Chapter 26 of Zhuangzi takes its title from the opening line - “External outcomes cannot be guaranteed”. It collects seven fables and philosophical reflections, exploring the uncertainty of worldly retribution, the paradox of useful‑and‑useless, inner spiritual space, and the famous idea grasp the meaning, forget the words.
Opening thesis: External outcomes cannot be guaranteed
External things cannot be counted on for certain. Thus Guan Long Pang (Guan Longpang) was executed, Bi Gan was put to death, Ji Zi feigned madness, E Lai perished, Jie and Zhou fell.
Rulers all wish their ministers to be loyal, yet loyalty does not guarantee trust. Wu Zixu’s body was cast into the river; Chang Hong died in Shu. People preserved his blood, which after three years turned into green jade. Parents all wish their children to be filial, yet filial piety does not guarantee parental love. Xiao Ji lived in constant sorrow, Zeng Shen endured grief.
Wood rubs against wood and catches fire; metal kept near fire will melt. When yin‑yang run amiss, heaven‑earth shake violently. Thunder peals, fire bursts forth in water, and great locust trees are burnt.
Human beings trapped in overwhelming sorrow are caught in a double bind with nowhere to flee. Anxious and unsettled, the heart hangs suspended between heaven and earth. Sorrow and joy, profit and loss grind against each other, kindling inner fires. People burn away their inner harmony. Even the moon cannot resist fierce fire. Thus people collapse inward, and the Dao within them comes to an end.
Key insight: There is no guaranteed reward and punishment in mortal affairs. Loyalty does not always win trust, filial piety does not always win affection. If you cling to expectations about what external circumstances “should” bring you, conflicts of gain and loss will consume your spirit.
1. Zhuangzi borrows grain: the perch fish in the rut
Zhuangzi’s family was poor. He went to ask for grain from the Marquis of the River (Jian He Hou).
The Marquis said: ”Very well. When I collect taxes from my fief, I will lend you three hundred gold pieces.”
Zhuangzi’s face darkened. ”Yesterday on my way here I heard someone calling. I looked and saw a perch fish trapped in the wheel rut puddle. I asked: ’Perch fish, what are you doing here?’
It answered: ’I am a subject of the East Sea. Could you give me a few handfuls of water to save my life?’
I said: ’Very well. I shall travel south to persuade the kings of Wu and Yue, to divert the West River waters to fetch you.’
The perch fish grew angry: ’I have lost my home waters and have nowhere to dwell. Only a little water is enough to keep me alive. If you speak such grand words, you might as well look for me in the dried fish market!’”
Key insight: Grand empty promises do not solve urgent present day crisis. No one is obliged to feel your emergency as their own. Do not stake your survival upon the goodwill of others.
2. Master Ren fishes for the giant fish
Master Ren cast a huge hook with thick black cord. He used fifty castrated oxen as bait. Squatting on Mount Kuaiji, he cast his line into the Eastern Sea. Day after day he fished; for a full year he caught nothing.
At last a great fish bit the bait. It dragged the massive hook down deep, thrashed and flapped its fins. White waves rose like mountains. The sea shook. Its roar sounded like ghosts‑and‑spirits, reverberating for a thousand li. Master Ren caught it, cut it up and sun dried it. East of the River Zhe, north of Cangwu, everyone ate their fill of this fish.
Later shallow minded story tellers marvelled and repeated the tale. People who carry small rods and lines, run to tiny ditches, and watch for minnows and small fish can hardly hope to catch a giant fish. Likewise: to polish trivial little doctrines in hope of high rank and fame is far removed from the great insight of the Dao. Those who never grasp the breadth of Master Ren’s vision are unfit to engage with the world.
Key insight: World view sets the scope of what you can attain. Small scale minds cannot comprehend great scale undertakings. This echoes the Kun‑Peng parable in Xiao Yao You.
3. Confucian scholars rob graves using the Book of Songs and Book of Rites
Confucian scholars rob tombs using the Songs and Rites.
The senior scholar calls down from above: ”The eastern sky grows light. How fares the work?”
