Autumn Floods莊子 外篇 秋水

The autumn floods came in their season, and the hundred streams poured into the Yellow River. The current swelled so wide that between the two banks and the sandy islands you could not tell an ox from a horse.

At this Hebo was delighted and pleased with himself, and he thought that all the beauty of the world was in him. He went east with the current until he came to the North Sea. He looked east and could not see where the water ended.

At this Hebo turned his face about for the first time. Gazing out over the sea, he sighed to Ruo and said, "There is a country saying. 'A man hears the Way a hundred times and thinks no one is his equal.' That was said of me.

And I once heard of men who made little of what Zhongni had heard and made light of the rightness of Bo Yi. At first I did not believe them. Now I see that you cannot be exhausted. If I had not come to your gate I would have been in danger. I would have been laughed at forever by the household of the great Way."

Ruo of the North Sea said, "You cannot speak of the sea to a frog in a well, because he is held fast by his narrow place. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, because it is bound to its season. You cannot speak of the Way to a scholar who leans to one side, because he is tied down by his teaching.

Now you have come out from your banks and looked upon the great sea, and so you know your own meanness. Now you can be spoken to about the great pattern.

Of all the waters of the world none is greater than the sea. The ten thousand streams return to it, and there is no knowing when they will stop, yet it never fills. The Weilu drains it away, and there is no knowing when that will end, yet it never empties. Spring and autumn do not change it, and it knows nothing of flood or drought. It goes beyond the flowing of the Jiang and the Yellow River past all measure and counting.

Yet I have never for this reason thought myself much. I count myself as having taken shape between heaven and earth and as having received breath from yin and yang. In the space of heaven and earth I am like a small stone or a small tree on a great mountain. I stand where I see my own smallness, so how could I think myself much?

Reckon the four seas in the space of heaven and earth. Are they not like a little hole in a great marsh? Reckon the Middle Kingdom within the seas. Is it not like a grain of wild millet in a great granary?

The number of things is called the ten thousand, and man is one among them. Men gather in the nine provinces, where grain grows and boats and carts pass, and there too man is one among them. Set beside the ten thousand things, is he not like the tip of a hair on a horse's body?

What the five emperors handed on, what the three kings fought over, what the benevolent man worried about, what the officer in charge toiled at, is all no more than this. Bo Yi gave it up and made a name of it. Zhongni talked of it and made wide learning of it. This is thinking oneself much. Is it not like your thinking yourself much just now over your water?"

Hebo said, "Then may I call heaven and earth great and the tip of a hair small?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "No. Things have no end to their measure, no stop to their time, no constancy in their division, and no fixed cause in their ending and beginning.

So great knowing looks at the far and the near. It does not call the small little or the great much, because it knows that measure has no end. It looks clearly at now and at long ago, and so it is not vexed by what is distant and does not stand on tiptoe for what is near, because it knows that time does not stop. It watches fullness and emptiness, and so it does not rejoice at gaining and does not grieve at losing, because it knows that division is not constant. It is clear about the level road, and so it does not delight in being born and does not call dying a disaster, because it knows that ending and beginning cannot be made a cause.

Reckon what a man knows, and it is less than what he does not know. The time when he is alive is less than the time before he was born. He takes what is utterly small and tries to exhaust the realm of the utterly great, and so he is confused and disordered and can gain nothing for himself.

Seen from this, how do you know that the tip of a hair is enough to fix the limit of the utterly fine? And how do you know that heaven and earth are enough to exhaust the realm of the utterly great?"

Hebo said, "Those who argue in the world all say, 'The utterly fine has no form, and the utterly great cannot be encompassed.' Is this the real truth?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "Look at the great from the side of the fine, and you cannot see it all. Look at the fine from the side of the great, and you cannot see it clearly.

The fine is the smallness of what is small. The coarse is the bigness of what is large. So it is convenient that they differ. This lies in the way things stand.

The fine and the coarse belong to what has form. What has no form cannot be divided by number. What cannot be encompassed cannot be exhausted by number.

What words can discuss is the coarse side of things. What thought can reach is the fine side of things. What words cannot discuss and thought cannot examine and reach belongs neither to the fine nor to the coarse.

