Yang Zhu楊朱篇

Yang Zhu was traveling in Lu and lodged at the house of the Meng family. Meng asked, "If a man is a man, that is enough. What is a name for?"

He said, "By a name one grows rich."

"Once rich, why not stop?"

He said, "To become honored."

"Once honored, why not stop?"

He said, "For the sake of death."

"Once dead, what use is it?"

He said, "For one's sons and grandsons."

"What does a name add to sons and grandsons?"

He said, "A name wearies the body and burns the heart. Yet one who rides on his name brings favor to his kin and profit to his whole village. How much more to his sons and grandsons."

"Whoever works for a name must be honest, and being honest he grows poor. Whoever works for a name must yield, and yielding he grows lowly."

He said, "When Guan Zhong was minister of Qi, if the ruler was licentious he too was licentious, and if the ruler was extravagant he too was extravagant. Their aims agreed and his words were followed, the way was carried out and the state became first among the states. After he died there was only the Guan family.

When the Tian clan were ministers of Qi, if the ruler filled up they brought themselves down, and if the ruler gathered in they gave out. The people all turned to them, and by this they took the state of Qi. Their sons and grandsons have enjoyed it, and to this day it has not ceased.

In this way a true name is poor and a false name is rich."

He said, "In what is true there is no name, and in a name there is nothing true. A name is falsehood, nothing more. Long ago Yao and Shun falsely yielded the world to Xu You and Shan Juan, and they did not lose the world, and they enjoyed their fortune for a hundred years. Bo Yi and Shu Qi truly yielded the lordship of Guzhu, and in the end they lost their state and starved to death on Mount Shouyang. The parting of the true and the false is as plain as this."

Yang Zhu said,

"A hundred years is the utmost limit of a life. Not one man in a thousand reaches a hundred years. Suppose there were one. The time held in arms as a child and the time of dim old age take up nearly half of it. The time lost in sleep at night and the time let slip while awake by day take up nearly half again. The times of pain and sickness, of grief and hardship, of loss and worry and fear, take up nearly half again.

And if one counts the ten-odd years that are left, there is not a single hour in which a man is at ease with himself and free of one lodged care.

Then what does a man live for? What is there to enjoy? Fine clothes and rich food, sounds and colors, and nothing else. Yet fine clothes and rich food cannot always be had to the full, and sounds and colors cannot always be enjoyed and heard.

On top of this he is forbidden and urged on by punishment and reward, and advanced and set back by name and law. In his haste he contends for the empty praise of an hour and plots for the glory left over after his death. Stumbling along, he follows what his ears and eyes hear and see and guards what his body and mind hold right and wrong, and so he loses in vain the highest joy of his own years and cannot let himself go for a single hour. How does this differ from a heavy convict piled with fetters?

The men of high antiquity knew that life comes for a moment and that death goes for a moment. So they moved as their hearts went and did not cross what nature itself loved. The pleasure of their own bodies was not a thing to put away, so a name did not urge them on. They wandered as their nature led and did not cross what the ten thousand things loved. A name after death was not a thing to take, so punishment did not reach them. Whether name and praise came early or late, whether their years and their life span were many or few, these were not things they reckoned."

Yang Zhu said,

"What makes the ten thousand things differ is life, and what makes them the same is death. In life there are the worthy and the foolish, the honored and the lowly, and this is what differs. In death there is rotting and vanishing, and this is what is the same.

Even so, being worthy or foolish, honored or lowly, is not in anyone's power, and rotting and vanishing are not in anyone's power either. So life is not something made to live and death is not something made to die, the worthy is not something made worthy and the foolish is not something made foolish, the honored is not something made honored and the lowly is not something made lowly.

Thus the ten thousand things live alike and die alike, are worthy alike and foolish alike, honored alike and lowly alike. He who lives ten years dies, and he who lives a hundred years dies. The kind and the holy die, and the cruel and the foolish die. In life they are Yao and Shun, in death rotten bones. In life they are Jie and Zhou, in death rotten bones. Rotten bones are all one, and who can tell them apart? Go forward while you are alive. What leisure is there to look after what comes after death?"

