The chapter Lie Yukou in Zhuangzi consists of several fables interspersed with argumentative discourses.
1. Lie Yukou Turns Back
Lie Yukou was on his way to Qi but turned back halfway. He met Bohun Maoren (Bohun Wuren).
Bohun Maoren said, “Why have you turned back?”
Lie Yukou said, “I was startled.”
“What startled you?”
“I once ate at ten gruel shops, and five of them served me first without my asking.”
Bohun Maoren said, “If that is so, why were you startled?”
Lie Yukou said, “When inner sincerity is not released, it shows in the body and becomes radiance. It overawes people’s hearts, making them lightly esteem the noble and the old, and so one brings trouble on oneself. The gruel sellers are only in the business of food and soup; they have no surplus profit. Their gain is thin, their power is light, yet even they acted so. How much more a ruler of ten thousand chariots! His body labors for the state, his knowledge is exhausted in affairs. He will entrust me with office and expect merit from me. This is why I was startled.”
Bohun Maoren said, “Excellent insight! But you stay put, and people will gather around you.”
Before long he went to see Liezi, and the shoes outside his door filled the doorway. Bohun Maoren stood facing north, leaned on his staff, and rested his chin on it. He stood a while, said nothing, and went out.
The usher told Liezi. Liezi picked up his shoes, ran barefoot to the door, and said, “Master, since you have come, will you not give me medicine?”
Bohun Maoren said, “Enough. I already told you: people will gather around you. Indeed they have gathered around you! It is not that you can make people gather around you; it is that you cannot make people not gather around you. Why use this to stir yourself and show off? If you must be stirred, it shakes your original nature – this is meaningless. Those who wander with you do not warn you either. Their petty talk is all human poison. No awakening, no understanding – how can you be mature?
“The skillful labor; the knowing worry. The incapable have nothing to seek; they eat their fill and wander freely, drifting like an unmoored boat – empty and wandering freely.”
In this parable, Lie Yukou is startled because he has become an object of reverence and admiration in the worldly world. That reverence reflects the loss of his true nature and an outward radiance. In other words, his behavior does not arise naturally; it deliberately caters to worldly standards and becomes what others want to see. The world honors the clever and the wise, and Lie Yukou appears wise to the gruel sellers. Even the lowly vendors, who struggle daily for a living, served him first – showing how great his reputation was. How much more would rulers eager for talent honor him?
The skillful labor; the knowing worry. The greater one’s ability and radiance, the higher others’ expectations, and the more one must bear. Lie Yukou knows that if he does not change, endless affairs await him. So he is startled – startled that he has unknowingly lost his nature, and afraid of what is to come. He needs remedy, but the remedy is not outside. One cannot use external force to stop others from admiring oneself; one can only return to a state that is not worth admiring. Only by washing away inner utility, vanity, and glitter, and returning to original authenticity – blunting sharpness, untangling confusion, softening light, merging with dust – can one become “incapable,” satisfied, wandering, like an unmoored boat, seeking nothing. Only then is there true release.
2. Huan of Zheng
There was a man of Zheng named Huan. He chanted and studied in the land of Qiu. In only three years Huan became a Confucian. His benefits moistened nine li like a river, and his blessings reached the three clans. He made his younger brother a Mohist. The Confucians and Mohists debated with each other, and his father helped Di. After ten years Huan killed himself. His father dreamed of him, saying: “It was I who made your son a Mohist. Why not look at my grave? It has already become the fruit of autumn cypress.”
The Creator’s reward to a man does not reward the man but rewards the man’s Heaven. Thus it made him so. People think they have something that makes them different from others, and so they despise their kin. The people of Qi who drank from a well pushed one another. Therefore I say: everyone in the present age is like Huan. From this, one with virtue regards it as not-knowing, how much more one with the Way! The ancients called this the punishment of fleeing Heaven. The sage is at peace with what he is at peace with, and is not at peace with what he is not at peace with. The multitude is at peace with what it is not at peace with, and is not at peace with what it is at peace with.
