Zhuangliu — Why the Worthy Rise Slowly狀留篇
論賢儒之才，既超程矣，世人怪其仕宦不進，官爵卑細，以賢才退在俗吏之後，信（不）〔可〕怪也。夫如是而適足以見賢不肖之分，睹高下多少之實也。龜生三百歲，大如錢，游於蓮葉之上；三千歲青邊緣，巨尺二寸。蓍生七十歲生一莖，七百歲生十莖。
The talent of the worthy Confucian has been argued and already passes measure; and the men of the world find it strange that his office does not advance and his rank is low and slight, and that with worthy talent he stands back behind the vulgar clerks. It may indeed be called strange. Yet even so it is enough to see the division between the worthy and the unworthy, and to behold the reality of high and low, of more and less. The tortoise lives three hundred years and is the size of a coin, and roams on the lotus leaves; at three thousand years its rim is green and it is a foot and two inches across. The milfoil at seventy years puts forth one stalk, and at seven hundred years ten stalks.
神靈之物也，故生遲留；歷歲長久，故能明審。實賢儒之在世也，猶靈蓍、神龜也。計學問之日，固已盡年之半矣。銳意於道，遂無貪仕之心。及其仕也，純特方正，無員銳之操。故世人遲取進難也。針錐所穿，無不暢達。使針錐末方，穿物無一分之深矣。賢儒方節而行，無針錐之銳，固安能自穿、取暢達之功乎？且驥一日行千里者，無所服也；使服任車，（輿）〔與〕駑馬同。（音）〔昔〕驥曾以引鹽車矣，垂頭落汗，行不能進。伯樂顧之，王良御之，空身輕馳，故有千里之名。今賢儒懷古今之學，負荷禮義之重，內累於胸中之知，外劬於禮義之操，不敢妄進苟取，故有稽留之難。無伯樂之友，不遭王良之將，安得馳於清明之朝、立千里之跡乎？
They are spiritual things, and so their growing lingers and is slow; they pass through long years, and so they can be clear and exact. Truly the worthy Confucian in the world is like the spirit milfoil and the divine tortoise. Reckon the days of his study, and half his years are already spent. He sets his intent sharp upon the way, and so he has no heart to covet office. And when he does hold office he is pure and singular, square and upright, and has nothing of the round and the sharp in his conduct. Therefore men of the world are slow to take him up and his advance is hard. What needle and awl pierce, there is nothing they do not go through. Make the point of needle and awl square, and they will not pierce a thing to the depth of one tenth of an inch. The worthy Confucian walks by a squared integrity and has nothing of the sharpness of needle and awl; how then should he be able to pierce for himself and take the merit of getting through? Again, the courser Ji goes a thousand li in a day because nothing is harnessed to it; harness it to a loaded cart and it is the same as a worn-out nag. Long ago the courser once drew a salt cart, its head hanging down and its sweat falling, and for all its going it could not advance. Bo Le looked back at it and Wang Liang drove it, and with its body empty it ran light, and so it had the name of a thousand li. Now the worthy Confucian holds in him the learning of the ancient and the present and bears the weight of rite and right; within he is bound by the knowing in his breast, and without he is worn by the conduct of rite and right, and he does not dare advance recklessly or take by shift, and so he has the hardship of being held back. Without a friend like Bo Le, and not meeting a chief like Wang Liang, how should he run in a clear and bright court and lay down the tracks of a thousand li?
且夫含血氣之生也，行則背在上而腹在下；其病若死，則背在下而腹在上。何則？
Again, of living things that hold blood and breath: when they walk, the back is above and the belly below; when they sicken or die, the back is below and the belly above. Why is this?
