Musings of a Chinese Mystic

WISDOM OF THE EAST

M U S I N GS O F A

CH IN ESE MYST IC

SELECTIONS FROM THE PHILOSOPHY

OF CHUANG 1‘

s

WI TH AN I N T R O D U C T I O N BY

LIONEL GILES , M .A. (o xen )A S S I ST AN T AT TH E B R I T I SH M U S E U M

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY,ALBEMARLE STREET

1906

C O N TE N T S

PAGE

I NTRODUCTION

THE DOCTRI NE OE RELATI'ITY

THE I DENTITY OF CONTEAEIES

I LLUSI ONE

THE MYSTERI OUS I E NANENCE OF TAO

THE H IDDEN SPRING

NON-I NTERFERENCE WITH NATURE

PASSI'E 'IRTUE

SELF-ADAPTATION To E'TERNALS

M ORTALITY OF THE SOUL

THE SAGE, OR PERFECT MAN

RANDOM GLEANINGS

PERSONAL ANEODOTES

N O T E

HE extracts in this v olum e are drawn,one or two very slight modifications, from

the translation by Professor H . A. Giles (Quaritch ,

1889L

EDITORIAL NOTE

HE object of the editors of this series is avery definite one . They desire above all

things that, in their humble way , these booksshall be the ambassadors of good-will andunderstanding between East and West, the old

world of Thought, and the new of Action . In

this endeavour, and in their own sphere, theyare but followers of the highest example in theland. They are confident that a deeper knowledge o i the great ideals and lofty philosophyof Oriental thought may help to a revival ofthat true spirit of Charity which neither despisesnor fears the nations of another creed andcolour . Finally, in thanking press and publicfor the very cordial reception given to theWisdom of the East series, they wish to statethat no pains have been spared to secure thebest specialists for the treatment of the varioussubjects at hand.

L . CRANMER-BYNG.

S . A. KAPADIAQ ,

4. HAROOURT BuILDINos,I NNER TEMPLE ,

LONDON .

MUSINGSOFACHINESEMYSTIC

INTRODUCTION

ALTHOUGH Chinese histo ry can

-

show noauthentic contemporary record prior to the

Chou dynasty , some eleven hundred years beforeChrist , there is no doubt that a high pitch of civilisation was attained at a much earlier period . ThusLao Tzii was in no sense the first humanisinginstructo r of a semi-barbc race . On the contrary,

his was a reactionary influence, for the cryhe raised was directed against the multiplicationof laws and restrictions , the growth of luxury,and the other evils which attend rapid materialprogress . That his lifetime should have coincided with a remarkable extension of the veryprinciples he combated with such energy is oneof the ironies of fate . Before he was in his graveanother great man had arisen who laid unex

ampled stress on the minute regulation of cere

12 MUSI NGS OF A CHINESE MYSTIC

monies and ritual,and succeeded in investing the

r ules of outward conduct with an importance theyhad never hitherto possessed .

If Lao Tzii then had revolted against the

growing artificiality of life in his day, a returnto nature must have seemed doubly imperativeto his disciple Chuang Tzii , who flourished morethan a couple of centuries later, when the bugbearof civilisation had steadily advanced . Withchagrin he saw that Lao Tzii

’

s teaching had neverobtained any firm hold on the masses , still less onthe rulers of China, whereas the star of Confuciuswas unm istakably in the ascendant . Withinhis own recollection the propagation of Confucianethics had received a powerful impetus fromMencius , the second of China

’s orthodox sages .Now Chuang Tzii was imbued to the core with theprinciples of pure Taoism as handed down byLao Tzii . He might more fitly be dubbed theTao-saturated man than Spinoza the Godintoxicated .

’ Tao in its various phases pervadedhis inmost be ing and was reflected in all his

thought . He was therefore eminently qualifiedto revive his Master’s ringing protest against thematerialistic tendencies of the time .

Chuang Tzfi’s worldly position was not high .

We learn from Ssii-ma Ch'

ien that he held a pettyoflicial post in a small provincial town . Buthis literary and philosophical talent must soonhave brought him into repute

,for we find him

HIS OFFICIAL POSITION

in frequent contact with the leading scholars ofthe age, against whom he is said to have defendedhis tenets with success . It does not appear ,however , that he gained promotion in the publicservice, which is doubtless to be attributed tohis own lack of ambition and shrinking from anactive career, as we have his personal account ofa deputation which vainly tried to induce himto accept the post of Prime Minister in the Ch‘uState . Official routine must have proved in

the highest degree distasteful to this finelytempered poetic spir it , as ithas to many a chafinggenius since . Bold in fancy yet retiring by disposition, prone to melancholy yet full of eagerenthusiasm , a natural sceptic yet inspired withboundless belief in his doctrine, he was a manfull of contradictions , but none the less fitted tomake a breach in the cast-iron traditions ofConfucianism, if not to draw others after him inthe same track . Of his mental developmentthere remains no record . His convictions , as

they stand revealed in his great philosophicalwork, are alr eady mature

,if somewhat lacking

in consistency he comes before the public as akeen adherent of the school of Lao Tzii , givingeloquent and impassioned utterance to the ideaswhich had germinated in the brain of his Master .

Chuang Tzii , indeed , supplies the prime deficiencyof Lao Tzii he has the gift of language whichenables him to clothe in rich apparel the great

14 MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTIC

thoughts that had hitherto found their onlyexpression in bare disconnected sayings . Thesescraps of concise w isdom , which are gatheredtogether in the patchwork treatise known as

the Tao Te‘

Ching, seem to have formed thekernel of his doctrine, and he proceeded to developthem in a hundred different directions . It wouldbe unjust, however, to infer from this that thereis nothing in Chuang Tzii which cannot be tracedback to the older sage , or that he was incapableof original thought of distinct and independentvalue . On the contrary , his mental grasp of

elusive metaphysical problems was hardly if atall inferior to that of Lao Tzii himself , andcertainly never equalled by any subsequentChinese thinker . His writings also have thatstimulating suggestiveness which stamps theproduct of all great minds . After reading andre-reading Chuang Tzu, one feels there are latentdepths still unplumbed . Moreover, he givesfree rein to his own particular fancies and predilections . There are sides of Lao Tzii ’s teachingat which he hardly glances , or which he passesover entirely, while in other directions he allowshis brilliant imagination to carry him far out ofsight of his fountain-head. If the analogy benot too heavily pressed, we may say that he wasto the Founder of Taoism what St . Paul was tothe Founder of Christianity .

As with Lao Tzu, Tao forms the centre and

THE MEAN ING OF TAO

pivot of Chuang Tzu 8 whole system and thisimparts real unity to hi s work , which in otherrespects appears undeniably straggling and illcompacted . But Tao as conceived by ChuangTzii is not quite the same thing as the Tao ofwhich Lao Tzii spoke with such wondering awe .

The difference will be better understood after abrief sketch of the gradual development in themeaning of the word . The fir st meaning of Taois road or way,

” and in very early times itwas used by a figure of speech for the wayor method of doing a thing . Thus it came todenote a rule of right conduct , moral action, orthe principle underlying it . There also grew upin common speech a natural antithesis betweenthe Way of Heaven (T

‘

ien Tao ) and the Way ofman, the former expression signifying the higheststandard of w isdom and moral excellence , asopposed to the blind groping after truth herebelow . Finally the T

'

ien was dropped , andTao then stood alone for the great unseen principle of Good dominating and permeating theUniverse . The transition is visible in Lao Tzu,

who was probably the first to employ the termin its transcendental sense , but who also retainsthe older expression T

'

ien Tao . In one of hissayings T‘ien Tao is practically equivalent toTao the First Cause , and must therefore be translated not the Way but the Tao of Heaven .

This brings us to the next stage, of which Chuang


Tzu is the representative . In his writings Taonever seems to mean way . But he introducesa new element of perplexity by speaking of T ienand Tao as though they were two co -existent yetperfectly distinct cosmic principles . He also usesthe combination T

‘

ien Tao, and it is here that

the clue to the difli culty must be sought . TheTao of Heaven is evidently an attribute ratherthan a thing in itself

,and it is T'

ien which hasnow become the First Cause . It is a less impersonal conception, however, than Lao Tzii

’

s

transcendental Tao,and in fact closely approxi

mates to our own term God .

” What , then,is Chuang Tzii ’s Tao ? Though by no meansalways clear and consistent on the subject, heseems to regard it as the 'irtue or manifestation of the divine First Principle . It iswhat he somewhere calls the happiness of God,

”

—which to the Taoist of course means astate of profound and passionless tranquillity , asacred everlasting calm .

”Now Lao Tzii speaks

of Tao as having existed before Heaven andEarth : Heaven

,

” he says,takes its law

from Tao but the law of Tao is its own spontaneity.

” With him ,therefore, Tao is the

antecedent of T Ien , being what modern philosophers term the Unconditioned or the Absolute .

As to his T'

ien, the ambiguity which lurks thereinmakes it doubtful whether he had any definite

1 It is translated thus in the accom panying extracts.

T'IEN AND TAO COMPARED

conception of it at all . He simply appears tohave accepted the already existing Chinesecosmogony , oblivious or careless of its incom

patibility with his own novel conception of Tao .

Chuang Tzii to some extent removes this am

biguity by reverting to the older usage . Hedeposes Tao from its premier position as theAbsolute , and puts T

‘ien in its place . Taobecomes a mystic moral principle not unlike LaoTzii

’

s T6, or“'irtue,

” and the latter term whenused at all has lostmost of its technical significance .Thus broadly stated, some such explanation willprove helpful to the reader, though he may stillbe bamed by a passage like the following Aman looks upon God as upon his father , andloves Him in like measure . Shall he, then, notlove that which is greater than God i Thetruth is that neither consistency of thought norexact terminology can be looked for in Chinese

philosophy as a whole, and least of all , perhaps ,in such an abstract system as that of earlyTaoism .

Leaving this somewhat barren discussion asto the relative position of Tao and T ien, we nowcome to what was undoubtedly Chuang Tzii ’sgreatest achievement in the region of purethought . As in so many other cases, the germis provided by Lao Tzu, who has the sayingThe recognition of beauty as such implies the

1 T'

ien .


idea of ugliness, and the recognition of goodimplies the idea of e Following up thishint, Chuang Tzu is led to insist on the ultimaterelativity of all human perceptions . Even spaceand time are relative . Sense-knowledge is gainedby looking at things from only one point of view ,

and is therefore utterly illusory and untrustworthy . Hence, itappears that the most fundamental distinctions of our thought are unrealand crumble away when exposed to the lightof Nature . Contraries no longer stand in sharpantagonism

,but are in some sense actually

identical with each other,because there is a real

and all-embracing Unity behind them . Thereis nothing which is not objective , nothing whichis not subjective which is as much as to say ,

that subjective is also objectiv e, and objectivealso subjective . When he pauses here to askwhether it be possible to say that subjective andobjective really exist at all , he seems to betouching the fringe of scepticism pure and simple .

