Heaven and Earth莊子 外篇 天地

Heaven and earth are great, yet their changing is even. The ten thousand things are many, yet their ordering is one. People are a multitude, yet their master is the ruler. The ruler is rooted in virtue and is completed in heaven.

Therefore it is said. He who ruled the world in the far distant past did nothing. It was the virtue of heaven and nothing more.

Look at words through the Way, and the ruler of the world is upright. Look at division through the Way, and the rightness of ruler and minister is clear. Look at ability through the Way, and the offices of the world are well ordered. Look at all things through the Way, and the answering of the ten thousand things is complete.

Therefore what passes through heaven and earth is virtue. What moves in the ten thousand things is the Way. What governs people from above is affairs. What has skill in a craft is technique. Technique is taken up in affairs, affairs are taken up in rightness, rightness is taken up in virtue, virtue is taken up in the Way, and the Way is taken up in heaven.

Therefore it is said. Those of old who nourished the world had no wants, and the world had enough. They did nothing, and the ten thousand things changed. They were still as a deep pool, and the people were settled.

The Ji (記) says, "Pass through the one and all affairs are finished. Gain nothing with the mind and the ghosts and spirits submit."

The master said, "The Way covers and carries the ten thousand things. Vast and wide, how great it is. A gentleman cannot but carve out his own mind.

Doing a thing without doing is called heaven. Speaking without doing is called virtue. Loving people and profiting things is called benevolence. Making the unlike alike is called greatness. Conduct that does not stand apart like a cliff is called breadth. Holding ten thousand unlike things is called abundance.

Therefore holding fast to virtue is called the guiding cord. Virtue brought to completion is called standing. Following along with the Way is called being furnished. Not letting things break one's will is called wholeness.

When a gentleman is clear about these ten, then great is the mind that wraps his affairs, and full is the flow by which the ten thousand things go forth.

Such a man hides gold in the mountain and hides pearls in the deep. He does not call goods and wealth a profit. He does not draw near to honor and plenty. He does not delight in long life. He does not grieve at dying young. He does not count success a glory. He is not ashamed of hardship. He does not seize the profit of an age and make it his own private portion. He does not take ruling the world as the place where he is seen. Where he is seen, there he is bright. The ten thousand things are one storehouse. Dying and living are one shape."

The master said, "The Way dwells deep as a pool, and it is clear as cool water. Metal and stone do not sound unless they get it. So metal and stone have their sound, but unless they are struck they do not sound. Who can settle the ten thousand things?

The man of kingly virtue goes on in plainness and is ashamed to be versed in affairs. He stands in the root and his knowing passes through to the spirit, and so his virtue is broad. His mind comes out because things draw it out.

Therefore the body is not born except by the Way, and life is not bright except by virtue. To keep the body whole and live out life, to set up virtue and make the Way bright, is this not the man of kingly virtue?

How vast he is. Suddenly he comes forth, abruptly he moves, and the ten thousand things follow him. This is called the man of kingly virtue.

He looks at the dark and listens to the soundless. In the midst of the dark he alone sees the dawn. In the midst of the soundless he alone hears the harmony.

Therefore, deep and again deep, he can make things. Wondrous and again wondrous, he can make the essence. Therefore when he meets the ten thousand things he is utterly without, yet he supplies what they seek. He races with the times, yet he holds fast to where they will rest. So it is with great and small, with long and short, with far and distant."

The Yellow Emperor wandered north of the Red Water, climbed the hill of Kunlun and looked south, and on his way back he lost his dark pearl.

He sent Zhi (知) to look for it and it was not found. He sent Li Zhu to look for it and it was not found. He sent Chigou to look for it and it was not found. Then he sent Xiangwang, and Xiangwang found it.

The Yellow Emperor said, "How strange. It was Xiangwang after all who could find it."

The teacher of Yao was called Xu You. The teacher of Xu You was called Nieque. The teacher of Nieque was called Wang Ni. The teacher of Wang Ni was called Beiyi.

Yao asked Xu You, "Is Nieque fit to be the match of heaven? I would borrow Wang Ni to ask him."

Xu You said, "How dangerous. The world would be in peril. Nieque is a man of sharp ears and eyes and quick wits, ready and swift. His nature goes beyond other men, and on top of that he would use the human to receive heaven. He looks well to the barring of faults, but he does not know where faults are born.

Would you make him the match of heaven? He would ride the human and have no heaven. He would take his own body for the root and set himself apart from others. He would exalt knowing and race off like fire. He would be a servant to loose ends. He would be bound fast by things. He would look about on four sides and answer to things. He would answer to the many demands of the fitting. He would change along with things and never once have anything constant. How is he enough to be the match of heaven?