The junior scholar inside the tomb answers: ”I still have not undressed the dead woman’s robes. A pearl is held in her mouth.”
Senior scholar quotes the Book of Songs:
”Green‑green wheat grows on the mound‑slope.
If she gave alms in life, why hold a pearl in death?”
“Tug at his hair, press down his whiskers. Use the metal hammer to strike his jaw, slowly prise open his cheeks. Do not damage the pearl inside his mouth!”
Key insight: This is satire, not total rejection of Confucian teaching. It mocks hypocrites who take moral classics as a tool for greed and self‑gain, separating outer ritual‑text from genuine inner virtue.
4. Lao Lai Zi reproaches Confucius
A disciple of Lao Lai Zi (Lao Laizi) went out gathering fire‑wood and met Confucius. He returned and reported: ”Over there is a man, long‑bodied, short‑limbed, hunched‑back, ears set‑back. His gaze seems to scheme over all‑under‑heaven. I know not who he is.”
Lao Lai Zi said: ”That is Qiu (Confucius). Call him here.”
Confucius arrived. Lao Lai Zi told him: ”Qiu, cast off your arrogant bearing and your show of clever wisdom, then you may become a gentleman.”
Confucius bowed and stepped back, looking troubled. ”May my work advance?”
Lao Lai Zi replied: ”You grieve for the suffering of one generation, yet ignore the calamities for ten thousand generations to come. Is this because you are inherently shallow sighted, or because your strategies do not reach far enough? Winning affection by giving favours can bring lifelong shame. Ordinary people are easily swayed by such things. Men draw together by reputation, bind themselves by hidden self‑interest. Rather than praise Yao and condemn Jie, it would be better to forget both, and lay aside all praise and blame. Any intervention brings harm; any contrived action breeds crookedness. The sage acts cautiously and leisurely, hence succeeds. Why do you carry this burden of self‑importance?”
Key insight: Well‑intended moral political action can generate long term unintended harm. Drop self‑seeking reputation building.
5. Lord Yuan of Song and the divine tortoise
Late at night Lord Yuan of Song dreamed of a dishevelled‑haired being peeping through his side gate: ”I come from the abyss of Zailu. I was sent by Clear‑River as envoy to the Lord of the River, but the fisherman Yu Qie caught me.”
When he awoke, the lord ordered divination. ”This is a divine tortoise.”
“Is there a fisherman named Yu Qie?” his attendants confirmed there was. ”Summon Yu Qie to court.”
Next day Yu Qie came. ”What did you catch fishing?”
“A white tortoise five‑feet‑across.”
“Present the tortoise.”
The tortoise arrived. The lord wavered: should he kill it, or spare it? He cast‑lots. The oracle said: ”Kill the tortoise and use its shell for divination: auspicious.” So they cut‑open the tortoise shell. Seventy‑two divinations were made and none failed.
Confucius commented: ”The divine tortoise could appear in a dream to the lord, yet could not escape Yu Qie’s net. Its wisdom succeeded in seventy‑two flawless divinations, yet could not escape being disembowelled. Even great wisdom is limited; spirit‑insight has its bounds. Even supreme wisdom cannot out‑wit the plots of ten‑thousand‑men. Fish do not fear nets, but fear pelicans. Let go small clever wisdom, and great wisdom shines forth. Let go the craving to regard‑yourself‑as‑good, and you naturally become good. A baby does not need a great teacher to learn speech: it simply lives among people who speak.”
Key insight: Clever small scale calculation cannot cover every risk. Some things are learned by natural environment dwelling rather than deliberate contrivance.
6. Zhuangzi and Huizi on the usefulness of the useless
Huizi said to Zhuangzi: ”Your words are useless.”
Zhuangzi: ”Only he who understands the useless is fit to talk about the useful. The earth is vast and broad. What man actually uses is but the small patch under his feet. But suppose you dig away all the surrounding earth down to the yellow springs. Would the patch under your feet still be useful?”
Huizi: ”It would be useless.”
Zhuangzi: ”Then the usefulness of the useless becomes perfectly clear.”
Key insight: What we call “useful” depends entirely upon a background of what we treat as “useless”. The categories are not absolute. This again illustrates that external things have no fixed, guaranteed quality.