Yang Zhu said, "It was not that Bo Yi had no desires. He was so proud of his purity that he came to starve to death. It was not that Zhan Ji (展季) had no feelings. He was so proud of his uprightness that his kin grew few. So do purity and uprightness spoil what is good."

Yang Zhu said, "Yuan Xian (原憲) was poor in Lu, and Zigong increased his wealth in Wey (衛). The poverty of Yuan Xian took from his life, and the wealth of Zigong bound his body."

"Then poverty will not do and wealth will not do. Where does what will do lie?"

He said, "What will do lies in enjoying life, and it lies in setting the body at ease. So one who is good at enjoying life is not poor, and one who is good at setting his body at ease does not pile up wealth."

Yang Zhu said,

"An old saying goes, 'In life men pity one another, and in death they cast one another away.' This saying is perfect.

The way of pitying one another is not feeling alone. It is to give rest to the weary, to fill the hungry, to warm the cold, and to open a way for the blocked. The way of casting one another away is not a failure to grieve for one another. It is to put no pearl or jade in the mouth, to clothe the dead in no figured silk, to set out no sacrificial beasts, and to lay down no burial vessels (明器).

Yan Pingzhong asked Guan Yiwu about nurturing life. Guan Yiwu said, 'Let it go, that is all. Do not block it and do not dam it.'

Yan Pingzhong said, 'What are the particulars?'

Yiwu said,

'Let the ear go where it wishes to hear, let the eye go where it wishes to see, let the nose go where it wishes to turn, let the mouth go where it wishes to speak, let the body go where it wishes to rest, and let the mind go where it wishes to move.

Now what the ear wishes to hear is sound, and when it cannot hear, this is called blocking the hearing. What the eye wishes to see is beautiful color, and when it cannot see, this is called blocking the sight. What the nose wishes to turn to is pepper plant and orchid, and when it cannot smell, this is called blocking the nose. What the mouth wishes to say is what is right and wrong, and when it cannot speak, this is called blocking the understanding. What the body wishes to rest in is what is fine and rich, and when it cannot follow this, this is called blocking its ease. What the mind wishes to do is to roam free, and when it cannot do so, this is called blocking the nature.

All these blockings are the masters that ruin a man and make him cruel. To put away the masters that ruin and make cruel, and to wait for death in contentment, whether for a day, a month, a year, or ten years, is what I call nurturing. To hold fast to these masters that ruin and make cruel, to keep them and not let them go, and to come in sorrow to a long life, whether of a hundred years, a thousand years, or ten thousand years, is not what I call nurturing.'

Guan Yiwu said, 'I have told you how to nurture life. How then does one send off the dead?'

Yan Pingzhong said, 'Sending off the dead is a small matter. What is there to tell?'

Guan Yiwu said, 'I truly wish to hear it.'

Pingzhong said, 'Once I am dead, how does it rest with me? To burn me will do, to sink me in water will do, to bury me will do, to leave me in the open will do. To wrap me in brushwood and throw me into a ditch will do, and to dress me in a dragon robe and embroidered skirt and lay me in a stone coffin will do. It is only as it happens to fall out.'

Guan Yiwu looked round at Bao Shu and Huangzi and said, 'The two of us have gone to the end of the way of life and death.'"

Zichan became minister of Zheng and held the government of the state alone. In three years the good submitted to his teaching and the wicked feared his prohibitions. Zheng was well governed, and the other lords were wary of him.

But he had an elder brother, Gongsun Chao (公孫朝), and a younger brother, Gongsun Mu (公孫穆). Chao loved wine and Mu loved women.

In Chao's house a thousand measures of wine were gathered and the yeast was piled into a mound, and a hundred paces from the gate the smell of dregs and liquor struck a man's nose. While he was sunk in wine he did not know whether the way of the world was safe or in peril, whether the ways of men were to be regretted or were shameful, whether there was anything in the house or nothing, whether the nine degrees of kin were near or far, or whether the living and the dead were a grief or a joy. Though water and fire and the blades of weapons passed before him, he did not know it.

In Mu's back courtyard there were dozens of rooms set side by side, and he filled them all with women chosen for their youth and softness. While he was sunk in women he shut out his kin and intimates, broke off his friendships and outings, and hid in the back courtyard, filling the night out with the day. He came out once in three months, and still his mind was not satisfied. If there was a girl in the district who was fair and comely, he would always send goods to summon her and a go-between to entice her, and he did not stop until he had failed to get her.

