LIEH TZŬ.
_Argument_:--Outward manifestation of inward grace--Its
dangers--Self-esteem--Its errors--Inscrutability of TAO--Artificiality
of Confucius--Tests of virtue--Chuang Tzŭ declines office--His death.
When Lieh Tzŭ
Lieh Yü K'ou, a name well known in connection with TAO. But it is
extremely doubtful if such a man ever lived. His record is not given
by the historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, and he may well have been no more
than an allegorical personage created by Chuang Tzŭ for purposes of
illustration. It was however thought necessary under the Han dynasty
to supply his "Works"; and the treatise thus provided still passes
under his name, though generally regarded as a forgery. See pp. 4, 5.
went to Ch'i, half way there he turned round and came back. Falling in
with Poh Hun Wu Jen, the latter said, "How is it you are so soon back
again?"
"I was afraid," replied Lieh Tzŭ.
"Afraid of what?" asked Poh Hun Wu Jen.
"Out of ten restaurants at which I ate," said Lieh Tzŭ, "five would
take no payment."
"And what is there to be afraid of in that?" enquired Poh Hun Wu Jen.
"The truth within not being duly assimilated," replied Lieh Tzŭ, "a
certain brightness is visible externally. And to conquer men's hearts
by force of the external is to induce in oneself a disregard for
authority and age which is the precursor of trouble.
"A restaurant keeper is one who lives by retailing soup. When his
returns are counted up, his profit is but small, and his influence is
next to nothing. But if such a man could act thus, how much more the
ruler of a large State? His bodily powers worn out in the duties of his
position, his mental powers exhausted by details of administration, he
would entrust me with the government and stimulate me by reward. That
is what I was afraid of."
"Your inner lights are good," replied Poh Hun Wu Jen; "but if you
remain stationary at this point, the world will still gather around
you."
Contrary to TAO.
Shortly afterwards Poh Hun Wu Jen went to visit Lieh Tzŭ, and lo! his
court-yard was filled with boots.
Of the visitors come to hear him. These were left outside the door, in
accordance with an ancient custom mentioned in the _Book of Rites_.
See p. 368.
Poh Hun Wu Jen stood there awhile, facing the north, his cheek all
wrinkled by resting it on his staff. Then, without a word, he departed.
Upon this being announced to Lieh Tzŭ,
By the servant whose duty it was to receive guests.
he seized his shoes and ran out barefoot.
In his hurry.
When he reached the outer gate, he called aloud, "Master! now that you
have come, will you not give me medicine?"
"It is all over!" cried Poh Hun Wu Jen. "I told you that the world
would gather around you. It is not that you can make people gather
around you. You cannot prevent them from doing so. Of what use would my
instruction be? Exerting influence thus unduly over others, you are by
them influenced in turn. You disturb your natural constitution, and are
of no further account.
None of your companions
Warn you of this.
Their paltry talk
Is but poison to a man.
They are not awake, not alive to the situation.
How should one of these help you?
In the original, these lines rhyme.
"The shrewd grow weary, the wise grieve. Those who are without
abilities have no ambitions. With full bellies they roam happily about,
like drifting boats, not caring whither they are bound."
* * * * *
There was a man of the Chêng State, named Huan. He pursued his studies
at a place called Ch'iu-shih. After three years only, he had graduated
as a Confucianist; and like a river which fertilises its banks to a
distance of nine _li_, so did his good influence reach into three
families.
His father's, his mother's, and his wife's.
He caused his younger brother to graduate as a Mihist. But inasmuch as
in the question of Confucianism _versus_ Mihism,
The philosophy of Mih Tzŭ, who taught the doctrine of universal love,
etc. See pp. 17, 440.
the father took the side of the Mihist, at the end of ten years Huan
committed suicide.
Then the father dreamed that Huan appeared to him and said, "It was I
who caused your son to become a Mihist. Why give all the credit to him
who is but as the fruit of an autumn pine?"
Various interpretations of this simile are given: none satisfactory.
_E.g._ (1) Like a dry cone. (2) Which another has planted and reared.
Verily God does not reward man for what he does, but for what he is.
_I.e._ for the natural, not for the artificial.
And it was in this sense that the younger brother was caused to become
a Mihist.
He was naturally so inclined.
Whereas a man who should regard his distinctive abilities as of his own
making, without reference to his parents, would be like the man of
Ch'i who dug a well and then wanted to keep others away from it.
Forgetting that God put the spring there in the first instance.
Hence the saying that the men of to-day are all Huans.
Wherefore it follows that men of true virtue are unconscious of its
possession. How much more then the man of TAO? This is what the
ancients called escaping the vengeance of God.
Which would be incurred by aping his goodness.
The true Sage rests in that which gives rest, and not in that which
does not give rest. The world rests in that which does not give rest,
and not in that which does give rest.
