Xu Wugui莊子 雜篇 徐無鬼

Xu Wugui, through Nü Shang, had an audience with Marquis Wu of Wei. The marquis consoled him and said, "You are worn out, sir. You have suffered the toil of the hills and woods, and so at last you have been willing to see me."

Xu Wugui said, "It is I who would console the ruler. What has the ruler to console me with?

If the ruler fills out what he craves and lengthens his likes and dislikes, then the truth of his nature and his life falls sick. If the ruler puts down what he craves and pulls away his likes and dislikes, then his ears and eyes fall sick. It is I who would console the ruler. What has the ruler to console me with?"

Marquis Wu was blank and did not answer.

After a little while Xu Wugui said, "Let me tell the ruler how I look at dogs.

The lowest sort holds to getting its fill and stops there. That is the virtue of a wildcat. The middle sort is as though it looked at the sun. The highest sort is as though it had lost its one self.

My looking at dogs is not equal to my looking at horses. When I look at horses, if what is straight in them meets the inked line, what is curved meets the hook, what is square meets the square rule, and what is round meets the compass, then it is a horse for a state. But it is not yet a horse for the world.

A horse for the world has a finished stuff in it. It seems anxious, it seems to have lost something, it seems to have lost its one self. Such a horse leaps clear past the rest and cuts off the dust, and no one knows where it has gone."

Marquis Wu was greatly pleased and laughed.

Xu Wugui went out, and Nü Shang said, "Sir, what did you alone use to please our ruler?

What I have used to please our ruler is the Odes and the Documents, the Rites and the Music when I spoke crosswise, and the Jinban and the Liutao when I spoke lengthwise. The matters I carried through with great success cannot be counted, and yet our ruler has never once shown his teeth.

Now what did you use to please our ruler, that our ruler is pleased like this?"

Xu Wugui said, "I only told him how I look at dogs and horses."

Nü Shang said, "Is that so?"

He said, "Have you not heard of the man banished to Yue?

A few days after leaving his country he is glad when he sees someone he knows. Ten days or a month after leaving his country he is glad when he sees anyone he has once seen at home. And when a year has come he is glad at the sight of anything like a man. Is it not that the longer he is away from men, the deeper he thinks of men?

One who has fled into an empty valley, where goosefoot and weeds block the path of the weasel, stands about in that emptiness, and when he hears the sound of a man's feet he is glad. How much more when a brother or a kinsman clears his throat at his side.

It is long indeed since anyone cleared his throat at our ruler's side with the words of a true man."

Xu Wugui had an audience with Marquis Wu, and the marquis said, "Sir, you have lived in the hills and woods, eating acorns and chestnuts and taking your fill of onions and leeks, and you have kept me off for a long time. Are you old now? Do you crave the taste of wine and meat? Or is there a blessing here for my altars of soil and grain?"

Xu Wugui said, "Wugui was born poor and lowly, and has never dared to drink the ruler's wine or eat his meat. I have come to console the ruler."

The ruler said, "What is this? How do you console me?"

He said, "I would console the ruler's spirit and his body."

Marquis Wu said, "What do you mean?"

Xu Wugui said, "What heaven and earth nourish is one. To have climbed high does not make a thing long, and to be low down does not make it short.

The ruler alone is the master of ten thousand chariots, and he wearies the people of a whole country to nourish his ears and eyes and nose and mouth. The spirit does not allow this of itself.

The spirit loves harmony and hates discord. Discord is sickness, and so I console it. What is it that makes the ruler sick?"

Marquis Wu said, "I have wished to see you for a long time. I want to love the people and to lay down arms for the sake of right. Will that do?"

Xu Wugui said, "It will not do. Loving the people is the beginning of harming the people. Laying down arms for the sake of right is the root of making arms. If the ruler works from here, he will likely not bring it off.

Whatever brings beauty to completion is an evil vessel. Though the ruler practice kindness and right conduct, it will come close to a sham. Form makes form. Success brings boasting. Change brings war outside.