背肉厚而重，腹肉薄而輕也。賢儒、俗吏，并在當世，有似於此。將明道行，則俗吏載賢儒，賢儒乘俗吏。將暗道廢，則俗吏乘賢儒，賢儒處下位，猶物遇害，腹在上而背在下也。且背法天而腹法地，生行得其正，故腹背得其位；病死失其宜，故腹反而在背上。
It is because the flesh of the back is thick and heavy and the flesh of the belly is thin and light. The worthy Confucian and the vulgar clerk standing together in the present age have something like this about them. When the chief is clear-sighted and the way is carried out, the vulgar clerk carries the worthy Confucian and the worthy Confucian rides the vulgar clerk. When the chief is in the dark and the way is cast aside, the vulgar clerk rides the worthy Confucian, and the worthy Confucian sits in the lower place, as when a thing meets with harm and its belly is above and its back below. Again, the back takes its pattern from heaven and the belly from earth; living and walking, a creature gets what is upright, and so belly and back are each in their place; sickening and dying, it loses what is fitting, and so the belly is turned over and lies upon the back.
非唯腹也，凡物仆僵者，足又在上。賢儒不遇，仆廢於世，踝足之吏，皆在其上。東方朔曰：「目不在面而在於足，救昧不給，能何見乎？」
It is not only the belly. Whenever a thing falls over and is laid flat, the feet too are above. When the worthy Confucian does not meet his time and is cast down and set aside in the world, clerks who are like heels and feet are all above him. Dongfang Shuo said, "The eye is not in the face but in the foot; it cannot even help against the dark, so what can it see?"
汲黯謂武帝曰：「陛下用吏如積薪矣，後來者居上。」
Ji An said to Emperor Wu, "Your Majesty uses clerks as one piles firewood: the ones that come later lie on top."
原汲黯之言，察東方朔之語，獨〔非〕以（非）俗吏之得地、賢儒之失職哉！故夫仕宦失地，難以觀德；得地，難以察不肖。名生於高官而毀起於卑位，卑位固賞賢儒之所在也。遵禮蹈繩，修身守節，在下不汲汲，故有沉滯之留。沉滯在能自濟，故有不拔之扼。其積學於身也多，故用心也固。俗吏無以自修，身雖拔進，利心搖動，則有下道侵漁之操矣。
Trace the words of Ji An and examine the saying of Dongfang Shuo: is it not simply because the vulgar clerk gets his ground and the worthy Confucian loses his office! Therefore when a man in office loses his ground, it is hard to see his virtue; and when he gets his ground, it is hard to make out that he is unworthy. A name grows from high office and slander rises from a low place, and the low place is indeed where the worthy Confucian is found. He follows the rites and treads the marking line, cultivates his person and keeps his integrity, and in the lower place he is not eager and anxious; and so there is the lingering of one sunk and blocked. Being sunk and blocked lies in his being able to carry himself across, and so there is the grip of one who cannot be pulled up. He has heaped up much learning in himself, and so the use of his heart is firm. The vulgar clerk has nothing to cultivate himself with, and though his person is pulled up and advanced, once the heart set on profit is stirred he will have the conduct of one who lowers the way and grabs like a fisherman.
楓桐之樹，生而速長，故其皮肌不能堅剛。
The maple and the paulownia grow and shoot up fast, and so their bark and their flesh cannot be hard and firm.
樹檀以五月生葉，後彼春榮之木，其材強勁，車以為軸。殷之桑谷，七日大拱，長速大暴，故為變怪。大器晚成，寶貨難售（者）。不崇一朝，輒成賈者，菜果之物也。是故湍瀨之流，沙石轉而大石不移。何者？大石重而沙石輕也。沙石轉積於大石之上，大石沒而不見。賢儒俗吏，并在世俗，有似於此。遇暗長吏，轉移俗吏超在賢儒之上，賢儒處下，受馳走之使，至或岩居穴處，沒身不見。咎在長吏不能知賢，而賢者道大，力劣不能拔舉之故也。
The sandalwood puts out its leaves in the fifth month, later than those trees that flower in spring, but its timber is strong and stiff, and carts take it for their axles. The mulberry and the grain of Yin grew in seven days to a great span; their growth was fast and their greatness sudden, and so they were counted a portent. A great vessel is late in the finishing, and precious goods are hard to sell. What does not take even one morning and straightway fetches its price is a thing of the greens-and-fruit sort. For this reason, in the rush of a rapid the sand and the small stones roll, while the great stone does not move. Why? The great stone is heavy and the sand and small stones are light. When the sand and the stones roll and heap upon the great stone, the great stone is buried and not seen. The worthy Confucian and the vulgar clerk standing together in the common world have something like this about them. Meeting a senior officer who is in the dark, the vulgar clerk is shifted and leaps above the worthy Confucian; and the worthy Confucian sits below and takes the errands of running about, and at the worst he dwells among the crags and lodges in a cave, and his person is buried and not seen. The fault lies in this, that the senior officer cannot know a worthy man, and that the worthy man's way is great, so that a feeble strength cannot pull him up and raise him.