But the point is not pressed he is an idealistat heart, and will not seriously question theexistence of a permanent Reality underlyingthe flow of phenomena . True wisdom thenconsists in withdrawing from one’s own individualstandpoint and entering into subjective te

lation with all things .” He who can achievethis will reject all distinctions of this and that,

”

because he is able to descry an ultimate Unity

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join


unconscious—a strange attribute,which at once

fixes a gulf between it and our idea of a personalGod . And accordingly, since Tao is the grandmodel for mankind, Chuang Tzii would have usstrive to attain so far as may be to a like unconsciousness . But absolute and unbroken uncon

sciousness during this life being an impossibility ,he advocates , not universal suicide , which wouldplainly violate the order of nature , but a state ofmental abstraction which shall involve at leasta total absence of self-consciousness . I n orderto explain his thought more clearly, he gives anumber of vivid illustrations from life

,such as

the parable of Prince Hui’s cook, who devotedhim self to Tao and worked with his mind andnot with his eye . He shows that the highestpitch of manual dexterity is attained only bythose whose arthas become their second nature ,who have grown so familiar with their workthat all their movements seem to come instinotively and of themselves, who , in other words ,have reached the stage at which they are reallyunconscious of any effort. This applicationof Tao in the humble sphere of the handicraftsman serves to point the way towards the higherregions of abstract contemplation, where it willfind its fullest scope . The same idea is carriedinto the domain of ethics . As we have seen ,Chuang Tzu would have men neither moral nor

See p. 52.

FREEDOM FROM RESTRAINT 21

immoral, but simply non-moral . And to thisend every taint of self-consciousness must bepurged away, the mind

'

must be freed from its

own criteria, and all one’s trust must be placedin natural intuition . Any attempt to imposefixed standards of morality on the peoples of theearth is to be condemned

,because it leaves no

room for that spontaneous and unforced accordwith nature which is the very salt of humanaction . Thus

,were it feasible, Chuang Tzii

would transport mankind back into the goldenage which existed before the distinction betweenright and wrong arose . When the artificialbarrier betw een contraries was set up , the worldhad already , in his eyes , lost its prim i tive goodness . For the mere fact of being able to call one’sconduct good implies a lapse into the uncertainsea of relativity , and consequent deviation fromthe heavenly pattern . Herein lies the explanation of the paradox , on which he is constantlyharping, that wisdom ,

charity, duty to one’s

neighbour and so on, are opposed to Tao .

It is small wonder that China has hesitatedto adopt a system which logically leads to suchextreme conclusions Nevertheless we must nottoo hastily write Chuang Tzu ofl as an unprac

tical dreamer . Remote though his speculationsseem from the world of reality

,they rest on a

substratum of truth . In order to set forth his'iews with more startling eflect, he certainly


laid undue stress on the mystical side of LaoTzii

’

s philosophy, to the exclusion of muchthat was better worth handling . That he himself, however, was not altogether blind to theuntenabili ty of an extreme position may begathered from a remark which he casually letsfall While there should be no action, thereshould be also no inaction . This is a pregnantsaying , which shows how Chuang Tzii mayhave modified his stubborn attitude to meet thenecessities of actual life . What he means isthat any hard-and-fast, predetermined line ofconduct is to be avoided, abstinence from actionjust as much as action itself . The great thingis that nothing be done of set purpose when itseems to violate the natural order of events .On the other hand, if a certain course of actionpresents itself as the most obvious and naturalto adopt, itwould not be in accordance with Taoto shrink from it. This is known as the doctrineof inaction, but itwould be more correctly namedthe doctrine of spontaneity .

There is another noteworthy element in ChuangTzii

’

s system which does much to smooth awaythe difi culty of reconciling theory and practice .

This is what he calls the doctrine of non-angularityand self-adaptation to externals . It is really acorollary to the grand principle of getting outsideone’s personality—a process which extends themental horizon and creates sympathy with the

SWIMMING WITH THE TIDE 23

m inds of others . Som e such wholesome corrective was necessary to prevent the Taoist codefrom drifting into mere quixotry . Here againLao Tzii may have supplied the seed which wasto ripen in the pages of his disciple . Whatthe world reverences cannot be treated withdisrespect, is the dictum of the older sage . ButChuang Tzii went beyond this negative precept .He saw well enough that unless a man is preparedto run his head against a stone wall , he must,in the modern cant phrase , adjust him self to hisenvironm ent . Without abating a jot of hisinmost convictions , he must swim with thetide

,so as not to offend others . Outwardly he

may adapt himself, if inwardly he keeps up tohis own standard . There must be no raging andtearing propaganda , but infinite patience andtact . Gentle moral suasion and personal example are the only methods that Chuang Tzuwill countenance and even with these he urgescaution . If you are always offending othersby your superiority, you will probably come to

grief .” Above all , he abhors the clumsy stupidity

which would go on forcing its stock remediesdown the people’s throat irrespective of placeor season . Thus even Confucius is blamed fortrying to revive the dead ashes of the past andmake the customs of Chou succeed in Lu .

This, he says , is like pushing a boat on land ,

great trouble and no result, except certain injury


to oneself . There must be no blind and rigidadherence to custom and tradition, no unreason

ing worship of antiquity .

‘ Dress up a monkeyin the robes of Chou Kung, ‘ and it will not behappy until they are to rn to shreds . And thediflerence between past and present, he addsbitterly, is much the same as the differencebetween Chou Kung and a monkey .

” Therebuke conveyed in these remarks is not whollyunmerited . Chuang Tzu, while hardly yieldingto Confucius him self in his ardent admirationof the olden time, never fell into the mistake ofsupposing that the world can stand still , thoughhe feared itmight sometimes go backward . Hebelieved that to be the wisest statecraft , whichcould take account of changed condi tions andsuit its measures to the age . Plainly the inactivity he preached

,hard though itbe to fathom

and harder still to compass , was something verydifferent from stagnation . It was a lesson Chinaneeded ; well for her in these latter days if shehad taken it more to heartThe comparative neglect of Chuang Tzii among

the literati of the Middle Kingdom is no doubtchiefly due to his cavalier treatment of Confucius, of which we have just had a sample .

Most of the writers who mention him speak of

1 A great jur ist and social reform er o f the twelfth

century 3 .O. br other o f the first so vere ign o f the Chou

dynasty.

TREATMENT OF CONFUCIUS 25

his hostile attitude towards the head of theorthodox school . As a matter of fact, thi s

hostility has been a little exaggerated . For onething, Chuang Tzii

’

s attitude is by no meansconsistent the tone adopted towards Co nfuciuspasses thr ough every variety of shade . In thefirst seven chapters , which form the nucleus ofChuang Tzuu’

s work, he is assIgned a very prominent position, acting for the most part as themouth-piece of the author’s own views , whichhe is made to expound with an air of authority .

I n only one passage is he treated with disrespect,though in another it is implied that he was aprophet unsuited to his age . In chapter vi wemay even discern a rough attempt at reconcil ingthe two extremes of mystic Taoism and matterof-fact Confucianism . It seems that all maynot aspire to the more intimate communionwith Tao , though Tao is the environment of all .For Co nfucius here resigns himself to the willof Heaven

,which has ordained that he , like the

bulk of mankind, shall travel within the ordinaryrule of life ,

” with its limited outlook, its prejudice s , forms , and ceremonies but he franklyrecognises the superior blessedness of the favouredfew who can transcend it. In some of the laterchapters (the genuineness of which is not alwaysunimpeachable) the Master is more severelyhandled . Especially does he appear to dis

advantage, as might naturally be expected, in


his alleged interviews with Lao Tzii . ‘ But inother places again he is represented as anearnest inquirer after truth , or even cited as

an acknowledged authority . He quotes wordswhich now stand in the Tao Te

‘

Ching, andgenerally behaves more like a disciple of LaoTzii than as the head of a rival system .

I n chapter xxii , by a strange piece of inadvertence , he is actually made to disparage theConfucianists with their scholastic quibbles .But it is in the last of the genuine chapters ,entitled Lick Tzii , that the acme of inconsistencyis reached . Here Confucius is attacked as aman of outward show and specious words Hemistakes the branch for the root . ’ If entrustedwith the welfare of the State,

“itwill only be by

m istake that he will succeed . Yet this tiradeis immediately followed by a characteristicharangue in the Taoist vein, delivered by no otherthan the much-maligned sage himself . It ishard , indeed, to imagine the central figure ofthe Analects speaking in this strain There isnothing more fatal than intentional vir tue, whenthe mind looks outwards . For by thus lookingoutwards , the power of introspection is destroyed . What is itto aim at virtue Why ,

a man who aims at virtue practises what he approves and condemns what he does not practise .

’

1 Lao Tzii him self does not escape entirely . See the

curious episo de on p. 82 o f the presentvo lum e .


precept, he were endeavouring to break throughthe restraining bonds of his individual self , andto contemplate his own judgments from the outside . Needless to say, there is a fount of deep ,almost fierce, earnestness in the man as well .But he never loses a certain delicacy of touchwhich lends peculiar aptness to the sobriquetof butterfly ,

” bestowed on him in allusion tohis famous dr eam .

l To these qualities mustbe added, in order to complete a faint sketch ofthis unique figur e in Chinese literature , a recurrentstrain of per vasive melancholy, a mournfulbrooding over the doubtful doom of humankind .

” Take , for instance , these few linespicturing the mental faculties in their inevitabledecline Then, as under autumn and winter

’sblight, comes gradual decay ; a passing away,like the flow of water, never to return Finally ,the block, when all is choked up like an o ld dr ain,—the failing mind which shall not see light again .

”

Just as the form of Chuang Tzii ’s work hoverson the borderland of poetry and prose

,so the

content is poetic rather than strictly philosophi c ,by reason of the lightness and grace with whichhe skims over subjects bristling with difficulty .

Lucidity and precision of thought are sometimessacrificed to imagination and beauty of style .

He seldom attempts passages of sustained reasoning, but prefers to rely on flashes of literary

1 See p, 50.

CHUANG TzU’

s METHOD

inspiration . He is said to have shone in his

verbal conflicts with Hui Tzii , but the specimensof his dialectic that have been preserved are ,perhaps more subtle than convincing Theepisode of the minnows under the bridge ‘ onlyproves that in arguing with a sophist he couldhimself descend to sophistry naked andunabashed .

A noteworthy feature of Chuang Tzu s methodis the wealth of illustration which he lavishesupon his favour ite topics . In a hundr ed variousways he contrives to poin t the moral which isnever far from his thoughts . Realising as fullyas Herbert Spencer after him , the necessity ofconstant iteration in order to force alien conceptions on unwilling minds , he returns again andagain to the cardinal points of his system ,

andskilqy arrays his arguments in an endlessstream of episode and anecdote . These anecdotesare usually thrown into the form of dialoguenot the compact and closely-reasoned dialogueof Plato, but detached conversations betweenreal or imaginary persons , sometimes easy in

tone , sometimes declamatory , and here and thererising to fine heights of rhetoric . It may beobjected to this method that it hinders the properdevelopment of thought by destroying its continuity,

and is therefore more suited to a merelypopular work than to that of a really original

See p. l lo.


thinker on the other side it can only be urgedthat it lends dramatic colouring and relieves thetedium inseparable from a long philosophicaltreatise . The objection

,on the whole, has much

force, and yet it is equally true that the alternative method would have robbed Chuang Tzi

'

I’

s

work of more than half its charm its immortalityis after all due less to the matter, much of whichto modern notions is somewhat crude, than tothe exquisite form . And certainly , as a means offixing a principle in the mind, a single anecdotetold by Chuang Tzi

'

I is worth reams of dry disquisition .

