Mastering Life莊子 外篇 達生

One who understands the true state of life does not labor at what life can do nothing about. One who understands the true state of fate does not labor at what knowing can do nothing about.

To nourish the body you must first have things, yet there are those who have things to spare and whose bodies are not nourished. To have life you must first not leave the body, yet there are those whose bodies have not left them and whose life is gone.

The coming of life cannot be turned away, and its going cannot be stopped. How sad. The people of the world think that nourishing the body is enough to keep life. Yet if nourishing the body is truly not enough to keep life, then what in the world is worth doing?

Though it is not worth doing, it cannot be left undone, because there is no escape from the doing.

If you would escape doing things for the body, there is nothing like casting off the world. Cast off the world and there is nothing to bind you. With nothing to bind you, you are upright and even. Upright and even, you are born again along with that. Born again, you are nearly there.

Why is it enough to cast off affairs, and why is it enough to let go of life? Cast off affairs and the body is not worn out. Let go of life and the essence is not worn away.

When the body is whole and the essence has come back, you are one with heaven. Heaven and earth are the father and mother of the ten thousand things. Joined, they make a body. Scattered, they make a beginning.

That the body and the essence are not worn away is called being able to shift. Essence upon essence, and you turn back and help heaven.

Liezi asked Guan Yin, "The utmost man walks under water and is not blocked, treads on fire and is not burned, and walks above the ten thousand things and does not tremble. I ask you. By what does he reach this?"

Guan Yin said, "This is the guarding of the pure breath. It is not of the kind of knowing and skill and daring. Sit down, and I will tell you.

Whatever has looks and shape and sound and color is a thing. How should one thing be far from another thing? What is enough to make one come first? These are only colors.

And so a thing is made where there is no shape, and it stops where there is no changing. If a man gets hold of this and follows it to the end, how can things hold him back?

Such a man dwells within a measure he does not go beyond, and hides himself in a cord that has no loose end, and roams where the ten thousand things end and begin. He makes his nature one, he nourishes his breath, he joins his virtue, and so he reaches through to where things are made.

In such a man the heaven in him is guarded whole and his spirit has no crack. Where would things get in?

When a drunken man falls from a cart, he is hurt but he does not die. His bones and joints are the same as other men's, yet the harm he takes is different from other men's, because his spirit is whole. He did not know he was riding and he did not know he fell. Death and life, alarm and fear, do not enter his breast. So he strikes against things and is not afraid.

If a man who gets his wholeness from wine is like this, how much more a man who gets his wholeness from heaven. The sage is hidden in heaven, and so nothing can harm him.

A man taking revenge does not break the swords Moye and Ganjiang, and a man with anger in his heart does not blame a roof tile blown down by the wind. By this the world is made even. So there is no disorder of attack and battle, and no punishment of killing, and this comes by way of this Way.

Do not open the heaven of men. Open the heaven of heaven. One who opens heaven gives birth to virtue. One who opens men gives birth to harm. Do not tire of the heaven in you, and do not slight the man in you, and the people will come near to their own truth."

Zhongni was going to Chu, and as he came out of the woods he saw a hunchback catching cicadas as if he were picking them up off the ground.

Zhongni said, "You are skillful. Do you have a Way?"

He said, "I have a Way. For five or six months I piled two balls one on the other and did not let them fall, and then I missed only a few. I piled three and did not let them fall, and then I missed one in ten. I piled five and did not let them fall, and then it was like picking them up off the ground.

I hold my body like a tree stump, and I hold my arm like the branch of a dry tree. Heaven and earth are great and the ten thousand things are many, yet I know only the cicada's wing. I do not look back and I do not glance aside, and I would not trade the cicada's wing for the ten thousand things. How should I fail to get them?"

Confucius looked round at his disciples and said, "When the use of the will is not divided, the spirit gathers. This must have been said of that old hunchback."

Yan Yuan asked Zhongni, "Once I crossed the deep water of Shangshen, and the ferryman handled the boat like a spirit. I asked him, 'Can the handling of a boat be learned?' He said, 'It can. A good swimmer can do it in a few tries. A man who goes down under the water can handle a boat at once, even if he has never seen one before.' I asked him more and he did not tell me. I make bold to ask. What does this mean?"

Zhongni said, "That a good swimmer can do it in a few tries is because he has forgotten the water. That a man who goes down under the water can handle a boat at once, even if he has never seen one, is because he looks at the deep water as he would look at a hill, and he looks at the boat turning over as he would look at a cart rolling back. Turning over and rolling back and ten thousand other things may be spread out before him, and they cannot get into the place where his mind rests. Wherever he goes, how should he not be at his ease?

