Tianrui — Heaven's Gifts天瑞篇
子列子居鄭圃，四十年人無識者。國君卿大夫眎之，猶衆庶也。國不足，將嫁於衛。弟子曰：「先生往無反期，弟子敢有所謁，先生將何以教？先生不聞壺丘子林之言乎？」子列子笑曰：「壺子何言哉？雖然，夫子嘗語伯昏瞀人。吾側聞之，試以告女。其言曰：有生不生，有化不化。不生者能生生，不化者能化化。生者不能不生，化者不能不化。故常生常化。常生常化者，無時不生，無時不化。陰陽爾，四時爾，不生者疑獨，不化者往復。往復，其際不可終；疑獨，其道不可窮。《黃帝書》曰：『谷神不死，是謂玄牝。玄牝之門，是謂天地之根。綿綿若存，用之不勤。』故生物者不生，化物者不化。自生自化，自形自色，自智自力，自消自息。謂之生化形色智力消息者，非也。」
Zi Liezi (子列子) lived in the fields of the state of Zheng (鄭), and for forty years no one there knew him. The lord of the state and the high ministers looked at him and took him for one of the crowd. When the harvest failed, he made ready to move to Wey (衛).
A disciple said, "If the master goes, there is no set time for his return, and so his disciple makes bold to ask. With what will the master teach hereafter? Has the master not heard the words of Huqiu Zilin (壺丘子林)?"
Zi Liezi laughed and said,
"What would Master Huzi (壺子) have said? Still, my teacher once spoke to Bohun Maoren (伯昏瞀人), and I heard it from where I stood beside them, and I will try to tell it to you. His words were these.
'There is a birth that is not born, and there is a change that does not change. Only what is not born can give birth to the born. Only what does not change can make change change. What is born cannot help being born, and what changes cannot help changing. So there is birth always and change always. What is born always and changes always is at no moment not being born and at no moment not changing.
Yin and yang are so, and the four seasons are so. What is not born seems to stand alone, and what does not change goes and returns. Its going and returning has a limit that cannot be reached, and its standing alone has a way that cannot be exhausted.
The Huangdi shu (黃帝書) says, "The spirit of the valley does not die, and it is called the dark female. The gate of the dark female is called the root of heaven and earth. It goes on and on as though it were there, and use does not wear it out."
So what gives birth to things is not born, and what changes things does not change. Things are born of themselves and change of themselves, take their shape of themselves and their color of themselves, are wise of themselves and strong of themselves, wane of themselves and grow of themselves. To say that they are born and changed and shaped and colored and made wise and made strong and made to wane and made to grow is wrong.'"
子列子曰：「昔者聖人因陰陽以統天地。夫有形者生於無形，則天地安從生？故曰：有太易，有太初，有太始，有太素。太易者，未見氣也；太初者，氣之始也；太始者，形之始也；太素者，質之始也。氣形質具而未相離，故曰渾淪。渾淪者，言萬物相渾淪而未相離也。視之不見，聽之不聞，循之不得，故曰易也。易無形埒，易變而爲一，一變而爲七，七變而爲九。九變者，究也，乃復變而爲一。一者，形變之始也。清輕者上爲天，濁重者下爲地，沖和氣者爲人；故天地含精，萬物化生。」
Zi Liezi said,
"In old days the sage took yin and yang and by them ruled heaven and earth. Now what has shape is born from what has no shape. Then from what were heaven and earth born?
So it is said that there is Taiyi (太易), and there is Taichu (太初), and there is Taishi (太始), and there is Taisu (太素). Taiyi is when the breath has not yet appeared. Taichu is the beginning of the breath. Taishi is the beginning of shape. Taisu is the beginning of substance.
Breath and shape and substance were complete but not yet parted from one another, and so it is called hunlun (渾淪). Hunlun means that the ten thousand things are mingled together and not yet parted. Look at it and it is not seen, listen and it is not heard, feel for it and it is not caught, and so it is called yi (易).