Even so, where there is a clan there is an ancestor. He can be the father of the many, but he cannot be the father of the fathers of the many. Ruling is the head of disorder. It is the ruin of the man who faces north, and the thief of the man who faces south."

Yao was looking over the land of Hua, and the border guard of Hua said, "Ah, a sage. Let me bless the sage. May the sage live long."

Yao said, "I decline."

"May the sage be rich."

Yao said, "I decline."

"May the sage have many sons."

Yao said, "I decline."

The border guard said, "Long life, riches and many sons are what men desire. You alone do not desire them. How is this?"

Yao said, "Many sons bring many fears. Riches bring many affairs. Long life brings much disgrace. These three are not the means of nourishing virtue, and so I decline them."

The border guard said, "At first I took you for a sage. Now I see you are a gentleman.

When heaven gives birth to the ten thousand people it must give each of them a task. If the sons are many and each is given a task, what fear is there? If a man is rich and lets others share it, what affair is there?

The sage lives like a quail and eats like a fledgling. He goes like a bird and leaves no mark. When the world has the Way he flourishes together with things. When the world is without the Way he tends his virtue and withdraws into leisure. After a thousand years, when he is weary of the world, he leaves and rises up as an immortal. He rides those white clouds and comes to the village of the high god. The three troubles do not reach him, and there is never any harm to his body. What disgrace is there?"

The border guard went away. Yao followed him and said, "I beg to ask you something."

The border guard said, "Go back."

When Yao ruled the world, Bocheng Zigao stood as a feudal lord. Yao handed the world to Shun, and Shun handed it to Yu, and then Bocheng Zigao gave up being a lord and plowed.

Yu went to see him and found him plowing in the fields. Yu hurried down to the lower side of the wind, stood there and asked, "Long ago, when Yao ruled the world, you stood as a feudal lord. Yao handed the world to Shun, and Shun handed it to me, and you have given up being a lord and plow. I venture to ask the reason for it."

Zigao said, "Long ago, when Yao ruled the world, he gave no rewards and the people worked hard, he gave no punishments and the people were in awe. Now you reward and punish, and still the people are not benevolent. Virtue will decline from this, punishments will be set up from this, and the disorder of ages to come will begin from this. Why do you not go? Do not spoil my work."

He plowed on steadily and did not look back.

In the great beginning there was nothing. There was no being and there was no name. There was that from which the one arose. There was the one, but it had no shape yet.

What things get in order to be born is called virtue. When what has no shape yet has division in it, and is so without any gap, that is called fate. When the moving pauses and gives birth to things, and the thing is completed and grain and pattern come to it, that is called shape. When the body keeps the spirit and each has its own rule and measure, that is called nature.

Tend your nature and you return to virtue. Let virtue reach its utmost and you become the same as the beginning. The same, and you are empty. Empty, and you are great.

It is like joining sounds as beaks join. When the beaks join in sound, they are joined with heaven and earth. The joining is dim and far off, as if foolish, as if dark, and this is called dark virtue, the same as the great following.

The master asked Lao Dan, "There are men who order the Way so as to go against one another, calling the unallowable allowable and the not so so. The men of argument have a saying, 'To part hard from white is as plain as a thing hung from the eaves.' May such men be called sages?"

Lao Dan said, "These are men tied to petty duties and bound to their crafts, who wear out the body and fret the mind. The hunting dog is caught and kept and so it comes to worry. The monkey's quickness comes from the mountain forest.

Qiu, let me tell you what you cannot hear and what you cannot say. Those who have a head and have feet but have no mind and no ears are many. Those who have shape and yet stand together with the shapeless and the formless are none at all.

Its moving is its stopping. Its dying is its living. Its falling is its rising. And this too is not the reason for it.

Ordering lies with men, yet he forgets things and forgets heaven, and his name is one who forgets himself. He who forgets himself, this is called entering into heaven."

Jiang Lümian saw Ji Che and said, "The ruler of Lu said to me, 'I beg to receive your teaching.' I declined but could not get his leave. I have already told him, but I do not know whether it hit the mark, so let me try it on you. I said to the ruler of Lu, 'You must clothe yourself in respect and thrift. Draw out and raise up the fair and loyal sort, and let there be no leaning and no private favor. Then which of the people would dare not to be at peace together?'"

Ji Che laughed loudly and said, "Your words, set against the virtue of an emperor or a king, are like a mantis angrily raising its arms against a carriage rut. He will surely not be equal to the task. And if he does this, then his own place will be put in danger, and there will be many things on his watchtower, and many will come to throw their tracks there."

Jiang Lümian started in alarm and said, "I am lost in what you say. Even so, I hope you will tell me the broad drift of it."