The natural and the artificial.
* * * * *
Chuang Tzŭ said, "To know TAO is easy. The difficulty lies in the
elimination of speech. To know TAO without speech appertains to the
natural. To know TAO with speech appertains to the artificial. The men
of old were natural, not artificial.
"Chu P'ing Man spent a large patrimony in learning under Chih Li I how
to kill dragons.
To acquire TAO. There is no record of the persons mentioned.
By the end of three years he was perfect, but there was no direction in
which he could show his skill.
TAO cannot be put into practice.
"The true Sage regards certainties as uncertainties; therefore he is
never up in arms.
In a state of mental disturbance.
Men in general regard uncertainties as certainties; therefore they are
constantly up in arms. To accustom oneself to arms causes one to fly to
arms on every provocation; and to trust to arms is to perish."
"The intelligence of the mean man does not rise beyond bribes and
letters of recommendation. His mind is be-clouded with trivialities.
Yet he would penetrate the mystery of TAO and of creation, and rise to
participation in the ONE. The result is that he is confounded by time
and space; and that trammelled by objective existences, he fails to
reach apprehension of that age before anything was.
"But the perfect man,--he carries his mind back to the period before
the beginning. Content to rest in the oblivion of nowhere, passing away
like flowing water, he is merged in the clear depths of the infinite.
"Alas! man's knowledge reaches to the hair on a hair, but not to
eternal peace."
* * * * *
A man of the Sung State, named Ts'ao Shang, acted as political agent
for the prince of Sung at the court of the Ch'in State. When he went
thither, he had a few carriages; but the prince of Ch'in was so pleased
with him that he added one hundred more.
On his return to Sung, he visited Chuang Tzŭ and said, "As for
living in poverty in a dirty hovel, earning a scanty subsistence by
making sandals, with shrivelled face and yellow ears,--this I could
not do. Interviewing a powerful ruler, with a retinue of a hundred
carriages,--that is my forte."
"When the prince of Ch'in is sick," replied Chuang Tzŭ, "and he summons
his physician to open a boil or cleanse an ulcer, the latter gets one
carriage. The man who licks his piles gets five. The more degrading the
work, the greater the number of carriages given. You, Sir, must have
been attending to his piles to get so many carriages. Begone with you!"
"Not," says Lin Hsi Chung, "from the pen of Chuang Tzŭ."
* * * * *
Duke Ai of Lu asked Yen Ho, saying, "Were I to make Confucius a pillar
of my realm, would the State be profited thereby?"
"It would be most perilous!" replied Yen Ho. "Confucius is a man of
outward show and of specious words. He mistakes the branch for the root.
Accessories for fundamentals.
He seeks to impress the people by an overbearing demeanour, the
hollowness of which he does not perceive. If he suits you, and you
entrust him with the welfare of the State, it will only be by mistake
that he will succeed.
This passage is variously interpreted.
"To cause the people to leave the true and study the false does not
so much affect the people of to-day as those of coming generations.
Wherefore it is better not to have Confucius.
"The difficulty of governing lies in the inability to practise
self-effacement. Man does not govern as God does.
Regardless of self.
"Merchants and traders are altogether out of the pale.
Of TAO.
Or if chance ever brings them within it, their rights are never freely
admitted.
"External punishments are inflicted by metal and wood. Internal
punishments are inflicted by anxiety and remorse. Fools who incur
external punishment are treated with metal or wood. Those who incur
internal punishment are devoured by the conflict of emotions. It is
only the pure and perfect man who can succeed in avoiding both."
* * * * *
Confucius said, "The heart of man is more dangerous than mountains and
rivers, more difficult to understand than Heaven itself. Heaven has its
periods of spring, summer, autumn, winter, daytime and night. Man has
an impenetrable exterior, and his motives are inscrutable. Thus some
men appear to be retiring when they are really forward. Others have
abilities, yet appear to be worthless. Others are compliant, yet gain
their ends. Others take a firm stand, yet yield the point. Others go
slow, yet advance quickly.
"Those who fly to duty towards their neighbour as though thirsting
after it, drop it as though something hot. Thus the loyalty of
the superior man is tested by employing him at a distance, his
respectfulness by employing him near at hand. His ability, by
troublesome missions. His knowledge, by unexpected questions. His
trustworthiness, by specification of time limits. His integrity by
entrusting him with money. His fidelity, by dangerous tasks. His
decorum, by filling him with wine. His morality, by placing him in
disreputable surroundings. Under the application of these nine tests,
the inferior man stands revealed.
"Chêng K'ao Fu, on receiving his first appointment, bowed his head. On
receiving his second appointment, he hunched his back. On receiving his
third appointment, he fell upon his face, walking away at the side of
the path.
Instead of in the middle as any blustering braggart would have done.
