Tangwen — King Tang's Questions湯問篇
殷湯問於夏革曰：「古初有物乎？」夏革曰：「古初無物，今惡得物？後之人將謂今之無物，可乎？」殷湯曰：「然則物無先後乎？」夏革曰：「物之終始，初無極已。始或爲終，終或爲始，惡知其紀？然自物之外，自事之先，朕所不知也。」殷湯曰：「然則上下八方有極盡乎？」革曰：「不知也。」湯固問。革曰：「無則無極，有則有盡，朕何以知之？然無極之外復無無極，無盡之中復無無盡。無極復無無極，無盡復無無盡。朕以是知其無極無盡也，而不知其有極有盡也。」湯又問曰：「四海之外奚有？」革曰：「猶齊州也。」湯曰：「汝奚以實之？」革曰：「朕東行至營，人民猶是也。問營之東，復猶營也。西行至豳，人民猶是也。問豳之西，復猶豳也。朕以是知四海、四荒、四極之不異是也。故大小相含，無窮極也。含萬物者，亦如含天地。含萬物也故不窮，含天地也故無極。朕亦焉知天地之表不有大天地者乎？亦吾所不知也。然則天地亦物也。物有不足，故昔者女媧氏練五色石以補其闕，斷鼇之足以立四極。其後共工氏與顓頊爭爲帝，怒而觸不周之山，折天柱，絕地維，故天傾西北，日月辰星就焉；地不滿東南，故百川水潦歸焉。」湯又問：「物有巨細乎？有修短乎？有同異乎？」革曰：「渤海之東不知幾億萬里，有大壑焉，實惟無底之谷，其下無底，名曰歸墟。八紘九野之水，天漢之流，莫不注之，而無增無減焉。其中有五山焉：一曰岱輿，二曰員嶠，三曰方壺，四曰瀛洲，五曰蓬萊。其山高下周旋三萬里，其頂平處九千里。山之中閒相去七萬里，以爲鄰居焉。其上臺觀皆金玉，其上禽獸皆純縞。珠玕之樹皆叢生，華實皆有滋味，食之皆不老不死。所居之人皆仙聖之種，一日一夕飛相往來者，不可數焉。而五山之根無所連箸，常隨潮波上下往還，不得蹔峙焉。仙聖毒之，訴之於帝。帝恐流於西極，失羣仙聖之居，乃命禺彊使巨鼇十五舉首而戴之。迭爲三番，六萬歲一交焉。五山始峙而不動。而龍伯之國有大人，舉足不盈數步而暨五山之所，一釣而連六鼇，合負而趣歸其國，灼其骨以數焉。於是岱輿員嶠二山流於北極，沈於大海，仙聖之播遷者巨億計。帝憑怒，侵減龍伯之國使阨，侵小龍伯之民使短。至伏羲神農時，其國人猶數十丈。從中州以東四十萬里得僬僥國，人長一尺五寸。東北極有人名曰諍人，長九寸。荆之南有冥靈者，以五百歲爲春，五百歲爲秋。上古有大椿者，以八千歲爲春，八千歲爲秋。朽壤之上有菌芝者，生於朝，死於晦。春夏之月有蠓蚋者，因雨而生，見陽而死。終北之北有溟海者，天池也，有魚焉，其廣數千里，其長稱焉，其名爲鯤。有鳥焉，其名爲鵬，翼若垂天之雲，其體稱焉。世豈知有此物哉？大禹行而見之，伯益知而名之，夷堅聞而志之。江浦之間生麼蟲，其名曰焦螟，羣飛而集於蚊睫，弗相觸也。栖宿去來，蚊弗覺也。離朱子羽方晝拭眥揚眉而望之，弗見其形；䚦俞師曠方夜擿耳俛首而聽之，弗聞其聲。唯黃帝與容成子居空峒之上，同齋三月，心死形廢，徐以神視，塊然見之，若嵩山之阿；徐以氣聽，砰然聞之，若雷霆之聲。吳楚之國有大木焉，其名爲櫾，碧樹而冬生，實丹而味酸。食其皮汁，已憤厥之疾。齊州珍之，渡淮而北而化爲枳焉。鸜鵒不踰濟，貉踰汶則死矣，地氣然也。雖然，形氣異也，性鈞已，無相易已。生皆全已，分皆足已，吾何以識其巨細？何以識其修短？何以識其同異哉？」
Tang of Yin asked Xia Ge (夏革), "In the far beginning, were there things?"
Xia Ge said, "If there had been no things in the far beginning, how could there be things now? If the people who come after us were to say that there are no things now, would that be right?"
Tang said, "Then do things have no before and after?"
Xia Ge said, "The ending and the beginning of things have no limit from the first. A beginning may become an ending, and an ending may become a beginning. Who can know the thread of it? But what lies outside of things, and what comes before events, are what I do not know."
Tang said, "Then do above and below and the eight quarters have a limit and an end?"
Xia Ge said, "I do not know."
Tang pressed him. Xia Ge said,
"If there is nothing, there is no limit; if there is something, there is an end. How am I to know it? Yet outside the limitless there is no further limitlessness, and within the endless there is no further endlessness. The limitless has no further limitlessness, and the endless has no further endlessness. By this I know only that it is limitless and endless. Whether it has a limit and has an end, I do not know."
Tang asked again, "What is there beyond the four seas?"
Xia Ge said, "It is like Qizhou (齊州)."
Tang said, "How do you make that sure?"
Xia Ge said,
"I went east and came to Ying (營), and the people were as they are here. I asked about the east of Ying, and they said it was again like Ying. I went west and came to Bin (豳), and the people were as they are here. I asked about the west of Bin, and they said it was again like Bin.
By this I know that the four seas and the four wastes and the four ends are no different from here. So the great and the small hold each other, and there is no end to it. What holds the ten thousand things is like what holds heaven and earth. Because it holds the ten thousand things it is not exhausted, and because it holds heaven and earth it has no limit.
And how am I to know that outside heaven and earth there is not a greater heaven and earth? This too is what I do not know.
If that is so, then heaven and earth are things as well. Things have places where they fall short, and so in old times Nüwa fired stones of five colors to mend what was wanting, and cut the feet from a great sea turtle to set up the four ends.
Later Gonggong fought with Zhuanxu to be sovereign, and in his anger he butted against Mount Buzhou (不周之山), and he broke the pillar of heaven and snapped the cord of earth. So heaven leans to the northwest, and the sun and the moon and the stars go that way; and earth is not full in the southeast, and all the streams and standing waters run back that way."