Yi has no bound of shape. Yi changes and becomes one, and one changes and becomes seven, and seven changes and becomes nine. What has changed into nine has gone as far as it can, and then it changes again and becomes one. One is the beginning of the changing of shape.
What is clear and light rises and becomes heaven. What is muddy and heavy sinks and becomes earth. The breath that blends the two becomes man. And so heaven and earth hold the seed within them, and the ten thousand things change and are born."
子列子曰：「天地無全功，聖人無全能，萬物無全用。故天職生覆，地職形載，聖職教化，物職所宜。然則天有所短，地有所長，聖有所否，物有所通。何則？生覆者不能形載，形載者不能教化，教化者不能違所宜，宜定者不出所位。故天地之道，非陰則陽；聖人之教，非仁則義；萬物之宜，非柔則剛：此皆隨所宜而不能出所位者也。故有生者，有生生者；有形者，有形形者；有聲者，有聲聲者；有色者，有色色者；有味者，有味味者。生之所生者死矣，而生生者未嘗終；形之所形者實矣，而形形者未嘗有；聲之所聲者聞矣，而聲聲者未嘗發；色之所色者彰矣，而色色者未嘗顯；味之所味者嘗矣，而味味者未嘗呈：皆無爲之職也。能陰能陽，能柔能剛，能短能長，能員能方，能生能死，能暑能涼，能浮能沈，能宮能商，能出能沒，能玄能黃，能甘能苦，能羶能香。無知也，無能也，而無不知也，而無不能也。」
Zi Liezi said,
"Heaven and earth have no whole merit, the sage has no whole power, the ten thousand things have no whole use. So heaven holds the office of giving birth and covering, earth holds the office of shaping and bearing, the sage holds the office of teaching and changing men, and things hold the office of what is fitting for them.
That being so, heaven has where it falls short and earth has where it excels, the sage has what he cannot do and things have what they get through. Why is it so? What gives birth and covers cannot shape and bear. What shapes and bears cannot teach. What teaches cannot go against what is fitting. What has its fitness fixed cannot leave its place.
So in the way of heaven and earth, if it is not yin it is yang; in the teaching of the sage, if it is not benevolence it is rightness; in the fitness of the ten thousand things, if it is not soft it is hard. All of these follow what is fitting for them and cannot leave their place.
So where there is the born there is what gives birth, where there is shape there is what shapes, where there is sound there is what sounds, where there is color there is what colors, where there is taste there is what gives taste.
What is born and has come to birth dies, but what gives birth has never come to an end. What is shaped and has taken shape is solid, but what shapes has never had being. What is sounded and has become sound is heard, but what sounds has never rung. What is colored and has become color is plain to see, but what colors has never appeared. What is tasted and has become taste is tasted, but what gives taste has never shown itself. All this is the office of doing nothing.
It can be yin and it can be yang, it can be soft and it can be hard, it can be short and it can be long, it can be round and it can be square, it can live and it can die, it can be hot and it can be cool, it can float and it can sink, it can be the note gong (宮) and it can be the note shang (商), it can come out and it can go under, it can be black and it can be yellow, it can be sweet and it can be bitter, it can smell rank and it can smell sweet. It knows nothing and can do nothing, and yet there is nothing it does not know and nothing it cannot do."
