Tian Zifang was sitting in attendance on Marquis Wen of Wei.[1] When he repeatedly praised one Qi Gong, Marquis Wen asked, “Is Qi Gong your teacher?”

“No,” replied Zifang. “He comes from the same neighborhood as I do. Discussing the Way with him, I’ve found he often hits the mark—that’s why I praise him.”

“Have you no teacher then?” asked Marquis Wen.

“I have,” said Zifang.

“Who is your teacher?”

“Master Shun from east of the Wall,” said Zifang.

“Then why have you never praised him?” asked Marquis Wen.

Zifang said, “He’s the kind of man who is True—the face of a human being, the emptiness of Heaven. He follows along and keeps tight hold of the True; pure, he can encompass all things. If men do not have the Way, he has only to put on a straight face, and they are enlightened; he causes men’s intentions to melt away. But how could any of this be worth praising!”

Zifang retired from the room, and Marquis Wen, stupefied, sat for the rest of the day in silence. Then he called to the ministers who stood in attendance on him and said, “How far away he is—the gentleman of Complete Virtue! I used to think that the words of the wisdom of the sages and the practices of benevolence and righteousness were the highest ideal. But now that I have heard about Zifang’s teacher, my body has fallen apart, and I feel no inclination to move; my mouth is manacled, and I feel no inclination to speak. These things that I have been studying are so many clay dolls[2]—nothing more! This state of Wei is in truth only a burden to me!”

Wenbo Xuezi, journeying to Qi, stopped along the way in the state of Lu.[3] A man of Lu requested an interview with him, but Wenbo Xuezi said, “No indeed! I have heard of the gentlemen of these middle states—enlightened on the subject of ritual principles but stupid in their understanding of men’s hearts. I have no wish to see any such person.”

He arrived at his destination in Qi and, on his way home, had stopped again in Lu when the man once more requested an interview. Wenbo Xuezi said, “In the past he made an attempt to see me, and now he’s trying again. He undoubtedly has some means by which he hopes to ‘save’ me!”

He went out to receive the visitor and returned to his own rooms with a sigh. The following day, he received the visitor once more and once more returned with a sigh. His groom said, “Every time you receive this visitor, you come back sighing. Why is that?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? These men of the middle states are enlightened in ritual principles but stupid in the understanding of men’s hearts. Yesterday, when this man came to see me, his advancings and retirings were as precise as though marked by compass or T square. In looks and bearing, he was now a dragon, now a tiger. He remonstrated with me as though he were my son, offered me guidance as though he were my father! That is why I sighed.”

Confucius also went for an interview with Wenbo Xuezi but returned without having spoken a word. Zilu said, “You have been wanting to see Wenbo Xuezi for a long time. Now you had the chance to see him; why didn’t you say anything?”

Confucius said, “With that kind of man, one glance tells you that the Way is there before you. What room does that leave for any possibility of speech?”

* * *

Yan Yuan said to Confucius, “Master, when you walk, I walk; when you trot, I trot; when you gallop, I gallop. But when you break into the kind of dash that leaves even the dust behind, all I can do is stare after you in amazement!”

“Hui, what are you talking about?” asked the Master.

“When you walk, I walk—that is, I can speak just as you speak. When you trot, I trot—that is, I can make discriminations just as you do. When you gallop, I gallop—that is, I can expound the Way just as you do. But when you break into the kind of dash that leaves even the dust behind and all I can do is stare after you in amazement—by that I mean that you do not have to speak to be trusted, that you are catholic and not partisan,[4] that although you lack the regalia of high office, the people still congregate before you, and with all this, you do not know why it is so.”

“Ah,” said Confucius, “we had best look into this! There is no grief greater than the death of the mind—beside it, the death of the body is a minor matter. The sun rises out of the east, sets at the end of the west, and each one of the ten thousand things moves side by side with it. Creatures that have eyes and feet must wait for it before their success is complete. Its rising means they may go on living; its setting means they perish. For all the ten thousand things, it is thus. They must wait for something before they can die, wait for something before they can live. Having once received this fixed bodily form, I will hold on to it, unchanging, in this way waiting for the end. I move after the model of other things, day and night without break, but I do not know what the end will be. Mild, genial, my bodily form takes shape. I understand my fate, but I cannot fathom what has gone before it. This is the way I proceed, day after day.

