{157} CHAPTER TWENTY
The Mountain Tree
Zhuangzi was traveling in the mountains when he came upon a huge tree, luxuriantly overgrown with branches and leaves. A woodcutter stopped beside it, but in the end chose not to fell it. Asked the reason, he said, “There is nothing it can be used for.” Zhuangzi said, “This tree is able to live out its natural lifespan because of its worthlessness.” When he left the mountains, he lodged for a night at the home of an old friend. His friend was delighted, and ordered a servant to kill a goose for dinner. The servant said, “There is one that can honk and one that cannot. Which should I kill?” The host said, “Kill the one that cannot honk.”
The next day, Zhuangzi’s disciple said to him, “The tree we saw yesterday could live out its natural lifespan because of its worthlessness, while our host’s goose was killed for its worthlessness. What position would you take, Master?”
Zhuangzi said, “I would probably take a position somewhere between worthiness and worthlessness. But though that might look right, it turns out not to be—it still leads to entanglements. It would be another thing entirely to float and drift along, mounted on only the intrinsic powers of the Course—untouched by both praise and blame, now a dragon, now a snake, changing with the times, unwilling to keep to any exclusive course of action. Now above, now below, with momentary harmony as your only measure—that is to float and drift within the ancestor of all things, making things of things but unable to be made anything of by any thing.1 What could then entangle you? For the likes of Shennong and the Yellow Emperor, this was the only rule.
“But in dealing with the various inclinations of the ten thousand things and the traditional codes for human relationships, we are put in quite a different situation. Union brings on separation, completion brings on destruction, the uncorrupt get ground down, the noble get critiqued, the enterprising get depleted, the talented get schemed against, the untalented get cheated.2 How could anything {158} be counted on to be in every case the one thing needful? Alas, my disciples, note it well: there is nothing for it but the old homeland of the Course and its intrinsic powers!”
When Yiliao of Marketsouth3 went to see the marquis of Lu, the marquis had a worried expression. Master Marketsouth asked, “You look so distressed. What’s the matter?”
The marquis said, “I have studied the Course of the former kings and performed the same deeds as the great former rulers, reverencing the dead and respecting the worthy, which I practice constantly without departing from it for even a moment. And yet all the same I can’t avoid being beset by misfortunes. That’s what distresses me.”
Master Marketsouth said, “It is because your technique for dispelling misfortunes is too shallow. The thick-coated fox and pattern-furred leopard are so still they can dwell in the mountains and forests, and lurk in cliffside caves. They are so cautious that they venture out only at night, staying put all during the day. They are so focused that even if they are hungry or thirsty, they stay hidden and contained, tentatively holding themselves back, keeping to the remote rivers and lakes where they seek their food. And yet for all that, they are still sometimes unable to escape the misfortune of falling into a net or a trap. Is this due to some transgression of theirs? No, it is a disaster brought upon them by their valuable hides. And is not the state of Lu precisely your hide? I would like you to peel the skin off your own body, cast away your hide, cleanse your heart and mind until your desires are gone, leaving you wandering in the wilds where no one goes. Down south in Yue there is an area called the Land of Embedded Virtuosities. The people there are stupid and simple, having few private concerns and desires, knowing how to work but not how to hoard, giving everything away without seeking any return. They know nothing of what duty4 deems appropriate nor of what ritual calls for. Heedless and wild, they go their reckless way, with each step dancing on through the Vast Ambit.5 When they get born there is occasion for joy, when they die for burial. My wish is that you will leave your state and give up your customary ways, and instead make your way there, helping yourself to the help of the Course.”
The marquis said, “But that course is long and dangerous, over rivers and mountains, and I have neither the boat nor the carriage for it. What should I do?”
{159} Master Marketsouth said, “Just let nothing unbending take shape, retain no fixed dwelling, and these will be your boat and carriage.”
The marquis said, “But the course leading there is dark and long and lonely—who will be my companions? And I have no provisions and no food with me—how will I ever be able to get there?”
Master Marketsouth said, “Minimize your outlay and reduce your desires, and even without any provisions, you will always have enough. You will wade through the rivers and float on the seas, until no shorelines can be found in any direction. The further you go the less you will know of any endpoint. Those who sent you off will all long have turned back from the shore and headed home, so far away from them will you be. For if you exert ownership over others they will entangle you, and if others exert ownership over you they will grieve you. That is why Yao neither exerted ownership over other people nor let himself be owned by them. I want to remove your bondage and take away your grief, instead letting you wander alone with the Course through the Vast Uninhabited. If a person is floating on his two-hulled craft across a river and an empty boat bumps into his, he does not get angry no matter how petty-minded a person he may be. But if there is a person in the other boat, he will shout out, demanding that it be steered clear. If the first shout is not heard, he will shout again, and then again, and by the third shout his tone will have become abusive. In the former case there was no anger, but in the latter case there is, because in the former case the boat was empty and in this case it is full. When a person can wander through the world emptied of self, what can harm him?”