So the conduct of the great man is this. He does not set out to harm others, yet he makes nothing of benevolence and kindness. He does not move for gain, yet he does not despise the gatekeeper and the servant. He does not quarrel over goods and money, yet he makes nothing of yielding and declining. In his work he does not borrow the hands of others, yet he makes nothing of eating by his own strength, and he does not despise the greedy and the foul. His conduct differs from that of the age, yet he makes nothing of being odd and apart. His doing lies in following the many, yet he does not despise the flatterer.

The titles and salaries of the world are not enough to urge him on, and killing and shame are not enough to disgrace him. He knows that right and wrong cannot be divided, and that fine and great cannot be given a limit.

I have heard it said. 'The man of the Way is not heard of. The utmost virtue gains nothing. The great man has no self.' This is the height of keeping to one's portion."

Hebo said, "Whether outside things or inside them, where do we come to the line between noble and mean? Where do we come to the line between small and great?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "Seen from the Way, things have no noble and no mean. Seen from things, each holds itself noble and the others mean. Seen from custom, noble and mean do not lie in oneself.

Seen from difference. If you call a thing great because of what is great in it, then none of the ten thousand things is not great. If you call a thing small because of what is small in it, then none of the ten thousand things is not small. Know that heaven and earth are a grain of wild millet and that the tip of a hair is a hill or a mountain, and the reckoning of difference is plain.

Seen from merit. If you call a thing present because of what is present in it, then none of the ten thousand things is not present. If you call a thing absent because of what is absent in it, then none of the ten thousand things is not absent. Know that east and west are opposite and yet cannot be without each other, and the portion of merit is settled.

Seen from inclination. If you call a thing so because of what is so in it, then none of the ten thousand things is not so. If you call a thing wrong because of what it holds wrong, then none of the ten thousand things is not wrong. Know that Yao and Jie each held himself so and held the other wrong, and their inclination and their principle are plain.

In the old days Yao and Shun yielded and became emperors, while Zi Kuai yielded and was cut off. Tang and Wu fought and became kings, while Bai Gong fought and was destroyed.

Seen from this, the rites of fighting and yielding, and the conduct of Yao and Jie, have their times of being noble and mean. They cannot be made into a constant.

A great beam can batter a city wall, yet it cannot stop up a hole. This says that vessels differ. Qiji and Hualiu ran a thousand li in a day, yet at catching rats they were no match for a wildcat. This says that skills differ. The owl catches fleas at night and sees the tip of a hair, yet when it comes out by day it glares and cannot see a hill or a mountain. This says that natures differ.

Therefore it is said. Can one take the right as master and do away with the wrong, take order as master and do away with disorder? This is to be unclear about the pattern of heaven and earth and the real state of the ten thousand things. It is like taking heaven as master and doing away with earth, or taking yin as master and doing away with yang. Plainly it cannot be done. And still men talk and will not let go. If they are not stupid, then they are lying.

Emperors and kings handed on the throne differently, and the three dynasties followed one another differently. He who went against his time and crossed the custom of his age is called a usurper. He who met his time and followed the custom of his age is called a man of rightness.

Be still, Hebo. How could you know the gate of noble and mean, or the house of small and great?"

Hebo said, "Then what am I to do, and what am I not to do? In declining and accepting, in going forward and drawing back, what am I to do in the end?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "Seen from the Way, what is noble and what is mean? This is called turning back and spilling over. Do not tie down your purpose. It goes greatly against the Way. What is little and what is much? This is called giving in turn. Do not walk by one thing only. It does not match the Way.

Be stern like a state that has its ruler, with no private virtue. Be easy like a sacrifice that has its altar, with no private blessing. Be broad like the four directions that have no end, with no bounds and no borders.

He gathers the ten thousand things into his care. Whom would he shelter above the rest? This is called having no one direction. The ten thousand things are one and even. What is short and what is long?

The Way has no ending and no beginning. Things have their dying and their living. Do not trust in what they have completed. Now empty and now full, do not settle into their shape. The years cannot be held. Time cannot be stopped. Waning and growing, filling and emptying, and when it ends it has a beginning.