夫手指之物器也，度力不能舉，則不敢動。賢儒之道，非徒物器之重也。是故金鐵在地，（焱）〔〕風不能動，毛芥在其間飛揚千里。夫賢儒所懷，其猶水中大石、在地金鐵也。其進不若俗吏速者，長吏力劣，不能用也。毛芥在鐵石間也，一口之氣，能吹毛芥，非必（焱）〔〕風。俗吏之易遷，猶毛芥之易吹也。故夫轉沙石者，湍瀨也；飛毛芥者，（焱）〔〕風也。活水，〔沙石不轉〕；洋風，毛芥不動。無道理之將，用心暴猥，察吏不詳，遭以好遷，妄授官爵，猛水之轉沙石，（焱）〔〕風之飛毛芥也。是故毛芥因異風而飛，沙石遭猛流而轉，俗吏遇悖將而遷。
Now when the finger handles a thing or a vessel and reckons that its strength cannot lift it, it does not dare to move it. The way of the worthy Confucian is not merely the weight of a thing or a vessel. For this reason gold and iron lying on the ground cannot be moved by a whirlwind, while hair and mustard seed fly a thousand li in that same wind. What the worthy Confucian holds in him is like the great stone in the water, like the gold and iron on the ground. That his advance is not so quick as the vulgar clerk's is because the senior officer's strength is feeble and he cannot use him. When hair and mustard seed lie among iron and stone, the breath of one mouth can blow the hair and the mustard seed; it does not have to be a whirlwind. That the vulgar clerk is easily moved up is like hair and mustard seed being easily blown. So then what rolls sand and stones is the rapid, and what flies hair and mustard seed is the whirlwind. In still water the sand and stones do not roll; in a broad wind hair and mustard seed do not stir. A chief without pattern or reason uses his heart violently and at random and examines his clerks without care, and meeting with a liking for shifting men about he confers rank and office recklessly; this is the fierce water rolling the sand and the stones, the whirlwind flying the hair and the mustard seed. For this reason hair and mustard seed fly because of a strange wind, sand and stones roll because they meet a fierce current, and the vulgar clerk is moved up because he meets a perverse chief.
且圓物投之於地，東西南北，無之不可；策杖叩動，才微輒停。方物集地，壹投而止；及其移徒，須人動舉。賢儒，世之方物也，其難轉移者，其動須人也。鳥輕便於人，趨遠，人不如鳥，然而天地之性，人為貴。蝗蟲之飛，能至萬里；麒麟須獻，乃達闕下。然而蝗蟲為災，麒麟為瑞。麟有四足，尚不能自致，人有兩足，安能自達？故曰：燕飛輕於鳳皇，兔走疾於麒麟，躍躁於靈龜，蛇騰便於神龍。呂望之徒，白首乃顯；百里奚之知，明於黃髪：深為國謀，因為王輔，皆夫沉重難進之人也。輕躁早成，禍害暴疾。故曰：其進銳者退速。陽溫陰寒，歷月乃至；災變之氣，一朝成怪。故夫河冰結合，非一日之寒；積土成山，非斯須之作。干將之劍，久在爐炭，鋒利刃，百熟煉歷。久銷乃見作留，成遲故能割斷。肉暴長者曰腫，泉暴出者曰涌，酒暴熟者易酸，醢暴酸者易臭。由此言之，賢儒遲留，皆有狀故。狀故云何？學多、道重為身累也。
Again, throw a round thing to the ground, and east or west, south or north, there is nowhere it cannot go; strike it with a staff or a stick to move it, and with only a little skill it stops at once. A square thing set on the ground stops with one throw, and when it comes to shifting it, it waits for a man to move it and lift it. The worthy Confucian is the square thing of the world, and what makes him hard to shift is that his moving waits upon others. Birds are lighter and readier than men, and in hastening far men are not the equal of birds; yet in the nature of heaven and earth man is the honored one. The flight of the locust can reach ten thousand li; the qilin must be offered up as tribute before it comes beneath the palace gate. Yet the locust is a disaster and the qilin an auspice. The qilin has four feet and still cannot bring itself there; man has two feet, so how should he get through by himself? Therefore it is said: the swallow flies lighter than the phoenix, the hare runs faster than the qilin, the toad leaps more restlessly than the divine tortoise, and the snake climbs more readily than the holy dragon. The company of Lü