The Turning of Heaven莊子 外篇 天運

"Does heaven turn? Does earth stay still? Do the sun and the moon contend for a place? Who masters this? Who binds it into a net? Who sits with nothing to do and pushes it along?

Is it that there is a spring and a seal in it and it cannot be otherwise? Is it that it turns and rolls and cannot stop itself?

Do the clouds make the rain? Does the rain make the clouds? Who sends it down? Who sits with nothing to do, taking his pleasure, and urges it on?

The wind rises in the north, now west and now east, and wanders above. Who breathes it out and in? Who sits with nothing to do and fans it? I dare to ask the reason."

Wuxian Shao said, "Come, and I will tell you. Heaven has six ultimates and five constants. When emperors and kings follow them there is order, and when they go against them there is ill fortune. In the affairs of the nine tracts of the Luo, order is accomplished and virtue is complete, and they look down and light the earth below, and the world holds them up. This is called the Supreme August One (上皇)."

Dang, the grand steward of Shang, asked Zhuangzi about benevolence. Zhuangzi said, "Tigers and wolves are benevolent."

He said, "What do you mean by that?"

Zhuangzi said, "Father and son are close to each other. How is that not benevolent?"

He said, "I ask about the utmost benevolence."

Zhuangzi said, "The utmost benevolence has no closeness in it."

The grand steward said, "I have heard that without closeness there is no love, and without love there is no filial devotion. Is it right to say that the utmost benevolence is not filial?"

Zhuangzi said, "It is not so. The utmost benevolence is high, and filial devotion is truly not enough to speak of it. This is not talk that goes beyond filial devotion. It is talk that falls short of it.

A man going south comes to Ying, and looking north he does not see Mount Ming. How is this? It is because he has come so far away.

So it is said. To be filial with respect is easy, to be filial with love is hard. To be filial with love is easy, to forget one's parents is hard. To forget one's parents is easy, to make one's parents forget me is hard. To make one's parents forget me is easy, to forget the whole world is hard. To forget the whole world is easy, to make the world forget me altogether is hard.

Virtue casts off Yao and Shun and does not act. Its bounty reaches ten thousand ages and the world does not know it. Why should a man only sigh deeply and talk of benevolence and filial devotion?

Filial devotion and brotherly respect, benevolence and rightness, loyalty and good faith, uprightness and honesty, are all things a man forces on himself to put his own virtue to work. They are not enough to be prized.

So it is said. The utmost honor takes in the ranks of the state as well. The utmost riches take in the goods of the state as well. The utmost wish takes in name and praise as well. This is why the Way does not alter."

Beimen Cheng asked the Yellow Emperor, "My lord set out the music of Xianchi in the wilds of Dongting. When I first heard it I was afraid. When I heard it again I grew slack. When I heard it at the last I was bewildered. Vast and wide, silent and still, I could not hold myself together."

The emperor said, "You were likely to be so. I played it with what is of people and looked to it with what is of heaven. I carried it out with rites and rightness and set it up with the great clarity.

The utmost music first answers to the affairs of people and follows the order of heaven, moves by the five virtues and answers to what is so of itself, and only then does it bring the four seasons into measure and make the ten thousand things greatly harmonious.

The four seasons rise in turn and the ten thousand things are born in their order. Now flourishing, now fading, the civil and the martial pass through in their course. Now clear, now muddy, the yin and the yang blend in measure, and the sound of it flows out like light.

When the creatures that sleep through the winter first stir, I startle them with thunder. Its end has no tail and its beginning has no head. Now dying, now living. Now falling, now rising. What is constant in it has no end, and not one thing in it can be waited for. This is why you were afraid.

Then I played it with the blending of the yin and the yang and lit it with the brightness of the sun and the moon. Its sound could be short and could be long, could be soft and could be hard. Its changing was of one measure and it held to no old constancy. In a valley it filled the valley. In a pit it filled the pit. It stopped the chinks and kept the spirit, and took things as its measure. Its sound was broad and unhurried and its name was high and bright.

Because of this the spirits kept to their darkness, and the sun and the moon and the stars moved along their courses. I brought it to a halt where there is an end and let it flow where there is no stopping.

You wished to think it out and could not know it, to look for it and could not see it, to chase it and could not catch it. You stood dazed on a road empty on four sides, leaning on a withered paulownia and humming. Your eyes gave out at what you wished to see and your strength bent at what you wished to chase. I myself had already failed to reach it. Your body filled up with emptiness, and so you came to wind along with it. You wound along with it, and so you grew slack.

Then I played it with a sound that does not grow slack and tuned it to the fate of what is so of itself. So it was like things mingling and following and growing in thickets, like the music of a forest with no shape to it, spreading and shaking without being dragged, dark and dim without a sound.

It moved where there is no direction and stayed where it is deep and dark. Some called it dead and some called it alive. Some called it fruit and some called it flower. It flowed and scattered and shifted about, and held to no constant sound.

The world doubted it and asked the sage about it. To be a sage is to reach what things truly are and to follow fate. The spring of heaven is not drawn, and yet the five senses are all complete. This is called the joy of heaven, and without words the heart delights in it.

