The Way of Heaven莊子 外篇 天道

The Way of heaven turns and nothing piles up in it, and so the ten thousand things are completed. The Way of the ruler turns and nothing piles up in it, and so the world comes home to him. The Way of the sage turns and nothing piles up in it, and so all within the seas submit.

He who is clear about heaven, who passes through to sagehood, who is open in six directions and free on four sides in the virtue of an emperor or a king, is dim in what he does of himself, and there is nothing in him that is not still.

The stillness of the sage is not stillness because he calls stillness good. It is that the ten thousand things are not enough to stir his mind, and so he is still.

When water is still it lights up beard and eyebrows, and its levelness matches the carpenter's level, so the great craftsman takes his rule from it. If still water is this clear, how much more the spirit. Still is the mind of the sage. It is the mirror of heaven and earth, the mirror of the ten thousand things.

To be empty and still, calm and plain, silent and doing nothing, is the levelness of heaven and earth and the utmost of the Way and its virtue. Therefore emperors and kings and sages rest here.

Resting, they are empty. Empty, they are full. Full, they are in order. Empty, they are still. Still, they move. Moving, they attain. Still, they do nothing. Doing nothing, those charged with affairs answer for their own work. Doing nothing, they are at ease. At ease, worry cannot lodge in them, and their years are long.

To be empty and still, calm and plain, silent and doing nothing, is the root of the ten thousand things.

To be clear about this and face south is how Yao was a ruler. To be clear about this and face north is how Shun was a minister. To hold the place above with this is the virtue of an emperor, a king, a son of heaven. To hold the place below with this is the Way of the hidden sage and the king without a throne.

With this a man withdraws and lives at leisure, roaming the rivers and the seas, and the scholars of the hills and woods follow him. With this he comes forward and soothes the age, and his merit is great and his name shines, and the world becomes one.

Still, he is a sage. Moving, he is a king. He does nothing, yet he is honored. He is plain and simple, yet nothing in the world can contend with him for beauty.

He who is clear about the virtue of heaven and earth is called the great root and the great ancestor, and he is in harmony with heaven. What brings the world into even measure is being in harmony with people. To be in harmony with people is called the joy of people. To be in harmony with heaven is called the joy of heaven.

Zhuangzi said, "My teacher, my teacher. It breaks the ten thousand things and is not called cruel. Its bounty reaches ten thousand ages and it is not called benevolent. It is older than high antiquity and is not called long lived. It covers and bears up heaven and earth and carves out the many shapes, and it is not called skillful. This is called the joy of heaven.

Therefore it is said. He who knows the joy of heaven lives as heaven moves and dies as things change. Still, he shares virtue with the yin. Moving, he shares waves with the yang.

Therefore he who knows the joy of heaven has no blame from heaven, no fault from people, no burden from things, no reproach from spirits.

Therefore it is said. His moving is heaven and his stillness is earth. His one mind is settled and he is king over the world. Spirits do not haunt him and his soul does not tire. His one mind is settled and the ten thousand things submit.

This says that by emptiness and stillness he pushes out to heaven and earth and passes through to the ten thousand things. This is called the joy of heaven. The joy of heaven is the mind of the sage, by which he nourishes the world."

The virtue of emperors and kings takes heaven and earth as its ancestor, the Way and its virtue as its master, and doing nothing as its constant.

Doing nothing, a man uses the world and has more than enough. Doing something, he is used by the world and has not enough. Therefore the people of old prized doing nothing.

If above does nothing and below also does nothing, then below shares virtue with above. Sharing virtue with above, below is not a minister. If below does something and above also does something, then above shares the Way with below. Sharing the Way with below, above is not a master.

Above must do nothing and so use the world. Below must do something and so be used by the world. This is the Way that does not change.

Therefore those of old who were kings over the world did not plan of themselves, though their knowledge went all around heaven and earth. They did not speak of themselves, though their speech could carve the ten thousand things. They did not act of themselves, though their ability could exhaust all within the seas.

Heaven does not give birth, yet the ten thousand things change. Earth does not rear, yet the ten thousand things grow. The emperor and the king do nothing, yet the work of the world is done.

Therefore it is said. Nothing is more mysterious than heaven, nothing richer than earth, nothing greater than the emperor and the king. Therefore it is said. The virtue of emperors and kings is matched with heaven and earth. This is the Way of riding heaven and earth, driving the ten thousand things, and using the multitude of people.

The root is above and the branch tips are below. The essential is with the ruler and the detail is with the minister.