Who would not try to be like him?
"Yet ordinary men, on their first appointment, become self-important.
On their second, they give themselves airs in their chariots. On their
third, they call their own fathers by their personal names.
As we should say, "by their Christian names." The term "fathers"
includes uncles.
Which of them can be compared with Hsü Yu of old?
"There is nothing more fatal than intentional virtue, when the mind
looks outwards.
Spontaneity is the essence of real virtue.
For by thus looking outwards, the power of introspection is destroyed.
"There are five sources of injury to virtue.
Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and thought.
Of these, that which aims at virtue is the chief. What is it to aim at
virtue? Why a man who aims at virtue practises what he approves and
condemns what he does not practise.
Compounds for sins he feels inclined to
By damning those he has no mind to.
"There are eight causes of failure, three certain elements of success.
There are six sources of strength and weakness.
"Beauty, a long beard, size, height, robustness, grace, courage,
daring,--these eight, in which men surpass their fellows, are therefore
passports to failure.
"Modesty, compliance, humility,--these three are sure roads to success.
"Wisdom manifests itself in the external.
Whereby the internal suffers.
Courage makes itself many enemies. Charity and duty towards one's
neighbour incur many reproaches.
Three sources of weakness.
"To him who can penetrate the mystery of life, all things are revealed.
He who can estimate wisdom at its true value,
_Sc._ at nothing.
is wise. He who comprehends the Greater Destiny, becomes himself part
of it.
Of the great scheme of the universe, seen and unseen.
He who comprehends the Lesser Destiny, resigns himself to the
inevitable."
Referring to life as ordinarily regarded by mortals. Three sources of
strength.
* * * * *
A man who had been to see the prince of Sung and had been presented
with ten chariots, was putting on airs in the presence of Chuang Tzŭ.
"At Ho-Shang," said the latter, "there was a poor man who supported his
family by plaiting rushes. One day his son dived into the river and got
a pearl worth a thousand ounces of silver. The father bade him fetch a
stone and smash it to pieces, explaining that he could only have got
such a pearl very deep down from under the nose of the dragon, which
must have been asleep. And he said he was afraid that when the dragon
waked, the boy would have a poor chance.
If found with it in his possession.
"Now the State of Sung is deeper than a deep river, and the prince of
Sung is fiercer than a dragon. To get these chariots, you must have
caught him asleep. And when he wakes, you will be ground to powder."
* * * * *
Some prince having invited Chuang Tzŭ to enter his service, Chuang Tzŭ
said in reply to the envoy, "Sir, have you ever noticed a sacrificial
ox? It is bedecked with ribbons and fares sumptuously. But when it
comes to be slaughtered for the temple, would it not gladly exchange
places with some neglected calf?"
Quoted, with variants, by the historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, in his
biographical notice of Chuang Tzŭ. See _Introduction_.
* * * * *
When Chuang Tzŭ was about to die, his disciples expressed a wish to
give him a splendid funeral. But Chuang Tzŭ said, "With Heaven and
Earth for my coffin and shell; with the sun, moon, and stars as my
burial regalia; and with all creation to escort me to the grave,--are
not my funeral paraphernalia ready to hand?"
And had he not high honour?--
The hillside for his pall;
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;
And the dark rock pines like nodding plumes
Above his bier to wave,
And God's own hand in that lonely land
To lay him in the grave.
_The Burial of Moses_ (Mrs. Alexander).
"We fear," argued the disciples, "lest the carrion kite should eat the
body of our Master"; to which Chuang Tzŭ replied, "Above ground I shall
be food for kites; below I shall be food for mole-crickets and ants.
Why rob one to feed the other?
With this may be compared the reply of Diogenes on a similar occasion.
When the old cynic asked to be left unburied, his friends objected
that he would be eaten by dogs and birds.
"Place my staff near me," said Diogenes, "that I may drive them away."
"How will you manage that?" enquired the friends. "You will not be
conscious."
"What then will it matter to me to be torn by beasts," cried Diogenes,
"if I am not conscious of it?"
"If you adopt, as absolute, a standard of evenness which is so only
relatively, your results will not be absolutely even. If you adopt,
as absolute, a criterion of right which is so only relatively, your
results will not be absolutely right. Those who trust to their senses
become slaves to objective existences. Those alone who are guided by
their intuitions find the true standard. So far are the senses less
reliable than the intuitions. Yet fools trust to their senses to know
what is good for mankind, with alas! but external results."
As the genuine text of the _Spring and Autumn_ ends with the
appearance of the _ch'i lin_ (or _kilin_) and the death of Confucius,
so have disciples of Chuang Tzŭ agreed that the genuine text of Chuang
Tzŭ comes to a fitting close at the death-bed of their great Master.
The final chapter is but a summary of the whole, compiled by the early
editors of the work.