子列子適衛，食於道，從者見百歲髑髏，攓蓬而指，顧謂弟子百豐曰：「唯予與彼知而未嘗生未嘗死也。此過養乎？此過歡乎？種有幾：若䵷爲鶉，得水爲㡭，得水土之際，則爲䵷蠙之衣。生於陵屯，則爲陵舄。陵舄得鬱栖，則爲烏足。烏足之根爲蠐螬，其葉爲胡蝶。胡蝶胥也，化而爲蟲，生竈下，其狀若脫，其名曰𪀊掇。𪀊掇千日，化而爲鳥，其名曰乾餘骨。乾餘骨之沫爲斯彌。斯彌爲食醯頤輅。食醯頤輅生乎食醯黃軦，食醯黃軦生乎九猷。九猷生乎瞀芮，瞀芮生乎腐蠸。羊肝化爲地皋，馬血之爲轉鄰也，人血之爲野火也。鷂之爲鸇，鸇之爲布穀，布穀久復爲鷂也，鷰之爲蛤也，田鼠之爲鶉也，朽瓜之爲魚也，老韭之爲莧也，老羭之爲猨也，魚卵之爲蟲。亶爰之獸自孕而生曰類。河澤之鳥視而生曰鶂。純雌其名大𦝫，純雄其名稺蜂。思士不妻而感，思女不夫而孕。后稷生乎巨蹟，伊尹生乎空桑。厥昭生乎濕。醯雞生乎酒。羊奚比乎不筍。久竹生青寧，青寧生程，程生馬，馬生人。人久入於機。萬物皆出於機，皆入於機。」
Zi Liezi was on his way to Wey and ate by the road, and one of those who followed him saw a skull a hundred years old. He pulled up a stalk of mugwort and pointed at it, and turning to the disciple Baifeng he said,
"Only I and that thing know that there has never been a birth and never been a death. Is that truly a thing to grieve over? Is this truly a thing to rejoice over?
Seeds have a germ in them. The frog becomes a quail. Getting water it becomes waterweed. Getting the place where water and earth meet, it becomes the coat of the duckweed. Growing on a mound, it becomes the plantain. The plantain, getting dung, becomes wuzu (烏足). The root of wuzu becomes a grub, and its leaf becomes a butterfly.
The butterfly in a little while changes and becomes an insect born under the stove, and its shape is as though it had shed a skin, and its name is quduo (𪀊掇). When quduo has passed a thousand days it changes and becomes a bird, and its name is ganyugu (乾餘骨). The spittle of ganyugu becomes simi (斯彌). Simi becomes the yilu (頤輅) of the vinegar. The yilu of the vinegar is born from the huangkuang (黃軦) of the vinegar, and the huangkuang of the vinegar is born from the jiuyou (九猷). The jiuyou is born from the maorui (瞀芮), and the maorui is born from the fuquan (腐蠸).
The liver of a sheep changes and becomes digao (地皋), and the blood of a horse becomes the goblin fire, and the blood of a man becomes the fire in the fields. The sparrowhawk becomes the hawk and the hawk becomes the cuckoo, and the cuckoo after long becomes the sparrowhawk again. The swallow becomes the clam, the mole becomes the quail, the rotted melon becomes the fish, the old leek becomes the amaranth, the old ewe becomes the ape, the roe of the fish becomes an insect.
The beast of Danyuan (亶爰) conceives of itself and bears young, and it is called lei (類). The bird of the rivers and the marshes bears young by looking, and it is called yi (鶂). What is female only is called dayao (大𦝫), and what is male only is called zhifeng (稺蜂).
A man who yearns is moved though he has no wife, and a woman who yearns conceives though she has no husband. Houji was born from a great footprint, and Yi Yin was born from a hollow mulberry. Jueshao (厥昭) is born in damp places, and the vinegar fly is born from wine. Yangxi (羊奚) pairs with the bamboo that puts out no shoots. From old bamboo qingning (靑寧) is born, and from qingning cheng (程) is born, and from cheng the horse is born, and from the horse man is born. Man after long enters into the germ. The ten thousand things all come out of the germ and all enter into the germ."