Though the difficulty of his text and theabstruseness of his theme have been a bar to verywide-spread popularity, Chuang Tzii has neverlost favour with the select band of scholars .Fr om time to time, when Taoism happened to bein fashion, he also enjoyed considerable vogue atCour t . His book, like the Tao Té

‘

Ching, formedthe subject of lectures and examinations , andseveral Emperors are said to have studied andwritten upon it. In 713 A .D . , it was speciallydecreed that those members of the public serviceshould be singled out for promotion who wereable to understand Chuang Tzii . That he wasalways considered a hard nut to crack is suffi

ciently shown by the flood of commentaries andother works devoted to his elucidation . Nevertheless, we are told as usual of a marvellous boy

NATIVE CRITICI SM

one of the infant prodigies in whom Chineseannals are so rich—who at twelve years of ageundersto od the meaning of both Lao Tzii and

Chuang Tzii . The philosopher’s works , in KuoHsiang’s standard edition, were printed for thefirst time in the year 1005 A .D . , and the reigningEmperor presented each of his Ministers witha copy .

Until we come to Lin Hsi-chung at the beginning of the present dynasty , native criticismcannot be said to have thrown any very dazzlinglight on our author . An early writer, who maypossibly have seen him in the flesh , complainsthat he hides himself in the clouds and has noknowledge of men .

’ Another pronounces himreckless , one who submitted to no law .

” Froma third we learn that in his desire to free himselffrom the trammels of objective existences , helost himself in the quicksands of metaphysics .”

Sometimes he is damned with the faintest ofpraise In his teachings propriety plays nopart, neither are they founded on eternal principles ; nevertheless , they wear the semblanceof wisdom and have their good points .” On theother hand, rabid Confucianists insisted thathis book was expressly intended to cast a sluron their Master, in order to make people accepthis own heterodox teaching and, consequently ,nothing would satisfy them but that his writingsshould be burnt and his di sciples cut off. As


to the rights and wrongs of his system, they werenot even worth discussing .

From kindr ed poetic souls he has obtainedmore generous recognition . The great Po Chii-i ,of the T ang dynasty, with whom he appears tohave been a special favourite , was inspired bythe perusal of his works to write three shortpoems, one of which contains the followingstanzas

PEACEFUL OLD AGE

Chuang Tzii said : Tao gives m e this to il in manhood ,this repose in o ld age , this restin death .

Swiftly and soon the go lden sun goes down ,

The blue sky wells afar into the night;Tao is the changeful world

’

s environm ent,

Happy are they that in its laws delight.

Tao gives m e to il—youth’

s passion to achieve ,And leisure in life’s autumn and decayI follow Tao

,

—the seasons are my fr iendsOpposing it, m isfortune com es my way.

Within my breast no sorrows can abide ,I feel the greatworld

’

s spiritthrough m e thr ill

And as a cloud I dri ft before the wind,Or with the random swallow take my will.

My friend Mr . L . Cranm er -Byng has kindly added thewings of his verse to m y literal pro se translation . All three

poem s will be found atthe end of the section on Chuang TziiIn the great T

‘

u Sim encycIOpwdia.

INDIAN INFLUENCE

As underneath the mulberry tree I dream ,

The water clock drips on , and dawn appearsA new day shines o

’

er wrinkles and white hair ,The symbo ls of the fulness of my years.

If I depart, I cast no look behind ;If still alive , I still am free from care .

Since life and death in cycles com e and go ,Of little m om ent are the days to spare .

Thus strong in faith I wait and long to be

One with the pulsings of Eternity.

The Brahm anistic influence whi ch these linesbetray is faithqy reflected from Chuang TziiThere are critics who would trace the sameinfluence fur ther back still , and regard the speculations of Lao Tzii himself as borrowed directlyfrom India . But in the absence of any trustworthy evidence of communication between thetwo countries at that early date, the final verdicton this theory cannot yet be pronounced . WithChuang Tzii the case is somewhat different . Theintervening period had seen the rise of Gautamaand the spreading of a new and powerful religionwhich embodied in itself all the more essentialparts of the Brahmanistic creed . By ChuangTzii

’

s time Buddhism had probably penetratedfar and wide throughout Asia . It was not omcially introduced into China untilmuch later, butit seems only reasonable to suppose that dr ibletsmust have filtered through here and there

O


Certainly we find in the Chinese philosopher suchstriking points of similarity to Brahmanism ascan hardly be explained as mere coincidences ofthought . He believes, for instance, that everyhuman being has a soul , which is an emanationfrom the great impersonal Soul of the universe .

In contradistinction to the mind, which is onlythe scene or background of our ever-changingsensations and emotions , and dies with the body ,the soul is in its nature imm ortal, and afterpassing through a series of different states inconditioned being , finally reuni tes with thedivine essence whence it sprang . How to hastenthe attainment of this goal of supreme blissthat is the question which lies at the root ofChuang Tzii ’s philosophy . And hi s answer pointsto the abstract contemplation of Tao as the onlymeans of destroying attachment to existence forits own sake, and thus loosening the soul fromits bodily fetters . So far he resembles theBuddhist . But when he comes to touch on thecontemplative life, we find him diverging fromthe recognised Buddhi st ideal in one or twonotable particulars . To him the highest formof virtue does not mean the m ortification ofanimal instincts . Rather would he like theseto have free and natural scope . Nor does itconsist in living the life of a hermit . For theperfect man can transcend the lim i ts of thehuman and yet not withdraw from the world .

”


for outward and visible results . He was in nosense a propagandist the kingdom of the mindwas his real province . Yet the fact remain s thatthe intellectual elevation and refinement of hissystem placed it beyond the grasp of all excepta few unlike Confucius, he made little or no

pr ov ismn for the struggling mass of mankindwhi ch could not be expected to rise to the higherplanes of abstract thought .This , however, is a criticism which leaves

Chuang Tzii ’s literary position unaffected andit is literature, after all , which claims the immortal part of his name and fame . For he ofall the ancients wielded the most perfect masteryover Chinese prose style, and was the first toshow to what heights of eloquence and beautyhis native language could attain . And in theserespects , great as the achievements are of whichlater Chinese literature can boast, he has neverbeen surpassed . Indeed , his master-hand soundedchords that have vibrated since to no othertouch . Finally, what effect may his wr itingsbe expected to produce on the modern Westernmind i It is certain that to many , even throughthe necessarily imperfect medium of a translation, he already makes a powerful appeal andit may at least be safely predicted that a fargreater number of readers will be attracted byhis originat and grace than repelled by therather fantastic vagaries of his mysticism .

THE DOCTRINE OF RELATIVITY

I N the northern ocean there is a fish , called theLeviathan, many thousand li in size . ThisLeviathan changes in to a bird, called the Rukh ,whose back is many thousand li in breadth .

With a mighty effort it rises , and its wings obscure the sky like clouds . At the equinox , thi sbird prepares to start for the southern ocean,the Ce lestial Lake . And in the Record ofM arvels

we read that when the rukh flies southwards ,the water is smitten for a space of three thousandli around, while the bird itself mounts upon atyphoon to a height of ninety thousand li , for aflight of six months’ duration . Just so are themotes in a sunbeam blown aloft by God . Forwhether the blue of the sky is its real colour, oronly the resul t of distance without end, theeffect to the bird looking down would be just thesame as to the motes . A cicada laughed, andsaid to a young dove , Now , when I fly with all

my might,’

tis as much as I can do to get fromtree to tree . And sometimes I do not reach,

1 The Ii is aboutone-third o f an English m ile .


but fall to the ground midway . What, then,can be the use of going up ninety thousand Ii inorder to start for the south Cl Those twolittle creatures—what should they know 2 Smallknowledge has not the compass of great knowledge any more than a short year has the lengthof a long year . How can we tell that this is so 2The mushroom of a morning knows not thealternation of day and night . The Chrysalisknows not the alternation of spring and autumn .

Theirs are short years . But in the State of Ch‘u

there is a tortoise whose spring and autumn areeach of five hundred years’ duration . And informer days there was a large tree which had aspring and autumn each of eight thousand years’

duration . Yet P‘

éng Tsu is still, alas anobject of envy to all .

There is nothing under the canopy of heavengreater than the tip of an autumn spikelet . Avast mountain is a small thing . Neither is thereany age greater than that of a child cut off ininfancy . P

’

éng Tsu himself died young . Theuniverse and I came into being together and I ,and everything therein

,are One .

It was the time of autumn floods . Everystream poured into the river

,which swelled in its

1 The Methuselah of China.

THE OCEAN OF KNOWLEDGE 39

turbid course . The banks receded so far fromeach other that it was impossible to tell a cowfrom a horse .Then the Spirit of the River laughed for joy

that all the beauty of the earth was gathered tohimself . Down with the stream he journeyedeast until he reached the ocean . There , lookingeastwards and seeing no limit to its waves, hiscountenance changed . And as he gazed overthe expanse , he sighed and said to the Spiritof the Ocean, A vulgar proverb says that hewho has heard but part of the truth thinks noone equal to himself . And such a one am I .

When formerly I heard people detractingfrom the learning of Confucius or underratingthe heroism of Poh I , I did not believe . Butnow that I have looked upon your inexhaustibility—alas for me had I not reached your abode , Ishould have been for ever a laughing-sto ck tothose of comprehensive enlightenmentTo which the Spirit of the Ocean replied :You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog ,the creature of a narrower sphere You cannotspeak of ice to a summer insect ,—the creatureof a season . You cannot speak of Tao to apedagogue : his scope is too restricted . Butnow that you have emerged from your narrowsphere and have seen the great ocean, you knowyour own insignificance , and I can speak to youof great principles .


The Four Seas—are they not to the universebut like puddles in a marsh The MiddleKingdom—is it not to the surrounding oceanlike a tare-seed in a granary Of all the myriadcreated things , man is but one . And of all thosewho inhabit the land , live on the fruit of theearth , and move about in cart and boat, anindividual man is but one . Is not he, as compared with all creation, but as the tip of a hairupon a horse’s skin

Dimensions are limitless ; time is endless .Co nditions are not invariable ; terms are notfinal . Thus , the wise man looks into space, anddoes not regard the small as too little, nor thegreat as too much for he knows that there isno limit to dimension . He looks back into thepast , and does not grieve over what is far off,nor rejoice over what is near ; for he knowsthat time is without end . He investigatesfulness and decay, and does not rejoice if hesucceeds

,nor lament if he fails for he knows

that conditions are not invariable He whoclearly apprehends the scheme of existence doesnot rejoice over life, nor repine at death ; forhe knows that terms are not final .What man knows is not to be compared

w ith what he does not know . The span of hisexistence is not to be compared with the spanof his non-existence . With the small , to striveto exhaust the great necessarily lands him in con

CORRELATIVES

fusion, and he does not attain his object . How

then should one be able to say that the tip ofa hair is the ne plus ultra of smallness , or thatthe universe is the ne plus ultra of greatness

Those who would have right without its

correlative,wrong or good government w ithout

its correlative,misrule

,—they do not apprehend

the great principles of the universe nor theconditions to which all creation is subject . Onemight as well talk of the existence of heavenwi thout that of earth , or of the negative principlewi thout the positive , which is clearly absurd .