Zichan worried over this day and night. He went quietly to Deng Xi and took counsel with him.

"I have heard that a man orders his own person and so reaches his household, and orders his household and so reaches the state. This means that one goes from the near to the far. As for me, the state is well governed, but my household is in disorder. Has the way been turned upside down? By what means can I save these two men? Tell me, sir."

Deng Xi said, "I have wondered at it for a long time, but I did not dare to speak first. Why do you not take them while their powers hold, and awaken them with the weight of life, and lead them on with the honor of ritual and right?"

Zichan used Deng Xi's words. He took an opening, called on his elder brother and his younger brother, and told them,

"What makes a man nobler than the birds and beasts is understanding and thought. What understanding and thought lead to is ritual and right. When ritual and right are achieved, name and position follow. But if you move as your feelings prompt and sink into your appetites and desires, your lives are in peril. If you take in my words, you will repent in the morning and eat the salary of office by evening."

Chao and Mu said,

"We have known this a long while, and we chose a long while ago. Why should we wait for your words to know it? Life is hard to meet with, and death comes easily. Taking a life that is hard to meet with and waiting for a death that comes easily, what is there to think about?

Yet you would honor ritual and right in order to boast before others, and bend your feelings and your nature in order to call up a name. We hold that to be worse than dying.

We wish to exhaust the delights of one lifetime and go to the end of the joys of our years. Our only fear is that a full belly will keep our mouths from drinking as they please, and that a worn-out strength will keep us from giving our feelings free rein with women. We have no leisure to worry that our name and repute are ugly, or that our lives are in peril.

Moreover you boast to others of your skill in governing a state, and you wish to disturb our minds with your arguments and to please our hearts with glory and salary. Is this not low and pitiable?

We would also settle the matter with you. Now one who is good at governing what is outside does not necessarily bring things into order, and his own person suffers as well. One who is good at governing what is inside does not necessarily throw things into disorder, and his nature is at ease as well.

Your way of governing what is outside may be practiced for a while in one state, but it does not fit the hearts of men. Our way of governing what is inside may be pushed out over the world, and the way of ruler and subject would come to an end. We have long wished to awaken you with this art of ours, and now you would teach us with that art of yours."

Zichan was dazed and had nothing to answer. Another day he told Deng Xi of it. Deng Xi said, "You live with true men and do not know it. Who would call you a man of understanding? That Zheng is well governed is chance, and it is no achievement of yours."

Duanmu Shu (端木叔) of Wey (衛) was a descendant of Zigong. Leaning on the goods of his forefather, he had ten thousand pieces of gold piled up in his house. He did not attend to the affairs of the world and let his mind go where it pleased. There was nothing men wish to do that he did not do, and nothing the mind of man wishes to enjoy that he did not enjoy.

His walls and houses, his terraces and pavilions, his gardens and ponds, his food and drink, his carriages and clothes, his music and his women matched those of the rulers of Qi and Chu. As for what his feelings loved, what his ears wished to hear, what his eyes wished to see, and what his mouth wished to taste, even if a thing came from a far and distant land and was not grown in the soil of Qi, there was none he did not have brought to him, as though it were a thing inside his own fence. When he traveled, though mountains and rivers barred the way and were steep, and though the road was long, there was nowhere he did not go, as though a man were walking a few paces.

The guests in his courtyard were more than a hundred a day, the smoke and fire below his kitchen never ceased, and the sound of music on his hall and side rooms never ceased.

What was left over from keeping his household he first scattered among his kin. What was left over from his kin he scattered next among the towns and villages. What was left over from the towns and villages he then scattered through the whole state.

At sixty, when his breath and frame were about to fail, he gave up the affairs of his house and scattered all of it, his storehouses, his treasures, his carriages and clothes, and his concubines. Within one year it was all gone, and he left no goods for his sons and grandsons.

When he fell ill he had nothing laid by for medicine and needles, and when he died he had nothing to pay for his burial. The people of the whole state who had received his gifts gathered together, laid him in the ground, and gave back his goods to his sons and grandsons.