Tang asked again, "Do things have great and small? Do they have long and short? Do they have same and different?"
Xia Ge said,
"East of Bohai, how many hundreds of millions of li no one knows, there is a great chasm, truly a valley without a bottom. Below it there is no floor, and its name is Guixu (歸墟). The waters of the eight cords and the nine wilds, and the flow of the Milky Way, all pour into it, and it neither grows nor lessens.
In it there are five mountains. The first is called Daiyu (岱輿), the second Yuanjiao (員嶠), the third Fanghu (方壺), the fourth Yingzhou (瀛洲), the fifth Penglai (蓬萊). Those mountains are thirty thousand li in height and in girth, and the level place on their tops is nine thousand li. From one mountain to the next is seventy thousand li, and they live as neighbors.
The terraces and towers upon them are all of gold and jade, and the birds and beasts upon them are all pure white. Trees of pearl and trees of jade all grow in clusters, and the flowers and the fruits all have savor, and whoever eats them neither grows old nor dies. The people who live there are all of the seed of the immortals and the sages, and those who fly to one another back and forth in a day and a night cannot be counted.
But the roots of the five mountains were joined to nothing, so they always rose and fell with the waves and went and came, and they could not stand still for a moment. The immortals and the sages were troubled by this and made their plaint to the God on high.
The God on high feared that the mountains would drift to the far west and that the host of immortals and sages would lose their dwelling. So he commanded Yuqiang (禺彊) to set fifteen giant sea turtles to raise their heads and bear them up. They took their turns in three shifts, and they changed once in sixty thousand years. Then the five mountains stood firm and did not move.
But in the land of Longbo (龍伯) there was a giant. He lifted his feet, and in not so many steps he came to the place of the five mountains. With one cast of his line he hooked six of the turtles together, and he took them all on his back and hurried home to his own land, and he burned their bones to read the omens.
At this the two mountains Daiyu and Yuanjiao drifted to the far north and sank in the great sea, and the immortals and sages who were carried off and scattered were counted in the hundreds of millions. The God on high was greatly angered. He pressed the land of Longbo in and made it narrow, and he made the people of Longbo small and made them short. Even in the time of Fuxi and Shennong the people of that land were still tens of zhang (丈)〔about 3 m〕 tall.
Four hundred thousand li east of Zhongzhou there is the land of Jiaoyao (僬僥國), where the people are a foot and five inches tall. At the far northeast there are people called Zhengren (諍人), who are nine inches tall.
South of Jing (荆) there is a tree called the mingling (冥靈), which takes five hundred years for its spring and five hundred years for its autumn. In the far past there was a tree called the dachun (大椿), which took eight thousand years for its spring and eight thousand years for its autumn. On rotting earth there is a thing called the junzhi (菌芝), which is born in the morning and dies at the month's end. In the months of spring and summer there are mayflies, which are born of the rain and die when they see the sun.
North of Zhongbei (終北) there is a thing called Minghai (溟海), and it is the pool of heaven. There is a fish in it whose breadth is some thousands of li and whose length is a match for that, and its name is Kun (鯤). There is a bird there whose name is Peng (鵬), whose wings are like clouds hanging from the sky, and whose body is a match for them. How should the world know that such things are? Yu the Great went and saw them, Bo Yi knew them and named them, and Yi Jian heard of them and wrote them down.
By the riverside there is born a very small insect, and its name is the jiaoming (焦螟). They fly in swarms and gather on the eyelashes of a mosquito, and they do not touch one another. They nest and sleep and come and go, and the mosquito does not notice. Li Zhu (離朱) and Ziyu (子羽) at midday wiped their eyes and raised their brows and looked for them, and they could not see their shape. Zhiyu (䚦俞) and Shi Kuang (師曠) at midnight dug out their ears and bent their heads and listened, and they could not hear their sound.
Only the Yellow Emperor, dwelling with Yongchengzi (容成子) on Mount Kongtong, fasted with him for three months until his mind died away and his shape fell from him. Then, looking slowly with his spirit, he saw them plainly, like clods of earth, like the slopes of Mount Song; and listening slowly with his breath, he heard them booming, like the sound of thunder.
In the lands of Wu and Chu there is a great tree, and its name is the you (櫾). It is a green tree that grows through the winter, and its fruit is red and sour in taste. Eat its rind and its juice, and the sickness of stifling and collapse is stopped. In Qizhou they prize it, but cross the Huai to the north and it turns into the bitter orange. The mynah does not cross the Ji, and the marten dies if it crosses the Wen. Such is the breath of the ground.
Yet only their shapes and their breath differ, and their nature is even. There is nothing in them to exchange. Their lives are all whole, and their portions are all enough. How am I to know their great and small? How am I to know their long and short? How am I to know their same and different?"
太行、王屋二山，方七百里，高萬仞，本在冀州之南，河陽之北。北山愚公者，年且九十，面山而居，懲山北之塞，出入之迂也，聚室而謀曰：「吾與汝畢力平險，指通豫南，達于漢陰，可乎？」雜然相許。其妻獻疑曰：「以君之力，曾不能損魁父之丘，如太行、王屋何？且焉置土石？」雜曰：「投諸渤海之尾，隱土之北。」遂率子孫荷擔者三夫，叩石墾壤，箕畚運於渤海之尾。鄰人京城氏之孀妻有遺男，始齔，跳往助之。寒暑易節，始一反焉。河曲智叟笑而止之，曰：「甚矣，汝之不惠！以殘年餘力，曾不能毀山之一毛，其如土石何？」北山愚公長息曰：「汝心之固，固不可徹，曾不若孀妻弱子。雖我之死，有子存焉；子又生孫，孫又生子；子又有子，子又有孫，子子孫孫無窮匱也，而山不加增，何苦而不平？」河曲智叟亡以應。操蛇之神聞之，懼其不已也，告之於帝。帝感其誠，命夸蛾氏二子負二山，一厝朔東，一厝雍南。自此，冀之南，漢之陰，無隴斷焉。
The two mountains Taihang and Wangwu are seven hundred li on a side and ten thousand ren high, and at first they stood south of Jizhou and north of Heyang.
