Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy Part 26

. . . Kongzi's student Zigong71 wandered south to Chu and was returning through Jin. As he pa.s.sed the south bank of the Han River, he saw an old man gardening a small plot. He'd dug a tunnel for a well and was coming out carrying a jug to water his fields. He was huffing and puffing, working hard for little reward.

Zigong said, "There's a machine now that can water a hundred gardens in one day. You get a big reward for easy work. Wouldn't you like one, sir?"

The gardener raised his head to look at him. "How does it work?"

"You carve the contraption72 out of a piece of wood. The back is heavy and the front is light. You can lift the water with one hand, until it's practically bubbling over. It's called a well sweep."73 The gardener flushed angrily and laughed, "I heard from my teacher that where there are mechanical contraptions there will be mechanical business, and where there is mechanical business there are mechanical minds. With a mechanical mind, you cannot preserve your simplicity. When you cannot preserve your simplicity, your spiritual life is unsettled, and the Way will not support an unsettled spiritual life. I'm not ignorant of your contraption. I would be embarra.s.sed to use it!" . . .

When the freak gives birth in the middle of the night, she reaches frantically for a torch, gasping, worrying only whether the child74 looks like her. . . .

Chapter Thirteen: Heaven's Way.

. . . The sage is calm, but not because he declares calmness good. None of the ten thousand things are enough to rattle his mind, so he is calm. When water is calm, you can see the wispy hair on your temples in it. Its surface is level and sets the standard for great builders. If water is so clear when calm, how much more so the spirit! The calm mind of the sage is a mirror to Heaven and earth and a looking gla.s.s for the ten thousand things. . . .

Duke Huan75 was reading a book up in his hall. Wheelwright Slab was chiseling a wheel [in the courtyard] below.76 He put down his hammer and chisel and ascended, asking Duke Huan, "Excuse me. What are you reading?"

The Duke said, "The words of the sages."

"Are the sages still around?"

The Duke said, "They're dead."

"Then what M'Lord is reading is nothing more than the leftovers of the ancients."

Duke Huan said, "How dare a wheelwright criticize what We read? If you have an explanation, okay. If not, you die!"

Wheelwright Slab said, "Your servant looks at it from the point of view of his own business. When I chisel a wheel, if I hit too softly, it slips and won't bite. If I hit too hard, it jams and won't move. Neither too soft nor too hard-I get it in my hand and respond with my mind. But my mouth cannot put it into words. There is an art to it. But your servant can't show it to his own son, and he can't get it from me. I've done it this way seventy years and am growing old chiseling wheels. The ancients died with what they could not pa.s.s down. So what M'Lord is reading can only be their leftovers."

Chapter Fourteen: Heaven's Turning.

. . . For traveling on water there's nothing like a boat. For traveling on land, there's nothing like a cart. But though a boat can go on water, if you try pus.h.i.+ng it on land, you can push until you die and not go an inch. Aren't past and present like water and land? Aren't the states of Zhou and Lu like boats and carts? Those who insist on using the ways of Zhou in Lu might as well be pus.h.i.+ng a boat on land. They exhaust themselves without success and bring certain misfortune on their heads. They do not know the directionless revolution that responds to things without tiring. . . .

The beautiful Xi s.h.i.+ had a stomach ache and glowered at the villagers. When her ugly neighbor saw how good she looked that way, he went home clasping his stomach and glowering at his neighbors, too, until the wealthy people slammed their windows and doors and the poor grabbed their children and ran. . . .

Chapter Seventeen: Autumn Floods.

. . . The kui77 said to the millipede, "I go hippety-flopping on one foot, and there's nothing like it! How do you manage those ten thousand feet of yours?"

The millipede said, "It's not like that. Haven't you seen a man spit? He just hawks and-drops big as pearls! fine as mist! mixing and falling! You can't count them all! I just put my heavenly mechanism into motion. I don't know how it works!"

The millipede said to the snake, "I use this mob of legs to walk but still don't match up to you with none at all. How do you do it?"

The snake said, "The heavenly mechanism does it. What could be easier? What use would I have for legs?"