《黃帝書》曰：「形動不生形而生影，聲動不生聲而生響，無動不生無而生有。」形，必終者也；天地終乎？與我偕終。終進乎？不知也。道終乎本無始，進乎本不久。有生則復於不生，有形則復於無形。不生者，非本不生者也；無形者，非本無形者也。生者，理之必終者也。終者不得不終，亦如生者之不得不生。而欲恆其生，畫其終，惑於數也。精神者，天之分；骨骸者，地之分。屬天清而散，屬地濁而聚。精神離形，各歸其真，故謂之鬼。鬼，歸也，歸其真宅。黃帝曰：「精神入其門，骨骸反其根，我尚何存？」
The Huangdi shu says, "When shape moves it does not give birth to shape but to a shadow. When sound moves it does not give birth to sound but to an echo. When nothing moves it does not give birth to nothing but to something."
Shape is a thing that must come to an end. Do heaven and earth come to an end? They come to an end together with me. Is there an end to the ending? That is not known.
The way comes to an end where from the first there was no beginning, and is exhausted where from the first there was no lasting. Where there is birth it returns to no birth, and where there is shape it returns to no shape. What is not born was not from the first unborn, and what has no shape was not from the first shapeless.
What is born must by the nature of things come to an end. That what ends cannot but end is like this: what is born cannot but be born. And to wish a life to go on forever and to draw a line at its ending is to be deluded by counting.
The spirit is the portion of heaven, and the bones are the portion of earth. What belongs to heaven is clear and scatters, and what belongs to earth is muddy and gathers. The spirit leaves the shape, and each returns to what is truly its own, and so it is called gui (鬼). Gui is returning, a return to the true house.
Huangdi said, "When the spirit has entered its gate and the bones have gone back to their root, where am I to be found?"
Interlinear notes 1
進乎本不久
The received text has 進乎本不久. As in the phrase just above, “Is there an end to the ending?” (終進乎), 進 has been taken as an error for 盡 and read as “is exhausted.” — tr.
人自生至終，大化有四：嬰孩也，少壯也，老耄也，死亡也。其在嬰孩，氣專志一，和之至也；物不傷焉，德莫加焉。其在少壯，則血氣飄溢，欲慮充起；物所攻焉，德故衰焉。其在老耄，則欲慮柔焉；體將休焉，物莫先焉。雖未及嬰孩之全，方於少壯，間矣。其在死亡也，則之於息焉，反其極矣。
From a man's birth to his end there are four great changes: the infant, the young and strong, the old and failing, and death.
In the infant the breath is single and the will is one, and its harmony is at its height. Things do not harm it, and its virtue can be no greater.
In the young and strong the blood and the breath run over, and desire and care rise up and fill him. Things strike at him, and so his virtue wanes.
In the old and failing, desire and care grow soft. The body is about to rest, and nothing goes before it. He does not reach the wholeness of the infant, yet set beside the young and strong there is a distance between them.
In death he goes toward rest, and he returns to his farthest end.
孔子遊於太山，見榮啓期行乎郕之野，鹿裘帶索，鼓琴而歌。孔子問曰：「先生所以樂，何也？」對曰：「吾樂甚多：天生萬物，唯人爲貴。而吾得爲人，是一樂也。男女之別，男尊女卑，故以男爲貴；吾既得爲男矣，是二樂也。人生有不見日月、不免襁褓者，吾既己行年九十矣，是三樂也。貧者士之常也，死者人之終也，處常得終，當何憂哉？」孔子曰：「善乎！能自寬者也。」
Confucius was wandering on Mount Tai, and he saw Rong Qiqi (榮啓期) walking in the fields of Cheng (郕). He wore a deerskin coat with a rope for a belt, and he played the zither and sang.
Confucius asked, "What is it that gives the master such joy?"
He answered, "My joys are very many. Heaven gave birth to the ten thousand things, and of them man alone is honored. And I came to be a man, and this is my first joy. In the parting of man and woman, the man is held high and the woman low, and so the man is counted the honored one. I came to be a man, and this is my second joy. There are those who are born and never see the sun and the moon, and never come out of their swaddling clothes, and I have lived ninety years already, and this is my third joy. Poverty is the common lot of a scholar, and death is the end of a man. To keep to the common lot and to reach the end, what is there in that to grieve over?"