Yugong (愚公) of the North Mountain was near ninety years old, and he lived facing the mountains. He was troubled that the north of the mountains was blocked and that going out and coming in went far around, and he gathered his household and laid a plan. "Let me spend all our strength with you to level the steep ground, to open a straight way through to the south of Yuzhou and reach the south of the Han. Will that do?"
They spoke this way and that, and yet they all gave their consent together. His wife raised a doubt. "With your strength you cannot take away even the hill of Kuifu (魁父). What will you do with Taihang and Wangwu? And where will you put the earth and the stones?"
They said, "We will throw them at the end of Bohai, north of Yintu (隱土)."
So he led out three men among his sons and grandsons who could carry a load, and they broke the stones and dug the earth and carried it in baskets to the end of Bohai. The widow of his neighbor Jingcheng (京城氏) had a son left to her, of an age to be changing his teeth, and he came running to help them. Only when cold and heat had changed their seasons did they come back once.
Zhisou (智叟) of Hequ laughed and tried to stop him. "This is too much, how unwise you are! With the years you have left and the strength you have left, you cannot tear away one hair of the mountain. What will you do with the earth and the stones?"
Yugong of the North Mountain gave a long sigh and said, "Your mind is set hard, and truly it cannot be opened. You are not the equal of a widow and a small child. Though I die, my son remains, and my son will beget a grandson, and the grandson will beget a son. That son will have a son, and that son will have a grandson, and sons and grandsons will be without end, while the mountain does not grow larger. What is there to fear, that it should not be leveled?"
Zhisou of Hequ had nothing to answer.
The god who holds the snake heard of it and feared that the man would not stop, and he told the God on high. The God on high was moved by his sincerity, and he commanded the two sons of Kua'e (夸蛾氏) to carry the two mountains away. One he set east of Shuo, and one he set south of Yong. From that time, in the south of Jizhou and the south of the Han, there is no ridge to block the way.
夸父不量力，欲追日影，逐之於隅谷之際，渴欲得飲，赴飲河渭。河渭不足，將走北飲大澤。未至，道渴而死。棄其杖，尸膏肉所浸，生鄧林，鄧林彌廣數千里焉。
Kuafu (夸父) did not measure his own strength, and he wished to chase the shadow of the sun. He pursued it to the edge of Yugu (隅谷), and being thirsty he wanted a drink, and he ran to the He and the Wei and drank. The He and the Wei were not enough, and he ran north to drink the great marsh. He did not reach it, and he died of thirst on the road. He threw away his staff, and where the fat and flesh of his body soaked in, Denglin (鄧林) grew, and Denglin is broad for some thousands of li.
大禹曰：「六合之間，四海之內，照之以日月，經之以星辰，紀之以四時，要之以太歲。神靈所生，其物異形，或夭或壽，唯聖人能通其道。」夏革曰：「然則亦有不待神靈而生，不待陰陽而形，不待日月而明，不待殺戮而夭，不待將迎而壽，不待五穀而食，不待繒纊而衣，不待舟車而行，其道自然，非聖人之所通也。」
Yu the Great said, "Between the six quarters and within the four seas, the sun and the moon light it, the stars are its warp, the four seasons are its cord, and the Taisui (太歲) knots it up. Among what the spirits have brought forth, the things differ in shape, and some die young and some live long. Only the sage can pass through that way."
Xia Ge said, "Yet there are also things that are born without waiting for the spirits, that take shape without waiting for yin and yang, that are bright without waiting for the sun and the moon, that die young without waiting to be killed, that live long without waiting to be sent off and welcomed, that eat without waiting for the five grains, that are clothed without waiting for silk and cotton, and that travel without waiting for boat and cart. Their way is of itself so, and it is not what the sage passes through."
禹之治水土也，迷而失塗，謬之一國。濱北海之北，不知距齊州幾千萬里。其國名曰終北，不知際畔之所齊限，無風雨霜露，不生鳥獸、蟲魚、草木之類。四方悉平，周以喬陟。當國之中有山，山名壺領，狀若甔甀。頂有口，狀若員環，名曰滋穴。有水湧出，名曰神瀵，臭過蘭椒，味過醪醴。一源分爲四埒，注於山下。經營一國，亡不悉徧。土氣和，亡札厲。人性婉而從物，不競不爭；柔心而弱骨，不驕不忌；長幼儕居，不君不臣；男女雜游，不媒不聘；緣水而居，不耕不稼；土氣溫適，不織不衣；百年而死，不夭不病。其民孳阜亡數，有喜樂，亡衰老哀苦。其俗好聲，相攜而迭謠，終日不輟音。飢惓則飲神瀵，力志和平。過則醉，經旬乃醒。沐浴神瀵，膚色脂澤，香氣經旬乃歇。周穆王北遊過其國，三年忘歸。既反周室，慕其國，𢠵然自失，不進酒肉，不召嬪御者，數月乃復。管仲勉齊桓公因遊遼口，俱之其國，幾尅舉。隰朋諫曰：「君舍齊國之廣，人民之衆，山川之觀，殖物之阜，禮義之盛，章服之美，妖靡盈庭，忠良滿朝。肆咤則徒卒百萬，視撝則諸侯從命，亦奚羨於彼而棄齊國之社稷，從戎夷之國乎？此仲父之耄，柰何從之？」桓公乃止，以隰朋之言告管仲。仲曰：「此固非朋之所及也。臣恐彼國之不可知之也。齊國之富奚戀？隰朋之言奚顧？」
When Yu was ordering the waters and the land, he lost his way and wandered, and he came by mistake into a land. It lay on the northern shore of the northern sea, and no one knew how many thousands and tens of thousands of li it was from Qizhou. The name of that land was Zhongbei (終北), and no one knew where its borders came to an end. There was no wind and no rain, no frost and no dew, and no kind of bird or beast or insect or fish or grass or tree grew there. On all four sides it was level, and high banks ran round it.
In the middle of the land there was a mountain named Huling (壺領), shaped like a jar with a narrow neck. On its top there was a hole shaped like a round ring, and it was named Zixue (滋穴). Water welled up from it, and it was named Shenfen (神瀵). Its smell went beyond orchid and pepper, and its taste went beyond sweet wine. One source divided into four courses and poured down below the mountain, and it went round the whole land, and there was no place it did not reach.