“I have gone through life linked arm in arm with you, yet now you fail [to understand me]—is this not sad? You see in me, I suppose, the part that can be seen—but that part is already over and gone. For you to come looking for it, thinking it still exists, is like looking for a horse after the horse fair is over.[5] I serve you best when I have utterly forgotten you, and you likewise serve me best when you have utterly forgotten me. But even so, why should you repine? Even if you forget the old me, I will still possess something that will not be forgotten!”[6]

Confucius went to call on Lao Dan. Lao Dan had just finished washing his hair and had spread it over his shoulders to dry. Utterly motionless, he did not even seem to be human. Confucius, hidden from sight,[7] stood waiting and then, after some time, presented himself and exclaimed, “Did my eyes play tricks on me, or was that really true? A moment ago, sir, your form and body seemed stiff as an old dead tree, as though you had forgotten things, taken leave of men, and were standing in solitude itself!”

Lao Dan said, “I was letting my mind wander in the Beginning of things.”

“What does that mean?” asked Confucius.

“The mind may wear itself out but can never understand it; the mouth may gape but can never describe it. Nevertheless, I will try explaining it to you in rough outline.

“Perfect Yin is stern and frigid; Perfect Yang is bright and glittering. The sternness and frigidity come forth from heaven; the brightness and glitter emerge from the earth;[8] the two mingle, penetrate, come together, harmonize, and all things are born therefrom. Perhaps someone manipulates the cords that draw it all together, but no one has ever seen his form. Decay, growth, fullness, emptiness, now murky, now bright, the sun shifting, the moon changing phase—day after day these things proceed, yet no one has seen him bringing them about. Life has its sproutings, death its destination, end and beginning tail one another in unbroken round, and no one has ever heard of their coming to a stop. If it is not as I have described it, then who else could the Ancestor of all this be?”

Confucius said, “May I ask what it means to wander in such a place?”

Lao Dan said, “It means to attain Perfect Beauty and Perfect Happiness. He who attains Perfect Beauty and wanders in Perfect Happiness may be called the Perfect Man.”

Confucius said, “I would like to hear by what means this may be accomplished.”

“Beasts that feed on grass do not fret over a change of pasture; creatures that live in water do not fret over a change of stream. They accept the minor shift as long as the all-important constant is not lost. [Be like them,] and joy, anger, grief, and happiness can never enter your breast. In this world, the ten thousand things come together in One; and if you can find that One and become identical with it, then your four limbs and hundred joints will become dust and sweepings; life and death, beginning and end, will be mere day and night, and nothing whatever can confound you—certainly not the trifles of gain or loss, good or bad fortune!

“A man will discard the servants who wait on him as though they were so much earth or mud, for he knows that his own person is of more worth than the servants who tend it. Worth lies within yourself, and no external shift will cause it to be lost. And since the ten thousand transformations continue without even the beginning of an end, how could they be enough to bring anxiety to your mind? He who practices the Way understands all this.”[9]

Confucius said, “Your virtue, sir, is the very counterpart of Heaven and earth, and yet even you must employ these perfect teachings in order to cultivate your mind. Who, then, even among the fine gentlemen of the past, could have avoided such labors?”

“Not so!” said Lao Dan. “The murmuring of the water is its natural talent, not something that it does deliberately. The Perfect Man stands in the same relationship to virtue. Without cultivating it, he possesses it to such an extent that things cannot draw away from him. It is as natural as the height of heaven, the depth of the earth, the brightness of sun and moon. What is there to be cultivated?”

When Confucius emerged from the interview, he reported what had passed to Yan Hui, saying, “As far as the Way is concerned, I was a mere gnat in the vinegar jar! If the Master hadn’t taken off the lid for me, I would never have understood the Great Integrity of Heaven and earth!”

Zhuangzi went to see Duke Ai of Lu. Duke Ai said, “We have a great many Confucians here in the state of Lu, but there seem to be very few men who study your methods, sir!”

“There are few Confucians in the state of Lu!” said Zhuangzi.

“But the whole state of Lu is dressed in Confucian garb!” said Duke Ai. “How can you say they are few?”

“I have heard,” said Zhuangzi, “that the Confucians wear round caps on their heads to show that they understand the cycles of heaven, that they walk about in square shoes to show that they understand the shape of the earth, and that they tie ornaments in the shape of a broken disk at their girdles in order to show that when the time comes for decisive action, they must ‘make the break.’ But a gentleman may embrace a doctrine without necessarily wearing the garb that goes with it, and he may wear the garb without necessarily comprehending the doctrine. If Your Grace does not believe this is so, then why not try issuing an order to the state proclaiming: ‘All those who wear the garb without practicing the doctrine that goes with it will be sentenced to death!’”

Duke Ai did in fact issue such an order, and within five days there was no one in the state of Lu who dared wear Confucian garb. Only one old man came in Confucian dress and stood in front of the duke’s gate. The duke at once summoned him and questioned him on affairs of state, and though the discussion took a thousand turnings and ten thousand shifts, the old man was never at a loss for words. Zhuangzi said, “In the whole state of Lu, then, there is only one man who is a real Confucian. How can you say there are a great many of them?”