Qin Huali (禽滑釐) heard of it and said, "Duanmu Shu was a madman. He brought shame on his forefather."

Duangan Sheng (段干生) heard of it and said, "Duanmu Shu was a man of open mind. His power went beyond his forefather's. What he did and what he carried out startle the minds of the many, but true reason takes his part. Among the gentlemen of Wey there are many who hold themselves up by ritual and teaching, and they truly fall short of reaching this man's heart."

Mengsun Yang asked Yang Zhu, "Suppose there is a man here who holds life precious and loves his body, and by this he seeks never to die. Will it do?"

He said, "By the nature of things there is no not dying."

"If he seeks to live long, will it do?"

He said,

"By the nature of things there is no living long. Life cannot be kept by holding it precious, and the body cannot be made rich by loving it.

Besides, what is a long life for? What the five feelings love and hate was the same in old times as now. The safety and peril of the four limbs were the same in old times as now. The hardship and joy of the affairs of the world were the same in old times as now. Change and order and disorder were the same in old times as now. A man has heard it already, has seen it already, has passed through it already. Even a hundred years wearies him by its length. How much more the hardship of a long life."

Mengsun Yang said, "If that is so, a quick end is better than a long life. Then by treading on a blade and going into boiling water and fire, one would get what one wished for."

Yangzi said, "It is not so. Once you are alive, let go and leave it be, exhaust what you wish for, and wait for death. When you are about to die, let go and leave it be, exhaust where it takes you, and go on to the end. There is nothing not let go and nothing not left be. Why then quarrel over slow and quick in between?"

Yang Zhu said, "Bocheng Zigao (伯成子高) would not benefit another by so much as a hair, and he gave up his state and hid himself and plowed. Great Yu would not benefit himself with his own body, and half of his frame withered. The men of old would not give up a hair to benefit the world, and they would not take the whole world offered up to one body. If no man gives up a hair and no man benefits the world, the world is in order."

Qinzi (禽子) asked Yang Zhu, "If you gave up one hair of your body and saved a whole age, would you do it?"

Yangzi said, "An age is certainly not a thing to be saved by one hair."

Qinzi said, "Suppose it saved it. Would you do it?"

Yangzi did not answer.

Qinzi went out and spoke to Mengsun Yang. Mengsun Yang said,

"You have not reached the master's mind. Let me speak of it. If someone broke your skin and you gained ten thousand pieces of gold, would you do it?"

He said, "I would."

Mengsun Yang said, "If someone cut off one joint of yours and you gained a whole state, would you do it?"

Qinzi was silent for a while.

Mengsun Yang said, "One hair is smaller than the skin and the skin is smaller than one joint. That is plain. Yet hair on hair makes up the skin, and skin on skin makes up one joint. One hair is surely one thing among the ten thousand parts of a body. How can you make light of it?"

Qinzi said, "I do not know how to answer you. Yet if your words were put to Lao Dan and Guan Yin, your words would be the right ones, and if my words were put to Great Yu and Mo Di, my words would be the right ones."

At this Mengsun Yang looked round at his followers and spoke of other things.

Yang Zhu said,

"All the beauty of the world goes to Shun and Yu and the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, and all the wickedness of the world goes to Jie and Zhou.

Yet Shun plowed at Heyang and fired pots at Leize, and his four limbs had not a moment's ease and his mouth and belly got nothing fine or rich. His parents did not love him and his younger brother and sister were not close to him. At thirty he took a wife without telling them. When he received the throne yielded by Yao his years were already many and his understanding already failing. Shang Jun (商鈞) had no talent, so he yielded the throne to Yu, and he came in sorrow to his death. Of all men under heaven this one was the most hemmed in and worn down.

Gun (鮌) governed the waters and the soil and did not bring his work to completion, and he was put to death at Mount Yu (羽山). Yu took up the task and served his father's enemy. He labored only at the work of the earth, and when a son was born to him he did not fondle him, and he passed his own gate without going in. Half of his frame withered and his hands and feet grew callused. Even after he received the throne yielded by Shun he kept his palace low and made only his robes of office fine, and he came in sorrow to his death. Of all men under heaven this one grieved and suffered most.