In this section, why did Huan kill himself? Because in his view, his brother becoming a Mohist was his own achievement, yet his father ignored this achievement and favored his brother. Suicide was already extreme; his ghost lingering showed a morbid fixation. In the author’s view, this is a microcosm of the people of the time. People often think human effort is decisive and completely ignore the role of nature. This leads to excessive ego, obsession, arrogance, self-righteousness, selfishness, and even placing one’s closest kin in opposition – finally producing tragedy.
To explain further, the author gives the example of the men of Qi and the well. A man of Qi dug a well and felt he was the absolute owner of the well and its water, so he fought with those who drank from it. Many would say defending one’s rights is blameless. But in the author’s view, everything in the world is given by the Creator. What people think are their own creations are built on the foundation of nature. Things are born or changed because the Creator gave them the natural factors for birth and change. Without those natural factors, humans could do nothing.
From this angle, Huan’s brother became a Mohist because he had the nature to become one; Huan merely happened to play the role of guide. The well appeared because the natural conditions for a well existed; the man of Qi merely happened to play the role of discoverer. This does not completely deny human effort; it means one should see the decisive role of nature and face the changes of things with a mind of not-knowing and not-contending. Then one will not think too highly of oneself, will not be disturbed by gain and loss, and will be at peace with what one is at peace with and not at peace with what one is not at peace with. What one is at peace with is nature; what one is not at peace with is human artifice. This is the core of this section.
But the author also says: the Way of nature is easy to know but hard not to speak of. For the Way that can be spoken is not the constant Way; once spoken, it is already human artifice. Only the ancient Perfect Man, whose mind is deeply still, can be naturally non-active and practice the teaching without words.
3. Zhu Pingman Learns Dragon-Slaying
Zhu Pingman learned dragon-slaying from Zhili Yi. He spent a thousand pieces of gold from his family. After three years his skill was complete, but there was nowhere to use his cleverness.
Dragons are vague, elusive, and changeable, so the skill of dragon-slaying has no place to be applied. This parable means the Great Way cannot be measured and cannot be learned. To exhaust one’s mind learning a so-called Way only leads farther from the true Way, and in the end it is useless.
4. The Necessary and the Unnecessary
The sage takes the necessary as not necessary, and so has no weapons. The multitude takes the unnecessary as necessary, and so has many weapons. Following weapons, their actions have demands. Weapons: rely on them and you perish.
This passage explains that fame, profit, rank, wealth, and honor are not necessities of life. They are even the chief cause of disturbing one’s nature and wearying body and mind. The world is blinded by desire and cannot see this. With a mind that must have, people compete and chase, and so many weapons arise. Once weapons arise, greed increases without stopping, until ruin. The sage is calm and indifferent, treating what the world thinks necessary as dung and clouds. Thus his mind is unobstructed and his body untroubled; he wanders freely and completes his natural years.
5. Petty Knowledge
The knowledge of petty men does not go beyond wrapped gifts and bamboo letters. They exhaust their spirit on shallow and narrow things, yet wish to save all things and embody the Great One and the void. Such people are confused by the universe; burdened by form, they do not know the Great Beginning.
The Perfect Man returns his spirit to the Beginningless and sweetly hides in the land of Nothing-Whatsoever. Water flows without form, issuing into the Great Clarity. Sad! Your knowledge is in a hair’s tip, yet you do not know the Great Peace.
In the author’s view, worldly people are immersed in the world; all their thoughts are worldly – social manners, endless formalities. Their spiritual world is occupied by these things and never quiet. Yet they still wish to save the world and guide all things into harmony with the Way. How ridiculous! In their eyes the world is everything; how can they know the truth of the universe or the source of the Great Beginning? In pursuing the Way, one subtracts day by day, subtracts and subtracts until non-action. Non-action yet nothing is not done. Only by washing away worldly filth and returning to authenticity, with everything arising naturally, can one unite with the Way and be free of entanglement – like the ancients, whose spiritual world was unobstructed, wandering freely in the vast wilds and sweetly sleeping in the land of Nothing-Whatsoever.
