of the endless, to wander in the fields of the boundless. I will share my light with the sun and the moon, and I will be constant with heaven and earth.

Those who come near me are lost in a blur. Those who go far from me are lost in the dark. Men may all die, and I alone shall remain."

Yunjiang, wandering east, passed the branches of the Fuyao and happened upon Hongmeng. Hongmeng was just then slapping his thighs and hopping like a sparrow as he played.

Yunjiang saw him, stopped short, stood startled, and said, "Old man, who are you? Old man, why do you do this?"

Hongmeng did not stop slapping his thighs and hopping like a sparrow, and he answered Yunjiang, "I play."

Yunjiang said, "I have something I wish to ask."

Hongmeng looked up at Yunjiang and said, "Hm."

Yunjiang said, "The breath of heaven is out of harmony, the breath of earth is knotted and blocked, the six breaths are not in order, the four seasons do not keep their times. Now I wish to gather the essence of the six breaths and nourish the living multitude. How should this be done?"

Hongmeng slapped his thighs, hopped like a sparrow, shook his head, and said, "I do not know. I do not know."

Yunjiang could not ask further.

Three years later he wandered east again, passed the wilds of Song, and happened upon Hongmeng. Yunjiang was greatly pleased. He hurried forward and said, "Heaven, have you forgotten me? Heaven, have you forgotten me?" He bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, and asked to hear from Hongmeng.

Hongmeng said, "I drift and do not know what I seek. I rove wildly and do not know where I go. One who wanders, busy and untidy, watches what is without falsehood. What do I know?"

Yunjiang said, "I too think myself wild, and yet the people follow where I go. I have no choice in the matter of the people, and now I am what they take for their model. I wish to hear a word."

Hongmeng said, "To throw the warp of heaven into disorder and to go against the true state of things is what the dark heaven will not bring to pass. Scatter the herds of beasts and the birds all cry in the night. The harm reaches the grass and the trees, and the calamity reaches the insects. Ah, this is the fault of governing men."

Yunjiang said, "Then what am I to do?"

Hongmeng said, "Ah, it is poison. Go lightly home."

Yunjiang said, "It was hard for me to meet you, heaven. I wish to hear a word."

Hongmeng said, "Ah, nourish the mind. If you only dwell in doing nothing, things will change of themselves. Let your body and frame fall away, spit out your keen hearing and clear sight, forget the order of things along with things themselves. Become one with the great murk, loosen the mind and let the spirit go, be blank and without a soul.

The ten thousand things grow thick, and each returns to its own root. Each returns to its own root and does not know it. Blurred and tangled, they do not leave it all their lives. If they were to know it, that would be to leave it. Do not ask its name, do not peer into its true state. Things are born of themselves."

Yunjiang said, "Heaven has sent virtue down upon me and shown me silence. I sought it with my own body, and only now have I found it." He bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, then rose, took his leave, and went.

The men of the world all delight in others being like themselves and hate others being different from themselves. To want those who are like oneself and not to want those who are different comes from making a mind out of rising above the crowd.

But how has one who makes a mind out of rising above the crowd ever risen above the crowd? To follow the crowd and rest in what one has heard is not as good as the many skills of the crowd.

And yet one who wishes to govern another man's state grasps at the gains of the Three Kings and does not see their troubles. This is to leave another man's state to luck. How much luck will it take not to lose another man's state? Of those who keep another man's state there is not one in ten thousand, and of those who lose it, not one thing is achieved and more than ten thousand are lost.

How sad that those who hold land do not know this. One who holds land holds a great thing. One who holds a great thing must not be treated as a thing. Only by being a thing and not being treated as a thing can one make things be things.

If it is made clear that the one who makes things be things is not a thing, how should this be only a matter of governing the world and its people? He goes in and out of the six directions and wanders through the nine provinces, going alone and coming alone. This is called standing alone. The man who stands alone is called the utmost in nobility.

The teaching of the great man is like the shadow to the body, like the echo to the sound. When there is a question he answers it, giving all that he holds, and becomes the mate of the world.

He dwells where there is no echo and moves where there is no direction. He leads you out and back through the tangle of going and returning, wanders where there is no end, goes in and out where there is no side, and with the sun he has no beginning.

Praise and discourse upon his form and frame, and it fits the great sameness. In the great sameness there is no self. Where there is no self, how can there be having? Those who look upon having are the gentlemen of old. Those who look upon not having are the friends of heaven and earth.

Lowly, and yet not to be left untrusted, such are things. Humble, and yet not to be passed by, such are the people. Hidden, and yet not to be left undone, such are affairs. Coarse, and yet not to be left unstated, such are laws. Far off, and yet not to be left undwelt in, such is rightness. Close, and yet not to be left unwidened, such is benevolence. Measured, and yet not to be left unstored, such is ritual. In the middle, and yet not to be left unraised, such is virtue. One, and yet not to be left unchanged, such is the Way. Spiritlike, and yet not to be left undone, such is heaven.

So the sage looks upon heaven but does not help it, is complete in virtue but is not bound by it, comes out of the Way but does not scheme, meets with benevolence but does not rely on it, draws near to rightness but does not hoard it, answers to ritual but does not shun it, touches affairs but does not refuse them, is even with the law but does not throw it into disorder, leans on the people but does not think them light, follows things but does not leave them.

Things are not worth doing, and yet they cannot be left undone. One who is not clear about heaven is not pure in virtue. One who does not go through to the Way has nothing to go by. How sad it is to be unclear about the Way.

What is called the Way? There is the Way of heaven and there is the way of man. To be honored without doing, this is the Way of heaven. To be bound by doing, this is the way of man. The ruler is the Way of heaven, the minister is the way of man. The Way of heaven and the way of man are far apart, and they must be looked into.