The Mountain Tree莊子 外篇 山木

Zhuangzi was walking in the mountains when he saw a great tree with thick branches and leaves. A woodcutter stopped beside it and did not take it. Zhuangzi asked him why, and he said, "There is nothing it can be used for." Zhuangzi said, "This tree is no good as timber, and so it has been able to live out its natural years."

The master came down out of the mountains and lodged at the house of an old friend. The old friend was glad and told the serving boy to kill a goose and boil it. The boy asked, "One of them can cry and one cannot. Which shall I kill?" The master of the house said, "Kill the one that cannot cry."

The next day a disciple asked Zhuangzi, "Yesterday the tree in the mountains was no good as timber and so could live out its natural years. Today our host's goose was no good and so it died. Where will you take your stand, master?"

Zhuangzi laughed and said, "I would take my stand between being timber and not being timber. But between being timber and not being timber only seems right and is not, and so one does not escape entanglement.

"If you ride upon the Way and virtue and drift and wander, it is not so. There is no praise and no blame. Now a dragon, now a snake, you change along with the times and are never willing to do one thing only. Now up, now down, you make harmony your measure and drift and wander at the ancestor of the ten thousand things. You treat things as things and are not made a thing by things, so how could you be entangled? This was the rule of Shennong and the Yellow Emperor.

"But the true state of the ten thousand things and what is handed down among men are not like this. What joins comes apart, what is finished is broken. What is clean is blunted, what is honored is talked about, what acts is diminished, the worthy is plotted against, the unworthy is cheated. How can anything be counted on?

"It is sad. My disciples, remember this. There is only the country of the Way and virtue."

Yiliao of Shinan saw the ruler of Lu, and the ruler of Lu had a worried look. The master of Shinan said, "You have a worried look. What is it?"

The ruler of Lu said, "I have studied the Way of the former kings and kept up the work of the former lords. I honor the spirits and hold the worthy high, and I do these things myself and have not left off for a moment. Yet I do not escape trouble, and this is why I am worried."

The master of Shinan said, "Your art for getting rid of trouble is a shallow one.

"The fat fox and the patterned leopard dwell in the mountain forests and lie hidden in cliff caves. That is stillness. They go by night and stay in by day. That is care. Though they are hungry and thirsty and hard pressed, they still keep far off by the rivers and the lakes and look for food there. That is steadiness. Yet they do not escape the trouble of nets and traps. What crime is that of theirs? It is their pelts that bring the disaster.

"Now is the state of Lu not your own pelt? I would have you cut away your body and put off your pelt, wash your heart and put off your desires, and wander in the wild where there are no men.

"In Nanyue there is a settlement, and its name is the land where virtue is set up. Its people are simple and plain, with little of their own and few desires. They know how to make but not how to store. They give and do not look for a return. They do not know where right conduct fits, they do not know what ritual serves. Wild and heedless in their going, they yet tread the great way. Their life is worth enjoying, their death is worth burying.

"I would have you leave your state and throw off the common ways, and go forward with the Way to help you."

The ruler said, "That road is far and hard, and there are rivers and mountains besides. I have no boat and no cart. What am I to do?"

The master of Shinan said, "Let your body hold no pride and let there be no clinging to where you are, and that will be your cart."

The ruler said, "That road is far and dim and there are no men on it. Who would be my neighbor? I have no grain and nothing to eat. How could I get there?"

The master of Shinan said, "Spend less and desire less, and though you have no grain you will have enough.

"Cross the river and float out on the sea, and you will look and not see the shore, and the farther you go the less you will know where it ends. Those who see you off will all turn back at the shore, and from there you go far away.

"A man who possesses others is entangled, and a man possessed by others is worried. That is why Yao neither possessed others nor was possessed by them. I would take away what entangles you and get rid of what worries you, so that you may wander alone with the Way in the land of the great emptiness.

"When boats are lashed side by side to cross a river and an empty boat comes and strikes one of them, even a hot-tempered man is not angry. But if there is a man in it, he shouts at him to pull away. He shouts once and is not heard, he shouts twice and is not heard, and then at the third shout hard words are sure to follow.

"He was not angry before and he is angry now, because before the boat was empty and now it is full. If a man can empty himself and wander through the world, who could harm him?"

Beigong She was gathering a levy for Duke Ling of Wei to make bells, and he raised an altar outside the outer gate. In three months he had them hung in their upper and lower rows.