Confucius said, "Good. Here is a man who knows how to make himself easy."
林類年且百歲，底春被裘，拾遺穗於故畦，並歌並進。孔子適衛，望之於野。顧謂弟子曰：「彼叟可與言者，試往訊之！」子貢請行。逆之壠端，面之而歎曰：「先生曾不悔乎，而行歌拾穗？」林類行不留，歌不輟。子貢叩之不已，乃仰而應曰：「吾何悔邪？」子貢曰：「先生少不勤行，長不競時，老無妻子，死期將至，亦有何樂而拾穗行歌乎？」林類笑曰：「吾之所以爲樂，人皆有之，而反以爲憂。少不勤行，長不競時，故能壽若此。老無妻子，死期將至，故能樂若此。」子貢曰：「壽者人之情，死者人之惡。子以死爲樂，何也？」林類曰：「死之與生，一往一反。故死於是者，安知不生於彼？故吾知其不相若矣。吾又安知營營而求生非惑乎？亦又安知吾今之死不愈昔之生乎？」子貢聞之，不喻其意，還以告夫子。夫子曰：「吾知其可與言，果然，然彼得之而不盡者也。」
Lin Lei (林類) was near a hundred years old. In spring he wore a fur coat, and he gathered the fallen ears in an old field, and he sang as he went along.
Confucius was on his way to Wey, and he saw him from afar in the field and turned to his disciples and said, "That old man is one worth speaking with. Go and question him."
Zigong asked leave to go. He met him at the end of the furrow, and faced him and said with a sigh, "Has the master never had regret, that he sings as he gathers the ears?"
Lin Lei did not halt his steps and did not stop his song. Zigong kept on knocking at him, and at last he raised his head and answered, "What have I to regret?"
Zigong said, "The master did not work hard when young, and did not strive with the times when grown, and is old with no wife and no child, and the day of his death draws near. What joy is there in this, that he gathers ears and sings?"
Lin Lei laughed and said, "What gives me joy is a thing that every man has, and yet they take it for grief instead. I did not work hard when young and did not strive with the times when grown, and so I have been able to live as long as this. I am old with no wife and no child, and the day of my death draws near, and so I am able to be as glad as this."
Zigong said, "Long life is what men feel for, and death is what men hate. Why does the master take death for joy?"
Lin Lei said, "Death and life are one going and one returning. So how is it known that one who dies here is not born there? And so I know that the two are not alike. And how do I know that to struggle and grasp after life is not a delusion? And how do I know that my dying now is not better than my living in the past?"
Zigong heard him and did not grasp his meaning, and he went back and told his teacher. His teacher said, "I knew he was one worth speaking with, and so it is. Yet he is one who has got hold of it and not to the full."
Interlinear notes 1
故吾知其不相若矣
The received text has 故吾知其不相若矣. Since the phrases before and after it are all rhetorical questions asking “how is it known?”, there has long been a reading that takes this phrase too as 吾安知其不相若矣 — “how do I know that the two are not alike?” — tr.
子貢倦於學，告仲尼曰：「願有所息。」仲尼曰：「生無所息。」子貢曰：「然則賜息無所乎？」仲尼曰：「有焉耳。望其壙，睪如也，宰如也，墳如也，鬲如也，則知所息矣。」子貢曰：「大哉死乎！君子息焉，小人伏焉。」仲尼曰：「賜！汝知之矣。人胥知生之樂，未知生之苦；知老之憊，未知老之佚；知死之惡，未知死之息也。晏子曰：『善哉，古之有死也！仁者息焉，不仁者伏焉。』死也者，德之徼也。古者謂死人爲歸人。夫言死人爲歸人，則生人爲行人矣。行而不知歸，失家者也。一人失家，一世非之；天下失家，莫知非焉。有人去鄉土、離六親、廢家業、遊於四方而不歸者，何人哉？世必謂之爲狂蕩之人矣。又有人鍾賢世，矜巧能、修名譽、誇張於世而不知已者，亦何人哉？世必以爲智謀之士。此二者，胥失者也。而世與一不與一，唯聖人知所與，知所去。」
Zigong was weary of study, and he told Zhongni, "I should like a place to rest."