The ruler must not mass his troops in crane formation between the fair watchtowers, must not move his fine horses to the palace at the Zi altar, must not hide what goes against him inside what he has gained, must not beat others by skill, must not beat others by scheming, must not beat others by battle.

To kill another's soldiers and people and take in another's land, so as to nourish my own private self and my own spirit, is a battle in which no one knows what is good. Where is the victory in it?

If the ruler cannot stop, let him tend the sincerity within his breast and answer the truth of heaven and earth, and not meddle. If the people are already released from death, what use will the ruler have for laying down arms?"

The Yellow Emperor was going to Mount Juci to see Dawei. Fangming drove, Changyu rode at his side, Zhang Ruo and Xipeng went before the horses, and Kunhun and Guji came behind the carriage. When they reached the wilds of Xiangcheng, the seven sages all lost their way, and there was no one to ask about the road.

Just then they met a boy herding horses, and asked him the road. "Do you know Mount Juci?" "I do."

"Do you know where Dawei is?" "I do."

The Yellow Emperor said, "What a strange boy. You know not only Mount Juci but also where Dawei is. Let me ask about governing the world."

The boy said, "Governing the world is only like this. What more is there to busy oneself with?

When I was young I roamed of myself inside the six directions, and I happened to get an illness that blurred my sight. An elder taught me and said, 'Ride in the chariot of the sun and roam in the wilds of Xiangcheng.' Now my illness is a little better, and I am going to roam again outside the six directions. Governing the world is only like this. What more is there for me to busy myself with?"

The Yellow Emperor said, "Governing the world is truly not your business. Even so, let me ask about governing the world." The boy declined.

The Yellow Emperor asked again. The boy said, "How is governing the world different from herding horses? It is only to get rid of what harms the horses."

The Yellow Emperor bowed twice, touched his head to the ground, called him the teacher of heaven, and withdrew.

The knowing scholar is not happy without the turns of thought. The debating scholar is not happy without the order of his talk. The examining scholar is not happy without something to press and scold. All of them are penned in by things.

The scholar who calls the age to him raises up a court. The scholar of the middling people takes glory in office. The scholar of sinew and strength boasts of hardship. The brave scholar rouses himself at trouble. The scholar of armor and weapons delights in battle. The withered scholar lodges in a name. The scholar of law and statute widens the rule. The scholar of rites and teaching honors his bearing. The scholar of kindness and right conduct prizes his dealings with men.

The farmer is not settled without the work of weeding, and the trader is not settled without the work of the market. The common man works hard when he has his morning and evening business, and the hundred craftsmen grow strong when they have skill with tools and machines.

When money and goods do not pile up, the greedy man worries. When power does not stand out, the boaster grieves. The crowd that follows power and things delights in change. When their time comes and they have some use, they cannot keep from doing.

All these run alongside the years and cannot be changed by things. They drive their bodies and their natures and sink into the ten thousand things, and to the end of their lives they do not come back. How sad.

Zhuangzi said, "If an archer hits without aiming beforehand, and we call him a good archer, then everyone in the world is a Yi. Will that do?"

Huizi said, "It will do."

Zhuangzi said, "If there is no common right in the world, and each one holds right what he himself holds right, then everyone in the world is a Yao. Will that do?"

Huizi said, "It will do."

Zhuangzi said, "Then there are four, the Confucians, the Mohists, Yang Zhu and Gongsun Long, and with you there are five. Which of you is really right?

Or is it like the case of Lu Ju? His disciple said, 'I have got the master's Way. I can heat the cauldron in winter and make ice in summer.' Lu Ju said, 'That is only calling the yang with the yang and calling the yin with the yin. It is not what I call the Way. I will show you my Way.'

So he tuned zithers for him, and set one in the hall and one in the inner room. He struck the note gong, and gong stirred. He struck the note jue, and jue stirred. The pitches were the same.

