Parables

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Lodged words are nine tenths; weighty words, seven tenths; goblet words come forth daily and are harmonized with the Heavenly divisions. Lodged words are nine tenths: one borrows outsiders to argue a point. A father does not act as matchmaker for his own son. When a father praises him, it is not as good as praise from someone who is not his father. This is not my fault; it is the fault of others. What agrees with oneself, one echoes; what does not agree with oneself, one opposes.

Original Chinese text

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What agrees with oneself, one affirms as right; what differs from oneself, one condemns as wrong. Weighty words are seven tenths; they are used to bring speech to a stop. These are elders, advanced in years; but if they lack warp and weft, root and branch, to match their old age, then they are not truly advanced. If a person has nothing by which to precede others, he lacks the human way. If a person lacks the human way, he is called a stale person.

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Goblet words come forth daily, harmonized with the Heavenly divisions; thereby they spread and ramify, and so one lives out one’s years. If one does not speak, there is equality; but equality with speech is not equal, and speech with equality is not equal. Therefore it is said: “Speak without speaking.”

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Speaking without speaking: though one speaks all one’s life, one has never spoken; though one does not speak all one’s life, one has never not spoken. There is a basis for its being acceptable, and a basis for its not being acceptable; there is a basis for its being so, and a basis for its not being so. How is it so? It is so on account of being so. How is it not so? It is not so on account of not being so. How is it acceptable? It is acceptable on account of being acceptable. How is it not acceptable? It is not acceptable on account of not being acceptable.

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Things inherently possess what is so of them, and inherently possess what is acceptable of them. There is no thing that is not so, and no thing that is not acceptable. Were it not for goblet words coming forth daily and harmonizing with the heavenly boundary, who could attain what lasts? The ten thousand things are all seeds; in different forms they pass on to one another. Beginning and end are like a ring; no one finds their order. This is called Heavenly Equalization. Heavenly Equalization is the heavenly boundary.

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Zhuangzi said to Huizi: “When Confucius reached sixty, he had changed sixty times. What he first affirmed, he in the end denied. I do not know whether what he now calls right is not what he called wrong at fifty-nine.”

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Hui Shi said, “Confucius is diligent in purpose and obedient to knowledge.”

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Zhuangzi said, “Confucius has already declined that, but he has never spoken of it. Confucius said: ‘One receives capacity from the Great Root and returns to the spirit in order to live. When he sounds, it accords with pitch; when he speaks, it accords with law. Profit and righteousness are laid out before him, yet likes and dislikes, right and wrong, merely make people’s mouths submit—nothing more. He causes people to submit in their hearts and not dare to stand in opposition, and he establishes the settled order of the world.’”

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Enough, enough! I cannot even catch up with him!

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Zengzi took office a second time, and his heart changed a second time. He said: “When I took office while my parents were still alive, with three fu of salary my heart was happy; later, when I took office with three thousand zhong, it did not reach them, and my heart was grieved.”

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A disciple asked Zhongni: “Can someone like Shen be said to have no place where guilt is suspended on him?”

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He said: “He is already suspended! As for one who has nothing suspended, could he have grief? He looks on three fu and three thousand zhong as watching sparrows, mosquitoes, and gadflies pass before him.”

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Yancheng Ziyou said to Dongguo Ziji: “Since I heard your words, in the first year I returned to unadorned simplicity; in the second, I learned to follow; in the third, I became fully attuned; in the fourth, I became one with things; in the fifth, people came to follow me (following Cheng Xuanying's gloss); in the sixth, spirits entered—Cheng Xuanying glosses this as ‘the spirit apprehending the principles of things’; in the seventh, Heaven completed me; in the eighth, I no longer knew death or life; in the ninth, I reached the Great Mystery. To live with deliberate striving is death.”

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“Counseling the gong by appealing to private interests” (the referent of gong is uncertain): death has its cause, while life, being yang, has no cause. But is that really so? Where does it go, and where does it not go? Heaven has its calendrical order; on earth there are places inhabited by people. Where should I seek? No one knows where it ends—how can there be no fate? No one knows where it begins—how can there be fate?

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If there is that by which they respond to one another, how can there be no ghosts? If there is nothing by which they respond, how can there be ghosts?'

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The many penumbrae asked the shadow, saying: "A moment ago you were bowed down, and now you are lifted up; a moment ago your hair was bound up, and now it hangs loose; a moment ago you were sitting, and now you are standing; a moment ago you were walking, and now you have stopped: why is this?"

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The shadow said: "I am merely a restless fluttering; why ask about such a trifling matter! I have this, but I do not know why it is so. I am like the shell a cicada casts off, the slough a snake sheds: resembling them but not the same. With fire and sun I am gathered; with shade and night I am displaced. That—is it what I depend on? And how much more so that which has nothing to depend on!"

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"When it comes, I come with it; when it goes, I go with it; when it stirs vigorously, I stir vigorously with it. As for that which stirs vigorously—what is there to ask about it?"

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Yang Ziju was traveling south to Pei, while Lao Dan was journeying west to Qin. The two arranged to meet in the outskirts; when Yang Ziju reached Liang, he encountered Laozi. Midway, Laozi looked up to heaven, sighed, and said: “At first I took you to be teachable; now you are not.”

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Yang Ziju did not answer. When they reached the lodging, he presented water for washing and rinsing, a towel, and a comb. He took off his shoes outside the door, advanced on his knees, and said: “Earlier, your disciple wished to ask you, Master, but you were traveling and had no leisure, so I did not dare. Now you have leisure; may I ask the reason?”

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Laozi said: “You stare and glare with arrogance—who would dwell with you? The purest white seems stained; the fullest virtue seems insufficient.”

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Yang Ziju started, changed countenance, and said, “I respectfully receive your instruction!”

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When he first went there, the lodgers welcomed him and ushered him into the house. The host held a mat, and the host’s wife held a towel and comb. The lodgers yielded their seats, and those warming themselves at the hearth moved aside. When he returned, the lodgers contended with him for seats!

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