The breath of the ground was in harmony, and there was no pestilence. The nature of the people was gentle, and they followed things and neither vied nor quarreled. Their minds were soft and their bones were weak, and they neither boasted nor envied. Old and young lived side by side, and there was no lord and no subject. Men and women went about together, and there was no matchmaking and no bride gift. They lived along the water and neither plowed nor sowed. The breath of the ground was warm and fitting, and they neither wove nor clothed themselves. They lived a hundred years and died, and they neither died young nor fell sick.
Their people increased beyond all counting, and they had joy and gladness, but no waning and no aging, no sorrow and no pain. Their custom was to love sound, and they took one another by the hand and sang in turn, and all day long they did not let the sound cease. When they were hungry and weary they drank of the Shenfen, and their strength and their will came to an even calm. If they drank too much they grew drunk, and only after ten days did they wake. If they bathed in the Shenfen, their skin was rich and shining, and only after ten days did the fragrance fade.
King Mu of Zhou, wandering in the north, passed through that land, and for three years he forgot to return. Even after he had come back to the house of Zhou he longed for that land. He was dazed and beside himself, he would not take wine or meat, and he would not call his palace women, and only after some months did he come back to himself.
Guan Zhong urged Duke Huan of Qi that on his journey to Liaokou (遼口) they should go to that land together, and it was almost brought about. Xi Peng (隰朋) remonstrated.
"Would my lord cast away the breadth of Qi, and the multitude of its people, and the sights of its mountains and rivers, and the abundance of the things it plants and raises, and the fullness of its rites and its right conduct, and the beauty of its robes and caps? Fair women fill the courtyard, and loyal and worthy men fill the court. Shout aloud, and the foot soldiers are a million; lift your eyes, and the lords of the states obey your command. What is there to envy over there, that you would cast away the altars of Qi and follow a strange land? This is the dotage of Zhongfu (仲父). How can you follow it?"
So Duke Huan gave it up, and he told Guan Zhong what Xi Peng had said. Guan Zhong said, "This is not a thing Xi Peng could reach to. What I fear is only that we may never come to know that land. Why should I long for the riches of Qi? Why should I look back at the words of Xi Peng?"
南國之人祝髮而裸，北國之人鞨巾而裘，中國之人冠冕而裳。九土所資，或農或商，或田或漁，如冬裘夏葛，水舟陸車。默而得之，性而成之。越之東有輒沐之國，其長子生，則鮮而食之，謂之宜弟。其大父死，負其大母而棄之，曰：「鬼妻不可以同居處。」楚之南有炎人之國，其親戚死，㱙其肉而棄之，然後埋其骨，迺成爲孝子。秦之西有儀渠之國者，其親戚死，聚祡積而焚之。燻則煙上，謂之登遐，然後成爲孝子。此上以爲政，下以爲俗，而未足爲異也。
The people of the southern lands cut their hair and go bare, the people of the northern lands wear head cloths and coats of fur, and the people of the middle land wear caps and skirts. According to what the nine grounds supply, some farm and some trade, some hunt and some fish, just as men wear fur in winter and hemp in summer, and take a boat on the water and a cart on land. They get it in silence, and they accomplish it by their nature.
East of Yue there is the land of Zhemu (輒沐). When a first son is born they cut him up and eat him, and they call it the fitting thing for the younger brothers. When a grandfather dies, they carry the grandmother out on their backs and cast her away, and they say, "We cannot live with the wife of a ghost."
South of Chu there is the land of Yanren (炎人). When a parent dies, they let the flesh rot and throw it away, and after that they bury the bones, and only then do they become filial sons.
West of Qin there is the land of Yiqu (儀渠). When a parent dies, they gather brushwood in a pile and burn the body. When it is scorched and the smoke rises, they call it rising far off, and only then do they become filial sons.
Above, this is made into government, and below it is made into custom, and it is not enough to call it strange.
孔子東游，見兩小兒辯鬬，問其故。一兒曰：「我以日始出時去人近，而日中時遠也。」一兒以日初出遠，而日中時近也。一兒曰：「日初出大如車蓋，及日中則如盤盂，此不爲遠者小而近者大乎？」一兒曰：「日初出滄滄涼涼，及其日中如探湯，此不爲近者熱而遠者涼乎？」孔子不能決也。兩小兒笑曰：「孰爲汝多知乎？」
Confucius was wandering in the east when he saw two small children arguing and quarreling, and he asked the reason.
One child said, "I think the sun is near to people when it first rises, and far away at midday."
The other child held that the sun is far away when it first rises, and near at midday.
The one child said, "When the sun first rises it is as big as the cover of a cart, and by midday it is like a dish. Is that not the far thing being small and the near thing being large?"
The other child said, "When the sun first rises it is cool and chilly, and by midday it is like putting your hand in boiling water. Is that not the near thing being hot and the far thing being cool?"
Confucius could not decide it. The two small children laughed and said, "Who told you that you know so much?"
均，天下之至理也，連於形物亦然。均髮均縣，輕重而髮絕，髮不均也。均也，其絕也莫絕。人以爲不然，自有知其然者也。詹何以獨繭絲爲綸，芒鍼爲鉤，荆篠爲竿，剖粒爲餌，引盈車之魚於百仞之淵、汩流之中，綸不絕，鉤不伸，竿不橈。楚王聞而異之，召問其故。詹何曰：「臣聞先大夫之言，蒲且子之弋也，弱弓纖繳，乘風振之，連雙鶬於青雲之際。用心專，動手均也。臣因其事，放而學釣，五年始盡其道。當臣之臨河持竿，心無雜慮，唯魚之念；投綸沈鉤，手無輕重，物莫能亂。魚見臣之鉤餌，猶沈埃聚沫，吞之不疑。所以能以弱制彊，以輕致重也。大王治國誠能若此，則天下可運於一握，將亦奚事哉？」楚王曰：「善。」
Evenness is the utmost principle of all under heaven, and it is so as well where it is joined to things that have shape. When an even hair is hung with an even weight, the hair breaks because the weight leans to one side, and that is because the hair is not even. Where there is evenness, what would break does not break. People think it is not so, but there are those who know of themselves that it is so.
Zhan He (詹何) made his line from a single strand of cocoon silk, his hook from a fine needle, his rod from a thorn branch, and his bait from a split grain. Out of a whirling current in a pool a hundred ren deep he drew a fish that would fill a cart, and the line did not break, the hook did not straighten, and the rod did not bend.