Zhongni said, "In life there is no place to rest."
Zigong said, "Then has Ci no place to rest?"
Zhongni said, "There is one. Look at the grave pit yonder. It is heaped high, it is hollowed, it is mounded, it stands like the legs of a cauldron. Then you will know the place of rest."
Zigong said, "How great is death. The noble man rests there and the small man lies down there."
Zhongni said, "Ci (賜), you have understood. All men know the joy of life and do not know the bitterness of life. They know the weariness of old age and do not know its ease. They know the hatefulness of death and do not know its rest.
Yanzi (晏子) said, 'How good it is that in old days there was death. The benevolent rest there and those who are not benevolent lie down there.'
Death is the place where virtue goes home. The men of old called the dead the ones who have returned. Now if the dead are the ones who have returned, then the living are the ones who are on the road. To be on the road and not know how to return home is to be one who has lost his house.
When one man loses his house, a whole age calls him wrong. When all under heaven has lost its house, there is no one who knows it is wrong. Suppose a man left his native place, parted from his six kin, gave up the family calling, and wandered the four quarters and never came home. What kind of man is that? The world would surely call him a mad and dissolute man.
And suppose a man poured his heart into a worthy age, boasted of his skill, polished his name, made a show before the world, and did not know where to stop. What kind of man is that? The world would surely take him for a wise and crafty scholar.
Both of these have lost their way. Yet the world grants the one and does not grant the other. Only the sage knows what to grant and what to let go."
或謂子列子曰：「子奚貴虛？」列子曰：「虛者無貴也。」子列子曰：「非其名也，莫如靜，莫如虛。靜也虛也，得其居矣；取也與也，失其所矣。事之破䃣而後有舞仁義者，弗能復也。」
Someone said to Zi Liezi, "Why do you hold emptiness in honor?"
Liezi said, "In emptiness there is no honoring."
Zi Liezi said, "It is not a thing to be named. Nothing is like stillness, nothing is like emptiness. Be still and be empty, and you find your place. Take and give, and you lose your place. When a thing has been broken, there are those who come after and dance with benevolence and rightness, but they cannot put it back."
粥熊曰：「運轉亡已，天地密移，疇覺之哉？故物損於彼者盈於此，成於此者虧於彼。損盈成虧，隨世隨死。往來相接，間不可省，疇覺之哉？凡一氣不頓進，一形不頓虧；亦不覺其成，亦不覺其虧。亦如人自世至老，貌色智態，亡日不異；皮膚爪髮，隨世隨落，非嬰孩時有停而不易也。間不可覺，俟至後知。」
Yuxiong (粥熊) said,
"The turning and the shifting never stop, and heaven and earth move in secret, and who is aware of it? So what is taken away there is filled up here, and what is completed here is worn away there. The taking away and the filling up, the completing and the wearing away, go along with birth and go along with death. Coming and going join one another, and the space between cannot be looked into, and who is aware of it?
Now one breath does not advance all at once, and one shape does not wear away all at once. The completing is not felt, and the wearing away is not felt either. It is like a man from birth to old age: his face and his color, his wit and his bearing are not the same on any day, and his skin and his nails and his hair fall away as fast as they grow. It is not that in infancy a thing stands still and does not change. The space between cannot be felt, and it is known only after it has come."
