Words Lodged Elsewhere莊子 雜篇 寓言

Lodged words are nine in ten. Weighty words are seven in ten. Goblet words come forth day by day and blend with the evenness of Heaven.

Lodged words are nine in ten: they borrow something outside to speak of the matter.

A father does not act as matchmaker for his own son. When a father praises his son, it is not so good as praise from one who is not his father. This is not my fault. It is the fault of people.

What agrees with them they answer; what does not agree with them they turn away from. What is the same as themselves they call right; what differs from themselves they call wrong.

Weighty words are seven in ten: they are words already spoken, and they are the words of the aged.

A man may be ahead in years, yet if he has no warp and weft, no root and branch, and takes the place of an elder by his years alone, he is not ahead. A man with nothing in which he goes before others has not the way of a man. A man without the way of a man is called a stale man.

Goblet words come forth day by day and blend with the evenness of Heaven. Thereby they spread on and on, and so run out their years.

Without words there is evenness. Evenness is not even with words, and words are not even with evenness. Therefore it is said that there are no words.

Speak words that are no words, and you may speak your whole life and never have spoken; you may keep silent your whole life and never have failed to speak.

There is that from which a thing is allowable, and that from which it is not allowable. There is that from which a thing is so, and that from which it is not so. How is a thing so? It is so in what is so. How is a thing not so? It is not so in what is not so. How is a thing allowable? It is allowable in what is allowable. How is a thing not allowable? It is not allowable in what is not allowable.

Things have from the first that in which they are so. Things have from the first that in which they are allowable. There is no thing that is not so. There is no thing that is not allowable.

If goblet words did not come forth day by day and blend with the evenness of Heaven, who could hold out for long?

The ten thousand things are all seeds. In unlike shapes they hand on one to another. Beginning and end are like a ring, and no one can find their order. This is called the leveling of Heaven. The leveling of Heaven is the evenness of Heaven.

Zhuangzi said to Huizi, "Confucius lived sixty years and changed sixty times. What he held to be right at the start he came in the end to call wrong. He does not know whether what he now calls right is not the wrong of the other fifty-nine years."

Huizi said, "Confucius was a man diligent in will who put knowledge to work."

Zhuangzi said, "Confucius put that aside, and he never once spoke of it.

Confucius said, 'A man receives his powers from the great root and comes back to the spirit to live.'

To sing and hit the pitch, to speak and hit the law, to lay profit and duty out in front and to weigh likes and dislikes and rights and wrongs — this only holds down the mouths of others.

To make people follow him in their hearts so that they dare not stand against him, and to settle the settling of the world — enough of it, enough of it. I shall never come up to him."

Zengzi served in office twice, and his heart changed twice. He said, "When I served while my parents were alive, three fu of grain made my heart glad. When I served later, I received three thousand zhong, but it did not reach my parents, and my heart was sad."

A disciple asked Zhongni, "Can one like Zeng Shen be said to be bound by no fault?"

He said, "He is bound already. Can one who is bound by nothing have sorrow? Such a man would look on three fu and three thousand zhong as he looks on sparrows and mosquitoes and gadflies passing before him."

Yancheng Ziyou said to Dongguo Ziqi, "Since I heard your words, in the first year I became like the open fields, in the second year I followed, in the third year I went through, in the fourth year I was a thing, in the fifth year I came, in the sixth year the spirits entered, in the seventh year Heaven was complete, in the eighth year I knew neither death nor life, and in the ninth year came the great mystery.

Life with doing in it is death. Fairness is urged because death has something it comes from, while life is bright because it has nothing it comes from. Yet is this truly so?

Where is what fits, and where is what does not fit? Heaven has the reckoning of the calendar, and earth has places for people to stand on. Where am I to seek it?

No one knows where it ends, so how can it be said that there is no fate? No one knows where it begins, so how can it be said that there is fate? There is a responding of one to another, so how can it be said that there are no spirits? There is no responding of one to another, so how can it be said that there are spirits?"

The penumbras asked the shadow, "A while ago you bent down and now you look up. A while ago your hair was bound and now it hangs loose. A while ago you sat and now you rise. A while ago you walked and now you stop. Why is this?"

The shadow said, "It is simply so. Why ask such small questions? I am this way and do not know the reason for it.

I am the cicada's shell, the snake's cast skin. I am like them, and yet I am not they. In fire and sunlight I gather; in shade and night I give way.

Is that what I depend on? How much less for one who has nothing to depend on! When it comes, I come with it. When it goes, I go with it. When it moves in strength, I move in strength with it. What is there to ask about one that moves in strength?"

Yangzi Ju went south to Pei, and Lao Dan traveled west into Qin. They arranged to meet in the open country, and Yangzi Ju came to Liang and met Laozi there. In the middle of the road Laozi looked up to Heaven and sighed, "At first I thought you could be taught. Now you cannot."

Yangzi Ju did not answer. When they reached the inn he brought a basin, water for rinsing the mouth, a towel and a comb. He left his shoes outside the door, went forward on his knees, and said, "A while ago your disciple wished to ask you, master, but you were on the road and had no leisure, and so I did not dare. Now there is leisure. I beg to ask my fault."

Laozi said, "You glare and stare, so who would live with you? Great whiteness looks stained. Full virtue looks wanting."

Yangzi Ju changed his face in awe and said, "I respectfully receive your command."

When he went there, the people of the inn welcomed him and saw him off. The master of the house set out his mat, and the wife held the towel and comb. Those staying at the inn gave up their seats, and the man warming himself gave up the stove. When he came back, the people of the inn fought with him for a seat.