Stake a clay pot in a wager and the skill comes out. Stake a belt buckle and the man is afraid. Stake gold and his wits go. The skill is the same in each, but when there is something he holds dear, he is making the outside heavy. Whoever makes the outside heavy is clumsy within."

Tian Kaizhi went to see Duke Wei of Zhou, and the duke said, "I hear that Zhu Shen is studying life. You roam with Zhu Shen. What have you heard from him?"

Tian Kaizhi said, "I have only held a broom and waited in his gate and courtyard. What should I have heard from my master?"

Duke Wei said, "Master Tian, do not hold back. I wish to hear it."

Kaizhi said, "I heard my master say, 'One who nourishes life well is like a man herding sheep. He watches for the one that falls behind and whips it.'"

Duke Wei said, "What does this mean?"

Tian Kaizhi said, "In Lu there was a man named Shan Bao. He lived among the rocks and drank water, and he did not share gain with the people. He was seventy years old and still had the face of a child, and then by ill luck he met a hungry tiger, and the hungry tiger killed him and ate him.

There was a man named Zhang Yi. There was no house of high gates and hanging blinds that he did not run to, and at forty years old he died of a sickness of inner heat.

Shan Bao nourished his inside, and the tiger ate his outside. Zhang Yi nourished his outside, and sickness struck his inside. Neither of these two men whipped the one that fell behind."

Zhongni said, "Do not go in and hide. Do not come out and show yourself. Stand in the middle like a dry tree. Get these three things, and your name will surely reach the utmost.

On a road men are afraid of, where one man in ten is killed, fathers and sons and elder and younger brothers warn one another, and they dare go out only with many men about them. Is that not wise?

What a man should be afraid of is on the sleeping mat and between drinking and eating, and he does not know to beware of these. That is his fault."

The keeper of the sacrifices put on his black robe, went to the pigsty and coaxed the pig, saying, "Why do you hate death? I will feed you for three months, and keep myself careful for ten days, and fast for three days, and spread white rushes, and lay your shoulders and haunches on a carved tray. Will you have it so?"

Planning for the pig, one would say it is better to feed it bran and dregs and leave it in the sty. Yet planning for himself, a man says that if he may have the honor of a high carriage and a crown while he lives, and be laid on the bier and in the coffin when he dies, he will have it so.

Planning for the pig he throws it away, and planning for himself he takes it. How is he different from the pig?

Duke Huan was hunting in the marsh, and Guan Zhong was driving. The duke saw a ghost there, and he took Guan Zhong's hand and said, "Uncle Zhong, what did you see?" Guan Zhong answered, "I saw nothing."

The duke went home, and he raved and fell sick and did not come out for several days. Among the gentlemen of Qi was a man named Huangzi Gao'ao, who said, "Your Grace hurt yourself. How could a ghost hurt you?

When the breath gathers in anger and then scatters and does not come back, the man falls short. When it goes up and does not come down, it makes a man quick to anger. When it goes down and does not come up, it makes a man quick to forget. When it neither rises nor falls, but stays in the middle of the body against the heart, it becomes sickness."

Duke Huan said, "Then are there ghosts?"

He said, "There are. In a puddle there is the lü, and in the stove there is the ji. In the heap of loose earth inside the door the leiting dwells. In the low ground to the northeast the bei'a and the guilong leap about, and in the low ground to the northwest the yiyang dwells. In water there is the wangxiang, on the hills there is the shen, in the mountains there is the kui, in the fields there is the panghuang, and in the marsh there is the weishe serpent."

The duke said, "I ask you. What is the shape of the weishe?"

Huangzi said, "The weishe is as big as a wheel hub and as long as a carriage shaft, and it wears a purple coat and a red cap. As a creature it hates to hear the sound of a cart like thunder, and then it holds up its head and stands. One who sees it comes near to being an overlord."

Duke Huan laughed out loud and said, "That is what I saw." Then he set his robe and cap straight and sat with the man, and before the day was out he did not even notice that his sickness had gone.

Ji Xingzi was raising a fighting cock for the king.

After ten days the king asked, "Is the cock ready?" He said, "Not yet. He is still fierce for nothing and trusts in his breath."

After ten days the king asked again, and he said, "Not yet. He still answers shadows and sounds."

After ten days the king asked again, and he said, "Not yet. He still glares and his breath is high."

After ten days the king asked again, and he said, "He is nearly ready. Another cock may crow, and he does not change. Look at him and he is like a wooden cock, and his virtue is whole. No other cock dares answer him, and they turn and run away."

Confucius was looking at Lüliang, where the water falls thirty fathoms and the foam runs forty li, and where no turtle or crocodile or fish can swim. He saw a man swimming there and thought he had some trouble and meant to die, so he sent his disciples along the stream to pull him out. After a few hundred steps the man came out, and he let his hair down and sang and strolled below the bank.