杞國有人憂天地崩墜，身亡所寄，廢寢食者；又有憂彼之所憂者，因往曉之，曰：「天，積氣耳，亡處亡氣。若屈伸呼吸，終日在天中行止，奈何憂崩墜乎？」其人曰：「天果積氣，日月星宿，不當墜耶？」曉之者曰：「日月星宿，亦積氣中之有光耀者；只使墜，亦不能有所中傷。」其人曰：「奈地壞何？」曉者曰：「地積塊耳，充塞四虛，亡處亡塊。若躇步跐蹈，終日在地上行止，奈何憂其壞？」其人舍然大喜，曉之者亦舍然大喜。長廬子聞而笑之曰：「虹蜺也，雲霧也，風雨也，四時也，此積氣之成乎天者也。山岳也，河海也，金石也，火木也，此積形之成乎地者也。知積氣也，知積塊也，奚謂不壞？夫天地，空中之一細物，有中之最巨者。難終難窮，此固然矣；難測難識，此固然矣。憂其壞者，誠爲大遠；言其不壞者，亦爲未是。天地不得不壞，則會歸於壞。遇其壞時，奚爲不憂哉？」子列子聞而笑曰：「言天地壞者亦謬，言天地不壞者亦謬。壞與不壞，吾所不能知也。雖然，彼一也，此一也。故生不知死，死不知生；來不知去，去不知來。壞與不壞，吾何容心哉？」
In the state of Qi (杞) there was a man who feared that heaven and earth would fall in and that his body would have no place to lodge, and he gave up sleeping and eating. And there was another who feared his fearing, and went to set him right, and said,
"Heaven is only piled-up breath, and there is no place without breath. You bend and stretch and breathe, and all day long you move and rest within heaven. Why fear that it will fall in?"
The man said, "If heaven is truly piled-up breath, should not the sun and the moon and the stars fall down?"
The one who was setting him right said, "The sun and the moon and the stars are the shining things within the piled-up breath. Even if they fell, they could not strike and hurt anything."
The man said, "And what if the earth gives way?"
The one who was setting him right said, "The earth is only piled-up clods, and it fills the four empty quarters, and there is no place without clods. You tread and you stamp, and all day long you move and rest upon the earth. Why fear that it will give way?"
The man was relieved and greatly glad, and the one who had set him right was relieved and greatly glad as well.
Changluzi (長廬子) heard of it and laughed and said,
"The rainbow, the clouds and the mist, the wind and the rain, the four seasons, these are what piled-up breath has made in heaven. The mountains and the great peaks, the rivers and the seas, metal and stone, fire and wood, these are what piled-up shape has made on earth. To know that it is piled-up breath and to know that it is piled-up clods, and then to say that they will not give way, how is that?
Now heaven and earth are one small thing within the void, and the largest of the things that have being. That they are hard to bring to an end and hard to exhaust is so of itself, and that they are hard to measure and hard to know is so of itself. To fear their falling in goes indeed too far, and to say that they will not fall in is not right either. If heaven and earth cannot but fall in, then in the end they come to falling in. And when the time of their falling in is met, why should there be no fear?"
Zi Liezi heard of it and laughed and said,
"To say that heaven and earth will fall in is wrong, and to say that they will not fall in is wrong too. Whether they fall in or do not fall in is not a thing I can know. Even so, that is one and this is one. So the living do not know death and the dead do not know life, and what comes does not know its going and what goes does not know its coming. Whether they fall in or do not fall in, why should I set my heart on it?"
舜問乎烝曰：「道可得而有乎？」曰：「汝身非汝有也，汝何得有夫道？」舜曰：「吾身非吾有，孰有之哉？」曰：「是天地之委形也。生非汝有，是天地之委和也。性命非汝有，是天地之委順也。孫子非汝有，是天地之委蛻也。故行不知所往，處不知所持，食不知所以。天地強陽，氣也；又胡可得而有邪？」
Shun asked Zheng (烝), "Can the way be got and held?"
He said, "Your own body is not yours. How should you get and hold the way?"
Shun said, "If my body is not mine, then whose is it?"
He said, "It is a shape put in your keeping by heaven and earth. Your life is not yours either; it is a harmony put in your keeping by heaven and earth. Your nature and your span are not yours; they are a compliance put in your keeping by heaven and earth. Your sons and grandsons are not yours; they are a cast skin put in your keeping by heaven and earth. So you walk and do not know where you are going, you stay and do not know what you hold to, you eat and do not know why. The strong sunlight of heaven and earth is breath. How then should it be got and held?"