6. Cao Shang Boasts of His Carriages
A man of Song named Cao Shang was sent by the King of Song on a mission to Qin. When he went, he got several carriages. The King of Qin was pleased with him and added a hundred carriages. Returning to Song, he saw Zhuangzi and said, “To dwell in a poor lane and narrow alley, to be hard pressed and weave sandals, to have a withered neck and sallow face – this is Cao Shang’s shortcoming. To awaken a ruler of ten thousand chariots with one word and follow with a hundred carriages – this is Cao Shang’s strong point.”
Zhuangzi said, “The King of Qin was sick and summoned physicians. One who broke boils and drained sores got one carriage. One who licked hemorrhoids got five carriages. The lower the treatment, the more carriages. Did you perhaps treat his hemorrhoids? Why did you get so many carriages? Go away!”
Cao Shang is a worldly man who eagerly seeks and values external things. His spiritual world is dominated by externals; every gain and loss easily disturbs him. So when he gets a hundred carriages, his inner joy has nowhere to rest, and he cannot wait to show off. He urgently wants to release his vanity in the envy, admiration, and inferiority of others. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong person. Who is Zhuangzi? He deeply sees how things harm true nature and entangle the mind. He despises petty scheming and flattery. So he uses the image of licking hemorrhoids to mock him. This fits Zhuangzi’s wise, witty, and unrestrained character.
7. Duke Ai of Lu Asks Yan He
Duke Ai of Lu asked Yan He, “If I take Zhongni as my pillar, will the state be cured?”
Yan He said, “Dangerous! Perilous! Zhongni is just now adorning feathers and painting, pursuing flowery words. He takes branches as the main point, suppresses his nature to show the people, and does not know he is not trusted. He receives in his heart and dominates his spirit – how can he be placed above the people? Is he fit for you and me to nourish? If we mistake him, it may pass. But now he makes the people leave reality and learn falsehood; this is not the way to show the people. If you consider later generations, better to leave him alone. He is hard to govern.”
In this dialogue, Duke Ai wants Confucius to save Lu, but Yan He thinks Confucius will not only fail to save the people but will bring disaster to later generations. Why? Because the benevolence, righteousness, ritual, and teaching Confucius promotes are decorations painted on human natural true nature. They burden the people and make them fall into falsehood. Just as a bird’s feathers, once painted, lose their original color and pattern and lose their natural quality as feathers. When flowery words and fussy ritual occupy people’s hearts, they cannot be truly relaxed and happy. When people’s spirits are dominated by artificial mechanical rules, they become walking corpses without souls.
More importantly, promoting benevolence and righteousness inevitably links with fame and profit. To chase fame and profit, people put on false masks and fight endlessly. Even after a thousand generations, there will be people eating one another. Is this not disaster? So government by action makes things hard to govern; better to govern by non-action.
8. Giving Without Forgetting
To give to others and not forget it is not Heaven’s bestowal. Merchants do not rank it; though affairs may rank it, spirits do not rank it.
Giving to others is so-called benevolence and righteousness. But if one does it deliberately and does not forget, even craving return and a good name, then it is not true benevolence. Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs. The Great Way creates and nourishes all things without thinking it merit, without arrogance, without interference, without domination, without partiality. It lets all things run naturally, so all things do not feel the Way’s existence. This natural giving, this “not benevolent” and “no-mind,” is true benevolence and righteousness.
9. Outer and Inner Punishments
Outer punishments are metal and wood; inner punishments are movement and fault. Petty men who meet outer punishment are interrogated by metal and wood; those who meet inner punishment are devoured by yin and yang. Only the True Man can escape both outer and inner punishment.
Outer punishment is visible: bodily harm makes people afraid, so most people do not truly cross the line. But inside many seemingly calm bodies are restless emotions and excessive desires. These come from entanglement with external things. What one does not have, one wants; what one has, one fears losing; after getting, one wants more. Gain and loss disturb, yin and yang fall out of balance, and one has no peace day or night. The spirit is dominated and gradually worn away. Only the ancient True Man, who transcends things, can follow nature without obstruction. He does not risk his body for externals or suffer outer punishment, and he keeps inner peace, spiritual completeness, and soul autonomy, free from the suffering of yin-yang disorder.