When King Wu came to his end, King Cheng was young and weak, and the Duke of Zhou took charge of the government of the Son of Heaven. The Duke of Shao was not pleased, and rumors ran through the four states. He stayed three years in the east, cut down his elder brother and cast out his younger brother, and barely saved his own person, and he came in sorrow to his death. Of all men under heaven this one was in the most peril and fear.

Confucius made clear the way of emperors and kings and answered the summons of the rulers of his time. A tree was felled over him in Song, his traces were wiped out in Wey, he was hemmed in between Shang and Zhou, he was surrounded between Chen and Cai, he was made to bend before the Ji clan and was put to shame by Yang Hu, and he came in sorrow to his death. Of all the people under heaven this one was the most harried.

Now these four sages had not one day of delight while they lived, and after their deaths they have a name for ten thousand generations. A name is truly not a thing that what is real takes to itself. Though men praise them they do not know it, and though men reward them they do not know it, and they are no different from a stump or a clod.

Jie leaned on the goods piled up by generations and sat in the honor of the south-facing seat. His understanding was enough to hold off those below him and his majesty was enough to shake all within the seas. He gave free rein to whatever his ears and eyes enjoyed and went to the end of whatever his mind and thought devised, and he came in contentment to his death. Of all the people under heaven this one was the most at ease and unrestrained.

Zhou too leaned on the goods piled up by generations and sat in the honor of the south-facing seat. There was nothing his majesty did not carry out and nothing his will did not have followed. He gave his feelings free rein in the Leaning Palace and let his desires go through the long night. He did not trouble himself with ritual and right, and he came in contentment to his execution. Of all the people under heaven this one was the most unbridled.

These two wicked men had the delight of following their desires while they lived, and after their deaths they bear the name of fools and tyrants. What is real is truly not a thing a name confers. Though men revile them they do not know it, and though men praise them they do not know it. How then are these also different from a stump or a clod?

Those four sages, though all beauty goes to them, came through hardship to the end and all alike went back to death. Those two wicked men, though all wickedness goes to them, came through pleasure to the end and also all alike went back to death."

Yang Zhu had audience with the king of Liang (梁) and said that governing the world was like rolling something on his palm.

The king of Liang said, "You have one wife and one concubine and cannot govern them, and you have a garden of three plots and cannot weed it, yet you say that governing the world is like rolling something on your palm. How is that?"

He answered,

"Has my lord seen a man herding sheep? A hundred sheep make a flock, and if you give a boy five feet tall a switch to carry and have him follow them, they go east when he wishes to go east and west when he wishes to go west. But have Yao lead one sheep and have Shun carry the switch and follow, and they will not go forward.

Moreover I have heard that a fish that swallows boats does not swim in branch streams, and that the great goose and the swan fly high and do not gather at a foul pond. Why is this? Because the range of their reach is far.

Huangzhong and Dalü cannot be made to follow the dance of a busy tune. Why is this? Because their sound is spare.

One who would govern great things does not govern small ones, and one who achieves great merit does not achieve little things. This is what that saying means."

Yang Zhu said,

"The affairs of high antiquity have vanished, and who set them down? The affairs of the Three Sovereigns seem to be there and seem to be gone, the affairs of the Five Emperors seem waking and seem a dream, and the affairs of the Three Kings are in part hidden and in part shown, and of a hundred million things we do not know one. Even of the affairs a man has passed through himself, some he has heard and some he has seen, and of ten thousand he does not know one. Even of the affairs before his eyes, some remain and some are lost, and of a thousand he does not know one.

From high antiquity down to this day the number of years can truly not all be written. Yet in the three hundred thousand years and more since Fu Xi, of worthiness and folly, of what is liked and what is loathed, of success and failure, of right and wrong, there is nothing that has not vanished away, and only the slow and the quick of it differ.

To take pride in the reviling and praise of an hour, and to burn and wear out one's spirit and form for it, and to seek a name lingering for a few hundred years after death, how could that moisten dry bones? What joy is there in such a life?"

Yang Zhu said,

"Man is like the kinds of heaven and earth and holds within him the nature of the five constants, and he is the most numinous of living things.

Man's nails and teeth are not enough to guard him, his skin is not enough to ward off harm by itself, his running is not enough to chase profit and flee from harm, and he has no fur or feathers to keep out cold and heat. He must lean on things to nourish himself, and he entrusts himself to understanding and does not rely on strength.