Ji Che said, "When the great sage rules the world, he stirs the hearts of the people. He lets them complete their teaching and change their customs, does away with every harming heart, and lets each of them go forward in a will of their own. It is as if their nature did it of itself, and the people do not know why it is so.

How would such a man take the teaching of the people by Yao and Shun for an elder brother and dimly play the younger brother to it? He wishes only to be the same as virtue, and for the heart to be at rest."

Zigong wandered south to Chu, and on his way back to Jin he passed south of the Han and saw an old man making beds for his garden. He dug a tunnel and went into the well, came out holding a jar, and watered the beds. He labored away, spending a great deal of strength, and the return he got was small.

Zigong said, "There is a machine for this. In one day it soaks a hundred beds. Very little strength is spent and the return is great. Would you not want it, sir?"

The gardener looked up at him and said, "How is it done?"

"You cut wood and make a frame. It is heavy behind and light in front. It draws water as if pulling it up, and it is as quick as water boiling over. Its name is the well sweep."

The gardener flushed with anger, then laughed and said, "I have heard from my teacher that a man who has machines will surely have machine affairs, and a man who has machine affairs will surely have a machine heart. When a machine heart is in the breast, the pure and white is not complete. When the pure and white is not complete, the spirit and the life are unsettled. The man whose spirit and life are unsettled is one the Way does not carry. It is not that I do not know of it. I am ashamed to do it."

Zigong stood blank with shame, hung his head and did not answer.

After a little the gardener said, "What is it you do?"

"I am a disciple of Kong Qiu."

The gardener said, "Are you not one of those who learn widely to ape the sage, who cover the crowd with big talk, who play the strings alone and sing sad songs to sell a name in the world? You must first forget your spirit and your breath and let your body fall away, and then you will be nearly there. You cannot even order your own body, so what leisure have you to order the world? Go your way. Do not spoil my work."

Zigong was cast down and lost the color of his face. He went on like a man beside himself, unable to hold himself together, and only after thirty li did he come round.

His disciple said, "Who was that man just now? Why did you change countenance and lose the color of your face at the sight of him, and not come back to yourself all day?"

He said, "At first I thought there was only one man in the world, and I did not know there was such a man as this besides.

I have heard from my teacher that to seek in affairs what can be done, to seek in works what can be completed, to spend little strength and see much return, is the Way of the sage. Now it turns out not to be so. He who holds to the Way has virtue whole. He whose virtue is whole has his body whole. He whose body is whole has his spirit whole. The spirit whole is the Way of the sage.

He entrusts his life and walks alongside the people, and does not know where he is going. How vast is that pure completeness. Works and profit, machines and cleverness, are surely forgotten in the heart of such a man.

Such a man does not go where his will does not go, and does not do what his heart does not do. Though the whole world praise him and say he has got what they call right, he goes his own way and does not look back. Though the whole world blame him and make him lose what they call right, he stands unmoved and does not take it in. The blame and praise of the world add nothing to him and take nothing away. This is what is called the man of whole virtue. I would call myself one of the people who are tossed by wind and wave."

He went back to Lu and told Confucius. Confucius said, "That man borrows the art of Hundun and tends it. He knows the one of it and does not know the two. He orders what is within and does not order what is without.

As for one who enters brightness and white and comes to plainness, who does nothing and returns to the uncarved block, who makes his nature his body and holds the spirit in his arms and wanders among the common customs of the world, would you truly be startled at him? And as for the art of Hundun, how are you and I enough to know it?"

Zhunmang was going east to the great ravine, and just then he met Yuanfeng on the shore of the eastern sea.

Yuanfeng said, "Where are you going?"

"I am going to the great ravine."

"What will you do there?"

"The great ravine is a thing that does not fill though you pour into it, and does not run dry though you ladle from it. I mean to wander there."

Yuanfeng said, "Have you no thought for the people with crosswise eyes, sir? I would hear about the rule of the sage."

Zhunmang said, "The rule of the sage? He hands out offices and does not miss what fits them. He draws men up and does not miss what they can do. He sees the whole truth of affairs and does what is to be done. His words and his conduct are so of themselves, and the world is changed. He waves a hand and points with his chin, and the people of the four quarters all come to him. This is called the rule of the sage."

"I would hear about the man of virtue."

"The man of virtue dwells without thinking and goes about without reckoning. He stores up no right and wrong, no fair and foul. Within the four seas, to profit others together with them is his joy, and to supply others together with them is his peace. He is forlorn as an infant that has lost its mother. He is blank as a man who walks and has lost his road. Goods and means are more than enough, and he does not know where they came from. Drink and food are enough, and he does not know where they came from. This is called the bearing of the man of virtue."