Confucius followed him and asked, "I took you for a ghost, but looking closely you are a man. I ask you. Is there a Way to treading water?"

He said, "No, I have no Way. I began in old habit, I grew up in my nature, and I was completed in fate. I go in with the whirling water and come out with the water that rises, and I follow the way of the water and do nothing of my own. This is how I tread it."

Confucius said, "What do you mean by beginning in old habit, growing up in your nature, and being completed in fate?"

He said, "I was born on the hills and I am at ease on the hills, and that is old habit. I grew up in the water and I am at ease in the water, and that is my nature. I do not know why I am so and yet I am so, and that is fate."

Zi Qing carved wood into a bell stand, and when the stand was done those who saw it were startled as at a spirit. The lord of Lu saw it and asked, "By what art do you make it?"

He answered, "Your servant is a craftsman. What art should I have? Even so, there is one thing.

When your servant is about to make a stand, he never dares waste his breath, and he always fasts to still his mind. After fasting three days, I no longer dare hold in mind reward and rank and pay. After fasting five days, I no longer dare hold in mind blame and praise and doing well and doing badly. After fasting seven days, all at once I forget that I have limbs and a body.

By that time your court has gone too, my skill is all of one piece, and the confusion outside dies away. Then I go into the mountain woods and look at the nature given by heaven, and I look for the trunk that is perfect. Then the finished stand appears before my eyes, and then I set my hand to it. If it does not appear, I let it be.

This is to match heaven with heaven. Perhaps this is why the vessel is taken for a spirit."

Dongye Ji came to see Duke Zhuang with his driving. Going forward and back, he kept to the ink line. Turning left and right, he kept to the compass. Duke Zhuang thought that even a fine pattern could not be better than this, and he had him make a hundred turns and come back.

Yan He met him, and he went in to see the duke and said, "Ji's horses will break down." The duke kept silent and did not answer.

In a little while the horses did break down and come back. The duke said, "How did you know it?"

He said, "Their strength was spent and still he asked for more, and so I said they would break down."

When Gong Chui turned his hand it matched the compass and the square, because his fingers changed along with the thing and he did not reckon with his mind. So the place of his mind was one and was not blocked.

To forget the foot is because the shoe fits. To forget the waist is because the belt fits. To forget right and wrong in what you know is because the mind fits. Not to change within and not to follow without is because the affair and the meeting of it fit.

To begin in fitting and never once to be unfitting, this is the fitting that forgets fitting.

There was a man named Sun Xiu who came to the gate and laid his trouble before Bianqingzi, saying, "Living in my village I have never been called untrained, and facing hardship I have never been called uncourageous. Yet in the fields I meet no good year, and serving my ruler I meet no good age, and I am treated as a stranger in my village and driven out of my district. What crime have I done against heaven? How did I meet such a fate?"

Bianzi said, "Have you alone not heard how the utmost man goes about? He forgets his liver and his gall, he lets go of his ears and his eyes, he wanders far off beyond the dust and dirt, and he strolls in the work that has no work. This is called doing and not relying, rearing and not ruling.

Now you dress up your knowing to startle the foolish, and you train your body to show up the filth of others, and you shine as bright as a man walking with the sun and moon held up in his hands.

You have your body whole and your nine openings complete, and you did not die young along the way by deafness or blindness or lameness, and you are counted among men. That much is good luck. What leisure have you to blame heaven? Be off with you."

Sun Xiu went out and Bianzi came in. He sat a while, then looked up at heaven and sighed. A disciple asked, "Master, why do you sigh?"

Bianzi said, "Just now Xiu came, and I told him of the virtue of the utmost man. I am afraid he was startled and will end in confusion."

The disciple said, "It is not so. If what Sun Xiu said was right and what you said was wrong, then wrong could never confuse right. If what Sun Xiu said was wrong and what you said was right, then he came already confused, and what fault is there in that?"

Bianzi said, "It is not so. Long ago a bird settled outside the city wall of Lu, and the lord of Lu was glad of it, and set out the great sacrifice to feast it and played the Nine Shao to make it happy. Then the bird began to worry and grieve, and its eyes swam, and it did not dare drink or eat. This is called feeding a bird the way he himself is fed.

One who feeds a bird the way a bird is fed should let it roost in the deep woods and float on the rivers and lakes and feed on snakes, and leave it on the level ground, and that is all.

Now Xiu is a man of narrow opening who has heard little. I told him of the virtue of the utmost man, and it was like carrying a mouse in a carriage with horses, or making a quail happy with bells and drums. How could he help being startled?"