The moving of the three armies and the five weapons is a branch tip of virtue. Reward and punishment, gain and harm, and the statutes of the five penalties are a branch tip of teaching. Rites and laws, measures and numbers, the weighing of shapes against names, are a branch tip of governing. The sound of bell and drum, the show of feather and oxtail, are a branch tip of music. Wailing and weeping, mourning cloth and hempen band, the heavier and the lighter garments, are a branch tip of grief.

These five branch tips wait upon the moving of the spirit and the stirring of the arts of the mind, and only then do they follow.

The learning of branch tips was had by the people of old, but it was not what they put first.

The ruler goes before and the minister follows. The father goes before and the son follows. The elder brother goes before and the younger follows. The old go before and the young follow. The man goes before and the woman follows. The husband goes before and the wife follows.

High and low, before and after, are the movement of heaven and earth, and so the sage took his image from them. Heaven is high and earth is low. These are the places of the bright spirits. Spring and summer go before and autumn and winter come after. This is the order of the four seasons. The ten thousand things change and arise, and each sprout has its own shape. Their flourishing and their fading away is the flow of change.

Heaven and earth are most mysterious, and even they have an order of high and low, before and after. How much more the way of people.

In the ancestral temple kinship is honored. In the court rank is honored. In the village age is honored. In the doing of affairs worth is honored. This is the order of the great Way.

To speak of the Way and not in its order is not that Way. To speak of the Way and not have that Way, how can such a man lay hold of the Way?

Therefore those of old who made the great Way clear made heaven clear first, and the Way and its virtue came next. The Way and its virtue being clear, benevolence and rightness came next. Benevolence and rightness being clear, division and the keeping of it came next. Division and the keeping of it being clear, shapes and names came next. Shapes and names being clear, the entrusting of charge came next. The entrusting of charge being clear, examining and cutting back came next. Examining and cutting back being clear, right and wrong came next. Right and wrong being clear, reward and punishment came next.

Reward and punishment being clear, the foolish and the knowing took their fitting places and the noble and the lowly trod their own stations. The worthy and the unworthy followed what they truly were, and each had his ability divided out for him and each went by his own name.

With this they served those above. With this they nourished those below. With this they governed things. With this they cultivated themselves. Knowledge and scheming were not used, and they always returned to their own heaven. This is called the great peace, and it is the utmost of governing.

Therefore the book says, "There are shapes and there are names." Shapes and names were had by the people of old, but they were not what they put first.

Those of old who spoke of the great Way could raise shapes and names only after five turns, and could speak of reward and punishment only after nine turns.

To speak straight off of shapes and names is not to know the root of them. To speak straight off of reward and punishment is not to know the beginning of them.

A man who speaks with the Way upside down and talks against the Way is one to be governed by others. How could he govern others?

To speak straight off of shapes and names and reward and punishment is to know the tools of governing, not to know the Way of governing. Such a man can be used by the world, but he is not enough to use the world. He is what is called a clever talker, a man of one corner.

Rites and laws, numbers and measures, the weighing of shapes against names, were had by the people of old. They are how those below serve those above, not how those above nourish those below.

Long ago Shun asked Yao, "How does the king of heaven use his mind?"

Yao said, "I am not haughty toward those who have no one to appeal to. I do not cast off the poor among the people. I grieve for the dead. I delight in little children and pity women. This is how I use my mind."

Shun said, "Fine it is indeed, but it is not great."

Yao said, "Then how should it be?"

Shun said, "With the virtue of heaven, peace comes forth. The sun and the moon shine and the four seasons move. It is like the constant course of day and night, like clouds passing and rain coming down."

Yao said, "How muddled and troubled I have been. You are matched with heaven. I am matched with people."

Heaven and earth are what the people of old called great, and what the Yellow Emperor and Yao and Shun alike called beautiful. So what did those of old who were kings over the world do? They followed heaven and earth, and nothing more.

Confucius went west to store his books in the house of Zhou. Zilu laid a plan and said, "I have heard that among the historians who keep the archives of Zhou there is one Lao Dan, who has left office and gone home to live. If you wish to store your books, try going and asking his help."

Confucius said, "Good."

He went and saw Lao Dan, but Lao Dan would not allow it. So he spread out the twelve classics and began to explain.

Lao Dan cut into his talk and said, "This is far too long. I would hear the essential point."

Confucius said, "The essential point lies in benevolence and rightness."

Lao Dan said, "Let me ask. Are benevolence and rightness the nature of people?"

Confucius said, "They are. If the gentleman is not benevolent he does not come to completion. If he is not right he does not live. Benevolence and rightness are truly the nature of people. What else should one do?"

Lao Dan said, "Let me ask. What is called benevolence and rightness?"

