Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social ReformerZhuangzi
Religion
Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer
Zhuangzi
Ethics -- China; Philosophy, Chinese
So the old man of Tsang was received and entrusted with the
administration. He altered none of the existing statutes. He issued
no unjust regulations. And when, after three years, Wên Wang made
another inspection, he found all dangerous organisations broken up,
the officials doing their duty as a matter of course, while the use of
measures of grain was unknown within the four boundaries of the State.
There was thus unanimity in the public voice, singleness of official
purpose, and identity of interests to all.
So Wên Wang appointed the old man Grand Tutor; and then, standing with
his face to the north,
An attitude of respect. Facing the south was the conventional position
of a ruler.
asked him, saying, "Can such government be extended over the empire?"
The old man of Tsang was silent and made no reply. He then abruptly
took leave, and by the evening of that same day had disappeared, never
to be heard of again.
Yen Yüan said to Confucius, "If Wên Wang was unable to do this of
himself, how was he able to do it by a dream?"
"Silence!" cried Confucius: "It is not for you to criticise Wên Wang
who succeeded in fulfilling his mission. The dream was merely to
satisfy the vulgar mind."
The whole episode is of course spurious.
* * * * *
Lieh Yü K'ou
_Or_ Lieh Tzŭ. See ch. i.
instructed Po Hun Wu Jên
See ch. v.
in archery. Drawing the bow to its full, he placed a cup of water on
his elbow and began to let fly. Hardly was one arrow out of sight ere
another was on the string, the archer standing all the time like a
statue.
"But this is shooting under ordinary conditions," cried Po Hun Wu Jên;
"it is not shooting under extraordinary conditions. Now I will ascend a
high mountain with you, and stand on the edge of a precipice a thousand
feet in height, and see how you can shoot then."
Thereupon Wu Jên went with Lieh Tzŭ up a high mountain, and stood on
the edge of a precipice a thousand feet in height, approaching it
backwards until one-fifth of his feet overhung the chasm, when he
beckoned to Lieh Tzŭ to come on. But the latter had fallen prostrate on
the ground, with the sweat pouring down to his heels.
"The perfect man," said Wu Jên, "soars up to the blue sky, or dives
down to the yellow springs,
The infernal regions.
or flies to some extreme point of the compass, without change of
countenance. But you are terrified, and your eyes are dazed. Your
internal economy is defective."
You have not TAO.
* * * * *
Chien Wu
See ch. i.
said to Sun Shu Ao,
A famous minister of the Ch'u State.
"Sir, you have been three times called to office without showing any
elation, and you have been three times dismissed without displaying any
chagrin. At first, I doubted you; but now I notice that your breathing
is perfectly regular. How do you manage thus to control your emotions?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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