So what is precious in understanding is that it keeps me in being, and what is base in strength is that it does violence to things.

Yet this body is not mine to own, and once it is born it cannot but be kept whole. Things are not mine to own, and once they are here they cannot be put away. The body is truly the master of life, and things too are the masters of its nourishing.

Though a man keeps his life whole, he cannot own his body, and though he does not put things away, he cannot own those things. To own those things and to own that body is to take the body of the world as one's own by force, and to take the things of the world as one's own by force.

He who does not take the body of the world as his own by force, and does not take the things of the world as his own by force, is he not the sage alone? He who makes the body of the world common and makes the things of the world common, is he not the utmost man alone? This is what is called the utmost of the utmost."

Yang Zhu said,

"Men get no rest because of four things. The first is long life, the second is a name, the third is position, and the fourth is goods. Having these four, a man fears ghosts, fears men, fears authority, and fears punishment. Such a man is called a man in flight. He may be killed and he may be let live, and the measuring of his life lies outside him.

If he does not go against his life, why should he envy long years? If he does not take pride in honor, why should he envy a name? If he does not seek power, why should he envy position? If he is not greedy for riches, why should he envy goods? Such a man is called a man who goes along. There is nothing in the world to stand against him, and the measuring of his life lies within him.

So there is a saying: if men did not marry and take office, feelings and desires would lose half their force; if men did not clothe and feed themselves, the way of ruler and subject would come to an end.

A proverb of Zhou says, 'Sit a farmer down and you kill him.' Going out at dawn and coming in at night, he takes it for the constant of his nature. Chewing beans and eating bean leaves, he takes it for the height of flavor. His flesh and skin are coarse and thick and his sinews and joints are hard and taut. Set him one morning among soft furs and heavy curtains and serve him millet and meat and orchid and orange, and his heart aches and his body is stifled, and heat rises inside him and sickness is born. If the rulers of Shang and Lu were set on the same ground with the farmer, they too would be worn out before an hour was up.

So what the man of the fields is at ease in and what the man of the fields finds good, he calls a thing that nothing in the world surpasses.

Long ago in the state of Song there was a farmer who always wore hemp and old wadding and barely got through the winter. When spring came and the work of the east began, he sunned himself and did not know that there were broad halls and warm rooms in the world, and silk floss and fox and badger furs.

He looked round at his wife and said, 'No one knows the warmth of carrying the sun on one's back. If I offer this to our ruler, there will be a heavy reward.'

A man from a rich house in the village told him, 'Long ago there was a man who called beans delicious and hemp stalks and parsley and duckweed seed sweet, and praised them to the headman of the village. The headman took them and tasted them, and his mouth burned and his belly ached, and everyone laughed at him and held it against him. That man was greatly ashamed. You are of that sort.'"

Yang Zhu said,

"A full house, fine clothes, rich flavors, and lovely color. Having these four, what should one seek outside? To have these and still seek outside is a nature that is never sated. A nature that is never sated is a worm in the yin and the yang.

Loyalty is not enough to make a ruler safe, and it is just enough to put one's own person in peril. Right is not enough to profit others, and it is just enough to harm one's life. If making those above safe does not come from loyalty, the name of loyalty vanishes. If profiting others does not come from right, the name of right is cut off. That ruler and subject are both safe, and that others and I profit alike, is the way of old.

Yuzi said, 'He who puts away a name has no cares.' Laozi said, 'A name is the guest of what is real.' Yet men drift on and never stop chasing a name.

Is a name truly a thing that cannot be put away? Is a name truly a thing that cannot be made a guest? Now with a name a man is honored and glorious, and without a name he is low and shamed. Honored and glorious, he is at ease and happy; low and shamed, he is troubled and in hardship. To be troubled and in hardship goes against the nature, and to be at ease and happy follows the nature. This is where what is real is bound up. How can a name be put away? How can a name be made a guest?

It is only hateful that men guard a name and so entangle what is real. If a man guards a name and entangles what is real, he will have to worry that peril and ruin cannot be saved from. How could it be merely a matter of the difference between ease and happiness and trouble and hardship?"