Chapter 27 of Zhuangzi is key for understanding Zhuangzi’s literary technique. It introduces the three modes of discourse used throughout his work: Yu‑yan (Fable words or Imputed words), Zhong‑yan (weight‑authority‑words), Zhi‑yan (goblet words). Five textual episodes make‑up this chapter.
Opening: Fable words, Weight words, Goblet words
Yu‑yan (fable‑words, nine‑tenths): speaking through other persons and other stories. A biological father will not act as match‑maker for his own son. If a father praises his own son, it carries less weight than praise from an outsider. This is not the father’s fault; it comes from human prejudice. People assent to what matches their own views, and reject what differs. They affirm what agrees with them, deny what disagrees.
Zhong‑yan (weight‑authority‑words, seven‑tenths): quoting respected elders to settle disputes. Respect belongs to elders only if they possess penetrating insight into the root‑branches of things. Merely being old in years does not make one worthy of deference. A human lacking superior insight possesses no true human way; such a one is called the stale‑man.
Zhi‑yan (goblet‑words): like an ancient goblet‑vessel, emptying or filling according to circumstance. They emerge fresh each day, harmonize with tian‑ni (natural boundary), unfold freely, and thus carry on to the full span of years.
When you utter no words, all things are equal. Once you speak, that original equality is broken. Speech disrupts equality. Hence: Speak the speech‑of‑no‑speech.
To speak speech‑of‑no‑speech: you may speak your whole life and yet never really speak; you may never speak your whole life and yet never be silent.
Things have grounds for being acceptable, and grounds for being unacceptable. They have grounds for being so, and grounds for not‑being‑so. What makes something so? It is so in its own so‑ness. What makes something not‑so? It is not‑so in its own not‑so‑ness. What makes something acceptable? It is acceptable in its own acceptability. What makes something unacceptable? It is unacceptable in its own unacceptability. All things inherently possess their own “so”; all things inherently possess their own “acceptable”. Nothing is without its own “so”; nothing is without its own “acceptable”.
Without goblet words renewed each day, attuned to the natural boundary, how could any teaching endure long!
All things are seeds. They transform and succeed‑one‑another in different forms. Beginning and end turn like a ring; no one can trace its threads. This is tian‑jun (天均, natural‑equilibrium). Tian‑jun means tian‑ni (天倪, natural‑boundary).
Key insight: Human beings judge everything by personal bias. Zhuangzi uses fables and respected figure quotations to bypass prejudice. The highest mode is goblet words: speaking without rigid subjective positions, harmonizing with the natural order. Words are tools; do not become imprisoned by your own statements. Each thing has its own inherent validity.
1. Zhuangzi and Huizi: Confucius transforms at sixty
Zhuangzi said to Huizi: ”Confucius turned sixty years old, and transformed sixty‑times. What he affirmed at the start he later denied. We cannot know whether what he affirms now is not what he denied at age fifty‑nine.”
Huizi replied: ”Confucius was resolute and strove with his knowing‑mind to learn.”
Zhuangzi: ”Confucius had already abandoned that kind of deliberate mental striving, though he never spoke of it. Confucius said: Human beings receive their native talent from the great root, and revive spirit to live. Their utterances match musical pitch; their words match standards of order. When profit, harm, righteousness are laid before people, likes‑dislikes, right‑wrong only win people’s verbal compliance. You must make their hearts truly submit, so they dare not resist, and establish the great certainty under heaven. Enough, enough! I fear I cannot reach his level.”
Key insight: Judgements of right‑and‑wrong shift with one’s perspective. True transformation does not come from forcing others into verbal assent, but from inward spontaneous submission.
2. Zeng Shen takes office twice
Zeng Shen served in office twice, and his inner mood changed twice. He said: ”When my parents were alive, I served with only three fu of grain salary, yet my heart rejoiced. Later I took office with three zhong of grain salary, yet I could not use it to support my parents. My heart grieved.”
One of his disciples asked Confucius: ”Can it be said of Zeng Shen that he was free from inner bondage to emolument?”
Confucius answered: ”He was still bound. If one is truly free from bondage, would such grief arise in him? For such a man, seeing three fu or three zhong of salary is no different from watching sparrows, gnats and gad flies flit past before his eyes.”
Key insight: This is not a rejection of filial piety. Even grief rooted in filial devotion can still be an inner attachment. The truly liberated person’s joy and sorrow are not stirred by external conditions.
