1. A Special Chapter
The Tian Xia chapter is unusual in the Zhuangzi. It contains no parables and does not mainly expound Zhuangzi’s own thought. Instead, it surveys and evaluates other schools. It is often considered the earliest systematic summary and analysis of pre-Qin Chinese philosophy.
The chapter opens:
Many in the world practice one-sided arts, and each thinks his achievement cannot be surpassed. But where is what the ancients called the art of the Way? It is nowhere not present.
It asks: How does the spiritual descend? How does the bright emerge? The answer: The sage has that from which he is born; the king has that in which he is completed. Both originate in the One.
The text then defines levels of realization:
- Not departing from the ancestral source: Heaven-man.
- Not departing from essence: spirit-man.
- Not departing from the True: Perfect Man.
- Taking Heaven as ancestor, virtue as root, the Way as gate, and foreseeing transformation: sage.
- Taking benevolence as kindness, righteousness as principle, ritual as conduct, music as harmony, and being warmly compassionate: gentleman.
- Using law, names, comparison, and examination to rank officials: the order of government.
- Taking affairs as constant, food and clothing as primary, caring for the old, weak, orphaned, and widowed: the principle of the people.
The ancients were complete. They matched the spiritual and bright, blended Heaven and Earth, nurtured all things, harmonized the world, and benefited the people. They understood root and measure. Their movement was nowhere not present.
What was bright in measures and laws survives in old laws and histories. What lies in the Poetry, History, Ritual, Music, Changes, and Spring and Autumn is often understood by the scholars of Zou and Lu. The Poetry expresses the will; the History describes affairs; the Ritual describes conduct; the Music describes harmony; the Changes describes yin and yang; the Spring and Autumn describes names and duties. These teachings spread through the world, and the hundred schools sometimes praised them.
Then the world fell into great disorder. Sages and worthies were not bright; virtue and the Way were not unified. Many got one insight and took pleasure in it. It was like ear, eye, nose, and mouth: each has its own clarity but cannot communicate. The hundred schools and many crafts each had strengths and uses, but none was comprehensive. They were scholars of one corner.
They divided the beauty of Heaven and Earth, analyzed the principles of all things, and examined the completeness of the ancients. Few could match the beauty of Heaven and Earth or fit the countenance of the spiritual and bright. Therefore the Way of inner sage and outer king became dark and blocked. People each did what they desired and made their own methods. The hundred schools went on and did not return. The art of the Way would be split by the world.
2. Mo Di and Qin Guli: The Mohists
The ancient art of the Way had a strand that was:
- Not extravagant toward later generations.
- Not wasteful with all things.
- Not dazzling in numbers and measures.
- Using the plumb line and ink to correct oneself.
- Preparing for the urgent needs of the age.
Mo Di and Qin Guli heard this wind and delighted in it. But they practiced it too much and restrained themselves too far. They made Condemning Music and named it Economy in Expenditure. In life they did not sing; in death they wore no mourning.
Mozi taught universal love and mutual benefit, and condemned war. His Way did not anger. He loved learning and was broad. He did not differ, yet he did not agree with the former kings; he destroyed ancient ritual and music.
The ancients had music: the Yellow Emperor had the Xianchi; Yao had the Dazhang; Shun had the Dashao; Yu had the Daxia; Tang had the Dahu; King Wen had the music of the Biyong; King Wu and the Duke of Zhou made the Wu. Ancient mourning had grades: the Son of Heaven had seven layers of coffin, feudal lords five, great officers three, scholars two.
Mozi alone wanted no singing in life, no mourning in death, a three-inch inner coffin without an outer coffin. If he taught this to others, I fear he did not love them. If he practiced it himself, he did not love himself. This does not yet ruin Mozi’s Way.
Nevertheless: to sing but not sing, to weep but not weep, to be joyful but not joyful – is this really fitting? In life he was diligent; in death he was thin. His Way was too harsh. It made people anxious and sad. It was hard to practice. I fear it could not be the Way of the sage; it went against the hearts of the world. The world could not bear it. Though Mozi alone could bear it, what about the world? Leaving the world behind, he was far from true kingship.
Mozi praised Yu, who dammed the floodwaters, opened the rivers, and settled the ten thousand states. Yu’s calves had no fat, his shins no hair. He was washed by heavy rain and combed by fierce wind. Later Mohists wore skins and coarse cloth, wooden clogs and straw sandals. Day and night they did not rest, taking self-affliction as the extreme. They said: “If one cannot do this, it is not Yu’s Way; one is not worthy to be called a Mohist.”
Later Mohists split. The disciples of Xiangli Qin, the followers of Wu Hou, and the southern Mohists Ku Huo, Yi Chi, Deng Lingzi and their kind all recited the Mohist Canon, but they were contrary and divergent, calling one another “separate Mohists.” They attacked one another with the debate of hard-white and same-different, and responded with phrases of odd-even and non-opposition. They took the Grand Master as a sage and wished to be his successor. To this day it is not settled.