This is how one speaks of the direction of the great rightness and discusses the pattern of the ten thousand things.

The life of things is like a gallop, like a rush. There is no movement that is not a change, and no moment that does not shift. What are you to do, and what are you not to do? Of itself it will surely change."

Hebo said, "Then why is the Way to be prized?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "He who knows the Way is sure to reach through to its pattern. He who reaches through to the pattern is sure to be clear in weighing things. He who is clear in weighing things does not let outside things harm him.

The man of utmost virtue cannot be burned by fire, cannot be drowned by water, cannot be harmed by cold or heat, cannot be torn by birds or beasts. This does not mean that he makes light of them. It means that he watches safety and danger, rests easy in fortune and misfortune, and is careful in leaving and approaching, so that nothing can harm him.

Therefore it is said. Heaven is within and man is without, and virtue lies in heaven. Know the workings of heaven and of man, take root in heaven, take your place in what you have gained, hold back and bend and stretch, turn back to the essential, and speak of the utmost."

He said, "What is called heaven, and what is called man?"

Ruo of the North Sea said, "That the ox and the horse have four feet is called heaven. To put a halter on the horse's head and to pierce the ox's nose is called man.

Therefore it is said. Do not let man wipe out heaven. Do not let old habit wipe out fate. Do not let gain make you a sacrifice to a name. Guard this carefully and do not lose it. This is called turning back to what is true."

The kui envies the millipede. The millipede envies the snake. The snake envies the wind. The wind envies the eye. The eye envies the mind.

The kui said to the millipede, "I hop along on one foot, and there is nothing like me. Now you set ten thousand feet going. How do you manage it alone?"

The millipede said, "Not so. Have you never seen a man spit? When he blows it out, the big drops are like pearls and the small ones like mist, and they fall mixed together past all counting. Now I set the workings of heaven in me moving, and I do not know why it is so."

The millipede said to the snake, "I go on many feet, and still I cannot match you who have none. How is that?"

The snake said, "When the workings of heaven move, how can they be changed? What use would I have for feet?"

The snake said to the wind, "I move my spine and my ribs to go, and so I still have something like a body. Now you rise with a rush out of the North Sea and go with a rush into the South Sea, and yet you seem to be nothing at all. How is that?"

The wind said, "So it is. I rise with a rush out of the North Sea and go into the South Sea. Yet point a finger at me and you beat me, and tread on me and you beat me.

Even so, it is I alone who can break great trees and send great houses flying. So I make a great victory out of not winning against the many small ones. To make a great victory is something only the sage can do."

Confucius was traveling in Kuang when the men of Song surrounded him several ranks deep, yet he did not stop playing his zither and singing. Zilu came in to see him and said, "How is it that the master is merry?"

Confucius said, "Come, I will tell you. I have shunned hardship for a long time and have not escaped it. That is fate. I have sought to get through for a long time and have not got it. That is the time.

In the time of Yao and Shun no man in the world was hemmed in, and that was not because men gained by knowing. In the time of Jie and King Zhou of Shang no man in the world got through, and that was not because men had lost their knowing. The time and the circumstances happened to be so.

To go by water and not shun the water dragon and the dragon is the courage of the fisherman. To go by land and not shun the wild ox and the tiger is the courage of the hunter. To see death as life when white blades cross in front of you is the courage of the fierce warrior. To know that hardship has its fate and that getting through has its time, and to face great trouble without fear, is the courage of the sage.

Zilu, stay where you are. My fate has its bounds."

Before long the officer in armor came forward and made his excuses. "We took you for Yang Hu, and so we surrounded you. Now we see that it is not so. We beg leave to withdraw."

Gongsun Long asked Wei Mou, "When I was young I studied the Way of the former kings, and when I grew up I was clear about the conduct of benevolence and rightness. I joined the same and the different. I parted hardness from whiteness. I made the not so so, and the impossible possible. I wore out the knowledge of the hundred schools and exhausted the arguments of many mouths. I thought that I myself had reached the utmost.

Now I have heard the words of Zhuangzi, and they leave me lost and bewildered. I do not know whether my arguing does not reach so far or my knowing is not equal to his. Now I have no place to open my beak. May I ask what his method is?"

