External things cannot be counted on. Hence Longfeng was executed, Bi Gan was sentenced to death, Prince Ji feigned madness, E Lai was killed, and Jie and Zhou were overthrown.[1] There is no ruler who does not want his ministers to be loyal. But loyal ministers are not always trusted. Hence Wu Yun was thrown into the Yangzi, and Chang Hong died in Shu, where the people stored away his blood, and after three years it was transformed into green jade.[2] There is no parent who does not want his son to be filial. But filial sons are not always loved. Hence Xiaoji grieved, and Zeng Shen sorrowed.[3]

When wood rubs against wood, flames spring up. When metal remains by the side of fire, it melts and flows away. When the yin and yang go awry, then heaven and earth see astounding sights. Then we hear the crash and roll of thunder, and fire comes in the midst of rain and burns up the great pagoda tree. Delight and sorrow are there to trap man on either side so that he has no escape. Fearful and trembling, he can reach no completion. His mind is as though trussed and suspended between heaven and earth, bewildered and lost in delusion. Profit and loss rub against each other and light the countless fires that burn up the inner harmony of the mass of men. The moon cannot put out the fire, so that in time, all is consumed, and the Way comes to an end.[4]

Zhuang Zhou’s family was very poor, and so he went to borrow some grain from the marquis of Jianhe. The marquis said, “Why, of course. I’ll soon be getting the tribute money from my fief, and when I do, I’ll be glad to lend you three hundred pieces of gold. Will that be all right?”

Zhuang Zhou flushed with anger and said, “As I was coming here yesterday, I heard someone calling me on the road. I turned around and saw that there was a perch in the carriage rut. I said to him, ‘Come, perch—what are you doing here?’ He replied, ‘I am a Wave Official of the Eastern Sea. Couldn’t you give me a dipperful of water so I can stay alive?’ I said to him, ‘Why, of course. I’m just about to start south to visit the kings of Wu and Yue. I’ll change the course of the West River and send it in your direction. Will that be all right?’ The perch flushed with anger and said, ‘I’ve lost my element! I have nowhere to go! If you can get me a dipper of water, I’ll be able to stay alive. But if you give me an answer like that, then you’d best look for me in the dried fish store!’”

Prince Ren made an enormous fishhook with a huge line, baited it with fifty bullocks, settled himself on top of Mount Kuaiji, and cast with his pole into the eastern sea. Morning after morning, he dropped the hook, but for a whole year he got nothing. At last a huge fish swallowed the bait and dived down, dragging the enormous hook. It plunged to the bottom in a fierce charge, rose up and shook its dorsal fins until the white waves were like mountains and the sea waters lashed and churned. The noise was like that of gods and demons, and it spread terror for a thousand li. When Prince Ren had landed his fish, he cut it up and dried it, and from Zhihe east, from Cangwu north, there was no one who did not get his fill. Since then, the men of later generations who have piddling talents and a penchant for odd stories all astound one another by repeating the tale.

Now if you shoulder your pole and line, march to the ditches and gullies, and watch for minnows and perch, then you’ll have a hard time ever landing a big fish. If you parade your little theories and fish for the post of district magistrate, you will be far from the Great Understanding. So if a man has never heard of the style of Prince Ren, he’s a long way from being able to join with the men who run the world.

The Confucians rob graves in accordance with the Odes and ritual. The big Confucian announces to his underlings: “The east grows light! How is the matter proceeding?”

The little Confucians say: “We haven’t got the grave clothes off him yet, but there’s a pearl in his mouth![5] Just as the Ode says:

Green, green the grain

Growing on grave mound slopes;

If in life you gave no alms

In death how do you deserve a pearl?”

They push back his sidelocks, press down his beard, and then one of them pries into his chin with a little metal gimlet and gently pulls apart the jaws so as not to injure the pearl in his mouth.

A disciple of Lao Laizi[6] was out gathering firewood when he happened to meet Confucius. He returned and reported, “There’s a man over there with a long body and short legs, his back a little humped and his ears set way back, who looks as though he were trying to attend to everything within the four seas. I don’t know who it can be.”

Lao Laizi said, “That’s Kong Qiu. Tell him to come over here!”

When Confucius arrived, Lao Laizi said, “Qiu, get rid of your proud bearing and that knowing look on your face, and you can become a gentleman!”

Confucius bowed and stepped back a little, a startled and changed expression on his face, and then asked, “Do you think I can make any progress in my labors?”