"I would hear about the spirit man."

"His spirit rises and rides the light, and it vanishes together with his shape. This is called lighting up the void. He plays out fate and exhausts the truth of things. Heaven and earth are glad and the ten thousand affairs melt away, and the ten thousand things return to their truth. This is called the mingled dark."

Men Wugui and Chizhang Manji watched the army of King Wu.

Chizhang Manji said, "He does not come up to the house of Youyu. That is why he meets this trouble."

Men Wugui said, "Was the world evenly ruled, and the house of Youyu ruled it? Or was it in disorder, and only then did he rule it?"

Chizhang Manji said, "That the world be evenly ruled is all one wishes, so why reckon with the house of Youyu? The house of Youyu was medicine put on a sore. It was a wig set on a bald head, a physician sought after the sickness came. A filial son makes up the medicine to treat his kind father, and his face is burnt away with care, and the sage is ashamed of it.

In the age of utmost virtue the worthy were not honored and the able were not employed. Those above were like the topmost branch, and the people were like the deer of the fields. They were upright and did not know to call it rightness. They loved one another and did not know to call it benevolence. They were true and did not know to call it loyalty. They were fitting and did not know to call it good faith. They stirred about and served one another and did not count it a gift. Therefore they acted and left no trace, and did their work and left nothing handed down."

A filial son does not flatter his parents, and a loyal minister does not fawn on his ruler. This is the fullness of the minister and the son.

If a man says what his parents say is so and what they do is good, the world calls him an unworthy son. If a man says what his ruler says is so and what he does is good, the world calls him an unworthy minister. Yet men do not know whether this must be so.

If a man says that what the world calls so is so, and that what the world calls good is good, then they do not call him a flatterer. Then is the world truly sterner than a parent and higher than a ruler?

Call a man a flatterer and he flushes with anger. Call a man one of the crowd and he flushes with anger. And yet he flatters his whole life and is one of the crowd his whole life. He fits out his figures and dresses up his words and gathers a crowd, and beginning and end, root and branch, are never charged against one another.

He lets his robes hang down and lays on colors and arranges his looks to charm an age, and does not call himself a flatterer. He makes himself of a party with these men and goes along with their right and wrong, and does not call himself one of the crowd. This is the height of folly.

He who knows his own folly is not greatly foolish. He who knows his own confusion is not greatly confused. The greatly confused man never unties it his whole life. The greatly foolish man never comes awake his whole life.

If three men walk and one is confused, they can still get where they are going, because the confused are few. If two are confused, they toil and do not arrive, because the confused have won.

And now the whole world is confused. Though I have somewhere to turn, I cannot get there. Is this not sad?

The great sound does not enter the ears of the villagers. At songs like Zheyang and Huanghua they laugh out loud. Therefore high words do not stay in the hearts of the crowd, and the utmost words do not come out, because common words have won.

Confused by the sound of two earthen bells, a man does not get where he is going. And now the whole world is confused. Though I have somewhere to turn, how can I get there? To know that it cannot be got and to force it is one more confusion. So nothing is better than to let it go and not push. If I do not push, who will share that worry with me?

When a leper has a child at midnight, he snatches up a light and looks at it, in an anxious dread that it should be like himself.

A tree a hundred years old is split and made into a sacrificial wine vessel, and it is patterned in green and yellow, while the pieces cut away are thrown into the ditch. Set the wine vessel beside the pieces in the ditch, and there is a distance between the fair and the foul, but in losing their nature they are one.

Robber Zhi and Zeng Shen and Shi Qiu are far apart in conduct and rightness, but in losing their nature they are the same.

There are five ways of losing one's nature. The first is the five colors confusing the eye and making the eye unclear. The second is the five sounds confusing the ear and making the ear dull. The third is the five smells striking the nose, stopping it up and making the brow heavy. The fourth is the five tastes muddying the mouth and spoiling the mouth's sense. The fifth is taking and rejecting stirring up the heart and making the nature fly loose.

These five all harm life. Yet Yang Zhu and Mo Di now begin to stand on tiptoe and think they have got something. It is not what I call getting.

If what a man has got hems him in, can it be called getting? If so, then the dove and the owl in their cage have got something too.

Taking and rejecting, sound and color, block up a man within like brushwood, and a deerskin cap, a kingfisher-feather cap, a tablet in the belt and a long sash bind him without. Within he is stuffed full behind a brushwood fence, and without he is wound in cord upon cord, and there in the midst of the cords he stares about and thinks he has got something. If so, then the criminal with his arms bound and his fingers pressed, and the tiger and the leopard in the cage and the pen, have got something too.