10. Confucius on the Nine Tests of Character
Confucius said, “The human heart is more dangerous than mountains and rivers; it is harder to know than Heaven. Heaven still has spring, autumn, winter, summer, morning, and evening with their fixed times. Man has a thick appearance and deep feelings. Therefore some appear honest but are overreaching; some seem superior but are unworthy; some are compliant and yet penetrating; some are firm but lax; some are slow but fierce. Thus those who rush to righteousness as if thirsty may leave righteousness as if hot.
Therefore the gentleman sends a man far away to observe his loyalty; keeps him near to observe his respect; burdens him to observe his ability; asks him suddenly to observe his knowledge; gives him an urgent deadline to observe his trust; entrusts him with wealth to observe his benevolence; tells him of danger to observe his integrity; makes him drunk to observe his conduct; places him in mixed company to observe his demeanor. When these nine tests are complete, the unworthy man is found out.”
People are born from nature with a plain heart and simple conduct, inside and outside matching. But after long immersion in the red dust of the world, the heart is covered with layer after layer of impurities, and the face wears mask after mask, until one becomes “thick-appearing and deep-feeling,” with appearance and feeling opposed and harder to know than Heaven. So the author gives these nine methods to see through people’s disguises and distinguish the true gentleman from the petty man. The nine standards extend from Confucian thought.
11. Zheng Kaofu’s Humility
Zheng Kaofu, on his first appointment, bowed; on his second, stooped; on his third, bent low and walked along the wall. Who would dare not follow the rule? But ordinary men: on the first appointment they puff up; on the second they dance on the carriage; on the third they call their elders by name. Who matches Tang and Xu?
Zheng Kaofu became more humble with each promotion. Ordinary people become more arrogant. Tang Yao offered the world to Xu You, but Xu You did not accept. Facing the throne, they were so humble and indifferent. Yet worldly people, with the slightest status, become dizzy with success. The final sigh expresses sorrow at the vulgar behavior of the world and admiration for the noble quality of Tang Yao and Xu You.
12. The Five Bad Virtues
No thief is greater than virtue with intention, and mind with eyelashes.
Deliberately displaying virtue already departs from the natural Way. If that deliberateness is mixed with selfish desire, it is like growing a pair of eyes in the heart, always peering for something secretly. Is this not a thief? So it is said: no thief is greater than virtue with intention and mind with eyelashes. Because those eyes are hidden inside the body and not shown outside, it is called “inner looking.” One who constantly “looks from inward” is always scheming and craving, loses inner peace, becomes exhausted, and is ruined.
There are five bad virtues; the middle virtue is the chief. What is the middle virtue? It is having something by which one likes oneself and criticizes what one does not do. The five bad virtues are not listed in detail in the original; the mind (middle virtue) is chief. This mind is not the natural plain heart but the heart with self-preference. People often judge right and wrong by their own preferences, affirming what they like and denying what they do not do. This causes endless disputes. So the middle virtue is chief among the five bad virtues.
13. Poverty and Success
Poverty has eight extremes; success has three necessities; form has six storehouses. Beauty, beard, height, largeness, strength, elegance, bravery, daring – these eight surpass others, and because of them one is impoverished. Following along, bending, and fearing inadequacy – these three, though not equal to others, all lead to success. Wisdom outward, brave action with much resentment, benevolence and righteousness with much blame – these six punish one another. One who penetrates the nature of life is great; one who penetrates knowledge is small; one who penetrates great fate follows; one who penetrates small fate meets.
Why do those who surpass others in many ways become impoverished? Because the more one has, the heavier the burden; and one who stands out is envied and becomes a target. So Laozi values weakness and non-contention: because one does not contend, no one can contend with him. Zhuangzi values the use of the useless: only the useless can preserve the body and nourish nature. Therefore one who truly penetrates life does not show cleverness to seek externals and weary body and spirit; does not show bravery and restlessness to suppress others and invite resentment; does not show benevolence and righteousness to gain approval and be blamed. They drift like an unmoored boat, letting things come and go and worldly affairs rise and fall naturally, not knowing, not contending. They penetrate the great fate, the natural Great Way. Their hearts are vast and empty, always calm and peaceful, so they are at ease wherever they are. The worldly “outstanding” penetrate small fate – worldly externals and cleverness. Their hearts are narrow and full, disturbed without rest, so they always meet hardship.