Then he tuned one string anew so that it fitted none of the five notes, and struck it, and all twenty five strings stirred. They had never been different in sound. It was the lord of the notes. And are you like this too?"

Huizi said, "Now the Confucians, the Mohists, Yang Zhu and Gongsun Long are contending with me in words. They push at each other with phrases and press each other down with shouts, and they have never yet shown me wrong. What of that?"

Zhuangzi said, "A man of Qi left his son in Song. He did not keep him whole when he set him to the gatekeeper's work, yet when he looked for his bell and his cup he wrapped them about, and when he looked for his lost son he did not even go beyond the border. He had thrown away his own kind.

A man of Chu lodged in another's house and scolded the gatekeeper, and at midnight, when no one was about, he quarreled with the boatman. He had not yet left the bank, and it was enough to make resentment."

Zhuangzi was following a funeral, and as he passed the grave of Huizi he turned to those who went with him and said,

"A man of Ying had plaster on the tip of his nose, no thicker than a fly's wing, and he had a craftsman chip it off. Carpenter Shi swung his axe until it made a wind, and chipped by the sound of it. All the plaster came off and the nose was not hurt, and the man of Ying stood there and did not lose his countenance.

Lord Yuan of Song heard of it and called Carpenter Shi and said, 'Try doing it for me.' Carpenter Shi said, 'I was once able to chip like that. But the stuff I worked against has been dead a long time.'

Since the master died I have had nothing to work against. I have no one to talk with."

Guan Zhong fell ill, and Duke Huan asked him, "Uncle Zhong, your illness is grave, and it cannot be left unsaid. If it comes to the worst, to whom should I hand over the state?"

Guan Zhong said, "To whom does my lord wish to give it?"

The duke said, "To Bao Shuya."

He said, "It will not do. As a man he is clean and upright and a good scholar, but he will not stand beside those who are not his equals, and once he hears of another's fault he does not forget it his whole life.

If you let him govern the state, above he will pull at his ruler and below he will go against the people. It will not be long before he offends you."

The duke said, "Then who will do?"

He answered, "If you must, then Xi Peng will do.

As a man he forgets those above and turns from those below. He is ashamed that he is not the equal of the Yellow Emperor, and he pities those who are not his equals.

One who shares his virtue with others is called a sage. One who shares his goods with others is called a worthy man. One who comes down on others as a worthy man has never won them. One who lowers himself to others as a worthy man has never failed to win them.

There are things in the state he does not hear, and things in his house he does not see. If you must, then Xi Peng will do."

The king of Wu floated on the river and climbed the monkey mountain. The troop of monkeys saw him and in fear left all and ran, and hid in the deep thickets.

But one monkey stayed there at its ease, catching at the branches, and showed its skill to the king. The king shot at it, and it snatched the swift arrow. The king ordered his attendants to shoot at it one after another, and the monkey was caught and died.

The king turned to his friend Yan Buyi and said, "This monkey boasted of its skill and trusted its quickness to swagger at me, and so it came to this death. Take warning. Ah, do not lord it over others with your looks."

Yan Buyi went home and took Dong Wu as his teacher to work on his looks. He put away pleasure and took leave of display, and in three years the people of the state praised him.

Nanbo Ziqi sat leaning on his armrest, and looked up to heaven and breathed out. Yan Chengzi came in and saw him and said, "Master, you are the finest of things. Can the body truly be made like dry bones, and the mind truly be made like dead ashes?"

He said, "I once lived in a cave in the hills. At that time Tian He looked at me once, and the people of Qi congratulated him three times.

I must have shown it first, and so he knew it. I must have sold it, and so he bought it. If I had not held it, how could he have known it? If I had not sold it, how could he have bought it?

Ah. I grieve that men lose themselves. I grieve too for the one who grieves for others. I grieve too for the one who grieves for the one who grieves for others. And after that I went further away day by day."