Prince Qingji saw this and asked him, "What art did you use?"

She said, "Within the one I did not dare use any art. I have heard it said, 'When the carving and the polishing are done, go back again to the uncarved wood.'

"I was dull and knew nothing, blank and idle and as if in doubt. Gathered in and vague, I sent off those who went and welcomed those who came. I did not keep back those who came and I did not stop those who went. I followed the strong and went along with the crooked, and let each one come to his own end.

"So I gathered the levy morning and evening and not a hair was harmed. How much more would that be so for one who holds the great road."

Confucius was surrounded between Chen and Cai, and for seven days he ate no cooked food.

Taigong Ren went to console him and said, "You are close to death." He said, "I am."

"Do you hate death?" He said, "I do."

Ren said, "Let me speak of the way of not dying.

"In the eastern sea there is a bird, and its name is Yitai. As a bird it is slow and heavy in flight and seems to have no power at all. It flies only when the others draw it along, and it roosts pressed close to the rest. Going forward it does not dare to be first, going back it does not dare to be last. When it eats it does not dare to taste first, and it always takes what is left.

"For this reason it is not pushed out of its own rank, and men outside never manage to harm it, and so it escapes trouble.

"The straight tree is cut first, and the sweet well runs dry first. You, I think, 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. That is why you do not escape.

"Long ago I heard a man of great attainment say, 'He who boasts of himself has no merit, he whose merit is finished falls, and he whose name is finished is diminished.' Who can put away merit and name and go back among the many?

"The Way flows in him and he does not make it bright. He could act on what he has gained and he does not stay for the name. Simple and steady, he is close to a madman. He rubs out his tracks and throws away his power, and he makes no merit and no name.

"For this reason he blames no one and no one blames him. The utmost man is not heard of. What are you so pleased about?"

Confucius said, "Good." He took leave of those he went about with and left his disciples, and fled to the great marsh. He wore skins and coarse cloth and ate acorns and chestnuts. He went in among the beasts and did not throw the herd into confusion, he went in among the birds and did not throw their ranks into confusion. If birds and beasts did not dislike him, how much less would men.

Confucius asked Zisang Hu, "I was driven out of Lu twice. In Song the tree over me was cut down. In Wei my tracks were wiped away. In Shang and Zhou I came to hardship. Between Chen and Cai I was surrounded. I have met with all these troubles, and those close to me grow more distant and the friends who followed me scatter further. How is this?"

Zisang Hu said, "Have you alone not heard how the man of Jia fled?

"Lin Hui threw away a jade worth a thousand pieces of gold, took a baby on his back and ran. Someone said, 'If you count its price, the baby's price is small. If you count it as a burden, the baby is much more of a burden. He threw away a jade worth a thousand pieces of gold, took a baby on his back and ran. Why?'

"Lin Hui said, 'That one was joined to me by profit. This one is bound to me by heaven.'

"Those who are joined by profit throw each other away when hardship and misfortune press upon them. Those who are bound by heaven take each other in when hardship and misfortune press upon them. And taking each other in and throwing each other away are far apart.

"And the friendship of the gentleman is bland as water, and the friendship of the small man is sweet as new wine. The gentleman is bland and so grows close, the small man is sweet and so is cut off. Those who were joined without cause come apart without cause."

Confucius said, "I have heard your words with respect." He walked back slowly and at his ease, broke off his learning and threw away his books. His disciples did not bow before him, and their love for him grew all the greater.

On another day Zisang Hu said again, "When Shun was about to die he truly charged Yu, 'Take care. For the body there is nothing like following what comes, for the feelings there is nothing like going as they are. If you follow what comes you will not be parted from things, if you go as you are you will not toil. Not parted and not toiling, you will not look for ornament to dress up the body. Not looking for ornament to dress up the body, you will surely not wait upon things.'"

Zhuangzi wore coarse cloth with patches on it and tied his shoes with hemp cord, and so he passed by the king of Wei. The king of Wei said, "How worn out you are, master."

Zhuangzi said, "This is poverty, not being worn out. When a scholar has the Way and virtue and cannot put them into practice, that is being worn out. Worn clothes and shoes with holes in them are poverty, not being worn out. This is what is called not meeting one's time.