齊之國氏大富，宋之向氏大貧；自宋之齊，請其術。國氏告之曰：「吾善爲盜。始吾爲盜也，一年而給，二年而足，三年大穰。自此以往，施及州閭。」向氏大喜。喻其爲盜之言，而不喻其爲盜之道，遂踰垣鑿室，手目所及，亡不探也。未及時，以贓獲罪，沒其先居之財。向氏以國氏之謬己也，往而怨之。國氏曰：「若爲盜若何？」向氏言其狀。國氏曰：「嘻！若失爲盜之道至此乎？今將告若矣。吾聞天有時，地有利。吾盜天地之時利，雲雨之滂潤，山澤之產育，以生吾禾，殖吾稼，築吾垣，建吾舍。陸盜禽獸，水盜魚鼈，亡非盜也。夫禾稼、土木、禽獸、魚鼈，皆天之所生，豈吾之所有？然吾盜天而亡殃。夫金玉珍寶，穀帛財貨，人之所聚，豈天之所與？若盜之而獲罪，孰怨哉？」向氏大惑，以爲國氏之重罔己也，過東郭先生問焉。東郭先生曰：「若一身庸非盜乎？盜陰陽之和以成若生，載若形，況外物而非盜哉？誠然，天地萬物不相離也；仞而有之，皆惑也。國氏之盜，公道也，故亡殃；若之盜，私心也，故得罪。有公私者，亦盜也；亡公私者，亦盜也。公公私私，天地之德。知天地之德者，孰爲盜耶？孰爲不盜耶？」
Guo (國氏) of the state of Qi (齊) was very rich, and Xiang (向氏) of Song was very poor. He went from Song to the state of Qi and asked after his art.
Guo told him, "I am good at stealing. When I first stole, in one year I had enough, in two years I had plenty, in three years there was great abundance. From then on I gave to the whole district."
Xiang was greatly pleased. He understood the words about stealing, but he did not understand the way of stealing. So he climbed walls and broke into houses, and whatever his hand and his eye reached he groped after. Before long he was taken with the stolen goods and found guilty, and the property he had held before was seized as well.
Xiang thought that Guo had deceived him, and he went and reproached him. Guo said, "How did you steal?" Xiang told him how it had been. Guo said,
"Ah, has your losing of the way of stealing come to this? Now I will tell you. I have heard that heaven has its seasons and earth has its gains. I steal the seasons of heaven and the gains of earth. I steal the soaking of the clouds and the rain and the breeding of the hills and the marshes, and with them I raise my grain and plant my crops and build my wall and set up my house. On the land I steal birds and beasts, and in the water I steal fish and turtles. There is nothing that is not stealing.
Now grain and crops, earth and wood, birds and beasts, fish and turtles are all born of heaven. How should they be mine? Yet I stole from heaven and no calamity came. But metal and jade and precious things, grain and silk and goods, are what men have gathered. How should they be given by heaven? You stole them and were found guilty. Whom is there to reproach?"
Xiang was greatly confused, and thinking that Guo was deceiving him once again he went to Master Dongguo (東郭先生) and asked him. Master Dongguo said,
"Is this one body of yours not itself a thing stolen? You stole the harmony of yin and yang to make your life and to carry your shape, and how much more are the things outside you stolen? Truly heaven and earth and the ten thousand things are not apart from one another, and to mark them off and hold them as your own is all delusion.
The stealing of Guo was the common way, and so no calamity came. Your stealing was a private heart, and so you were found guilty. To hold that there is common and private is stealing too, and to hold that there is neither common nor private is stealing too. To make the common common and the private private is the virtue of heaven and earth. To one who knows the virtue of heaven and earth, who is a thief and who is not a thief?"