The snake said to the wind, "I move with just my ribs and spine. But I still seem to exist. You bl.u.s.ter up from the north sea and bl.u.s.ter off to the south sea, but you don't seem to be anything at all. How do you do it?"

The wind said, "Yes, I bl.u.s.ter up from the north sea and off to the south sea. But a finger raised against me can stop me. A screen can beat me. Even so, only I can snap huge trees and lift great buildings, because I turn all those little defeats into a great victory. Only the sage is capable of the great victory."

Did you hear about the frog in the collapsed well? He said to the turtle of the eastern sea, "Aren't I happy! I come out and spring on the railing, or I go in and rest in the hollow of a missing brick. When I float in the water, it hugs me under the arms and supports my chin. When I stomp in the mud, my feet sink in until it covers my ankles. Look around at the larvae and shrimp and polliwogs. None of them can match me! To control the water of an entire gully and straddle the happiness of a whole collapsed well-this is really getting somewhere! Why don't you come in some time and see?"

Before the turtle of the eastern sea could get his left foot in, his right knee was already stuck. He teetered and fell back, and then began to tell of the sea. "A thousand li wouldn't measure its breadth. A thousand fathoms wouldn't plumb its depths. In Yu's time there were floods nine years in ten, but its waters never rose. In Tang's time there were droughts seven years in eight, but its sh.o.r.es never receded. Not to change or s.h.i.+ft for an instant or ever, not to advance or retreat a little or a lot-that's the happiness of the eastern sea."

When the frog in the caved-in well heard this, he spluttered in surprise and forgot who he was. . . .

Did you hear about the toddler from Shouling who studied walking in Handan? Before he learned the local walk, he'd lost his native gait and had to shuffle home on his hands and knees.78. . .

Zhuangzi was angling by the Pu River when the king of Chu sent two officers to him, saying, "We would like to trouble you with administering Our kingdom."

Without looking up from his pole, Zhuangzi said, "I've heard Chu has a sacred turtle. It's been dead three thousand years and the king keeps it wrapped and boxed and stored up in his ancestral hall. Now, would that turtle rather have its bones treasured in death, or be alive dragging its tail in the mud?"

The two officers said, "It would rather be alive dragging its tail in the mud."

Zhuangzi said, "Go! I'll keep my tail in the mud, too.". . .

Zhuangzi and Huizi were wandering on a bridge over the Hao River. Zhuangzi said, "Look at those mottled fish out wandering at ease. That's what fish like!"

Huizi said, "You are not a fish. How do you know what fish like?"

Zhuangzi said, "You are not me. How do you know I don't know what fish like?"

Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. And since you're not a fish, you don't know what fish like. There, perfect!"

Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to the beginning. When you asked how I knew what fish like, you had to know I knew already in order to ask. I know it by the Hao River-that's how."79

Chapter Eighteen: Perfect Happiness.

. . . When Zhuangzi's wife died, Huizi came to mourn her. At that moment, Zhuangzi was squatting down, beating on a tub, and singing.

Huizi said, "You lived with this person, raised children, and grew old together. Not to cry when she died would be bad enough. But to beat on a tub singing! Isn't that too much?"

Zhuangzi said, "No. When she first died, don't you think I was like everyone else? But then I considered her beginning, before she was alive. Not only before she had life, but before she had form. Not only before she had form, but before she had qi.

In all the mixed-up bustle and confusion, something changed and there was qi. The qi changed and there was form. The form changed and she had life. Today there was another change and she died. It's just like the round of the four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. She was resting quietly, perfectly at home, and I followed her crying 'Wah-hah!' It seemed like I hadn't comprehended fate. So I stopped.". . .

Chapter Nineteen: Penetrating Life.