Extravagant of Northchamber was collecting taxes for Duke Ling of Wei to make a set of bells. He built a platform outside the gates of the outermost national wall, and in three months both the upper and lower tiers were completed. Prince Qingji6 saw the completed work and asked, “What procedure did you set up to get this done?”
“Here inside the unity I dare not set up anything else,” he replied. “I have heard it said, ‘After all the carving and chiseling, return to the unhewn!’ Naive indeed, its childlike ignorance! Confused indeed, its hesitation and doubt! Such a thicket, so muddled and mixed, how it sends off what goes and welcomes in what comes, for it does not block the one nor retain the other. It complies with them when they are strong and forceful, follows them also when they bend compliantly, goes along with them also when they impoverish themselves. Thus it was that day and night I collected taxes without the least friction. How much more would this be so for those who travel truly great paths?”
When Confucius was besieged between Chen and Cai, he went seven days without eating any cooked food. Grand Duke Letbe went to console him, saying, “You were close to dying, weren’t you?”
{160} Confucius said, “I was.”
“Do you hate the idea of dying?
“Yes, I do.”
Letbe said, “Then let me try to tell you about a Course whereby to keep from dying. There are birds in the eastern sea called lazywills, which fly slow and close to the ground, as if lacking ability to do otherwise, assisting each other by pulling one another along, pressing their bodies together when they roost. None dares go ahead when they advance, and none dares lag behind when they retreat. In eating, none of them dares to be the first, always taking only what the others have left behind. But for this reason not one is ever left out in any of their group formations, and people are in the end unable to harm them. This is how they escape all worries. It is the straight tree that is the first to be cut, the sweet spring of water that is first used up. But you instead have been trying to embellish your wisdom to astonish the ignorant, to cultivate your person to show up the disreputable—so bright and shining, as if you were walking around wielding the sun and moon in your hands!7 That is why you have been unable to avoid your current predicament. I have heard of a person of great completion who once put it this way: ‘Those who boast are credited with no accomplishment; as soon as accomplishment reaches completion, it decays; as soon as fame reaches completion, it wanes.’ Who can get rid of all fame and credit for accomplishment, returning to the midst of the mass of ordinary people? His Course will flow without settling down in any bright places; his attainments will move along without dwelling in any eminence or fame. So simple and so commonplace will he be that he will seem almost insane; wiping away all traces of his achievements and dispelling any power of position, he will not work for accomplishment or name. Thus he will cast no blame on others, and others will cast no blame on him. Utmost Persons have no reputation. Why do you, sir, so delight in such things?”
“Excellent!” said Confucius. With that he took his leave of his entourage, dismissed his disciples and escaped into the wilds of the great marsh, donning only coarse cloths and furs, eating only acorns and chestnuts, going among the beasts without disturbing their herds, going among the birds without disturbing their alignments. He was then not detested even by the birds and beasts—how much the less so by his fellow humans!
Confucius asked Sir Mulberry Rainwow, “I was twice exiled from Lu, a tree was cut down on me in Song, my footprints were wiped away in Wei, I was put in dire straits in Shang and Zhou, and I was besieged between Chen and Cai. Why have I met with all these hardships, such that my closest associates get increasingly distant, and my disciples and friends get increasingly scattered?”
Sir Mulberry Rainwow said, “Can you never have heard about that fugitive from Jia, a certain Lin Hui? When he was fleeing, he left behind his jade bi-pendant, worth a thousand pieces of gold, and instead took his infant child on his back. Someone asked him, ‘In terms of the monetary value, the child isn’t worth {161} as much as the jade. In terms of the worries involved, the child is much more trouble. Why then did you leave your jade bi-pendant behind and instead carry your child on your back when you fled?’ Lin Hui said, ‘I was joined to that thing by profit, but I belong together with this one by nature, by the Heavenly.’ What is joined by profit will be abandoned under the pressure of poverty, calamity, distress, or injury. But those that belong together by nature, by the Heavenly, will cling to each other all the more tightly under the pressures of poverty, calamity, distress, or injury. Abandoning each other or clinging to each other—quite a difference! Relationships between noble persons are flavorless like water, while the relationships of petty people are sweet like fruit liqueur. But it is by this flavorlessness that the noble become intimate with each other, while it is by that sweetness that the petty break from each other. What comes together for no reason will come apart for no reason too.”