So Youyan shi praised it, saying, 'Listen for it and you do not hear its sound. Look for it and you do not see its shape. It fills heaven and earth and wraps the six ultimates.'

You wished to listen for it and there was nowhere to meet it, and so you were bewildered.

Music begins in fear, and fear brings a haunting. Then I followed it with slackness, and slackness brings flight. At the last it came to bewilderment, and bewilderment brings foolishness. Foolishness is the Way, and the Way can be carried and can go along with you."

When Confucius was traveling west in Wei, Yan Yuan asked Shi Jin, "What do you make of what our master is doing?"

Shi Jin said, "What a pity. Your master will come to hardship."

Yan Yuan said, "Why is that?"

Shi Jin said, "Before the straw dogs are laid out they are put in a hamper and covered with embroidered cloth, and the invoker fasts and purifies himself to carry them forward. Once they have been laid out, passersby tread on their heads and their backs, and the gatherers of firewood take them and burn them, and that is all.

If a man were to take them up again and put them in a hamper and cover them with embroidered cloth, and then roam and dwell and lie down to sleep beneath them, he would get no dreams but would surely be pressed by nightmares again and again.

Now your master too has taken up the straw dogs the former kings laid out long ago, and he gathers his disciples to roam and dwell and lie down to sleep beneath them. That is why a tree was felled over him in Song, why his tracks were wiped out in Wei, why he came to a hard pass in Shang and in Zhou. Are these not his dreams? He was surrounded between Chen and Cai, and for seven days he ate nothing cooked by fire, and death and life were neighbors to each other. Is this not his nightmare?

For going by water there is nothing like a boat, and for going by land there is nothing like a cart. If, because a boat can go on water, a man tries to push it over dry land, he will not go a few feet in a whole lifetime.

Are the past and the present not water and land? Are Zhou and Lu not boat and cart? To want the ways of Zhou carried out in Lu now is like pushing a boat over dry land. It is toil without merit, and harm is sure to come to the body. Such a man does not know the handing on that has no fixed direction, which answers to things and never comes to an end.

And have you alone never seen a well sweep? Pull it and it bows down. Let it go and it lifts up. It is what a man pulls, not what pulls a man. So it bows and lifts and takes no blame from people.

Therefore the rites and rightness and laws and measures of the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors were not prized for being the same but for bringing order. So if a man compares the rites and rightness and laws and measures of the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors, they are like the haw and the pear, the orange and the pomelo. Their tastes are opposite to one another, yet all of them suit the mouth.

So rites and rightness and laws and measures are things that change in answer to the times.

Take a monkey now and dress it in the robes of the Duke of Zhou, and it will surely bite and tear and pull them apart, and will not be content until it is rid of them all. Look at the difference between the past and the present, and it is like the difference between a monkey and the Duke of Zhou.

So when Xi Shi had a pain in her heart and frowned at her village, an ugly woman of that village saw her and thought it beautiful, and went home and clutched her own heart and frowned at her village. The rich of that village saw her and shut their gates fast and would not come out. The poor saw her and took their wives and children and ran away. That woman knew the frown was beautiful, but she did not know why the frown was beautiful.

What a pity. Your master will come to hardship."

Confucius had lived fifty one years and had not heard the Way, and so he went south to Pei to see Lao Dan.

Lao Dan said, "So you have come. I have heard of you as a worthy man of the north. Have you too got the Way?" Confucius said, "I have not got it yet."

Laozi said, "Where did you seek it?"

He said, "I sought it in measures and numbers for five years and did not get it."

Laozi said, "And where else did you seek it?"

He said, "I sought it in the yin and the yang for twelve years and did not get it."

Laozi said, "Just so. If the Way could be presented, there is no one who would not present it to his ruler. If the Way could be offered, there is no one who would not offer it to his parents. If the Way could be told to others, there is no one who would not tell it to his brothers. If the Way could be given to others, there is no one who would not give it to his children and grandchildren.

That it cannot be done has no other reason. If there is no master within, the Way does not stay. If there is no straightness without, it does not go forward. When what comes out from within is not received without, the sage does not send it out. When what comes in from without has no master within, the sage does not keep it hidden.

A name is a vessel held in common and must not be taken too much of. Benevolence and rightness are the lodging house of the former kings. A man may stay one night there but must not dwell long. To be seen there long brings much reproach.

The utmost men of old borrowed a road through benevolence and lodged a night in rightness, and so roamed in the open country of free wandering, ate in the field of rough and simple fare, and stood in the garden that lends nothing out.

Free wandering is doing nothing. Rough and simple fare is easy to be nourished by. Lending nothing out is giving nothing away. The men of old called this the roaming that gathers what is true.

A man who holds riches to be right cannot yield up a salary. A man who holds display to be right cannot yield up a name. A man who holds power dear cannot hand the handle of it to another. Grasping it, he trembles. Letting it go, he grieves. And he has nothing at all to look into himself by, but peers out at what never lets him rest. Such men are punished by heaven.