Lao Laizi said, “You can’t bear to watch the sufferings of one age, and so you go and make trouble for ten thousand ages to come![7] Are you just naturally a boor? Or don’t you have the sense to understand the situation? You take pride in practicing charity and making people happy[8]—the shame of it will follow you all your days! These are the actions, the ‘progress’ of mediocre men—men who pull one another around with fame, drag one another into secret schemes, join together to praise Yao and condemn Jie, when the best thing would be to forget them both and put a stop to praise! What is contrary cannot fail to be injured; what moves [when it shouldn’t] cannot fail to be wrong. The sage is hesitant and reluctant to begin an affair, and so he always ends in success. But what good are these actions of yours? They end in nothing but a boast!”[9]

Lord Yuan of Song one night dreamed he saw a man with disheveled hair who peered in at the side door of his chamber and said, “I come from the Zailu Deeps. I was on my way as envoy from the Clear Yangzi to the court of the Lord of the Yellow River when a fisherman named Yu Ju caught me!”

When Lord Yuan woke up, he ordered his men to divine the meaning, and they replied, “This is a sacred turtle.” “Is there a fisherman named Yu Ju?” he asked, and his attendants replied, “There is.” “Order Yu Ju to come to court!” he said.

The next day Yu Ju appeared at court, and the ruler said, “What kind of fish have you caught recently?”

Yu Ju replied, “I caught a white turtle in my net. It’s five feet around.”

“Present your turtle!” ordered the ruler. When the turtle was brought, the ruler could not decide whether to kill it or let it live, and being in doubt, he consulted his diviners, who replied, “Kill the turtle and divine with it—it will bring good luck.” Accordingly the turtle was stripped of its shell, and of seventy-two holes drilled in it for prognostication, not one failed to yield a true answer.[10]

Confucius said, “The sacred turtle could appear to Lord Yuan in a dream, but it couldn’t escape from Yu Ju’s net. It knew enough to give correct answers to seventy-two queries, but it couldn’t escape the disaster of having its belly ripped open. So it is that knowledge has its limitations, and the sacred has that which it can do nothing about. Even the most perfect wisdom can be outwitted by ten thousand schemers. Fish do not [know enough to] fear a net but only to fear pelicans. Discard little wisdom, and great wisdom will become clear. Discard goodness, and goodness will come of itself. The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers—because it lives with those who know how to speak.”

Huizi said to Zhuangzi, “Your words are useless!”

Zhuangzi said, “A man has to understand the useless before you can talk to him about the useful. The earth is certainly vast and broad, though a man uses no more of it than the area he puts his feet on. If, however, you were to dig away all the earth from around his feet until you reached the Yellow Springs,[11] then would the man still be able to make use of it?”

“No, it would be useless,” said Huizi.

“It is obvious, then,” said Zhuangzi, “that the useless has its use.”

Zhuangzi said, “If you have the capacity to wander, how can you keep from wandering? But if you do not have the capacity to wander, how can you wander? A will that takes refuge in conformity, behavior that is aloof and eccentric—neither of these, alas, is compatible with perfect wisdom and solid virtue. You stumble and fall but fail to turn back; you race on like fire and do not look behind you. But though you may be one time a ruler, another time a subject, this is merely a matter of the times. Such distinctions change with the age, and you cannot call either one or the other lowly. Therefore I say, the Perfect Man is never a stickler in his actions.

“To admire antiquity and despise the present—this is the fashion of scholars. And if one is to look at the present age after the fashion of Xiwei, then who can be without prejudice?[12] Only the Perfect Man can wander in the world without taking sides, can follow along with men without losing himself. His teachings are not to be learned, and one who understands his meaning has no need for him.[13]

“The eye that is penetrating sees clearly, the ear that is penetrating hears clearly, the nose that is penetrating distinguishes odors, the mouth that is penetrating distinguishes flavors, the mind that is penetrating has understanding, and the understanding that is penetrating has virtue. In all things, the Way does not want to be obstructed, for if there is obstruction, there is choking; if the choking does not cease, there is disorder; and disorder harms the life of all creatures.

“All things that have consciousness depend on breath. But if they do not get their fill of breath, it is not the fault of Heaven. Heaven opens up the passages and supplies them day and night without stop. But man, on the contrary, blocks up the holes. The cavity of the body is a many-storied vault; the mind has its Heavenly wanderings. But if the chambers are not large and roomy, then the wife and mother-in-law will fall to quarreling. If the mind does not have its Heavenly wanderings, then the six apertures of sensation will defeat one another.