If you adopt,as absolute , a standard of evenness

whi ch is so only relatively ,your results w ill not

be absolutely even . If you adopt, as absolute ,a criterion of right whi ch is so only relatively ,your results w ill not be absolutely right . Thosewho trust to their senses become slaves to ob jective existences . Those alone who are guidedby their intuitions find the true standard . Sofar are the senses less reliable than the intuitions .

Yet fools trust to their senses to know what isgood for mankind

,with alas ' but external

results .

THE IDENTITY OF CONTRARIES

TzU CH'

I of Nan-kuo sat leaning on a table .

Looking up to heaven,he sighed and became

absent, as though soul and body had parted .

Yen Ch'

éng Tzu Yu,who was standing by him ,

exclaimed : What are you thinking about thatyour body should become thus like dry wood,your m ind like dead ashes ? Surely the mannow leaning on the table is not he who was herejust now .

My friend, replied Tzii Ch'i , your question

is apposite . To-day I have buried myself .Do you understand ? Ah ' perhaps youonly know the music of Man ,

and not that ofEarth . Or even if you have heard the musicof Earth , you have not heard the music ofHeaven .

Pray explain,said Tzii Yu .

The breath of the universe,continued Tzii

Ch'

i,is called wind . At times , it is inactive .

But when active,every aperture resounds to the

blast . Have you never listened to its growingroar Caves and dells of hill and forest, hollowsin huge trees of many a span in girth—these

42


though we cannot see its form . It has functionswithout form .

Take the human body with all its manifolddivisions . Which part of it doe s a man lovebest Does he not cherish all equally, or hashe a preference Do not all equally serve himAnd do these servitors then govern themselves ,or are they subdivided into rulers and subjectsSurely there 18 some soul which sways them all .

But whether or not we ascertain what arethe functions of this soul , it matters but littleto the soul itself . For

,coming into existence

with this mortal coil of mine , with the exhaustionof thi s mortal coil its mandate will also be exhausted . To be harassed by the wear and tearof life , and to pass rapidly through it wi thoutpossibility of arresting one

’

8 course , - is notthis pitiful indeed To labour without ceasing,and then

,without living to enjoy the fruit, worn

out , to depart, suddenly , one knows not whither,—is not that a just cause for griefWhat advantage is there in what men call

not dying The body decomposes,and the

mind goes with it . This is our real cause forsorrow . Can the world be so dull as not to seethis Or is it I alone who am dull , and othersnot so ? There is nothing which is notobjective there is nothing which is not subjective . But it is impossible to start from theobjective . Only from subjective knowledge is

ALL THINGS ARE ONE

it po ssible to proceed to objective knowledge .

Hence ithas been said, The objective emanatesfrom the subjective ; the subjective is conse

quent upon the objective . This is the Alternation Theory .

’ Nevertheless,when one is born,

the other dies . When one is possible , the otheris impossible . When one is affirmative, theother is negative . Which being the case

,the

true sage rejects all distinctions of this and that .He takes his refuge in God , and places himselfin subjective relation with all things .And inasmuch as the subjective is also

obj ective , and the objective also subjective ,and as the contraries under each are indistin

guishably blended , does it not become impossiblefor us to say whether subjective and objectivereally exist at allWhen subjective and objective are both

without their correlates , that is the very axisof Tao . And when that axis passes through thecentre at which all I nfinities converge , positiveand negative alike blend into an infinite One .

Therefore it is that, viewed from the standpointof Tao , a beam and a pillar are identical . Soare ugliness and beauty , greatness , wickedness ,perverseness , and strangeness . Separation is thesame as construction construction is the sameas destruction . Nothing is subject either toconstruction or to destruction, for these conditions are brought together into One .


Only the truly intelligent understand thisprinciple of the identity of all things They donot view things as apprehended by themselves ,subjectively ; but transfer themselves into theposition of the things viewed . And viewingthem thus they are able to comprehend them,

nay,to master them and he who can master

them is near .

1 So it is that to place oneself insubjective relation with externals , without consciousness of their objectivity

,—thi s is Tao .

But to wear out one’s intellect in an obstinateadherence to the individuality of things, notrecognising the fact that all things are One

,

this is called Three in the M arm ing .

”

What is Three in the M orning askedTzii Yu .

A keeper of monkeys, replied Tzii Chi ,said with regard to their rations of chestnuts ,that each monkey was to have thr ee in themorning and four at night . But at this themonkeys were very angry , so the keeper saidthey might have four in the morning and threeat night, with which arrangement they were all

well pleased . The actual number of the chestnuts remained the same , but there was an adaptation to the likes and dislikes of those concerned .

Such is the principle of putting oneself intosubjective relation with extem als .

Wherefore the true sage, while regarding1 Sc. , to the great. goal of Tao .

THE THREE PERIODS OF TAO 47

contraries as identical, adapts himself to thelaws of Heaven . This is called following twocour ses at once .

The knowledge of the men of o ld had alim it . It extended back to a period when matterdid not exist . That was the extreme point towhich their knowledge reached . The secondperiod was that of matter, but of matter un

conditioned . The third epoch saw matter conditioned , but contraries were still unknown .

When these appeared , Tao began to decline .

And with the decline of Tao , individual biasaro se .

’

ILLUSIONS

HOW do I know that love of life is not a delusionafter all ? How do I know but that he whodreads to die is as a child who has lost theway and cannot find his homeThe lady Li Chi was the daughter of Ai Féng.

When the Duke of Chin first got her , she weptuntil the bosom of her dress was drenched withte ars . But when she came to the royal residence , and lived with the Duke, and ate richfood, she repented of having wept . How thendo I know but that the dead repent of havingpreviously clung to lifeThose who dr eam of the banquet wake to

lamentation and sorrow . Those who dreamof lamentation and sorrow wake to join the hunt .While they dr eam , they do not know that theydream . Some will even interpret the verydream they are dr eaming and only when theyawake do they know it was a dr eam . By andby comes the Great Awakening , and then we findout that this life is really a great dr eam . Foolsthink they are awake now, and flatter them

48

MAN’S LIMITED INTELLIGENCE 49

selves they know if they are really princes orpeasants . Confucius and you are both dreamsand I who say you are dr eams

,- I am but a

dream myself . This is a paradox . To-morrowa sage may ar ise to explain it ; but that tomorrow will not be until ten thousand generations have gone by .

Granting that you and I argue . If you beatme

,and not I you, are you necessarily right and

I wrong ? Or if I beat you and not you me ,am I necessarily right and you wrong Or arewe both partly right and partly wrong ? Orare we both wholly right or wholly wrongYou and I cannot know thi s

,and consequently

the world will be in ignorance of the truth .

Who shall I employ as arbiter between usIf I employ some one who takes your view , hewill side with you . How can such a one arbitrate between us If I employ some one whotakes my view , he will side with me . How cansuch a one arbitrate between us ? And if Iemploy some one who either differs from oragrees with bo th of us , he will be equally unableto decide between us . Since then you , and I,and man, cannot decide , must we not dependupon Another Such dependence is as thoughit were not dependence We are embraced inthe obliterating unity of God .

Once upon a tim e , I, Chuang TzI‘

i,dreamt

D


I was a butterfly , fluttering hither and thi ther,to all intents and purposes a butterfly . I wasconscious only of following my fancies as abutterfly , and was unconscious of my individuality as a man . Suddenly I awaked, and thereI lay, myself again . Now I do not know whetherI was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly

,

or whether I am now a butterfly dream ing Iam a man . Between a man and a butterfly

necessarily a barrier . The transitionis called metempsychosis .


devoted myself to Tao . It is better than skill .

When I fir st began to cut up bullocks , I sawbefore me simply who le bullocks . After threeyears’ practice

,I saw no more whole animals .

And now I work with my mind and not withmy eye . When my senses bid me stop , butmy mind urges me on, I fall back upon eternalprinciples . I follow such openings or cavitiesas there m ay be , according to the natural constitution of the animal . I do not attempt tocut through joints : still less through largebones .A good cook changes his chopper once a

year,—because he cuts . An ordinary cook, once

a month,—because he hacks . But I have had

this chopper nineteen years, and although Ihave cut up many thousand bullocks , its edgeis as if fresh from the Whetstone . For at thejoints there are always interstices, and the edgeof a chopper being Without thickness , it remainsonly to insert that which is Without thicknessinto such an interstice . By these means theinterstice will be enlarged , and the blade willfind plenty of room . It is thus that I havekept my chopper for nineteen years as thoughfresh from the Whetstone .

Nevertheless , when I come upon a hardpart where the blade meets with a difficulty, I

1 An allusion to the saying o f Lao Tzii : Thatwhich hasno substance enters Where there is no crevice .

PRINCE HUI’S COOK

am all caution . I fix my eye on it. I stay myhand, and gently apply my blade, until with ahwah the part yields like earth crumbling tothe ground . Then I take out my chopper, andstand up , and look around , and pause, untilwith an air of triM ph I wipe my chopper andput itcarefully away .

Bravo '” cried the Prince . From thewords of thi s cook I have learnt how to takecare of my life .

”

In the State of Cheng there was a wonderfulmagician named Chi Han . He knew all aboutbirth and death, gain and loss , misfortune andhappiness , long life and short life—predictingevents to a day with supernatural accuracy . Thepeople of Cheng used to flee at his approach ;but Lieh Tzii went to see him , and became soinfatuated that on his return he said to E n Tzii ,‘

I used to look upon your Tao as perfect . NowI know something more perfect still .

”

So far,

” replied Hu Tzii , I have only taughtyou the ornamentals , not the essentials , of Taoand yet you think you know all about it . Without cocks in your poultry-yard, what sort of eggsdo the hens lay If you go about trying to

1 His tuto r .

3 The hens here stand fo r the letter o f the do ctr ine the

w eb . for its spirit; and the eggs, fo r a real knowledge o f it.


force Tao down people’s throats , you Will besim ply exposing your self . Bring your fr iendwith you , and letme show myself to him .

So next day Lieh Tzii went with Chi Han tosee E u Tzii , and when they came out Chi Hansaid : Alas ' your teacher is doomed . He cannot live . I hardly give him ten days . I amastonished at him . He is but wet ashes .”

Lieh Tzii went in and wept bitterly , and toldHu Tzii ; but the latter said : I showed myselfto him just now as the earth shows us its outwardform , motionless and still , while production Is all

the time going OII . I merely prevented him fromseeing my pent-up energy within . Bring himagain .

Next day the interview took place as beforebut as they were leaving Chi Han said to LiehTzI

‘

i : It is lucky for your teacher that he metme . He is better . He will recover . I saw hehad recuperative power .

”

Lieh Tzii went in and told E u Tzu whereuponthe latter replied : I showed myself to him justnow as heaven shows itself in all its dispassionategrandeur , letting a little energy run out of myheels . He was thus able to detect that I hadsome . Bring him here again .