* * *

Boli Xi did not let title and stipend get inside his mind. He fed the cattle and the cattle grew fat, and this fact made Duke Mu of Qin forget Boli Xi’s lowly position and turn over the government to him.[10] Shun, the man of the Yu clan, did not let life and death get inside his mind. So he was able to influence others.[11]

Lord Yuan of Song wanted to have some pictures painted. The crowd of court clerks all gathered in his presence, received their drawing panels,[12] and took their places in line, licking their brushes, mixing their inks; so many of them that there were more outside the room than inside it. There was one clerk who arrived late, sauntering in without the slightest haste. When he received his drawing panel, he did not look for a place in line but went straight to his own quarters. The ruler sent someone to see what he was doing, and it was found that he had taken off his robes, stretched out his legs, and was sitting there naked. “Very good,” said the ruler. “This is a true artist!”

King Wen was seeing the sights at Zang when he spied an old man fishing.[13] Yet his fishing wasn’t really fishing. He didn’t fish as though he were fishing for anything but as though it were his constant occupation to fish. King Wen wanted to summon him and hand over the government to him, but he was afraid that the high officials and his uncles and brothers would be uneasy. He thought perhaps he had better forget the matter and let it rest, and yet he couldn’t bear to deprive the hundred clans of such a Heaven-sent opportunity. At dawn the next day he therefore reported to his ministers, saying, “Last night I dreamed I saw a fine man, dark complexioned and bearded, mounted on a dappled horse that had red hoofs on one side. He commanded me, saying, ‘Hand over your rule to the old man of Zang—then perhaps the ills of the people may be cured!’

The ministers, awestruck, said, “It was the king, your late father!”

“Then perhaps we should divine to see what ought to be done,” said King Wen.

“It is the command of your late father!” said the ministers. “Your Majesty must have no second thoughts. What need is there for divination?”

In the end, therefore, the king had the old man of Zang escorted to the capital and handed over the government to him, but the regular precedents and laws remained unchanged, and not a single new order was issued.

At the end of three years, King Wen made an inspection tour of the state. He found that the local officials had smashed their gate bars and disbanded their cliques, that the heads of government bureaus achieved no special distinction, and that persons entering the four borders from other states no longer ventured to bring their own measuring cups and bushels with them. The local officials had smashed their gate bars and disbanded their cliques because they had learned to identify with their superiors.[14] The heads of government bureaus achieved no special distinction because they looked on all tasks as being of equal distinction. Persons entering the four borders from other states no longer ventured to bring their own measuring cups and bushels with them because the feudal lords had ceased to distrust the local measures.

King Wen thereupon concluded that he had found a Great Teacher, and facing north as a sign of respect, he asked, “Could these methods of government be extended to the whole world?”

But the old man of Zang looked blank and gave no answer, evasively mumbling some excuse; and when orders went out the next morning to make the attempt, the old man ran away the very same night and was never heard of again.

Yan Yuan questioned Confucius about this story, saying, “King Wen didn’t amount to very much after all, did he! And why did he have to resort to that business about the dream?”

“Quiet!” said Confucius. “No more talk from you! King Wen was perfection itself—how can there be any room for carping and criticism! The dream—that was just a way of getting out of a moment’s difficulty.”

Lie Yukou was demonstrating his archery to Bohun Wuren.[15] He drew the bow as far as it would go, placed a cup of water on his elbow, and let fly. One arrow had no sooner left his thumb ring than a second was resting in readiness beside his arm guard, and all the while he stood like a statue.[16] Bohun Wuren said, “This is the archery of an archer, not the archery of a nonarcher! Try climbing up a high mountain with me, scrambling over the steep rocks to the very brink of an eight-hundred-foot chasm—then we’ll see what kind of shooting you can do!”

Accordingly, they proceeded to climb a high mountain, scrambling over the steep rocks to the brink of an eight-hundred-foot chasm. There Bohun Wuren, turning his back to the chasm, walked backward until his feet projected halfway off the edge of the cliff, bowed to Lie Yukou, and invited him to come forward and join him. But Lie Yukou cowered on the ground, sweat pouring down all the way to his heels. Bohun Wuren said, “The Perfect Man may stare at the blue heavens above, dive into the Yellow Springs below, ramble to the end of the eight directions, yet his spirit and bearing undergo no change. And here you are in this cringing, eye-batting state of mind—if you tried to take aim now, you would be in certain peril!”