. . . Yan Hui said to Kongzi, "I once crossed the depths at Goblet Gulf. The ferryman handled the boat like a spiritual being. I asked him, 'Can a person learn to handle a boat like that?' He said, 'A good swimmer can master the ability. And a diver can handle it easily even if he's never seen a boat before.' I asked him for more but he wouldn't tell me. May I ask you what he meant?" Kongzi said, "A good swimmer can master it because he forgets the water. A diver can handle it easily without ever seeing a boat before because he views the depths like a hillside and a flipped boat like a slipping cart. The ten thousand things could all flip and slip in front of him and they wouldn't get in his front door. Where could he go and not be at ease? Betting for tiles, you're good. Betting for buckles, you worry. Betting for gold, you panic. Your skill is the same, but you care, so you value what is on the outside. Those who value what is on the outside are clumsy on the inside.". . .

Chapter Twenty: The Mountain Tree.

. . . Zhuangzi was wandering by the edge of the Diaoling preserve when he saw a strange magpie flying up from the south. Her wings were seven feet across and her eyes were an inch around. She b.u.mped into his forehead and then crashed in a chestnut grove. He said, "What kind of bird is this, with such magnificent wings that don't get it anywhere and such big eyes that can't see?"80 Hitching up his robes and tiptoeing forward, he pursued it, bow in hand. He saw a cicada forgetting itself in a pretty bit of shade. A praying mantis took advantage of the cover to grab for it, forgetting its own body at the sight of gain. The strange magpie was right behind, eyeing the prize and forgetting its truth. Zhuangzi shuddered. "Eeeee! Things certainly entangle one another, each one dragging in the next!" He threw down his bow and ran back the way he came-but then the warden of the grove saw and pursued him, cursing.

Zhuangzi went home and didn't come out for three days. His attendant, Straw, asked, "Sir, why haven't you left the house recently?"

Zhuangzi said, "I was guarding my body but forgot myself. I looked at muddy water and mistook it for clear depths. I've heard my teacher say, 'Out in the world, follow its rules.' Now I was wandering by Diaoling and forgot myself. A strange magpie b.u.mped my forehead, wandered into the chestnut grove, and forgot its truth. And the grove warden took me for a poacher! That's why I haven't been out.". . .

Chapter Twenty-Two: Knowledge Wandered North.

. . . Master East Wall asked Zhuangzi, "Where is this so-called Way?"

Zhuangzi said, "There's nowhere it isn't."

Master East Wall said, "You must be more specific."

Zhuangzi said, "It's in an ant."

"How about even lower?"

"It's in the gra.s.s."

"How about lower still?"

"In tiles."

"How about even lower than that?"

"It's in dung and urine."

When Master East Wall did not reply, Zhuangzi said, "Your questions don't reach the substance. When the inspector of the hunt asked the superintendent of the market about poking pigs for fatness, he was told the lower the better. But you shouldn't insist on that. There is nowhere it isn't. The perfect Way is like this and so are great words. 'Whole,' 'everywhere,' and 'all' are three different names for the same thing, making a single point.". . .

Chapter Twenty-Three: Mister Gengsang Chu.

. . . People who have had their feet cut off forsake jewelry, because they are beyond praise and blame. Chained convicts are not afraid of heights because they have left life and death behind them. They have given up. They do not care. They have forgotten other people, and by forgetting other people they have become people of Heaven. You can honor them and they won't be pleased. You can despise them and they won't be mad. Only those who have identified with Heaven's harmony are like this. . . .

Chapter Twenty-Four: Mister Ghostless Slow.

. . . Zhuangzi was accompanying a funeral when he pa.s.sed by Huizi's grave. Turning to his attendants, he said, "When Plaster Monkey got a speck of mud on his nose as thick as a fly's wing, he would ask Builder Stone to slice if off. Builder Stone would twirl his axe like the wind and chop away obediently, getting all the mud and leaving the nose unharmed, while the plasterer stood there without changing his expression. Years later, when Plaster Monkey had pa.s.sed away, Lord Yuan of Song81 heard about the trick and summoned Builder Stone.

"'Do it for Us!" he commanded.

"Builder Stone replied, 'I was able to do it once, but the material I worked with died long ago.'

"Since my own teacher died," Zhuangzi continued, "I have been without material. I have no one to talk to.". . .

Kongzi said, "I have heard the unspoken speech but I've never tried to speak it . . . I wish I had a beak a yard long!"82. . .

Chapter Twenty-Six: Outside Things.