Wang were made known only when their heads were white; the knowledge of Baili Xi grew clear when his hair was yellow. Those who planned deeply for the state and by this became aids to a king were all men heavy and sunk and hard to advance. Those who are light and restless and come early to their finish meet harm and calamity suddenly and fast. Therefore it is said: he whose advance is sharp withdraws quickly. The warmth of yang and the cold of yin come only after months have passed; the breath of disaster and strange change makes a portent in a single morning. So the freezing over of the He is not the cold of one day, and heaping earth to make a mountain is not the work of a moment. The sword of Ganjiang lay long in furnace and charcoal, and its keen point and sharp edge passed a hundred temperings. Only what is long melted shows the lingering of its making, and because its finishing is slow it can cut and sever. Flesh that grows suddenly is called a swelling; a spring that comes out suddenly is called a gush; wine that ripens suddenly turns sour easily, and pickled meat that sours suddenly stinks easily. Speaking from this, the worthy Confucian's slow lingering all has its shape and its cause. And what is that shape and cause? His learning is much and his way is heavy, and they are a burden upon his person.
草木之生者濕，濕者重，死者枯。枯而輕者易舉，濕而重者難移也。
Grasses and trees that are alive are moist, and what is moist is heavy; what is dead is withered. What is withered and light is easy to lift, and what is moist and heavy is hard to shift.
然元氣所在，在生不在枯。是故車行於陸，船行於溝，其滿而重者行遲，空而輕者行疾。先王之道，載在胸腹之內，其重不徒船車之任也。任重，其取進疾速，難矣！竊人之物，其得非不速疾也，然而非其有，得之非己之力也。世人早得高官，非不有光榮也，而尸祿素餐之謗，喧嘩甚矣。且賢儒之不進，將相長吏不開通也。農夫載谷奔都，賈人貨赴遠，皆欲得其願也。如門郭閉而不通，津梁絕而不過，雖有勉力趨時之勢，奚由早至以得盈利哉？長吏妒賢，不能容善，不被鉗赭之刑，幸矣！焉敢望官位升舉，道理之早成也？
Yet where the primal breath is, it is in the living and not in the withered. For this reason, as carts go on land and boats go on the channels, those that are full and heavy go slowly, and those that are empty and light go fast. The way of the former kings is carried within the breast and the belly, and its weight is not merely the load of a boat or a cart. When the load is heavy, to seek a swift advance is hard indeed! In stealing another man's goods the getting is not slow, and yet it is not his own, and the getting was not by his own strength. That men of the world get high office early is not without its glory and honor, but the slander of drawing pay as a corpse and eating bread for nothing is loud and clamorous. Again, that the worthy Confucian does not advance is because chiefs and ministers and senior officers do not open a way through. The farmer loads his grain and hurries to the capital, the merchant takes his goods and goes to distant parts, and all wish to get what they hope for. But if the gates and the walls are shut and there is no going through, and the fords and the bridges are cut and there is no crossing, then though they have the force of striving and following the season, by what should they arrive early and take a full profit? The senior officer is jealous of the worthy and cannot make room for the good. To escape the punishment of the collar and the red coat is luck enough! How should one dare hope that rank and office will rise and that the way and its pattern will come early to their finish?