Next day a third interview took place , and asthey were leaving , Chi Han said to Lieh TziiYour teacher is never one day like another ; Ican tell nothing from his physiognomy . Get him

CONFOUNDING A MAGICIAN

to be regular,and I will then examine him

again .

This being repeated to Hu Tzii as before , thelatter said I showed myself to him just nowin a state of harmonious equilibrium . Wherethe whale disports itself,—is the abyss . Wherewater is at rest

,- is the abyss . Where water is

in motion,—is the abyss . The abyss has nine

names . These are three of them .

”

Next day the two went once more to see E uTzii but Chi Han was unable to stand still , andin his confusion turned and fled .

Pursue him cried Hu Tzii ; whereuponLieh Tzii ran after him , but could not overtakehim so he returned and told Hu Tzii that thefugitive had disappeared .

I showed myself to him just now , said HuTzu

,as Tao appeared before tim e was . I was

to him as a great blank, existing of itself . Heknew not who I was . His face fell . He becameconfused . And so he fled .

Upon this Lieh Tzu stood convinced that hehad not yet acquired any real knowledge , and atonce set to work in earnest, passing three yearsWithout leaving the house . He helped his wifeto cook the family dinner, and fed his pigs justlike human beings . He discarded the artificialand reverted to the natural . He became merely

1 I .e . , three phases o fTao .


a shape . Amidst confusion he was uncon

founded . And so he continued to the end .

Books are what the world values as representingTao . But books are only words , and the valuablepart of words is the thought therein contained .

That thought has a certain bias which cannotbe conveyed in words ,

yet the world values wordsas being the essence of books . But though theworld values them

,they are not of value as

that sense in which the world values them is notthe sense in which they are valuable .

Duke Huan was one day reading in his hall ,when a wheelwright who was working belowflung down his hammer and chisel, and mountingthe steps said What words may your Highnessbe studying

I am studying the words of the Sages ,replied the Duke .

Are the Sages alive asked the wheelwright .No , answered the Duke they are dead .

Then the words your Highness is studying,

rejoined the wheelwright, are only the dr egs ofthe ancients .

”

What do you mean, sirrah cried theDuke , by interfering with what I read Explain yourself , o r you shall die .

”

Let me take an illustration,said the wheel

wright,“ from my own trade . In making a

THE SECURITY OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS 57

wheel, if you work too slowly , you can’t make

it firm if you work to o fast , the spokes won’t

fit in . You must go neither too slowly nor to ofast . There must be co -ordination of mind andhand . Words cannot explain what it is , butthere is some mysterious art herein . I cannotteach itto my son ; nor can he learn itfrom me .

Co nsequently, thoiigh seventy years of age, Iam still making wheels in my o ld age . If theancients, together with what they could notimpart, are dead and gone , then what yourHighness is studying must be the dr egs .”

A drunken man who falls out of a cart,though

he may sufier , does not die . His bones are thesame as other people’s but he meets his accidentin a difierent way . His spirit is in a conditionof security . He is not conscious of riding in thecart neither is he conscious of falling out of it.

Ideas of life , death, fear, etc . , cannot penetratehis breast and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existences . And if suchsecurity is to be got from wine , how much moreis it to be got from God ? It is in God that theSage seeks his refuge, and so he is free from harm .

Lieh Yu K'

ou instructed Po Hun Wu Jén inarchery . 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 con

ditions, cried Po Hun Wu Jén “

it is notshooting under extraordinary conditions . NowI will ascend a high mountain with you , andstand on the edge of a precipice a thousand feetin height

,and see how you can shoot then .

”

Thereupon Wu Jén went with Lieh Tzii up ahigh mountain, and stood on the edge of a precipice a thousand feet in height , approaching itbackwards until one-fifth of his feet overhungthe chasm , when he beckoned to Lieh Tzii tocome on . But the latter had fallen prostrateon the ground , with the sweat pouring down tohi s heels .The perfect man, said Wu Jen , soars up

to the blue sky,or dives down to the yellow

springs ,‘ or flies to some extreme point of the

compass , without change of countenance . Butyou are terrified , and your eyes are dazed . Yourinternal economy is defective .

”

A disciple said to Lu Chu : Master, I haveattained to your Tao . I can do without fire inwinter . I can make ice in summer .”

You merely avail yourself of latent heat and

1 The infernal regions.

THE HIDDEN SPRING

TAO has its laws and its evidences . It is

devoid both of action and of form . It may betransmitted, but cannot be received . It maybe obtained, but cannot be seen . Before heavenand earth were, Tao was . It has existed withoutchange from all time . Spiritual beings dr ewtheir spirituality therefrom , while the universebecame what we can see it now . To Tao , thezenith is not high, nor the nadir low no pointin time is long ago, nor by lapse of ages has it

grown o ld .

Hsi Wei 1 obtained Tao , and so set the uni

verse in order . Eu Hsi obtained it , and wasable to establish eternal principles . The GreatBear obtained it, and has never erred from its

course . The sun and moon obtained it, and havenever ceased to revolve .

Chuang Tzii said O my exemplar Thouwho destroyest all things , and dost not account

1 A m ythical personage .

1 The first in the received list o f Chinese m onarchs.

60

THE HAPPINESS OF GOD

it cruelty ; thou who benefitest all time, anddost not account it charity thou who art olderthan antiquity and dost not account it age ;thou who supportest the universe , shaping themany forms therein , and dost, not account itskill thi s is the happiness of God

Life follows upon death . Death is the be

ginning of life . Who knows when the end isreached The life of man results from convergence of the vital fluid . Its convergence islife ; its dispersion, death . If, then, life anddeath are but consecutive state s, what need haveI to complainTherefore all things are One . What we love

is animation . What we hate is corruption . Butcorruption in its turn becomes animation, andanimation once more becomes corruption .

The universe is very beautiful , yet it saysnothing . The four seasons abide by a fixed law ,

yet they are not heard . All creation is basedupon absolute principles , yet nothing speaks .And the true Sage, taking his stand upon thebeauty of the universe, pierces the principlesof created things . Hence the saying that theperfect man does nothing, the true Sage performsnothing, beyond gazing at the universe .

For man’s intellect, how ever keen, face to face


with the countless evolutions of things , theirdeath and birth, their squareness and roundness ,can never reach the root . There creation is,and there it has ever been .

The six cardinal points , reaching into infinity ,are ever included in Tao . An autumn spikelet ,in all its minuteness

,must carry Tao Within

itself . There is nothing on earth which doesnot rise and fall , but it never perishes altogether .

The Yin and the Yany,1 and the four seasons ,

keep to their proper order . Apparently destroyed, yet really existing ; the material gone ,the immaterial left

,—such is the law of creation,

which passeth all understanding . This is calledthe root

,whence a glimpse may be obtained of

Go d .

A man’s knowledge is limited but it is uponwhat he does not know that he depends toextend his knowledge to the apprehension ofGod .

Knowledge of the great One, of the greatNegative

,of the great Nomenclature , of the great

Uniformity,of the great Space , of the great

Truth,of the great Law,

—this is perfection . The

great One is omnipresent . The great Negativeis omnipotent . The great Nomenclature is all

inclusive . The greatUniformity is all-assimilative .

1 The po sitive and negative principles o f Chinese co s

m ogony.

CHANCE AND PREDESTINATION 63

The great Space is all-receptive . The greatTruth is all-exacting . The great Law is all

The ultimate end is God . He is manifestedin the laws of nature . He is the hidden spring .

At the beginning,he was . Thi s , however , is

inexplicable . It is unknowable . But from theunknowable we reach the known .

Investigation must not be limited, nor must itbe unlim i ted . In thi s undefinedness there is anactuality . Time does not change it . It cannotsuffer diminution . May we not , then, call itour great GuideWhy not bring our doubting hearts to investi

gation thereof And then, using certainty todispel doubt, revert to a state without doubt,in whi ch doubt is doubly dead

Chi Chen, said Shao Chih , taught ChanceChieh Tzii taught P redestination . In the speculations of these two schools

,on which side did right

lie

The cock crows , replied T‘

ai Kung Tiao,

and the dog barks . So much we know . Butthe wisest of us could not say why one crows andthe other barks , nor guess why they crow orbark at all .

Let me explain . The infinitely .

small isinappreciable ; the infinitely great is imm easur

able . Chance and Predestination must refer to


the conditioned . Co nsequently, both are wrong .

Predestination involves a real existence .

Chance implies an absolute absence of anyprinciple . To have a name and the embodimentthereof—this is to have a material existence .

To have no name and no embodim ent,—o i this

one can speak and think ; but the more onespeaks the farther ofi one gets .The unborn creature cannot be kept from

life . The dead cannot be tracked . From birthto death is but a span yet the secret cannot beknown . Chance and Predestination are buta. pr ior i solutions .

When I seek for a beginning, I find only timeinfinite . When I look forward to an end, I seeonly time infinite . Infinity of time past and tocome implies no beginning and is in accordancewith the laws of material existences . Predestination and Chance give us a beginning, butone which is compatible only with the existenceof matter .Tao cannot be existent . I f itwere existent,

itcould not be non-existent . The very name ofTao is only adopted for convenience’ sake . Predestination and Chance are limited to mate rialexistences . How can they bear upon theinfiniteWere language adequate , itwould take but

a day fully to set forth Tao . Not being adequate,

ittakes that time to explain material existences .

HEAVENLY EQUILIBRIUM

Tao is something beyond material existences .It cannot be conveyed either by words or bysilence . In that state which is neither speechnor silence , its transcendental nature may beapprehende

All things spring from germs . Under manydiverse forms these things are ever being reproduced . Round and round

,like a wheel, no part

of which is more the starting-point than anyother . Thi s is called heavenly equilibrium . Andhe who holds the scales is God .

Life has its distinctions but in death we areall made equal . That death should have anorigin

,but that life should have no origin,—can

this be so What determines its presence in oneplace

,its absence in another Heaven has its

fixed order . Earth has yielded up its secrets toman . But where to seek whence am INot knowing the hereafter

,how can we deny

the operation of Destiny Not knowing whatpreceded birth , how can we assert the operationof Destiny When things turn out as theyought, who shall say that the agency is notsupernatural When things turn out otherwise,who shall say that itis

NON-INTERFERENCE WITH NATURE

HORSES have hoofs to carry them over frost andsnow hair, to protect them from wind and cold .

They eat grass and drink water, and fling up theirhee ls over the champaign . Such is the realnature of horses . Palatial dwellings are of nouse to them .

One day Po Lo appeared, sayingunderstand the management of horsesSo he branded them , and clipped them, and

pared their hoofs, and put halters on them,tying

them up by the head and shackling them by thefeet, and disposing them in stables , with theresult that two or three In every ten died . Thenhe kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting themand galloping them , and grooming, and trimming ,with the misery of the tasselled bridle before andthe fear of the knotted whip behind, until morethan half of them were dead .

The potter says : I can do what I will withclay . If I want it round

,I use compasses ; if

rectangular, a square .

”


they were in a state of natural integrity, theperfection of human existence .

But when Sages appeared, tripping up peopleover charity and fettering them with duty totheir neighbour, doubt found its way into theworld . And then, with their gushing over musicand fussing over ceremony, the empire becamedivided against itself .