Confucius said, “I respectfully accept this instruction.” And he then headed back to his quarters, strolling at a relaxed and leisurely pace. From that day on he put an end to his studies and got rid of his books. The disciples no longer bowed before him, but their affection for him began to grow and grow.
On another day, Sir Mulberry Rainwow said further, “When Shun was about to die, he left an order to Yu saying, “Take heed! For the body there is nothing better than moving with the trajectories of things, and for the dispositions there is nothing better than following their lead. Moving with the trajectories, there is no division; following their lead, there is no toil. Undivided and untoiled, one no longer seeks to serve the body by treating it to extraneous embellishments. No longer seeking extraneous embellishments with which to serve the body, one in fact depends on no thing at all.”8
Zhuangzi was wearing a patched garment of coarse cloth, with his shoes tied together by strings, when he traveled past the King of Wei. The king asked, “Why are you so worn out, sir?”
Zhuangzi said, “I am not worn out; I am just poor! When a scholar has coursing in him the intrinsic powers of the Course but cannot put them into practice, that really wears him out. The fact that I am dressed in tattered clothes and crumbling shoes is due to poverty, not weariness! It is just a case of what is called ‘not meeting the right time.’ Can you have never seen one of those bounding monkeys? When they can find catalpas and camphor trees or towering cedars, they pull and swing themselves off the branches, dominating the area like a sovereign, and even the eyes of archers like Yi or Peng Meng would be unable to track them. But if they always find themselves only among thorny aspens and brambly bushes, they {162} move cautiously, constantly glancing over their shoulders, shaking with apprehension and trembling with fear. This is not because their bones and tendons have suddenly become stiff and no longer supple; it’s just that they are in a situation that is unsuitable to them, and thus have no opportunity to display their abilities. Now to live in the midst of benighted rulers and unruly prime ministers, is there any way not to be worn out, however dearly one might want not to be? Wasn’t this clear enough when Bi Gan9 had his heart cut out?”
When Confucius was in dire straits between Chen and Cai, for seven days he had no cooked food to eat. Leaning against a withered tree to his left, and banging on a decayed branch with his right, he sang the “Ode of Biao.”10 He had the instrument but could not muster up his technique, had the sound but could not muster up the notes. The sound of the wood and the sound of the man came together in the heart like a plow tearing through the soil.
Yan Hui was standing nearby, with his hands knitted formally at his breast, but his eyes kept shifting over to observe his teacher. Confucius, fearing that the disciple was perhaps making too much of the situation due to his esteem for him, or grieving over it due to his love for him, said, “Hui! It is easy to remain unperturbed by harms coming from Heaven, but difficult to remain unperturbed by benefits coming from man. But there is no beginning that is not also an end. So the human and the Heavenly are really one. Which of the two was it that was singing just now?”
Yan Hui said, “Tell me more about why it is easy to remain unperturbed by the harms from Heaven?”
Confucius said, “Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, poverty that obstructs one’s actions—these are the doings of heaven and earth, the outpourings of the circlings of things. It is this that we mean when we speak of ‘passing away along with them all.’ When you are subject to a sovereign, you dare not reject whatever he puts forth. If this is how one must practice even the course of being a subject to a ruler, how much more must we be so in our dealings with Heaven!”
“What do you mean by the difficulty of remaining unperturbed by the benefits coming from man?”
Confucius said, “When someone is first employed, and then soon begins succeeding in all directions, both rank and salary start arriving and keep coming. These are benefits coming from things, and are not really a part of oneself, for our fate always depends partially on what is external. But a noble man will not stoop to robbery, and a worthy man will not stoop to thievery—so how could I accept such things? Thus I say, No bird is wiser than the swallow, which will not even look at any place that does not suit his eyes. Even if it happens to drop {163} something of value there, it will abandon it and hurry off. Yet though it fears human beings, it finds a way to sneak into their midst, finding a place to survive among the village altars of the land and grain.”
“What did you mean by ‘There is no beginning that is not also an ending?’”
Confucius said, “On and on go the transformations of all the ten thousand things, and yet we do not know what it is that brings about their succession, one after another. So how could we know where it ends? How could we know where it begins? We can only right ourselves and await what comes next, nothing more.”
“What did you mean by ‘the human and the heavenly are really one’?”
Confucius said, “That there is the human—that is the Heavenly. That there is the Heavenly—that is also the Heavenly. But that humans are unable to exert ownership over the Heavenly is precisely their inborn nature. So the sage calmly embodies passing away as his own self, and thus does he come to his end.”