The king of Chu heard of it and thought it strange, and he called him and asked the reason. Zhan He said,
"I have heard the words of a counselor now dead. When Pu Juzi (蒲且子) shot with a tethered arrow, he set a weak bow and a slender line upon the wind and let it fly, and he took two herons one after another at the edge of the blue clouds. His mind was used with a single aim, and the moving of his hand was even.
I followed that matter and took it for my model and learned to fish, and only after five years did I fill out that way. When I stand at the water and hold the rod, there is no other thought in my mind, and I think of nothing but the fish. When I cast the line and sink the hook, there is no light and no heavy in my hand, and no thing can trouble it. The fish see my hook and my bait and take them for sunken dust or gathered foam, and they swallow them without a doubt. So I can hold down the strong with the weak, and bring the heavy with the light.
If my great king can truly do the like in governing the state, then all under heaven may be turned in one hand. What more would you make your business?"
The king of Chu said, "Good."
魯公扈、趙齊嬰二人有疾，同請扁鵲求治。扁鵲治之。既同愈，謂公扈、齊嬰曰：「汝曩之所疾，自外而干府藏者，固藥石之所已。今有偕生之疾，與體偕長，今爲汝攻之，何如？」二人曰：「願先聞其驗。」扁鵲謂公扈曰：「汝志彊而氣弱，故足於謀而寡於斷。齊嬰志弱而氣彊，故少於慮而傷於專。若換汝之心，則均於善矣。」扁鵲遂飲二人毒酒，迷死三日，剖胷探心，易而置之；投以神藥，既悟如初。二人辭歸。於是公扈反齊嬰之室，而有其妻子，妻子弗識。齊嬰亦反公扈之室，有其妻子，妻子亦弗識。二室因相與訟，求辨於扁鵲。扁鵲辨其所由，訟乃已。
Gong Hu (公扈) of Lu and Qi Ying (齊嬰) of Zhao were both ill, and together they asked Bian Que to cure them. Bian Que cured them. When both were well, he said to Gong Hu and Qi Ying,
"What you suffered before came in from outside and encroached on your organs, and it was a thing that drugs and needles could stop. Now you have an illness that was born with you and has grown with your bodies. What if I now treat it for you?"
The two men said, "We wish first to hear the proof of it."
Bian Que said to Gong Hu, "Your will is strong and your breath is weak, so you are full in planning and short in deciding. Qi Ying's will is weak and his breath is strong, so he thinks little and is harmed by holding to one thing. If your minds were exchanged, both would come out even and well."
So Bian Que had the two men drink a poisoned wine, and they lay senseless as dead for three days. He cut open their breasts and took out their hearts, and he exchanged them and set them in place, and he put in a wondrous medicine, and they woke as they were at first. The two men took their leave and went home.
Then Gong Hu went back to the house of Qi Ying and took his wife and children for his own, and the wife and children did not know him. Qi Ying too went back to the house of Gong Hu and took his wife and children for his own, and the wife and children did not know him either. So the two houses brought suit against each other and asked Bian Que to judge between them. Bian Que made clear how it had come about, and the suit came to an end.
匏巴鼓琴而鳥舞魚躍，鄭師文聞之，棄家從師襄游。柱指鈞弦，三年不成章。師襄曰：「子可以歸矣。」師文舍其琴，歎曰：「文非弦之不能鈞，非章之不能成。文所存者不在弦，所志者不在聲。內不得於心，外不應於器，故不敢發手而動弦。且小假之，以觀其後。」無幾何，復見師襄。師襄曰：「子之琴何如？」師文曰：「得之矣。請嘗試之。」於是當春而叩商弦以召南呂，涼風忽至，草木成實。及秋而叩角弦以激夾鍾，溫風徐迴，草木發榮。當夏而叩羽弦以召黃鐘，霜雪交下，川池暴沍。及冬而叩徵弦以激蕤賓，陽光熾烈，堅冰立散。將終，命宮而總四弦，則景風翔，慶雲浮，甘露降，澧泉涌。師襄乃撫心高蹈曰：「微矣，子之彈也！雖師曠之清角，鄒衍之吹律，亡以加之。彼將挾琴執管而從子之後耳。」
When Paoba (匏巴) played the zither, the birds danced and the fish leaped. Shi Wen (師文) of Zheng heard of it and left his house and went to follow Shi Xiang (師襄). For three years he set his fingers on the frets and tuned the strings, and he did not bring one melody to completion.
Shi Xiang said, "You may go home."
Shi Wen laid down his zither and sighed. "It is not that I cannot tune the strings, and not that I cannot bring a melody to completion. What I hold in mind does not lie in the strings, and what I aim at does not lie in the sound. Within, I have not gained it in my mind; without, it does not answer in the instrument. So I do not dare to move my hand and sound the strings. Grant me a little time, and look at what comes after."
Not long after, he saw Shi Xiang again. Shi Xiang said, "How is your zither?"
Shi Wen said, "I have gained it. I ask leave to try it."
So in spring he plucked the shang (商) string to call up Nanlü (南呂), and a cool wind came all at once, and the grasses and the trees bore fruit. In autumn he plucked the jue (角) string to rouse Jiazhong (夾鍾), and a warm wind turned slowly, and the grasses and the trees put out flowers. In summer he plucked the yu (羽) string to call up Huangzhong (黃鐘), and frost and snow came down together, and the streams and the pools froze all at once. In winter he plucked the zhi (徵) string to rouse Ruibin (蕤賓), and the sunlight burned fierce, and the hard ice was scattered at once.
As he was about to end, he called up the gong (宮) and gathered the four strings together, and an auspicious wind flew, and clouds of blessing floated, and sweet dew came down, and a spring of sweet water welled up.
Then Shi Xiang stroked his breast and leaped high and said, "How fine is your playing! Even the Qingjue (淸角) of Shi Kuang, or Zou Yan blowing the pitch pipes, could add nothing to it. They would take the zither under their arms and hold the pipes and follow after you."