7. Wandering freely
Zhuangzi said: ”If one can wander freely, how could one fail to wander freely! If one cannot wander freely, how could one achieve wandering freedom! To indulge in runaway impulses, to make harsh break with the world – alas, this is hardly the conduct of those of great wisdom and profound virtue. They fall and do not turn back, rush like fire and do not look behind. The relation of lord and subject arises from time circumstance. When ages change, neither is to be despised. Therefore the Ultimate Man does not cling to fixed courses of action.
To honour antiquity and despise the present is the habit of ordinary scholars. Judging our age from the viewpoint of the Xi Wei clan (狶韦氏): who would not be swept‑along by the tides! Only the Ultimate Man can wander in the world without becoming warped, follow other people and yet preserve himself. He does not deliberately learn worldly teachings, accepts the prevailing mood, yet does not merge into it.
When the eye penetrates: that is clarity. Ear penetrates: that is acuity of hearing. Nose penetrates: that is sharp sense of smell. Mouth penetrates: that is taste. Mind penetrates: that is knowing. Knowing penetrates: that is Virtue. The Dao abhors blockage. Blockage brings obstruction; obstruction unchecked brings stumbling ruin; stumbling ruin brings manifold harms.
Beings with awareness live by breath. If breath is insufficient, it is not Heaven’s fault. Heaven opens the orifices day and night without abating; human beings themselves block their own openings. Inside the womb envelope there is empty space; in the human mind there must be space for heavenly‑roaming. If a house has no empty space, mothers‑in‑law and daughters‑in‑law quarrel. If the mind has no space for heavenly roaming, the six senses jostle and conflict with one another. Great forests and mountains delight human beings precisely because our spirits cannot endure inner confinement.
Virtue overflows in pursuit of fame; fame overflows into ostentation. Schemes spring from distress; cleverness springs from contention. Stagnation springs from clinging attachment. Official affairs succeed only when fitting to the multitude. Spring rain falls in season, plants burst forth. Men bring out hoes and weeding tools, yet more than half the plants regrow, and men do not understand why.
Quiet stillness can heal sickness; gentle eye‑massage can slow ageing; calm peace can quell rash haste. Yet these are practices for those worn out by toil. The spiritually leisurely do not trouble themselves with them. What sages shake the world with, spirit men never concern themselves with. What worthies shake the age with, sages never concern themselves with. What gentlemen shake the state with, worthies never concern themselves with. What petty men use to fit the times with, gentlemen never concern themselves with.
At Yan Men (Yanmen), a man whose parent died emaciated himself with grief and won official rank. His clans folk copied his excessive mourning; half of them died from it. Yao offered the world to Xu You, who fled. Tang offered the world to Wu Guang, who flew into rage. When Ji heard of this, he led his disciples to linger by the Kuan Water, and feudal lords came to condole him. Three years later, Shen Tu Di threw himself into the river because of this example.
The fish trap exists for catching fish; catch the fish and forget the trap. The hare snare exists for catching hares; catch the hare and forget the snare. Words exist for carrying meaning; grasp the meaning and forget the words. Where may I find a man who forgets words, so that I may speak with him!“
Key take‑aways:
1. Inner life needs empty mental space for heavenly roaming. Block your inner openings and your senses will fight among yourselves.
2. Public honours can spawn hollow performative virtue and harmful mimicry.
3. Language is only a tool. Grasp the inner meaning; let go of the verbal container. This is forget‑the‑words.
Closing Thoughts
Major themes of External Things:
1. External results cannot be guaranteed. Do not cling to expectations of guaranteed reward for your virtue or loyalty.
2. Perspective defines size: Small minds cannot grasp great scale realities (Master Ren fishing).
3. Useful and useless are interdependent, no absolute boundary.
4. Watch for hypocrisy: moral texts and rites can become instruments for greed and fame.
5. Preserve mental empty space for heavenly roaming – do not let obsessions block your inner freedom.
6. De‑emphasise‑language: Grasp the meaning, forget the words. Truth resides beyond verbal formulation.
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