Zhuangzi was wandering around Diaoling Park one day when he spied a strange bird flying in from the south, with seven-foot wings and big eyes an inch around. It grazed his forehead as it swooped down and went descending into a grove of chestnut trees. “What kind of bird is this?” he exclaimed. “Such huge wings but it doesn’t get anywhere, such big eyes but it didn’t even see me!” He hiked up his robe and tiptoed over with his crossbow in hand, preparing to shoot it. There he saw a cicada that had just found a lovely spot of shade and forgotten its own existence. A praying mantis was raising its padded hands to seize it, but in its eagerness for gain had in turn forgotten its own existence. The strange bird had thus followed it, seeing some gain there—but in seeing this gain was forgetting what was most genuine to it. Zhuang Zhou then took fright himself. “Ah!” he said. “Living beings certainly do encumber one another, each type calling forth another [as its predator]!” He then tossed away his crossbow and hurried off, pursued by a park ranger shouting accusations.
Zhuang Zhou then went home and did not go out even into his yard for three months. Matrush Fornow followed after him when he finally appeared, and asked, “Why have you not come out even into your yard for such a long time?”
Zhuang Zhou said, “I had been so obsessed with physical forms that I was actually forgetting all about my own body,11 gazing so intently at the turbid water that I lost sight of the clear depths. And I have heard the master say, ‘When you live among those following certain customs, you eventually come to follow those customs yourself.’ Well, I went wandering around Diaoling Park and forgot my own body, just as this strange bird who grazed my forehead went wandering into the chestnut grove and forgot what is most genuine to it, so that the park ranger {164} there took me as his prey. That’s why I haven’t wanted to venture out at all, even into my own yard.”
Master Brightside12 was traveling to Song and lodging at a roadside inn. There were two concubines there, one beautiful and the other ugly, but the ugly one was honored while the beautiful one was disparaged. Master Brightside asked why. The little innkeeper told him, “The beautiful one thinks herself beautiful, so I tend not to notice her beauty. But the ugly one thinks herself ugly, so I tend not to notice her ugliness.”
Master Brightside said, “Mark it well, my disciples! If you practice worthy behavior but also rid yourself of thinking yourself worthy, where can you go where you will not be cherished?”
1. This could be construed as referring to the ancestor of all things, “which makes all things the things they are, but which no thing can make anything,” or to the one who is floating and drifting along there, “making things of things but never made a thing by things”—or both.
2. Alternately, “Whatever is joined gets separated, whatever is completed gets destroyed. The uncorrupt get ground down; the noble get critiqued. Whatever we do we get damaged, so the talented scheme, while the untalented just cheat.”
3. Xiong Yiliao of Marketsouth appears in Zuozhuan, Duke Ai 16, as a man who refused to get involved in a proposed political uprising, unmoved by threats and authority; the uprising failed and peace was restored. He appears in Chapter 24, p. 201, in a tale that associates him with a story of uncertain provenance in which he is a warrior of Chu who stepped out between the warring armies of Chu and Song, and proceeded to juggle nine (or ninety-nine) balls, keeping all but one in the air at all times, a feat so astonishing that it either stopped the battle or, in some versions, so astonishing only the armies of Song that Chu won the battle.
4. Yi. see Glossary.
5. 大方 dafang. In Chapter 17 (p. 134), the same term is translated, “The Great Purview.” It also appears in Chapters 24 (p. 205) and 25 (p. 216), translated as “the Great Scope” and “Vast Ambit,” respectively.
6. Son of King Liao of Wu, Prince Qingji fled to Wei to escape his father’s murderer, who assumed the throne of Wu in 514 BCE.
7. The same words appear verbatim in Chapter 19, p. 155.
8. Both “serve” and “depend on” translate dai, which is being punned upon here. see Glossary. Combining the senses, we might more loosely translate as if that verb takes on an unlikely kind of transitivity, i.e., “Undivided and untoiled, one seeks no extraneous embellishments that make the body dependent on them.” Alternately, reading dai univocally, we might have, “Undivided and untoiled, one seeks none of the outward embellishments that would make one dependent on the body.”
9. Bi Gan, again, had given moral advice to the wicked Emperor Zhou, who then had the man’s heart literally cut out of his chest—to see what the heart of such a great sage really looks like.
10. According to Cheng Xuanying, another name for Shennong, the “Divine Farmer,” inventor of agriculture.
11. This sentence makes an unusual contrast between xing 形 and his shen 身. Both words can commonly mean “physical body,” but the latter means specifically “one’s own body,” as opposed to bodies in general, and very commonly also “one’s own self” in the broader sense of one’s personal life, concerns, welfare, needs, responsibilities, behavior as opposed to public and shared concerns and activities.
12. Often identified by commentators in spite of the morphed surname as another name for Yang Zhu 楊朱, commonly cited as the philosopher of self-interest as opposed to the Mohist philosophy of altruism. See for example Mencius 7A26.