14. The Man Who Boasts of Ten Carriages
A man who had seen the King of Song was given ten carriages. He used his ten carriages to be arrogant toward Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi said, “By the river there was a poor family that lived by weaving reeds. Their son dived into a deep pool and got a pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold. The father said to his son, ‘Bring a stone and smash it! A pearl worth a thousand pieces of gold must be under the chin of a black dragon in a ninefold abyss. You were able to get the pearl only because you met it asleep. If the black dragon had been awake, would you have had even a tiny bit left?’ Now the depth of the state of Song is not merely a ninefold abyss; the fierceness of the King of Song is not merely a black dragon. You were able to get carriages only because you met him asleep. If the King of Song wakes, you will be minced powder.”
This parable does not say why the boaster was rewarded, but we can infer that such a person, relying on favor and being arrogant, must have used improper means – flattery or clever talk – to temporarily blind the ruler and luckily get reward. Once the ruler awakes, how can he not be minced powder? His danger is no different from getting a pearl from under the black dragon’s chin. Wealth and honor are outside true life. To risk life for them is to put the cart before the horse. To boast of them is ridiculous.
15. The Sacrificial Ox
Someone invited Zhuangzi to office. Zhuangzi answered the messenger, “Have you seen the sacrificial ox? It is dressed in embroidered cloth and fed fine grain. When it is led into the great temple, though it wishes to be an orphan calf, can it?”
The sacrificial ox enjoys fine clothes and food, but loses freedom and soul, becoming a sacrificial victim, no longer able to wander freely between Heaven and Earth. Worldly people chase wealth, honor, fame, and profit, are entangled by externals, lose soul autonomy, and even life and death are in others’ hands. Is this not equally sad? Zhuangzi is indifferent to fame and profit, lets his nature be free, wanders alone with the spirit of Heaven and Earth – how could he trap himself in a cage?
16. Zhuangzi’s Death
When Zhuangzi was about to die, his disciples wanted to bury him lavishly. Zhuangzi said, “I take Heaven and Earth as my inner and outer coffin, the sun and moon as my paired jades, the stars as my pearls, and all things as my funeral gifts. Are my burial goods not complete? What could be added?”
The disciples said, “We fear the crows and kites will eat you.”
Zhuangzi said, “Above, I will be eaten by crows and kites; below, by ants and mole crickets. Taking from one to give to the other – how partial!”
This is the last parable in the Zhuangzi series. Everyone dies; Zhuangzi is no exception. But who can face death as calmly as Zhuangzi? Loving life and hating death, loving this and despising that – ultimately it is the worldly heart at work. Do they not know that life and death are one, all things are one? Life and death are only one link in transformation. Born, dying; dying, born. What joy in life? What sorrow in death? Man is born from nature and returns to nature, always one with all things. Since all is one, there is no noble or base – why be partial about lavish burial or worry about being eaten?
17. Final Passage
To level with what is not level – its leveling is not level. To verify with what is not verified – its verification is not verified. The clear-sighted are only employed by things; the spiritual verifies them. That the clear-sighted cannot overcome the spiritual has long been so, yet the foolish rely on what they see to enter into others; their work is external – is this not sad!
The “not-level heart” is precisely the heart with bias. Just as the hundred schools all think their own doctrine is the truth that can balance and stabilize the world, in fact no single school can truly bring long peace. This is because imposing personal bias on others cannot truly convince them. Only the natural Great Way can truly balance all things. Similarly, if one responds to things with personal bias, one is blinded by a leaf and cannot see Mount Tai; one will always meet things one cannot handle. Only by casting off the biased heart, following nature, and responding when touched while resting in the center of the Way, can one respond endlessly.
The “clear-sighted” are those who trust their own views. They sink into the vulgar world, busy with things outside life itself, yet think themselves wise. Such people are often driven. The “spiritual” are different: their spirit is complete, and gain, loss, life, and death do not enter their hearts. They penetrate the great fate, are at ease wherever they are, follow nature, and so respond rightly wherever they go.
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