PASSIVE VIRTUE

YEN HUI 1 went to take leave of Confucius .Whither are you bound asked the master.I am going to the State of Wei, was the

And what do you propose to do therecontinued Confucius .

I hear,” answered Yen Hui , that the Prince

of Wei is of mature age,but of an unmanageable

disposition . He behaves as if the State wereof no account

,and will not see his own faults .

Consequently, the people perish ; and theircorpses lie about like so much undergrowth ina marsh . They are at extremities . And I haveheard you, sir, say that if a State is well governedit may be neglected ; but that if it is badlygoverned, then we should visit it. The scienceof medicine embraces many various diseases .I would test my knowledge in this sense, thatperchance I may do some good to that State .

Alas '” cried Confucius,

you will onlysucceed in bringing evil upon yourself . For Tao

1 The Master’

s favourite disciple .

69


must not be distributed . If it is, it will loseits unity . If it loses its unity, it will be nu

certain ; and so cause mental disturbancefrom which there is no escape .

The Sages of old first got Tao for themselves ,and then got it for others . Before you possessthis yourself , what leisure have you to attendto the doings of wicked men Besides, do youknow what 'irtue results in , and where Wisdomends ? 'irtue results in a desire for fame ;wisdom ends in contentions . In the strugglefor fame men crush one another, while theirwisdom but provokes rivalry . Both are balefulinstruments , and may not be incautiously used .

But of course you have a scheme . Tell itto me .

”

Gravity of demeanour , replied Yen Hui,and dispassionateness ; energy and singlenessof purpose, —will thi s doAlas said Confucius, that will not do .

If you make a show of being perfect and obtrudeyourself, the Prince

’s mood will be doubtful .

Ordinarily, he is not opposed, and so he has cometo take actual pleasure in trampling upon thefeelings of others . And if he has thus failedin the practice of routine virtues , do you expectthat he will take readily to higher ones Youmay insist, but without result . Outwardly youwill be right, but inwardly wrong . How thenwill you make him mend his ways Your

THE FASTING OF THE HEART 7l

firm ness will secure you from harm but thatis all . You will not influence him to such anextent that he shall seem to follow the dictatesof his own heart .Then,

”said Yen Hui , I am without te

source, and venture to ask for a method .

”

Confucius said : Fast' Let me explain .

You have here a method, but it is difi cult topractise . Those which are easy are not fromGod .

”

Well , replied Yen Hui , my fam ily is poor,and for many months we have tasted neitherWine nor flesh . Is not that fastingThe fasting of religious obser vance it is,

answered Co nfucius, but not the fasting of theheart .”

And may I ask, said Yen Hui , in whatconsists the fasting of the heartCultivate unity,

” replied Co nfucius . Youhear not with the ears , but with the mind notwith the mind, but with your soul . But lethearing stop with the ears . Let the workingof the m ind stop with itself . Then the soul willbe a negative existence, passively responsive toextem als . In such a negative existence

,only

Tao can abide . And that negative state is thefasting of the heart .Then,

” said Yen Hui , the reason I couldnot get the use of this method is my own in

dividuality. If I could get the use of it, my

72 MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTI C

individuality would have gone . Is this whatyou mean by the negative state

Exactly so ,

” replied the Master . Let metell you . If you can enter this man’s domainw ithout offending his amour propre , Cheerfulif he hears you , passive if he does not ; withoutscience , w ithout drugs , simply living there ina state of complete indifierence ,—you will be nearsuccess . Look at that Window . Throughit an empty room becomes bright with scenerybut the landscape stops outside . In thissense , you may use your ears and eyes to comm unicate within, but shut out all wisdom fromthe mind . This is the method for regenerating all creation .

”

Duke Ai of the Lu State said to Confucius :In the Wei State there is a leper named Ai

T'

ai T o . The men who live with him like himand make no effort to get r id of him . Of thewomen who have seen him , many have saidto their parents , Rather than be another man

’swife , I would be his concubine .

He never preaches at people, but puts himself into sympathy with them . He wields nopower by which he may protect men’s bodies .

He has at his disposal no appointments by whichto gratify their hearts . He is loathsome to adegree . He sympathises , but does not instruct .

THE LEPER PRIME MINISTER 73

Hi s knowledge is limited to his own state . Yetmales and females alike all congregate aroundhim .

So thinking that he must be different fromordinary men, I sent for him , and saw that hewas indeed loathsome to a degree . Yet we hadnot been many months together ere my attentionwas fixed upon his conduct . A year had notelapsed ere I trusted him thoroughly ; and asmy State wanted a Prime Minister, I offeredthe post to him . He accepted it sullenly , as ifhe would much rather have declined . Perhapshe did not think me good enough for him Atany rate , he took it but in a very short timehe left me and went away . I grieved for himas for a lost friend, and as though there werenone left with whom I could rejoice . Whatmanner of man is thisWh en I was on a mission to the Ch‘u State,

replied Confucius,I saw a litter of young pigs

sucking their dead mother . After a while theylooked at her

,and then they all left the body

and went off. For their mother did not lookat them any more , nor did she any more seemto be of their kind . What they loved was theirmother not the body which contained her,but that which made the body what itwas .Now Ai T'

ai T'o says nothing, and is trusted .

He does nothing,and is sought after . He causes

a man to offer him the government of his own


State , and the only fear is lest he should decline .

Truly his talents are perfect, and his virtuewithout outward formWhat do you mean by his talents being

perfect asked the Duke .

Life and Death,

”replied Confucius, ex

istence and non-existence , success and nonsuccess , poverty and wealth, virtue and vice ,good and evil report , hunger and thirst, warmthand cold

,—these all revolve upon the changing

wheel of Destiny . Day and night they followone upon the other

,and no man can say where

each one begins . Therefore they cannot beallowed to disturb the harmony of the organismnor enter into the soul’s domain . Swim however with the tide , so as not to offend others . Dothis day by day without break, and live in peacewith mankind . Thus you will be ready for allcontingencies

,and may be said to have your

talents perfect .”

And virtue without outward form ;

is thatIn a water-level

,said Confucius , the

water is in a most perfect state of repose . Letthat be your model . The water remains quietlywithin, and does not overflow . It is from thecultivation of such harmony that vir tue results .And if virtue takes no outward form,

man willnot be able to keep aloof from it.

”


boat . Then the occupant of the fir st wouldshout to him to keep clear. And if the otherdid not hear the first time, nor even when calledto thr ee times , bad lani age would inevitablyfollow . In the fir st case there was no anger, inthe second there was ; because in the fir st casethe boat was empty, and in the second it wasoccupied . And so it is with man . If he couldonly roam empty through life, who would beable to injure him

SELF-ADAPTATION TO E'TERNALS

YEN HO was about to become tutor to the eldestson of Prince Ling of the Wei State . Accordinglyhe observed to Chii Po Yu z Here is a manwhose disposition is naturally of a low order .

To lethim take his own unprincipled way is toendanger the State . To try to restrain him is

to endanger one’

8 personal safety . He has justWit enough to see faults in others , but not tosee his own . I am consequently at a loss whatto do .

”

A good question,indeed , replied Chu Po

Yu ; you must be careful , and begin by selfreformation . Outwardly you may adapt yourself , but inwardly you must keep up to your ownstandard . In this there are two points to be

guarded against . You must not letthe outwardadaptation penetrate within

,nor the inward

standard manifest itself without . In the formercase, you will fall , you will be obliterated , youwill collapse , you will lie prostrate . In the lattercase you will be a sound, a name , a bogie , anuncanny thing . If he would play the Child, do


you play the child too . I f he cast aside all

sense of decorum , do you do so too . As far ashe goes , do you go also . Thus you will reachhim without offending him .

Don’t you know the story of the prayingmantis In its rage it stretched out its armsto prevent a chariot from passing, unaware thatthis was beyond its str ength, so admirable wasits energy ' Be cautious . If you are alwaysoffending others by your superiority, you willprobably come to grief .

Do you not know that those who keep tigersdo not venture to give them live animals as food,for fear of exciting their fury when killing theprey Also, that whole animals are not given,for fear of exciting the tiger’s fury when rendingthem The periods of hunger and repletion are

carefully watched in order to prevent such out

bursts . The tiger is of a different species fromm an but the latter too is manageable if properlytreated , unmanageable if excited to fury .

Those who are fond of horses surround themw ith various conveniences . Sometimes m os

quitoes or flies trouble them ; and then, unex

pectedly to the animal , a groom will brush themoff, the result being that the horse breaks hisbridle, and hurts his head and Chest . The intention is good , but there is a want of real care for thehorse . Against this you must be on your guard .

”

BLIND CONSERVATISM

For travelling by water there is nothing likea boat . For travelling by land there is nothinglike a cart . This because a boat moves readilyin water ; but were you to try to push it on landyou would never succeed in making it go . Nowancient and modern times may be likened untowater and land Chou and Lu to the boat andthe cart. To try to make the customs of Chousucceed in Lu , is like pushing a boat on landgreat trouble and no result, except certain injuryto oneself .Dress up a monkey in the robes of Chou Kung,and itwill not be happy until they are torn toshreds . And the difference between past andpresent is much the same as the differencebetween Chou Kung and a monkey .

When Hsi Shih 1 was distressed in m ind, sheknitted her brows . An ugly woman of thevillage , seeing how beautiful she looked , wenthome , and having worked herself into a fitframeof mind, knitted her brows . The result was thatthe rich people of the place barred up their doorsand would not come out, While the poor peopletook their wives and children and departed elsewhere . That woman saw the beauty of knittedbrows , but she did not see Wherein the beautyof knitted brows lay .

1 A fam ous beauty o f o ld .

80 MUSINGS OF A CHI NESE MYSTIC

Kuan Chung being at the po int of death, DukeHuan went to see him .

You are ill , venerable Sir , said the Duke,really ill . You had better say to whom , in theevent of your getting worse , I am to entrust theadministration of the State .

Whom does your Highness wish to Chooseinquired Kuan Chung .

Will Pao Yii do asked the DukeHe will not , said Kuan Chung . He is

pure , incorruptible, and good . With those whoare not like himself he will not associate . Andif he has once heard of a man’s wrong-doing , henever forgets it . If you employ him in theadministration of the empire , he will get tologgerheads with his prince and to sixes andsevens with the people . It would not be longbefore he and your Highness fell out .

”

Whom then can we have ? ” asked theDuke .

There is no alternative, replied KuanChung it must be Hsi P‘eng . He is a manwho forgets the authority of those above him ,

and makes those below him forget his . Ashamedthat he is not the peer of the Yellow Emperor,he grieves over those who are not the peers ofhimself .To share one’s vir tue with others is called

true wisdom . To share one’s wealth with othersis reckoned meritorious. To exhibit superior

THE WAY OF THE SCHOLAR 81

merit is not the way to Win men’

s hearts . Toexhibit inferior merit is the way . There arethings in the State he does not hear ; there arethings in the family he does not see . There is noalternative itmust be Hsi P'

éng.

”

To glorify the past and to condemn the presenthas always been the way of the scholar . Yet ifHsi Wei Shih 1 and individuals of that class werecaused to re-appear in the present day, which ofthem but would accommodate himself to theage ?