“The great forests, the hills and mountains, excel man in the fact that their growth is irrepressible. [In man,] virtue spills over into a concern for fame, and a concern for fame spills over into a love of show. Schemes are laid in time of crisis; wisdom is born from contention; obstinacy comes from sticking to a position; government affairs are arranged for the convenience of the mob.[14] In spring, when the seasonable rains and sunshine come, the grass and trees spring to life, and the sickles and hoes are, for the first time, prepared for use. At that time, more than half the grass and trees that had been pushed over begin to grow again, though no one knows why.[15]

“Stillness and silence can benefit the ailing, massage can give relief to the aged, and rest and quiet can put a stop to agitation. But these are remedies that the troubled and weary man has recourse to. The man who is at ease does not need them and has never bothered to ask about them. The Holy Man does not bother to ask what methods the sage uses to reform the world. The sage does not bother to ask what methods the worthy man uses to reform the age. The worthy man does not bother to ask what methods the gentleman uses to reform the state. The gentleman does not bother to ask what methods the petty man uses to get along with the times.

“There was a man of Yan Gate who, on the death of his parents, won praise by starving and disfiguring himself and was rewarded with the post of Official Teacher. The other people of the village likewise starved and disfigured themselves, and more than half of them died. Yao offered the empire to Xu You, and Xu You fled from him. Tang offered it to Wu Guang, and Wu Guang railed at him. When Ji Tuo heard of this, he took his disciples and went off to sit by the Kuan River, where the feudal lords went to console him for three years. Shentu Di, for the same reason, jumped into the Yellow River.[16]

“The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?”

1. Guan Longfeng, minister to the tyrant Jie, and Prince Bi Gan, minister to the tyrant Zhou, appeared on p. 23. Prince Ji was a relative of Zhou who had to feign madness in order to escape execution. E Lai assisted Zhou and was put to death when Zhou was overthrown.

2. Wu Yun, or Wu Zixu, the loyal minister of Wu, appeared on p. 140. He was forced by the king to commit suicide, and his body was thrown into the Yangzi. Chang Hong is mentioned in the Zuozhuan as a minister of the Zhou court who was killed in 492 BCE. But if this is the same man, the story of his exile and suicide in Shu and the miraculous transformation of his blood must come from later legend.

3. Xiaoji was the eminently filial son of King Wuding of the Shang; he was said to have been persecuted by an evil stepmother. Zeng Shen, a disciple of Confucius and likewise a paragon of filial piety, was despised by his father.

4. This paragraph presents numerous difficulties of interpretation, and the translation is tentative at many points. In places the language appears to be that of ancient Chinese medicine, with its theories of the influences of the yin and yang acting within the body. Thus the moon may represent the watery force of the yin, or perhaps the cold light of the mind.

5. The pearl or other precious stone customarily placed in the mouth of the corpse at burial.

6. A Daoist sage and reputed author of a work in sixteen sections that is no longer extant. He is sometimes identified with Laozi.

7. Following texts that read wu in place of ao.

8. The meaning is very doubtful.

9. This last speech of Lao Laizi presents numerous difficulties, and the translation is tentative.

10. Small indentations were drilled in the carapace, and heat was applied: divination was based on the shape of the cracks that resulted.

11. See p. 136, n. 17.

12. Xiwei, identified as a mythical ruler of high antiquity, appeared on p. 45, as the sage who “held up heaven and earth.” The Confucians and Mohists are the most notorious extollers of antiquity, but the same tendency is discernible at times in the Daoist school, for example, in Laozi’s description of the ideal simplicity and primitiveness of the society of very ancient times. I suspect that “the fashion of Xiwei” is a reference to these advocates of ancient simplicity in the Daoist school, though our understanding of the passage is greatly hampered by the fact that we know almost nothing about the Xiwei legend. As this passage makes clear, Zhuangzi’s ideal “wandering”—that is, living in accordance with the Way—does not permit either a forced conformity with the world or a forced withdrawal from, and denial of, the world.

13. The second part of the sentence is obscure in the original.

14. I take fame, show, schemes, wisdom, and the arranging of government affairs for the convenience of the mob to be “unnatural” and undesirable aims and activities that interfere with man’s growth.

15. This whole paragraph, and especially the last sentence, is very difficult to interpret, and there is no agreement among commentators as to the exact meaning.

16. Xu You, the recluse who refused Yao’s throne, appeared on p. 3. A similar story is told about King Tang and the recluse Wu Guang. Ji Tuo and Shentu Di, along with Wu Guang, were mentioned on p. 43, but we know nothing of their stories. Apparently they withdrew or committed suicide out of sympathy for the insult that had been done to Wu Guang in offering him a throne.