Prince Mou leaned on his armrest, let out a great sigh, looked up at the sky and laughed. "Have you alone not heard of the frog in the broken well?

He said to the turtle of the Eastern Sea, 'How happy I am! I go out and hop about on the well rail, and I come back and rest where the bricks are broken away. In the water I hold myself up by the armpits with my chin above it, and when I kick in the mud it covers my feet and buries my ankles. I look round at the wrigglers and the crabs and the tadpoles, and none of them is my equal. And to have the water of a whole gully to myself and to straddle the joy of a broken well, this too is the utmost. Why do you not come now and then and take a look?'

The turtle of the Eastern Sea had not got its left foot in before its right knee was stuck. So it hung back and drew away, and it told the frog about the sea. 'A distance of a thousand li is not enough to say how great it is. A height of a thousand fathoms is not enough to reach how deep it is. In the time of Yu there were nine floods in ten years, and the water did not rise by that. In the time of Tang there were seven droughts in eight years, and the shore did not fall back by that. Not to shift for a moment or an age, not to go forward or back for much or little, this too is the great joy of the Eastern Sea.'

At this the frog in the broken well heard and was startled out of himself, and lost himself in bewilderment.

And your knowing does not even reach the border of right and wrong, and still you want to look into the words of Zhuangzi. This is like making a mosquito carry a mountain, or a millipede race across the Yellow River. Surely you cannot bear the load.

And a man whose knowing cannot discuss words of the utmost subtlety, and who fits himself to the gain of the moment, is he not the frog of the broken well?

And that man is even now treading the Yellow Springs and climbing the great heaven. He has no south and no north. He is loosed to the four directions and sinks into what cannot be fathomed. He has no east and no west. He begins in the dark and the unseen and returns to the great passing through.

And you in your bewilderment seek him by examining and search for him by arguing. This is only peeping at the sky through a tube and pointing at the earth with an awl. Is it not small? Be off with you.

And have you alone not heard of the young man of Shouling who went to learn the walk of Handan? He never got the skill of that country, and he lost his own old walk as well, so that he could only crawl home. Now if you do not go, you will forget what was yours and lose your own calling."

Gongsun Long's mouth fell open and would not close. His tongue went up and would not come down. So he slipped away and ran.

Zhuangzi was fishing in the Pu when the king of Chu sent two high officers ahead to make his wish known. "He would trouble you with the affairs within his borders."

Zhuangzi held his pole and did not look round. "I have heard that in Chu there is a holy turtle, dead these three thousand years, and that the king keeps it wrapped in cloth in a box in his ancestral hall.

Would this turtle rather be dead and leave its bones behind and be honored? Or would it rather be alive and dragging its tail in the mud?"

The two officers said, "It would rather be alive and dragging its tail in the mud."

Zhuangzi said, "Go your way. I will drag my tail in the mud."

Huizi was prime minister of Liang, and Zhuangzi went to see him. Someone said to Huizi, "Zhuangzi is coming to take your place as prime minister." At this Huizi was afraid, and he searched through the state for three days and three nights.

Zhuangzi went to see him and said, "In the south there is a bird, and its name is the yuanchu. Do you know it?

The yuanchu sets out from the South Sea and flies to the North Sea. It perches on nothing but the paulownia. It eats nothing but the fruit of the chinaberry. It drinks nothing but sweet spring water.

Just then a kite had got hold of a rotting rat, and as the yuanchu passed it looked up and cried 'Shoo!' Now do you mean to cry 'Shoo' at me with this state of Liang of yours?"

Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling on the bridge over the Hao.

Zhuangzi said, "The minnows come out and swim about at their ease. This is the joy of fishes."

Huizi said, "You are not a fish. How do you know the joy of fishes?"

Zhuangzi said, "You are not I. How do you know that I do not know the joy of fishes?"

Huizi said, "I am not you, so of course I do not know you. And you are certainly not a fish, so it is complete that you do not know the joy of fishes."

Zhuangzi said, "Let us go back to the beginning. When you said, 'How do you know the joy of fishes,' you already knew that I knew it, and so you asked me. I knew it up above the Hao."