Confucius said, "To delight in things from the center of the heart, to love all alike with nothing of one's own, this is the substance of benevolence and rightness."

Lao Dan said, "Ah, those last words come near to danger. To love all alike, is that not roundabout? And to have nothing of one's own is itself something of one's own.

Do you wish the world not to lose what shepherds it? Then heaven and earth already have their constancy, the sun and the moon already have their brightness, the stars already have their ranks, the birds and beasts already have their flocks, the trees already have their standing.

If you too let virtue go and walk by it, if you follow the Way and hurry along it, you have already arrived. Why labor so hard to hold up benevolence and rightness, like a man beating a drum to look for a runaway son? Ah, you are throwing the nature of people into confusion."

Shi Chengqi saw Laozi and asked, "I had heard that you were a sage, and so I did not begrudge the long road but came wishing to see you. I stopped at a hundred lodgings, and calluses grew upon my calluses, and I did not dare to rest.

Now that I look at you, you are no sage. There are greens left over at the rat holes, and yet you cast off your younger sister. That is not benevolent. Raw food and cooked are not finished in front of you, and still you heap and gather without end."

Laozi was silent and did not answer.

The next day Shi Chengqi came again and said, "Yesterday I pricked you with my words. Today my mind has drawn back and is set right. Why is this?"

Laozi said, "As for men of skill and knowledge, of mystery and sagehood, I take myself to have slipped free of them.

Yesterday, if you had called me an ox I would have been an ox. If you had called me a horse I would have been a horse. If the substance is truly there and a man gives it a name and you do not take it, you take the harm of it twice over.

What I go along with I have always gone along with. It is not that I set out to go along and so have a going along."

Shi Chengqi stepped aside like a goose in flight and kept clear of the shadow, then walked forward and asked, "How should a man cultivate the self?"

Laozi said, "Your face is steep as a cliff. Your eyes are glaring. Your forehead juts out. Your mouth gapes open. Your bearing is stiff. You are like a tethered horse brought to a halt.

You would move and are held back. You would let fly like a crossbow. You examine things closely and finely. You look about with knowledge and skill and show yourself off. None of this is to be trusted. On the borders there are men like this, and their name is thief."

The master said, "The Way does not come to an end in the great and does not leave out the small, and so the ten thousand things are complete in it. Broad and wide, there is nothing it does not hold. Deep, it cannot be fathomed.

Shape and virtue, benevolence and rightness, are branch tips of the spirit. Who but the utmost man can settle them?

When the utmost man has the world in his charge, is that not great? Yet it is not enough to become a burden to him. The world struggles for the handles of power and he does not go along with it. He looks clearly at what is without falsehood and is not moved by gain. He reaches the truth of things and can keep to their root. Therefore he puts heaven and earth outside himself and leaves the ten thousand things behind, and his spirit has never had anything to trouble it.

He passes through to the Way and matches with virtue. He passes through benevolence and rightness and treats rites and music as guests. The mind of the utmost man has something settled in it."

What the world prizes as the Way is books. Books are no more than words, and there is something in words that is prized. What is prized in words is the meaning, and the meaning has something it follows after.

What the meaning follows after cannot be handed on in words. Yet the world prizes words and hands on books. Though the world prizes them, I still say they are not enough to be prized, for what it prizes is not the thing that is truly prized.

So what can be seen by looking is shape and color. What can be heard by listening is name and sound.

How sad it is. The people of the world think that shape and color, name and sound, are enough to get at the substance of that. If shape and color, name and sound, are indeed not enough to get at the substance of that, then he who knows does not speak and he who speaks does not know. How should the world know this?

Duke Huan was reading a book up in the hall, and Wheelwright Bian was hewing a wheel down below the hall. He set down his mallet and chisel, went up, and asked Duke Huan, "May I ask, what words are those you are reading?"

The duke said, "The words of a sage."

He said, "Is the sage alive?"

The duke said, "He is already dead."

He said, "Then what my lord is reading is nothing but the dregs of the men of old."

Duke Huan said, "I am reading a book. What has a wheelwright to argue about? If you have an explanation, well and good. If you have none, you die."

Wheelwright Bian said, "I speak of it from my own work.

In hewing a wheel, if I go slowly the cut is loose and does not hold. If I go fast the cut is tight and will not go in. Neither slow nor fast, the hand finds it and the mind answers, and the mouth cannot say it. There is a knack that lives in between.

I cannot make my son understand it, and my son cannot take it from me. That is why at seventy I am still hewing wheels in my old age.

The men of old died together with what could not be handed on. Then what my lord is reading is nothing but the dregs of the men of old."