薛譚學謳於秦青，未窮青之技，自謂盡之，遂辭歸。秦青弗止，餞於郊衢，撫節悲歌，聲振林木，響遏行雲。薛譚乃謝求反，終身不敢言歸。秦青顧謂其友曰：「昔韓娥東之齊，匱糧，過雍門，鬻歌假食。既去而餘音繞梁欐，三日不絕，左右以其人弗去。過逆旅，逆旅人辱之。韓娥因曼聲哀哭，一里老幼悲愁，垂涕相對，三日不食，遽而追之。娥還，復爲曼聲長歌。一里老幼喜躍抃舞，弗能自禁，忘向之悲也，乃厚賂發之。故雍門之人至今善歌哭，放娥之遺聲。」
Xue Tan (薛譚) learned singing from Qin Qing (秦青). He had not gone to the end of Qin Qing's art, but he thought himself that he had it all, and so he took his leave to go home. Qin Qing did not stop him, but saw him off at the crossroads outside the town, and he beat the time and sang a sorrowful song, and the sound shook the woods and the trees, and the echo held back the moving clouds. Then Xue Tan begged pardon and asked to go back, and as long as he lived he did not dare to speak of going home.
Qin Qing looked at his friend and said,
"Long ago Han E (韓娥) was going east to Qi. Her food ran out, and passing Yongmen (雍門) she sold her singing for a meal. After she had gone the sound she left wound about the beams and did not cease for three days, and the people nearby thought she had not left.
She passed an inn, and the man of the inn put her to shame. Then Han E cried out long and sorrowfully, and the old and the young of the whole village grieved and were heavy with care, and they shed tears and looked at one another, and for three days they could not eat. They hurried after her.
Han E came back and again sang a long song in a long voice, and the old and the young of the whole village leaped for joy and clapped their hands and danced, and they could not stop themselves, and they forgot the sorrow of before. Then they gave her rich gifts and sent her on her way.
So the people of Yongmen to this day sing well and wail well, for they take as their model the sound that Han E left behind."
伯牙善鼓琴，鍾子期善聽。伯牙鼓琴，志在登高山，鍾子期曰：「善哉！峩峩兮若泰山！」志在流水，鍾子期曰：「善哉！洋洋兮若江河！」伯牙所念，鍾子期必得之。伯牙游於泰山之陰，卒逢暴雨，止於巖下，心悲，乃援琴而鼓之，初爲霖雨之操，更造崩山之音。曲每奏，鍾子期輒窮其趣。伯牙乃舍琴而嘆曰：「善哉，善哉，子之聽夫！志想象猶吾心也。吾於何逃聲哉？」
Bo Ya (伯牙) played the zither well, and Zhong Ziqi (鍾子期) listened well. When Bo Ya played the zither with his mind on climbing a high mountain, Zhong Ziqi said, "How fine! It towers up like Mount Tai." When his mind was on flowing water, Zhong Ziqi said, "How fine! It rolls on like the Jiang and the He." Whatever Bo Ya had in mind, Zhong Ziqi was sure to find it out.
Bo Ya was wandering on the north side of Mount Tai when he suddenly met a driving rain, and he stayed under a rock. His heart was sad, and so he took up the zither and played. First he made the air of the long rain, and then he made the sound of the mountain falling in. At every air he played, Zhong Ziqi knew its meaning through and through.
Then Bo Ya laid down the zither and sighed. "How fine, how fine is your listening! What your mind pictures is as my own mind is. Where should I flee from my sound?"
周穆王西巡狩，越崑崙，不至弇山。反還，未及中國，道有獻工人名偃師，穆王薦之，問曰：「若有何能？」偃師曰：「臣唯命所試。然臣已有所造，願王先觀之。」穆王曰：「日以俱來，吾與若俱觀之。」越日偃師謁見王。王薦之，曰：「若與偕來者何人邪？」對曰：「臣之所造能倡者。」穆王驚視之，趣步俯仰，信人也。巧夫顉其頤，則歌合律；捧其手，則舞應節。千變萬化，惟意所適。王以爲實人也，與盛姬內御並觀之。技將終，倡者瞬其目而招王之左右侍妾。王大怒，立欲誅偃師。偃師大懾，立剖散倡者以示王，皆傅會革、木、膠、漆、白、黑、丹、青之所爲。王諦料之，內則肝、膽、心、肺、脾、腎、腸、胃，外則筋骨、支節、皮毛、齒髮，皆假物也，而無不畢具者，合會復如初見。王試廢其心，則口不能言；廢其肝，則目不能視；廢其腎，則足不能步。穆王始悅而歎曰：「人之巧乃可與造化者同功乎？」詔貳車載之以歸。夫班輸之雲梯，墨翟之飛鳶，自謂能之極也。弟子東門賈禽滑釐聞偃師之巧以告二子，二子終身不敢語藝，而時執規矩。
King Mu of Zhou went west on a tour of inspection. He crossed the Kunlun, but he did not reach Mount Yan (弇山). On his way back, before he had come to the middle land, there was a man on the road who presented an artisan named Yan Shi (偃師).
King Mu had him brought forward and asked, "What art have you?"
Yan Shi said, "I will put to trial whatever you command. But I have already made something, and I wish my king to look at it first."
King Mu said, "Come together the next day, and I will look at it with you."
The next day Yan Shi came before the king. The king had him brought forward and said, "Who is this who has come with you?"
He answered, "It is a player that I have made."
King Mu looked at it in astonishment. It walked in quick short steps, and it bent down and looked up, and it was truly a man. When the artisan made its chin nod, its song kept to the pitch; when he lifted its hand, its dance answered the beat. It changed in a thousand ways and altered in ten thousand, and it did only as he intended.
The king took it for a real man, and he watched it together with Sheng Ji (盛姬) and the women who waited within. As the performance was about to end, the player winked its eye and beckoned to the concubines who waited at the king's side. The king was greatly angered, and he wished to cut down Yan Shi on the spot.
Yan Shi was greatly afraid, and on the spot he cut the player open and spread it out to show the king. It was all made by joining together leather and wood and glue and lacquer, and white and black and red and blue. The king looked it over closely. Within there were liver and gall, heart and lungs, spleen and kidneys, bowels and stomach; without there were sinew and bone, the joints of the limbs, skin and hair, teeth and the hair of the head. All of them were false things, and yet there was nothing that was not complete. When it was put back together, it was again as when he first saw it.
The king took away its heart by way of trial, and its mouth could not speak; he took away its liver, and its eyes could not see; he took away its kidneys, and its feet could not walk.
Then King Mu was pleased, and he sighed and said, "Can the art of a man share the work of the maker of things?" He had it loaded on the second carriage and taken home.
Now the cloud ladder of Ban Shu (班輸) and the flying kite of Mo Di were held by those men to be the utmost of art. When their disciples Dongmen Jia (東門賈) and Qin Huali (禽滑釐) heard of the art of Yan Shi and told the two men, the two men as long as they lived did not dare to speak of their art, and from time to time they only took up the compass and the square.