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

WHEN Lao Tzii died , Ch'in Shih went to mour n .

He uttered three yells and departed .

A disciple asked him,saying Were you not

our Master’s friendI was ,

” replied Ch'in Shih .

And if so , do you consider that a sufficientexpression of grief at his loss added thedisciple .

I do , said Ch‘

in Shih . I had believedhim to be the m an of all men, but now I knowthat he was not . When I went in to mourn

,I

found o ld persons weeping as if for their children,young ones wailing as if for their mothers . And

for him to have gained the attachment of thosepeople in this way, he too must have utteredwords which should not have been spoken

,and

dropped tears which should not have been shed,

thus violating eternal principles , increasing thesum of human emotion, and forgetting the sourcefrom which his own life was received . Theancients called such emotions the trammels ofmortality . The Master came , because itwas his


myself were to say to God Make of me a man,make of me a man I think he too wouldreject me as uncanny . The universe is thesmelting-pot, and God is the caster . I shall gowhithersoever I am sent , to wake unconscious ofthe past

,as a man wakes from a dreamless sleep .

Chuang 'Tzu one day saw an empty skull

bleached , but still preserving its shape . Strikingit w ith his riding-whip , he said : Wert thouonce some ambitious citizen whose inordinateyearnings brought him to this pass —somestatesman who plunged his country into ruin andperished in the fray —some wretch who leftbehind him a legacy of shame —some beggarwho died in the pangs of hunger and cold Ordidst thou reach this state by the natural courseof o ld ageWhen he had finished speaking

,he took the

skull and, placing it under his head as a pillow,

went to sleep In the night he dreamt that theskull appeared to him and said : You speakwell , sir but all you say has reference to thelife of mortals , and to mortal troubles . In deaththere are none of these . Would you like to hearabout deathChuang Tzi

‘

i having replied in the aflirm ative ,the skull began In death there is no sovereignabove , and no subject below . The workings ofthe four seasons are unknown . Our existences

ETERNAL BLISS

are bounded only by eternity . The happinessof a king among men cannot exceed that whichwe enjoy .

’

Chuang Tzi‘

i , however, was not convinced, andsaid Were I to prevail upon God to allowyour body to be born again, and your bones andflesh to be renewed, so that you could return toyour parents , to your wife , and to the friends ofyour youth

,—would you be willing

At this the skull opened its eyes wide andknitted its brows and said How should Icast aside happiness greater than that of a king

,

and m ingle once again in the toils and troublesof mortality

THE SAGE , OR PERFECT MAN

THE perfect man ignores self the divine manignores action the true Sage ignores reputation .

The perfect man is a spiritual being . Werethe ocean itself scorched up , he would not feel hot .Were the Milky Way frozen hard, he would notfeel cold . Were the mountains to be riven withthunder , and the great deep to be thrown up bystorm , he would not tremble .

How does the Sage seat himself by the sun andmoon, and hold the universe in his grasp Heblends everything into one harmonious whole,rejecting the confusion of this and that . Rankand precedence , which the vulgar prize, the Sagesto lidly ignores . The revolutions of ten thousandyears leave his unity unscathed . The universeitself may pass away, but he will flourish still .

With the truly wise, Wisdom is a curse , sinceritylike glue, virtue only a means to acquire, and

86

MEN WITHOUT PASSIONS

skill nothing more than a commercial capacity .

For the truly wise make no plans , and thereforerequire no wisdom . They do not separate , andtherefore require no glue . They want nothing ,and therefore need no virtue . They sell nothing ,and therefore are not in want of a commercialcapacity . These four qualifications are bestowedupon them by God and ser ve as heavenly foodto them . And those who thus feed upon thedivine have little need for the human . Theywear the forms of men, Without human passions .

Because they wear the forms of men, theyassociate w ith men . Because they have nothuman passions , positives and negatives find inthem no place . I nfinitesim al , indeed, is thatwhich makes them man ; infinitely great is thatwhich makes them divine .

Hui Tzii said to Chuang Tzii : Are there, then,men who have no passionsChuang Tzii replied Certainly .

But if a man has no passions , argued Huiwhat is it that makes him a man

Tao,

” replied Chuang Tzi‘

i , gives him his

expression, and God gives him his form . Howshould he not be a man

If,then, he is a man, said Hui Tzii , how

can he be w ithout passionsWhat you mean by passions, answered

Chuang Tzii , is not what I mean . By a manwithout passions I mean one who does not


permit good and evil to disturb his internaleconomy, but rather falls in with whateverhappens , as a matter of course, and does not addto the sum of his mortality .

”

He who knows what God is , and who knowswhat Man is , has attained . Knowing what Godis, he knows that he him self proceeded therefromKnowing what Man is, he rests in the knowledgeof the known , waiting for the knowledge of theunknown . Working outone’s allotted span, andnot perishing in mid career

,—this is the fulness

of knowledge .

Herein, however, there is a flaw . Knowledgeis dependent upon fulfilm ent . And as this fulfilment is uncertain, how can itbe known that mydivine is not really human, my human reallydivine We must have pure m en , and thenonly can we have pure knowledge .

But what is a pure man —The pure men of o ldacted w ithout calculation, not seeking to secureresults . They laid no plans . Therefore, failing,they had no cause for regret ; succeeding, no

cause for congratulation. And thus they couldscale heights without fear enter water withoutbecoming wet fire , without feeling hot . Sofar had their w isdom advanced towards Tao .

The pure men of o ld slept Without dreams, andwaked Without anxiety . They ate without discrimination, breathing deep breaths For pure

THE PURE MEN OF OLD

men draw breath from their uttermost depthsthe vulgar only from their throats . Out of thecrooked, words are retched up like vomit . Ifmen’s passions are deep their divinity is shallow .

The pure men of o ld did not know what itwasto love life nor to hate death . They did notrejoice in bir th, nor strive to put ofi dissolution .

Quickly come and quickly go —no more . Theydid not forget whence it was they had sprung,neither did they seek to hasten their returnthither . Cheerqy they played their allottedparts , waiting patiently for the end . This is Whatis called not to lead the heart astray from Tao ,nor to let the human seek to supplement thedivine . And this is what is meant by a pureman .

The pure men of o ld did their duty to theirneighbours , but did not associate with them .

They behaved as though wanting in themselves,but without flattering others Naturally rectangular, they were not uncompromisingly hardThey manifested their independence withoutgoing to extremes . They appeared to smile asif pleased, when the expression was only a naturalresponse . Their outward semblance derived itsfascination from the store of goodness within .

They seemed to be of the world around them,

while proudly treading beyond its limits Theyseemed to desire silence, while in truth they had


dispensed w ith language . They saw in penal

laws a trunk ‘; in so cial ceremonies, w ings

1; in

w isdom, a useful accesso ry in morality, a guide.For them penal laws meant a merciful adm inisfration ; social ceremonies, a passpo rt throughthe world ; wisdom , an excuse for doing whatthey could not help and morality, walking likeothers upon the path . And thus all m en praisedthem for the worthy lives they led .

The repose of the Sage is not what the wo rldcalls repose . His repose is the result of hismental attitude . All creation could not di sturbhis equilibrium hence his repose . When wateris still , it is like a mirror, reflecting the beard andthe eyebrows . It gives the accuracy of thewater-level , and the philosopher makes it hismodel . And if water thus derives lucidity fromstillness , how much more the faculties of themind ' The mind of the Sage

,being in repose ,

becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculumof all creation .

The truly great man, although he does not

injure others , does not credit himself with charityand mercy . He seeks not gain, but does notdespise his followers who do . He struggles not

1 A natural basis o f go vernm ent.

1 To aid m an’

s progress thr ough life .


external punishment are treated with metal orwood . Those who incur internal punishment aredevoured by the conflict of emotions . It is onlythe pure and perfect man who can succeed in

avoiding both .

RANDOM GLEANINGS

TAKE no heed of time , nor of right and wrongbut

,passing into the realm of the Infinite , take

your final rest therein .

Our life has a limit, but knowledge is Without

To serve one’s prince without reference to theact

,but only to the service , is the perfection of a

subject’s loyalty .

In trials of skill , at fir st all is friendliness butat last it is all antagonism .

Tzii Ch‘

i of Nan-po was travelling on theShang mountain when he saw a large tree whichastonished him very much . A thousand chariotteams could have found shelter under its shade .What tree is this cried Tzii Ch

‘

i . Surelyit must have unusually fine timber . Then,looking up

,he saw that its branches were too

crooked for rafters while,as to the trunk, he saw

93


that its irregular grain made it valueless forcoffins . He tasted a leaf, but it to ok the skinoff his lips and its odour was so strong that itwould make a man as itwere drunk for three daysto gether .

“ Ah '” said Tzii Ch I . This tree is go od fornothing , and that is how it has attained this size.A wise man might well follow its example .

”

A man does not seek to see himself in runningwater, but in still water . For only what is itselfstill can instil stillness into others .

Is Confucius a Sage,or is he not How is it

he has so many disciples He aims at be ing asubtle dialectician , not knowing that such areputation is regarded by real Sages as the fettersof a criminal .

He who delights in man is himself not a pe rfectman . His affection is not true charity . Depending upon opportunity

,he has not true worth .

He who is not conversant w ith both good and evilis not a superior man . He who disregards hisreputation is not what a man should be . Hewho is not absolutely oblivious of his own existence can never be a ruler of men .

When the pond dries up, and the fishes are left

INFERIORITY OF THE ARTIFICIAL 95

upon dry ground, to moisten them with thebreath

,or to damp them with spittle, is not to

be compared w ith leaving them, in the fir stinstance, in their native rivers and lakes . And

better than praising Yao 1 and blaming Chieh 1

would be leaving them both and attending tothe development of Tao .

Fishes are born in water . Man is born in Tao .

If fishes get ponds to live in, they thr ive . Ifman gets Tao to live in , he may live his life inpeace .

May I ask, said Tzii Kung, about divinemen

Divine men, replied Confucius , are divineto man, but ordinary to God . Hence the sayingthat the meanest being in heaven would be thebest on earth and the best on earth

,the meanest

in heaven .

The goodness of a wise ruler covers the wholeempire, yet he himself seems to know itnot . Itinfluences all creation, yet none is conscious

1 A legendary Em pero r , who se re ign , with that o f hissuccesso r Shun ,

m ay be regarded as the Go lden Age o f China .

1 The last sovereign o f the Hsia dynasty, and a typicaltyrant.


thereof . It appears under countless form s , br inging joy to all things . It is based upon thebaseless , and travels through the realm s ofNowhere

By inaction one can become the centre ofthought

,the focus of responsibility, the arbiter

of Wisdom . Full allowance must be made forothers , while remaining unmoved oneself. Theremust be a thorough compliance with div ineprinciples, without any manifestation thereof .All of which may be summed up in the one wordpassivity. For the perfect man employs his m indas a mirror . It grasps nothing . it refusesnothing . It receives , but does not keep . Andthus he can triumph over matter, Without injuryto himself .

Every addition to or deviation from naturebelongs not to the ultimate perfection of all .