"Have you alone never seen the leaping ape? When it gets hold of the camphor tree and the catalpa and the yuzhang, it takes the branches and lords it among them, and even Yi and Pengmeng could not take aim at it. But when it gets in among the thorn tree and the bramble and the wild orange, it goes warily and looks from side to side, and it shakes and trembles. Its sinews and bones have not grown tighter and lost their suppleness. The place it is in is not easy, and it has no room to show what it can do.

"Now to be set among a benighted ruler and disordered ministers and to want not to be worn out, how could that be? This is the sign of Bi Gan with his heart cut out."

Confucius came to hardship between Chen and Cai, and for seven days he ate no cooked food. With his left hand he leaned on a dry tree and with his right he beat a dry branch, and he sang the air of Biaoshi. He had the instrument but not the measure, he had the sound but no gong note and no jue note. The sound of the wood and the sound of the man came out clear and struck true in the heart of a man.

Yan Hui stood straight with his hands folded and turned his eyes to look. Zhongni feared that he would think him great and so make too much of him, or love him and so grieve for him, and he said,

"Hui, it is easy to take nothing from what heaven takes away, it is hard to take nothing from what men add. There is no beginning that is not also an end, and man and heaven are one. Who is it, then, that is singing now?"

Hui said, "I venture to ask what it means that it is easy to take nothing from what heaven takes away."

Zhongni said, "Hunger and thirst, cold and heat, hardship and blockage that stop you from going forward, are the working of heaven and earth and the passing away of things as they turn. It means going along with them as they go.

"One who is another man's servant does not dare to cast these off. If keeping the way of a servant is like this, how much more so is it with the way one waits upon heaven."

"What does it mean that it is hard to take nothing from what men add?"

Zhongni said, "When a man is first taken into service, he reaches out on all four sides, and rank and pay come to him together without end. It is a benefit that comes from things and does not come from himself, and what is fated for me lies outside.

"The gentleman does not rob and the worthy man does not steal. If I were to take such things, what would that be?

"So it is said, no bird knows as much as the swallow. Where its eye finds a place unfit, it does not even look. Though it drop the fruit it has, it leaves it and flies off. It fears men, and yet it comes to roost among them. It is only that the altars of the state are there."

"What does it mean that there is no beginning that is not also an end?"

Zhongni said, "The ten thousand things are changed, and no one knows who hands the change on. How then can anyone know where it ends? How can anyone know where it begins? Make yourself straight and wait, that is all."

"What does it mean that man and heaven are one?"

Zhongni said, "That there is man is heaven. That there is heaven is also heaven. That man cannot possess heaven is his nature. The sage is at ease, makes the passing his own body, and so comes to his end."

Zhuang Zhou was wandering by the fence of Diaoling when he saw a strange magpie coming from the south. Its wings were seven feet across and its eyes were an inch wide. It brushed Zhuang Zhou's forehead and settled in the chestnut grove.

Zhuang Zhou said, "What bird is this? Its wings are great and it does not fly far, its eyes are large and it does not see."

He hitched up his robe and went forward with quick short steps, took his pellet bow and waited on it.

He saw a cicada that had just found a fine patch of shade and had forgotten its own body. A mantis took hold of the cover and struck at it, and seeing what it could get it forgot its own shape. The strange magpie came behind and looked to profit by it, and seeing the profit it forgot its own true self.

Zhuang Zhou started and said, "Ah, things do entangle one another, and the two kinds call to each other."

He threw away his pellet bow and turned and ran, and the keeper of the grove chased him and scolded him.

Zhuang Zhou went home and for three days did not come out to the courtyard. Lin Qie followed him and asked, "Master, why have you not come out to the courtyard of late?"

Zhuang Zhou said, "I was keeping watch on shapes and forgot my own body. I was looking at muddy water and lost my way in the clear pool.

"And I have heard my master say, 'When you go among a people, follow their orders.' Now I wandered at Diaoling and forgot my own body, and when the strange magpie brushed my forehead I wandered into the chestnut grove and forgot my true self, and the keeper of the chestnut grove took me for a criminal. That is why I have not come out to the courtyard."

Yangzi went to Song and lodged at an inn. The innkeeper had two concubines. One was beautiful and one was ugly. The ugly one was honored and the beautiful one was held low.

Yangzi asked why, and the boy of the inn answered, "The beautiful one thinks herself beautiful, and I do not know that she is beautiful. The ugly one thinks herself ugly, and I do not know that she is ugly."

Yangzi said, "My disciples, remember this. Act worthily and put away the act of thinking yourself worthy, and where could you go and not be loved?"