甘蠅，古之善射者，彀弓而獸伏鳥下，弟子名飛衛，學射於甘蠅，而巧過其師。紀昌者，又學射於飛衛。飛衛曰：「爾先學不瞬，而後可言射矣。」紀昌歸，偃臥其妻之機下，以目承牽挺。二年之後，雖錐末倒眥，而不瞬也。以告飛衛，飛衛曰：「未也，必學視而後可。視小如大，視微如著，而後告我。」昌以氂懸虱於牖，南面而望之。旬日之間，浸大也；三年之後，如車輪焉。以覩餘物，皆丘山也。乃以燕角之弧、朔蓬之簳射之，貫虱之心，而懸不絕。以告飛衛，飛衛高蹈拊膺曰：「汝得之矣！」紀昌既盡衛之術，計天下之敵己者，一人而已，乃謀殺飛衛。相遇於野，二人交射，中路矢鋒相觸，而墜於地，而塵不揚。飛衛之矢先窮，紀昌遺一矢。既發，飛衛以棘刺之端扞之，而無差焉。於是二子泣而投弓，相拜於塗，請爲父子；尅臂以誓，不得告術於人。
Gan Ying (甘蠅) was a good archer of old. When he drew his bow, the beasts lay down and the birds fell. His disciple was named Fei Wei (飛衛), who learned archery from Gan Ying and whose art went beyond his master's. A man named Ji Chang (紀昌) then learned archery from Fei Wei.
Fei Wei said, "First learn not to blink. After that you may speak of archery."
Ji Chang went home and lay on his back under his wife's loom, and with his eyes he followed the treadle. After two years, even when the point of an awl came down against his eyelid, he did not blink.
He reported it to Fei Wei, and Fei Wei said, "Not yet. You must learn to see, and then it will do. When you see the small as large and the faint as clear, then tell me."
Ji Chang hung a louse at the window by an ox tail hair, and he faced south and looked at it. Within ten days it grew larger, and after three years it was like a cart wheel. When he looked at other things, they were all like hills and mountains.
Then he shot at it with a bow of Yan horn and an arrow shafted with northern mugwort, and it pierced the heart of the louse, and the hair it hung by did not break.
He reported it to Fei Wei, and Fei Wei leaped high and struck his breast and said, "You have it!"
When Ji Chang had come to the end of Fei Wei's art, he reckoned up those in all the world who could match him, and there was only one man. So he plotted to kill Fei Wei.
They met each other in the open country, and the two men shot at each other. The arrowheads struck one another in the middle of the way and fell to the ground, and no dust rose. Fei Wei's arrows ran out first, and Ji Chang had one arrow left. He loosed it, and Fei Wei warded it off with the point of a thorn, and there was no miss.
Then the two men wept and threw down their bows and bowed to each other in the road, and they asked to become father and son. They cut their arms and swore that they would not tell their art to any other man.
造父之師曰泰豆氏。造父之始從習御也，執禮甚卑，泰豆三年不告。造父執禮愈謹，乃告之曰：「古詩言：『良弓之子，必先爲箕；良冶之子，必先爲裘。』汝先觀吾趣。趣如吾，然後六轡可持，六馬可御。」造父曰：「唯命所從。」泰豆乃立木爲塗，僅可容足；計步而置，履之而行。趣走往還，無跌失也。造父學之，三日盡其巧。泰豆歎曰：「子何其敏也？得之捷乎！凡所御者，亦如此也。曩汝之行，得之於足，應之於心。推於御也，齊輯乎轡銜之際，而急緩乎脣吻之和，正度乎胷臆之中，而執節乎掌握之間。內得於中心，而外合於馬志，是故能進退履繩而旋曲中規矩，取道致遠而氣力有餘，誠得其術也。得之於銜，應之於轡；得之於轡，應之於手；得之於手，應之於心，則不以目視，不以策驅；心閑體正，六轡不亂，而二十四蹄所投無差，迴旋進退，莫不中節，然後輿輪之外可使無餘轍，馬蹄之外可使無餘地，未嘗覺山谷之嶮，原隰之夷，視之一也。吾術窮矣，汝其識之！」
The master of Zao Fu (造父) was called Taidou (泰豆氏). When Zao Fu first followed him to learn driving, he held to the forms of respect very humbly, and for three years Taidou told him nothing. Zao Fu held to the forms of respect still more carefully, and then Taidou told him.
"An old poem says, 'The son of a good bowmaker must first make winnowing baskets, and the son of a good smith must first make fur coats.' First watch how I walk. When your walking is like mine, then you can hold the six reins and drive the six horses."
Zao Fu said, "I will follow whatever you command."
Then Taidou set up posts of wood for a road, and they were barely wide enough to take a foot. He set them by counted paces, and he trod on them and walked. He went quickly back and forth without a stumble or a fall. Zao Fu learned it, and in three days he had the whole of that skill.
Taidou sighed and said,
"How quick you are! How swift your getting of it! Driving a carriage is like this as well. Just now, when you walked, you got it in your feet and answered it with your mind.
Push this over into driving. Make all even at the place of the reins and the bit, and quicken and slacken by the harmony of lip and mouth. Set the measure straight within your breast, and hold the beat between your palm and your grip.
Within, you gain it in your mind; without, you meet the will of the horses. So going forward and drawing back, you tread the marking line; turning and bending, you meet the compass and the square; and you take the road and come far and still have breath and strength to spare. Truly then you have got that art.
Gain it at the bit and answer it at the reins; gain it at the reins and answer it at the hand; gain it at the hand and answer it in the mind. Then you do not look with your eyes and you do not drive with the whip. Your mind is at ease and your body is upright, the six reins are not tangled, the four and twenty hooves set down without a miss, and in turning and going forward and drawing back there is nothing that does not meet the beat.
Only then can you make it so that outside the wheels of the carriage no track is left over, and outside the hooves of the horses no ground is left over. You will never have noticed the steepness of mountain and valley or the flatness of plain and marsh, for to your eye they are one. My art is spent. Mark it well."