Zhongni went to Chu, and the king of Chu gave him wine. Sun Shu'ao stood holding the cup, and Yiliao of Shinan took the wine and poured it out in offering and said, "Man of old. Speak here."

He said, "Qiu has heard the speech that does not speak, and has never yet spoken it. Let me speak it here.

Yiliao of Shinan rolled his balls, and the trouble between the two houses was undone. Sun Shu'ao slept soundly with his feather fan in hand, and the men of Ying laid down their arms. Qiu wishes to have a beak three feet long."

What that one spoke of is the Way that is no way, and what this one spoke of is the discerning that does not speak. So virtue gathers where the Way is one, and speech rests where knowing does not know. That is the utmost.

What the Way makes one, virtue cannot make the same. What knowing cannot know, argument cannot raise. To have a name like the Confucians or the Mohists is ill fortune.

So the sea does not refuse the waters that flow east, and that is the height of greatness. The sage wraps heaven and earth together, and his bounty reaches the whole world, and no one knows who he is.

For this reason he has no rank while he lives and no name given after he dies. He gathers no substance and sets up no name. Such a one is called a great man.

A dog is not held good because it barks well, and a man is not held worthy because he speaks well. How much less is one great for saying so. What is made great is not enough to be great, and how much less what is made virtue.

For great completeness there is nothing like heaven and earth. Yet what do they seek, that they are completely provided? One who knows great completeness seeks nothing, loses nothing, throws nothing away, and does not change himself for things. He turns back to himself and is not used up. He follows the old and is not worn away. This is the sincerity of the great man.

Ziqi had eight sons. He set them out before him and called Jiufang Yin and said, "Read my sons' faces for me. Which of them is blessed?"

Jiufang Yin said, "Kun is the blessed one."

Ziqi was startled and glad and said, "How so?" He said, "Kun will eat with the ruler of a state to the end of his days."

Ziqi let his tears fall and said, "How has my son come to this extreme?"

Jiufang Yin said, "To eat with the ruler of a state is a bounty that reaches the three branches of a house, and how much more the parents. Now you hear it and weep. This is to shut out good fortune. The son is blessed, but the father is not."

Ziqi said, "Yin, how are you able to know this? Kun's blessing goes no further than wine and meat entering his nose and mouth. How can you know where it comes from?

I have never herded, and a ewe lamb was born in the corner of my room. I have never cared for hunting, and a quail was born at the south of my room. You do not find this strange. How is that?

What I roam in with my son is heaven and earth. With him I meet joy in heaven, and with him I meet food in the earth. With him I make no business, I make no plans, I make nothing strange. With him I ride the sincerity of heaven and earth and let nothing meddle with us. With him I go the winding way as one, and do not do what business holds fitting.

And now there is a payment from the common world. Whoever has a strange sign must have a strange deed, and it is dangerous. It is not my son's fault or mine. It is almost what heaven has given. That is why I weep."

Not long after, Kun was sent to Yan, and robbers took him on the road. To sell him whole would be hard, and it would be easier to cut off his foot. So they cut off his foot and sold him in Qi, and he came to be in Lord Qu's street, and he ate meat to the end of his days.

Nieque met Xu You and said, "Where are you going?"

He said, "I am running away from Yao."

He said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Yao labors hard at being kind, and I fear he will be the laughter of the world. In later ages men will eat one another.

The people are not hard to gather. Love them and they draw close. Benefit them and they come. Praise them and they work hard. Bring them what they hate and they scatter.

Love and benefit come out of kindness and right conduct. Those who cast off kindness and right conduct are few, and those who find kindness and right conduct useful are many.

The practice of kindness and right conduct has no sincerity in it, and it lends its vessel to those who are greedy as beasts. So to benefit the world by one man's judgment is like taking a single glance.

Yao knows only that the worthy benefit the world, and does not know that they rob the world. Only one who puts the worthy outside himself knows this."