Resentment and kindness, taking and giving, remonstrance and teaching, sparing life and putting to death, these eight are the vessels of setting things straight. Only a man who follows the great changing and is blocked nowhere can use them.

Therefore it is said. To be straight is to set things straight. If a man's mind holds that it is not so, the gate of heaven will not open for him."

Confucius saw Lao Dan and spoke to him of benevolence and rightness.

Lao Dan said, "Scatter chaff and let it get into a man's eyes, and heaven and earth and the four directions change places. Let mosquitoes and gadflies bite his skin, and he will not sleep the whole night through.

Benevolence and rightness sting and throw my mind into disorder, and no disorder is greater than this. Do you wish the world not to lose its uncarved wood? Then you too should let the wind go and move with it, and gather virtue and stand in it. Why labor so hard, like a man carrying a great drum on his back to look for a runaway son?

The swan is white without washing every day, and the crow is black without being dyed every day. Black and white are the uncarved wood and are not worth telling apart. The show of name and praise is not worth calling broad.

When the spring dries up the fish are left together on dry land, blowing damp breath on one another and wetting one another with foam. But that is not so good as forgetting one another in the rivers and lakes."

Confucius came home from seeing Lao Dan and did not speak for three days. A disciple asked, "Master, you saw Lao Dan. With what did you counsel him?"

Confucius said, "Now at last I have seen a dragon. Gathered together, the dragon makes a body. Scattered, it makes a pattern. It rides the breath of the clouds and is nourished by the yin and the yang. My mouth fell open and I could not close it. What counsel could I give Lao Dan?"

Zigong said, "Then is there truly a man who sits still as a corpse and appears as a dragon, who sounds like thunder and is silent as a deep pool, and who moves as heaven and earth move? May I too get to see him?" So he went to see Lao Dan in the name of Confucius.

Lao Dan was sitting on the edge of the hall to receive him, and said in a low voice, "My years have run on and gone. With what will you counsel me?"

Zigong said, "The Three Kings and the Five Emperors did not govern the world in the same way, yet the name hung upon them is one. You alone hold that they were not sages. How can that be?"

Lao Dan said, "Young man, come a little forward. How do you say they were not the same?"

He answered, "Yao handed it to Shun, and Shun handed it to Yu. Yu used strength and Tang used arms. King Wen followed King Zhou of Shang and did not dare to go against him, and King Wu went against King Zhou of Shang and would not follow him. So I say they were not the same."

Lao Dan said, "Young man, come a little forward. I will tell you how the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors governed the world.

When the Yellow Emperor governed the world, he made the minds of the people one. There were people who did not wail when their own parents died, and the people did not call it wrong.

When Yao governed the world, he made the minds of the people close to their own. There were people who cut back what should be cut back for the sake of their own parents, and the people did not call it wrong.

When Shun governed the world, he made the minds of the people contend. Women carried their children ten months and bore them, and the children spoke at five months, and before they were even infants they began to tell one person from another. Then people first began to die young.

When Yu governed the world, he made the minds of the people change. People had designs in their minds and arms had their following. Killing a robber was not called killing, and each man made a kind of his own and took the world for it. Because of this the world was greatly startled, and the Confucians and the Mohists all arose.

At their first making there was an order in them, but now they are like women of the house. What is there to say?

I will tell you. What the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors did in governing the world is called order, yet no disorder was ever greater. The knowledge of the Three August Ones went against the brightness of the sun and the moon above, turned its back on the essence of the hills and the streams below, and broke down the giving of the four seasons between. Their knowledge stung more sharply than a scorpion's tail, and even the smallest beasts could not rest in the truth of their nature and their life. And still they took themselves for sages. Is that not a thing to be ashamed of? Shameless indeed."

Zigong stood startled and ill at ease.

Confucius said to Lao Dan, "I have worked at the six classics, the Odes and the Documents, the Rites and the Music, the Changes and the Spring and Autumn, and I thought it had been a long time and that I knew well the reasons in them. I went before seventy two rulers to discuss the Way of the former kings and to make clear the tracks of the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao, and not one ruler drew anything from it to use. How hard it is to move people. Or is it that the Way is hard to make clear?"

Laozi said, "It is your good fortune that you did not meet a ruler who governs the age. The six classics are the old tracks of the former kings. How could they be what made the tracks?

What you speak of now is like tracks. Tracks are what shoes put down, and how could tracks be the shoes?

White waterbirds look at each other and conceive by the wind without moving their pupils. Among insects the male cries above the wind and the female answers below the wind, and they conceive by the wind. Within one kind there are of themselves male and female, and so they conceive by the wind.

Nature cannot be exchanged, fate cannot be altered, the times cannot be halted, the Way cannot be dammed. Truly get the Way and there is nowhere it will not do. Lose it and there is nowhere it will do."

Confucius did not go out for three months, and then saw him again and said, "I have got it. The crow and the magpie hatch their young. The fish attach their foam. The wasp with the slender waist changes another into itself. When a younger brother is born the elder one cries. For a long time I have not been a man who goes along with the changing. Not going along with the changing myself, how could I change others?"

Laozi said, "That will do. Qiu has got it."