魏黑卵以暱嫌殺丘邴章，丘邴章之子來丹謀報父之讐。丹氣甚猛，形甚露，計粒而食，順風而趨。雖怒，不能稱兵以報之。恥假力於人，誓手劍以屠黑卵。黑卵悍志絕衆，力抗百夫；節骨皮肉，非人類也，延頸承刀，披胸受矢，鋩鍔摧屈，而體無痕撻。負其材力，視來丹猶雛鷇也。來丹之友申他曰：「子怨黑卵至矣，黑卵之易子過矣，將奚謀焉？」來丹垂涕曰：「願子爲我謀。」申他曰：「吾聞衛孔周其祖得殷帝之寶劍，一童子服之，卻三軍之衆，奚不請焉？」來丹遂適衛，見孔周，執僕御之禮，請先納妻子，後言所欲。孔周曰：「吾有三劍，唯子所擇；皆不能殺人，且先言其狀。一曰含光，視之不可見，運之不知有。其所觸也，泯然無際，經物而物不覺。二曰承影，將旦昧爽之交，日夕昏明之際，北面而察之，淡淡焉若有物存，莫識其狀。其所觸也，竊竊然有聲，經物而物不疾也。三曰宵練，方晝則見影而不見光，方夜見光而不見形。其觸物也，騞然而過，隨過隨合，覺疾而不血刃焉。此三寶者，傳之十三世矣，而無施於事。匣而藏之，未嘗啓封。」來丹曰：「雖然，吾必請其下者。」孔周乃歸其妻子，與齋七日。晏陰之間，跪而授其下劍，來丹再拜受之以歸。來丹遂執劍從黑卵。時黑卵之醉偃於牖下，自頸至腰三斬之，黑卵不覺。來丹以黑卵之死，趣而退。遇黑卵之子於門，擊之三下，如投虛。黑卵之子方笑曰：「汝何蚩而三招予？」來丹知劍之不能殺人也，歎而歸。黑卵既醒，怒其妻曰：「醉而露我，使我嗌疾而腰急。」其子曰：「疇昔來丹之來，遇我於門，三招我，亦使我體疾而支彊。彼其厭我哉！」
Hei Luan (黑卵) of Wei (魏) killed Qiu Bingzhang (丘邴章) out of a private grudge, and Lai Dan (來丹), the son of Qiu Bingzhang, plotted to avenge his father. Lai Dan's spirit was very fierce, but his body was very thin. He counted the grains he ate, and he walked with the wind behind him. However angry he was, he could not take up a weapon to avenge himself. He was ashamed to borrow the strength of another man, and he swore to take a sword in his own hand and cut Hei Luan down.
Hei Luan's fierce will went beyond the crowd, and his strength stood against a hundred men. His joints and bones and skin and flesh were not of the kind of men. He stretched out his neck to take a blade and bared his breast to take an arrow, and the edge and the point were broken and bent, and there was not so much as a mark on his body. Trusting his own gifts and strength, he looked on Lai Dan as on a newly hatched chick.
Shen Ta (申他), Lai Dan's friend, said, "Your grudge against Hei Luan is at its height, and Hei Luan's contempt for you goes too far. What do you mean to plot?"
Lai Dan shed tears and said, "I wish you would plot it for me."
Shen Ta said, "I have heard that the forefather of Kong Zhou (孔周) of Wey (衛) got the treasured swords of the sovereign of Yin, and that if one boy wears one of them he turns back the host of three armies. Why not ask for it?"
So Lai Dan went at last to Wey and saw Kong Zhou. He held to the forms of a servant and a driver, and he said that he would first hand over his wife and children and afterward speak of what he wished.
Kong Zhou said,
"I have three swords. Choose as you will. None of them can kill a man. First let me tell you their manner.
The first is called Hanguang (含光). Look at it and it cannot be seen; wield it and you do not know it is there. Where it touches there is so faint a thing that it has no edge, and it passes through a thing and the thing does not notice.
The second is called Chengying (承影). At the turn when dawn is breaking, and at the edge of dusk between dark and light, face north and look closely, and dimly there seems to be something there, but its manner cannot be made out. Where it touches there is a soft sound, and it passes through a thing and the thing feels no hurt.
The third is called Xiaolian (宵練). By day you see its shadow and not its light; by night you see its light and not its shape. When it touches a thing it goes through with a whisk, and as it passes the thing closes up again, and the thing feels the hurt, but no blood stains the blade.
These three treasures have been handed down through thirteen generations, but they have never been used in any matter. They are kept shut in a case, and the seal has never been opened."
Lai Dan said, "Even so, I must ask for the lowest of them."
So Kong Zhou sent his wife and children back, and he fasted with him for seven days. In a dim and clouded hour he knelt and handed him the lowest sword, and Lai Dan bowed twice and took it and went home.
Then Lai Dan took the sword and went after Hei Luan. Hei Luan happened to be lying drunk under a window, and Lai Dan cut him three times from the neck down to the waist, and Hei Luan did not notice. Lai Dan thought Hei Luan was dead and hurried away. At the gate he met Hei Luan's son, and he struck him three times, and it was like striking empty air. Then Hei Luan's son laughed and said, "Why are you so foolish as to call me three times?"
Lai Dan knew that the sword could not kill a man, and he sighed and went home.
When Hei Luan woke, he was angry with his wife and said, "You left me lying open when I was drunk, and made my throat ache and my waist draw tight."
His son said, "Yesterday Lai Dan came and met me at the gate and called me three times, and that too made my body ache and my limbs stiffen. He must have pressed a spell on us."
周穆王大征西戎，西戎獻錕鋙之劍，火浣之布。其劍長尺有咫，練鋼赤刃，用之切玉如切泥焉。火浣之布，浣之必投於火，布則火色，垢則布色；出火而振之，皓然疑乎雪。皇子以爲無此物，傳之者妄。蕭叔曰：「皇子果於自信，果於誣理哉！」
King Mu of Zhou made a great campaign against the Xirong, and the Xirong presented a sword of Kunwu (錕鋙) and cloth of huohuan (火浣).
That sword was a foot and eight inches long, of tempered steel with a red edge, and when it was used to cut jade it cut as though it were cutting mud.
The cloth of huohuan must be thrown into the fire to be washed. The cloth takes the color of the fire, and the dirt takes the color of the cloth. Take it out of the fire and shake it, and it is so white that you would take it for snow.
Huangzi (皇子) said that there was no such thing, and that those who handed down the tale spoke recklessly. Xiao Shu (蕭叔) said, "How bold Huangzi is in his own belief, and how bold in giving the lie to reason!"