3. Yancheng Ziyou questions Dongguo Ziqi: nine‑stages of spiritual progress
Yancheng Ziyou said to Dongguo Ziqi: ”Ever since I heard your teaching:
After one‑year: I returned to simplicity.
After two‑years: I became compliant.
After three‑years: I attained penetration.
After four‑years: I merged with things.
After five‑years: all things drew near to me.
After six‑years: my spirit communed with the unseen‑ghostly.
After seven‑years: I became naturally‑complete.
After eight‑years: I knew neither life nor death.
After nine‑years: I entered the profound great‑mystery.
To live with contrived striving is to move‑toward death. Exhorting the world springs from private inclination. Death has its source; life as yang energy seems to have no source. Is this really so? Where lies what suits us, where lies what does not suit us? Heaven has its calendar cycles; earth is occupied by human affairs. Where shall I seek answers?
If we know not where endings lie, how can we say there is destiny? If we know not where beginnings lie, how can we say there is no destiny? When signs correspond and resonate, how can we say there are no ghosts and spirits? When no signs correspond, how can we say there are ghosts and spirits?”
Key insight: These “years” denote stages of spiritual advancement, not literal chronological time. Zhuangzi does not dogmatically affirm or deny destiny or ghosts; he points out the limits of human knowledge.
4. The many penumbrae question the shadow
Multiple penumbrae (partial shadow‑shades) asked the shadow:
“A moment ago you bowed your head; now you hold your head high. A moment ago your hair was bound up; now your hair hangs loose. A moment ago you sat; now you stand. A moment ago you walked; now you stop. Why is this?”
The shadow replied: ”I move spontaneously; why do you ask? I depend on something, yet I do not know why it is so. I am like the cast‑off shell of a cicada, or the sloughed skin of a snake: resembling the original being, yet not the being itself. When fire or sunlight appear, I manifest. When darkness or night come, I vanish and change over. My bodily form is what I depend upon. How much more so that which depends on nothing at all (the Dao)! When that comes, I come. When that departs, I depart. When that stirs and moves, I stir and move. Why should you question that which moves in itself?”
Key insight: The shadow depends on physical form; physical form itself depends on the Dao, which depends on nothing. All phenomena transform spontaneously. Do not obsessively demand explanations for every change.
5. Yang Ziju meets Lao Dan
Yang Ziju travelled south toward Pei. Lao Dan travelled west to Qin. Yang Ziju arranged to meet him outside the city‑suburbs, and encountered Lao Dan at Liang.
Half‑way on the journey Lao Dan sighed toward‑heaven: ”At first I thought you could‑be‑taught. Now I see you cannot.”
Yang Ziju said nothing. When they reached the inn, Yang Ziju brought water basin, towel and comb. He left his shoes outside the door, knelt forward and said: ”Earlier I wished to ask you, yet you had no leisure on the road. Now you are at leisure. Please tell me my fault.”
Lao Dan answered: ”You carry yourself with haughty stare; who could dwell alongside you! The utmost white looks as though tarnished; great virtue looks as though insufficient.“ (Quotation from Tao Te Ching)
Yang Ziju changed countenance with alarm: ”I respectfully receive your instruction.”
When he first arrived at the inn, all the lodgers treated him with distant deference: the host laid out mats, his wife brought towels and combs; guests yielded their seats; cooks moved away from the hearth. When he returned after reforming his demeanour, the other lodgers now felt free to contend with him for seating space.
Key insight: Arrogance isolates you from other people. True great virtue conceals its radiance and humbles itself, so that ordinary human fellowship becomes possible.
Closing Thoughts
Major themes of Yu Yan (Fable Words):
1. Three modes of Zhuangzi’s writing:
- Yu‑yan 寓言: Fable‑words, use third‑party stories to bypass human prejudice.
- Zhong‑yan 重言: Weight‑authority‑words, cite respected elders to settle disputes.
- Zhi‑yan 卮言: Goblet‑words: speaking without rigid subjective bias, harmonizing with tian‑ni / tian‑jun, the natural order. This is the highest form.
2. Human judgements of right‑and‑wrong shift over time; do not cling to fixed opinions.
3. Even grief rooted in virtue such as filial piety can still be inner attachment. Liberation means not being agitated by outer circumstances.
4. All finite things are dependent on something else; only the Dao depends on nothing at all. Phenomena transform spontaneously.
5. Great virtue manifests in humility, not ostentatious pride.
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