CHAPTER XXI.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Zhuangzi and Giles, Herbert Allen
T'ien Tzŭ Fang.
Argument:—Tao cannot be imparted in words—It is not at man's disposal—It does not consist in formal morality—It is an inalienable element of existence—Without it the soul dies—With it man is happy and his immortality secure—Illustrations.
[This chapter is supplementary to chapter vi.]
T'ien Tzŭ Fang was in attendance upon Prince Wên of Wei.
Whose tutor he was.
He kept on praising Ch'i Kung, until at length Prince Wên said, "Is Ch'i Kung your tutor?"
"No," replied Tzŭ Fang; "he is merely a neighbour. He discourses admirably upon Tao. That is why I praise him."
"Have you then no tutor?" enquired the Prince.
"I have," replied Tzŭ Fang.
"And who may he be?" said Prince Wên.
"Tung Kuo Shun Tzŭ," answered Tzŭ Fang.
"Then how is it you do not praise him?" asked the Prince.
"He is perfect," replied Tzŭ Fang. "In appearance, a man; in reality, God. Unconditioned himself, he falls in with the conditioned, to his own greater glory. Pure himself, he can still tolerate others. If men are without Tao, by a mere look he calls them to a sense of error, and causes their intentions to melt away. How could I praise him?"
Thereupon Tzŭ Fang took his leave, and the Prince remained for the rest of the day absorbed in silence. At length he called an officer in waiting and said, "How far beyond us is the man of perfect virtue! Hitherto I have regarded the discussion of holiness and wisdom, and the practice of charity and duty to one's neighbour, as the utmost point attainable. But now that I have heard of Tzŭ Fang's tutor, my body is relaxed and desires not movement, my mouth is closed and desires not speech. All I have learnt, verily it is mere undergrowth. And the kingdom of Wei is my bane."
Tao is not to be reached by the superficial worker, or by such as value the distinctions of this world.
When Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ
"A sage from the south," as the commentators say, anticipating the "Middle Kingdom" below.
was on his way to Ch'i, he broke his journey in Lu. A certain man of Lu begged for an interview, but Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ said, "No. I have heard that the gentlemen of the Middle Kingdom are experts in ceremonies and obligations, but wanting in knowledge of the human heart. I do not wish to see him."
So he went on to Ch'i; but once more at Lu, on his way home, the same man again begged to have an interview.
"When I was last here," cried Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ, "he asked to see me, and now again he asks to see me. Surely he must have something to communicate."
Whereupon he went and received the stranger, and on returning gave vent to sighs. Next day he received him again, and again after the interview gave vent to sighs. Then his servant asked him, saying, "How is it that whenever you receive this stranger, you always sigh afterwards?"
"I have already told you," replied Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ, "that the people of the Middle Kingdom are experts in ceremonies and obligations but wanting in knowledge of the human heart. The man who visited me came in and went out as per compasses and square. His demeanour was now that of the dragon, now that of the tiger. He criticised me as though he had been my son. He admonished me as though he had been my father. Therefore I gave vent to sighs."
When Confucius saw Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ, the former did not utter a word. Whereupon Tzŭ Lu said, "Master, you have long wished to see Wên Po Hsüeh Tzŭ. How is it that when you do see him you do not speak?"
"With such men as these," replied Confucius, you have only to look, and Tao abides. There is no room for speech."
See ch. v, ad init., on "the Doctrine which is not expressed in words."
Yen Yüan
See p. 179.
asked Confucius, saying, "Master, when you go at a walk, I go at a walk. When you trot, I trot. When you gallop, I gallop. But when you dash beyond the bounds of mortality, I can only stand staring behind. How is this?"
"Explain yourself," said Confucius.
"I mean," continued Yen Yüan, "that as you speak, I speak. As you argue, I argue. As you preach Tao, so I preach Tao. And by 'when you dash beyond the bounds of mortality I can only stand staring behind,' I mean that without speaking you make people believe you, without striving you make people love you, without factitious attractions you gather people around you. I cannot understand how this is so."
"What is there to prevent you from finding out?" replied Confucius. "There is no sorrow to be compared with the death of the mind. The death of the body is of but secondary importance.
Cf. ch. ii, "The body decomposes, and the mind goes with it. This is our real cause for sorrow."
"The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. There is no place which he does not illuminate; and those who have eyes and feet depend upon him to use them with success. When he comes forth, that is existence; when he disappears, that is non-existence.
"And every human being has that upon which he depends for death or for life.
Mind, which rises with life and sets at death.
But if I, receiving this mind-informed body, pass without due modification to the end,
So that the mind perishes with the body.
day and night subject to ceaseless wear and tear like a mere thing, unknowing what the end will be, and in spite of this mind-informed body
Which should teach a higher lesson.
conscious only that fate cannot save me from the inevitable grave-yard,—then I am consuming life until at death it is as though you and I had but once linked arms to be finally parted for ever! Is not that indeed a cause for sorrow?