Jian Wu said to Sunshu Ao, “Three times you have become premier, yet you didn’t seem to glory in it.[17] Three times you were dismissed from the post, but you never looked glum over it. At first I doubted that this was really true, but now I stand before your very nose and see how calm and unconcerned you are. Do you have some unique way of using your mind?”

Sunshu Ao replied, “How am I any better than other men? I considered that the coming of such an honor could not be fended off and that its departure could not be prevented. As far as I was concerned, the question of profit or loss did not rest with me, and so I had no reason to put on a glum expression, that was all. How am I any better than other men? Moreover, I’m not really certain whether the glory resides in the premiership or in me. If it resides in the premiership, then it means nothing to me. And if it resides in me, then it means nothing to the premiership. Now I’m about to go for an idle stroll, to go gawking in the four directions. What leisure do I have to worry about who holds an eminent position and who a humble one?”

Confucius, hearing of the incident, said, “He was a True Man of old, the kind that the wise cannot argue with, the beautiful cannot seduce, the violent cannot intimidate; even Fu Xi or the Yellow Emperor could not have befriended him. Life and death are great affairs, and yet they are no change to him—how much less to him are things like titles and stipends! With such a man, his spirit may soar over Mount Tai without hindrance, may plunge into the deepest springs without getting wet, may occupy the meanest, most humble position without distress. He fills all Heaven and earth, and the more he gives to others, the more he has for himself.”

The king of Chu was sitting with the lord of Fan.[18] After a little while, three of the king of Chu’s attendants reported that the state of Fan had been destroyed. The lord of Fan said, “The destruction of Fan is not enough to make me lose what I am intent on preserving.[19] And if the destruction of Fan is not enough to make me lose what I preserve, then the preservation of Chu is not enough to make it preserve what it ought to preserve. Looking at it this way, then, Fan has not yet begun to be destroyed, and Chu has not yet begun to be preserved!”

1. Marquis Wen (r. 424–387 BCE) guided the state of Wei during the crucial years when it first won recognition as an independent feudal domain; he is famous in history as a patron of learning. Tian Zifang appears to have been one of the philosophers attracted to his court.

2. That melt and turn to mud when the rains come.

3. Wenbo Xuezi is vaguely identified as a man of the state of Chu in the south; hence he refers to the states of Qi and Lu, the centers of Confucian learning, as “middle states.”

4. Compare Analects II, 14: “The gentleman is catholic and not partisan.”

5. Reading kong in place of tang in accordance with Ma Xulun’s suggestion.

6. This beautiful passage, whose exact meaning I only dimly follow, presents numerous difficulties of interpretation. The verb fu, which I have translated as “serve,” may be taken in many different ways.

7. Following Zhang Binglin’s interpretation.

8. Ordinarily, the yang principle represents heaven, and the yin principle, earth. Whether the reversal of their roles here is deliberate or the result of textual error, I do not know. Waley (Three Ways of Thought, p. 16) emends the text to put them in their usual order.

9. One may also, like Guo Xiang, take the word jie (understand) to mean “free”; that is, “He who practices the Way is freed from all this.” Compare sec. 6, p. 48: “the freeing of the bound.”

10. Boli Xi, a statesman of the seventh century BCE, was taken captive when his state was overthrown and, for a time, led the life of a lowly cattle tender. His worth was eventually recognized by Duke Mu of Qin, who made him his high minister.

11. Shun’s parents and younger brother made several attempts to kill him, but he did not allow this to alter his filial behavior.

12. Following Ma Xulun’s emendation. It is not clear just what kind of paintings the ruler of Song is commissioning, and some commentators take them to be mere maps. But the description of the “true artist” that follows suggests a more creative type of activity.

13. King Wen, honored as the founder of the Zhou dynasty, was one of the ancient sages most often and extravagantly praised by Confucius and his followers.

14. The term “identifying with one’s superior” is taken from the teachings of Mozi. According to this doctrine, each class of society is to follow the orders and ethical teaching of the class above, the whole hierarchy being headed by the Son of Heaven, in this case, King Wen.

15. Lie Yukou appeared in sec. 1, p. 3; Bohun Wuren, in sec. 5, p. 35.

16. In the interpretation of these archery terms, I follow Ma Xulun’s emendations.

17. Jian Wu appeared in sec. 1, p. 4, and sec. 7, p. 55. Sunshu Ao was a sixth-century statesman of Chu.

18. Fan was a small state subservient to the much larger and more powerful state of Chu, which eventually overthrew it.

19. That is, the Way. The whole passage is a play on the two levels of meaning, political and philosophical, of the words “destruction” (wang) and “preservation” (cun).