There are the nuanshu. There are the ruxu. There are the juanlou.

What is called the nuanshu is this. When he learns the words of one teacher he is warm and pleased with himself and glad in private, and he thinks himself enough, and he does not yet know that there has never been a thing at all. That is why he is called the nuanshu.

The ruxu is the louse on the pig. It picks out the thin bristles and holds them a wide palace and a great park, and it holds the crotch and the bent corners, the space between the teats and between the legs, a safe room and a good place.

It does not know that one morning the butcher will bare his arm, spread the straw and handle smoke and fire, and that it will burn along with the pig. It goes forward by its place and back by its place. This is what is called the ruxu.

The juanlou is Shun.

Mutton does not long for ants. Ants long for mutton, because mutton smells rank. Shun had rank smelling conduct, and the people were pleased with him. So he moved three times and made a capital, and when he came to the waste of Deng there were a hundred thousand households.

Yao heard of Shun's worth and raised him up in a barren land, saying that he hoped for the bounty of his coming. When Shun was raised up in that barren land his years were many and his ears and eyes were failing, and still he could not rest and go home. That is what is called the juanlou.

For this reason the spirit man hates a crowd coming to him. When a crowd comes they are not of one accord, and when they are not of one accord there is no benefit.

So he is not very close to anyone and not very distant from anyone. He holds virtue and warms harmony, and so goes along with the world. Such a one is called a true man.

From the ant he throws away knowing. From the fish he gets his plan. From the sheep he throws away purpose.

He sees the eye with the eye, hears the ear with the ear, and turns the mind back with the mind. Such a one is level as the inked line, and his changing is a following.

The true men of old met men with heaven, and did not bring men into heaven. The true men of old lived when they got it and died when they lost it, and died when they got it and lived when they lost it.

Among the fruits that are medicine there are monkshood, balloon flower, chicken head and zhuling. Each in its season becomes ruler. How can they all be told?

Goujian took shelter on Kuaiji with three thousand men in armor and shields. Only Wen Zhong knew how what was ruined could be made to survive, and only Wen Zhong did not know how his own body would come to grief.

So it is said, the owl's eye has what suits it and the crane's leg has its measure. To undo them is a grief.

So it is said, when the wind passes over the river something is taken away, and when the sun passes over the river something is taken away. Yet though the wind and the sun together keep watch over the river, the river holds that it has never been meddled with, for it goes on trusting its source.

So water keeps sure watch over earth, a shadow keeps sure watch over a man, and a thing keeps sure watch over a thing.

So the eye is in danger in its brightness, the ear is in danger in its sharpness, and the mind is in danger in its chasing. Every power is in danger in its storehouse. When the danger is made there is no time left to mend it.

When trouble grows it gathers the more. Its coming back follows on success, and its fruit waits a long while. Yet men take this for their own treasure. Is that not sad?

So states are lost and people are killed without end, and men do not know to ask about this.

So the foot treads upon the earth. Though it treads, it is by trusting the ground it does not tread that a man walks far. A man's knowing is small. Though it is small, it is by trusting what he does not know that he knows what heaven means.

To know the great one, to know the great shade, to know the great eye, to know the great evenness, to know the great squareness, to know the great trust, to know the great stillness. That is the utmost.

The great one makes things go through. The great shade undoes them. The great eye looks at them. The great evenness follows them. The great squareness gives them a body. The great trust examines them. The great stillness holds them.

In the ending there is heaven. In the following there is a light. In the darkness there is a pivot. In the beginning there is that.

Then his undoing is like not undoing, and his knowing is like not knowing. He knows only after not knowing.

His asking must not have a cliff, and must not be without a cliff. In the slipperiness there is something real, and the old and the now do not take each other's place, and it cannot be worn away. May we not say that there is a great raising and weighing here?

Why not ask about this? Why be confused? Undo confusion with what is not confused and go back to what is not confused, and this is still the great not being confused.