He who would attain to such perfection neverloses sight of the natural conditions of his existence . With him the joined is not uni ted, nor theseparated apart, nor the long in excess, nor theshort wanting . For just as a duck’s legs, thoughshort, cannot be lengthened Without pain to theduck, and a crane

’s legs , though long, cannot beshortened w ithout misery to the crane, so thatwhich is long in man’

s moral nature cannot be out

NATURAL GOODNESS

ofi ,nor that which is short be lengthened . All

sorrow is thus avoided .

What I mean by perfection is not what ismeant by charity and duty to one’s neighbour .It is found in the cultivation of Tao . And thosewhom I regard as cultivators of Tao are not thosewho cultivate charity and duty to one’s neighbour . They are those who yield to the naturalconditions of things . What I call perfection ofhearing is not hearing others

,but oneself . What

I call perfection of vision is not seeing others,but

oneself . For a man who sees not himself,but

o thers , takes not possession of himself, but ofo thers , thus taking what others should take andnot what he himself should take . Instead ofbeing himself , he in fact becomes some one

else .

Ts‘ui Chu asked Lao Tzii , saying : I f the

empire is not to be governed, how are men’s

hearts to be kept in orderBe careful , replied Lao Tzii , not to inter

fere with the natural goodness of the hear t ofman , Man’s heart may be forced down or stirredup . In each case the issue is fatal .”

The men of this world all re joice in others

G


being like themselves , and object to others not

If metal and stone were without Tao, theywould not be capable of emitting sound . And

just as they possess the property of sound,but

will not emit sound unless struck, so sure ly Is thesame principle applicable to all creation .

In the Golden Age good men were not appreciated ; ability was not conspicuous . Rulerswere mere beacons, while the people were freeas the wild deer . They were upr ight wi thoutbeing conscious of duty to their neighbours . Theyloved one another Without being conscious ofcharity . They were true w ithout being consciousof loyalty . They were honest without beingconscious of good faith . They acted freely in

all things without recognising obligations to anyo ne Thus their deeds left no trace ; theiraffairs were not handed down to po sterity .

A man who knows that he is a fool is not agreat fool .

Appeal to arms is the lowest form of virtue .

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form ofeducation . Ceremonies and laws are the lowestform of government . Music and fine clothes are


which can be neither a topic of discussion norrealised mentally, can be neither great nor sm all .

The life of man passes by like a galloping horse ,changing at every turn , at every hour . Whatshould he do , or what should he not do, otherthan let his decomposition go on

As to What the world does and the way in whi chpeople are happy now ,

I know not whether suchhappiness be real happiness or not . The happiness of ordinary persons seems to me to consistin slavishly following the majority, as if theycould not help it . Yet they all say they arehappy . But I cannot say that this is happinessor that it is not happiness . Is there, then, afterall , such a thing as happinessI make true pleasure to consist in inaction ,

which the world regards as great pain . Thusit has been said, Perfect happiness is theabsence of happiness .

A man who plays for counters will play well .If he stakes his girdle,1 he will be ner vous ; ifyellow gold, he will lose his wits . His skill 18 thesame in each case

,but he is distracted by the

value of his stake . And every one who attaches

1 In which he keeps his lo o se cash .

THE AUGUR AND THE PIGS 101

importance to the external , becomes internallywithout resource .

The Grand Augur, in his ceremonial robes,

approached the shambles and thus addressed thepigs : How can you object to die ? I shallfatten you for three months . I shall disciplinemyself for ten days and fast for thr ee . I shallstrew fine grass , and place you bodily upon acarved sacrificial dish . Does not this satisfyyouThen

,speaking from the pigs’ point of view,

he continued . It is better, perhaps , after all ,to live on bran and escape the shambles .

But then,” added he

,speaking from his own

point of view, to enjoy honour when alive onewould readily die on a war-shield or in the headsman’s basket .So he rejected the pigs’ point of view and

adopted his own point of view . In what sense,

then , was he different from the pigs

When Yang Tzii went to the Sung State, hepassed a night at an inn . The innkeeper hadtwo concubines—one beautiful , the other ugly .

The latter he loved the former he hated .

Yang Tzii asked how this was whereupon oneof the inn servants said The beautiful one isso conscious of her beauty that one does not think


her beautiful . The ugly one is so conscious ofher ugliness that one does not think her ugly .

”

Note this , my disciples ' cried Yang Tzii .Be virtuous , but without being consciously soand wherever you go , you will be beloved .

”

Shun asked Ch‘

éng, saying : Can one getTao so as to have it for one’s ownYour very body ,

” replied Ch‘

éng, is notyour own . How should Tao be

If my body,

” said Shun,

is not my own ,

pray whose is itIt is the delegated image of God , replied

Ch eng. Your life is not your own . It is thedelegated harmony of God . Your individualityis not your own . It is the delegated adaptabili tyof God . Your posterity is not your own . It isthe delegated exuviae of God . You move, butknow not how . You are at rest, but know notwhy . You taste , but know not the cause . Theseare the operation of God’s laws . How thenshould you get Tao so as to have it for yourown

Man passes through this sublunary life as a

sunbeam passes a crack—here one moment ,gone the next .

Mountain forests and loamy fields swell my

104 MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTI C

There is no weapon so deadly as man’s will .Excalibur is second to it. There is no bandi tso powerful as Nature . In the whole universethere is no escape from it. Yet it is not Naturewhich does the in jury . It is man’s own heart .

Birth is not a beginning death is not an end .

Discard the stimuli of purpose . Free the mindfrom disturbances . Get r id of entanglementsto virtue . Pierce the obstructions to Tao .

A one-legged man discards ornament, his

exterior not being open to commendation . Condem ned criminals will go up to great heightswithout fear, for they no longer regard life anddeath from their former point of view . And

those who pay no attention to their moral clothingand condi tion become oblivious of their own

personality ; and by thus becoming obliviousof their personality, they proceed to be the peopleof God .

Wherefore, if men revere them,they rejoice

not . If men insult them,they are not angered .

But only those who have passed into the eternalharmony of God are capable of this .If your anger is external, not internal, itwill

be anger proceeding from not-anger. If youractions are external , not internal, they will be

UNCONSCIOUS SERVITUDE

actions proceeding from inaction . If you wouldattain peace

,level down your emotional natur e .

If you desire spirituality , cultivate adaptationo f the intell igence . If you would have youractions in accordance with what is right

,allow

yourself to fall in with the di ctates of necessity .

F o r necessity is the Tao of the Sage .

If schemers have nothing to give them anxiety,

they are not happy . If dialecticians have nottheir premisses and conclusions, they are nothappy . If critics have none on whom to venttheir spleen

,they are not happy . Such men are

the slaves of objective existences .

A dog is not considered a good dog becausehe is a good barker . A man is not considered a

good man because he is a good talker .

The rulers of o ld set off all success to the credito f their people

,attributing all failure to them

selves .

When Chu Po Yu reached his sixtieth year,he changed his opinions . What he had previouslyregarded as right, he now came to regard as

wrong . But who shall say whether the right


of to -day may not be as wrong as the wrong ofthe previous fifty-nine years

Shao Chih asked T‘ai Kung Tiao , saying :

What is meant by societySociety ,

” replied T'ai Kung Tiao, is an

agreement of a certain number of families and

individuals to abide by certain custom s . Discordant elements unite to form a harmoniouswhole . Take away this unity

,and each has a

separate individuality .

Point at any one of the many parts of ahorse

,and that is not a horse, although there is

the horse before you . It is the combination ofall which makes the horse .

Similarly,a mountain is high because of its

individual particles . A river is large becauseof its individual drops . And he is a just manwho regards all parts from the point of view ofthe whole . Thus , in regard to the views of others ,he holds his own opinion, but not obstinately .

In regard to his own views , while conscious o ftheir truth

,he does not despise the Opinions of

others .”

Wood rubbed with wood produces fire . Metalexposed to fire w ill liquefy . If the Po sitiveand Negative principles operate inharmoniously ,heaven and earth are greatly disturbed . Thunder


find a man to ignore language, with whom I maybe able to converse

Alas man’s knowledge reaches to the hair ona hair, but not to eternal peace .

The heart of man is more dangerous thanmountains and rivers , more difficult to understandthan Heaven itself . Heaven has its periods ofspring, summer, autumn, winter, daytime and

night . Man has an im penetrable exterior,and

his motives are inscrutable . Thus some menappear to be retiring when they are really forward .

Others have abilities , yet appear to be worthless .Others are compliant , yet gain their ends . Otherstake a firm stand, yet yield the point . Othersgo slow, yet advance quickly .

PERSONAL ANECDOTES

CHUANG TzU was fishing in the P‘

u when the

prince of Ch‘u sent two high officials to ask himto take charge of the administration of the Ch‘uState .

Chuang Tzi'

i went on fishing and, withoutturning hi s head, said I have heard that inCh‘u there is a sacred tortoise which has beendead now some three thousand years , and thatthe prince keeps this tortoise carefully enclosedin a chest on the altar of his ancestral temple .

Now would this tortoise rather be dead and haveits remains venerated

,or be alive and wagging

its tail in the mudIt would rather be alive , replied the two

officials , and wagging its tail in the mud .

Begone cried Chuang Tzi'

i . I too willwag my tail in the mud .

”

Hui Tzi'

i was prime minister in the Liang State .

Chuang Tzii went thi ther to visit him .

Some one remarked Chuang Tzi'

i has come .

He wants to be minister in your place .

”

1 10 MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTIC

Thereupon Hui Tzi'

i was afraid. and searchedall over the State for three days and three nightsto find him .

Then Chuang TZfi went to see Hui Tzi'

i and

said : In the south there is a bird . It is a

kind of phmnix . Do you know it It startedfrom the south sea to fly to the north sea . Except on the ma-t

‘

ung tree , it would not alight .It would eat nothing but the fruit of the bamboo ,drink nothing but the purest spring water . Ario w l which had got the rotten carcass of a rat,looked up as the phmnix flew by

,and screeched .

Are you not screeching at me over your kingdomo f Liang

Chuang Tzi'

i and Hui Tzii had strolled on tothe bridge over the Hao , when the former oh

served See how the minnows are dartingabout That is the pleasure of fishes .”

You not being a fish yourself ,” said Hui Tzii ,

how can you possibly know in what consiststhe pleasure of fishesAnd you not being I, retorted Chuang Tzii ,

how can you know that I do not knowI f I , not being you, cannot know what you

know, urged Hui Tzi'

i ,“ it follows that you , not

being a fish , cannot know in what consists thepleasure of fishes .”

Let us go back, said Chuang Tzi'

i,to your

1 12 MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTI C

would be to proclaim myself ignorant of thesenatural laws . Therefore I refrain .

”

When Chuang Tzii was about to die , his disciples expressed a wish to give him a splendidfuneral . But Chuang Tzii said With Heavenand Earth for my coffin and shell ; with the sun,

moon, and stars , as my burial regalia and withall creation to escort me to the grave,—are not myfuneral paraphernalia ready to handWe fear,

” argued the disciples, lest thecarrion kite should eat the body of our Masterto which Chuang Tzi

'

i replied Above groundI shall be food for kites below I shall be foodfor mole-crickets and ants . Why rob one tofeed the other

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