The intention of Mo Di and Qin Guli was right, but their practice was wrong. They would make later Mohists compete in self-affliction, until their calves had no fat and their shins no hair. This brought the height of disorder and the depth of governance. Nevertheless, Mozi was truly a lover of the world. Though one sought him and did not find him, though he was withered and did not give up, he was a talented scholar.
3. Song Xing and Yin Wen
The ancient art of the Way had a strand that was:
- Not entangled in custom.
- Not adorned by things.
- Not careless with others.
- Not jealous of the crowd.
- Wishing for the peace of the world to keep the people alive.
- For self and others, sufficient and then stopping.
- Clarifying the heart by this.
Song Xing and Yin Wen heard this wind and delighted in it. They made the Cap of Huashan to mark themselves, and took “removing obscurations” as the beginning in dealing with all things. They spoke of the capacity of the heart and named it “the practice of the mind.” They blended and brought joy, and harmonized within the seas. They asked to be established as rulers.
When insulted, they were not ashamed. They saved the people from fighting and stopped attacks and war, saving the world from battle. With this they traveled the world, persuading above and teaching below. Though the world did not accept them, they stubbornly talked without giving up. Therefore it is said: above and below grew tired of them, yet they forced themselves to appear.
Nevertheless, they did too much for others and too little for themselves. They said: “Please, let us firmly set aside five pints of rice – that is enough.” The master feared not getting enough to eat; the disciples, though hungry, did not forget the world. Day and night they did not rest. They said: “We must live!” How grand were these saviors of the world!
They said: “The gentleman does not make harsh investigations, and does not use his body as a tool for things.” They thought that what did not benefit the world was better left unclarified. They took stopping attacks and ending war as outer, and making desires few and shallow as inner. Their small and great, fine and coarse – their practice reached only this far and stopped.
4. Peng Meng, Tian Pian, and Shen Dao
The ancient art of the Way had a strand that was:
- Public and not partisan.
- Easy and without selfishness.
- Decisive without a master.
- Following things without duplicity.
- Not looking back to thought.
- Not scheming with knowledge.
- Making no choice among things.
- Going along with them.
Peng Meng, Tian Pian, and Shen Dao heard this wind and delighted in it. They took equalizing all things as the first principle. They said:
Heaven can cover but cannot bear; Earth can bear but cannot cover; the Great Way can encompass but cannot discriminate.
They knew that all things have what is acceptable and what is not. Therefore they said:
If you choose, you are not universal; if you teach, you do not reach all; the Way alone leaves nothing out.
Therefore Shen Dao discarded knowledge and removed self, and followed what could not be otherwise. He drifted with things and took this as the principle of the Way. He said: “To know what one does not know will thin knowledge and then bring injury near.”
He was shameless and without responsibility, and laughed at the world’s honoring of worthies. He was loose and without conduct, and criticized the world’s great sages. He hammered and beat, cut and severed, and turned with things. He set aside right and wrong, seeking only to escape. He did not take knowledge and thought as teachers, did not know before and after, and was merely towering and self-so. He moved only after being pushed; he went only after being dragged. He was like a whirlwind turning, like a feather spinning, like a millstone revolving. Complete and without fault, in movement and stillness without error, he never had guilt.
Why? Because things without knowledge have no trouble of establishing self, no burden of using knowledge. Their movement and stillness do not depart from principle, and so to the end they have no praise. Therefore he said: “Reach the state of a thing without knowledge – then there is no use for worthies and sages. A clod does not lose the Way.”
The heroes laughed at him, saying: “Shen Dao’s Way is not the conduct of a living man; it is the principle of a dead man.” It rightly appears strange.
Tian Pian was the same. He studied under Peng Meng and got what cannot be taught. Peng Meng’s teacher said: “The ancient men of the Way reached only the point of neither affirming nor denying. Their wind was swift and sudden – how can it be spoken?” They constantly opposed people and were not observed, yet they did not escape being cut off. What they called the Way was not the Way, and what they said was right did not escape being wrong. Peng Meng, Tian Pian, and Shen Dao did not know the Way. Nevertheless, generally speaking, they had all heard something of it.
5. Guan Yin and Lao Dan
The ancient art of the Way had a strand that was:
- Taking the root as essence and things as coarse.
- Taking accumulation as insufficiency.
- Calmly dwelling alone with the spiritual and bright.
Guan Yin and Lao Dan heard this wind and delighted in it. They established it with constant non-being and being, and took the Great One as master. They took weakness, humility, and lowliness as outer, and emptiness and not destroying all things as inner.
Guan Yin said: “In oneself, have no dwelling; the forms of things appear of themselves.” His movement was like water; his stillness was like a mirror; his response was like an echo. Vague, as if lost; silent, as if clear. Those who agree with him he harmonizes; those who get he loses. He never preceded others but always followed them.
Lao Dan said: “Know the male, guard the female, and be the ravine of the world. Know the white, guard the black, and be the valley of the world.” Others all took the first; he alone took the last. He said: “Receive the dirt of the world.” Others all took the substantial; he alone took the empty. “Having no store, therefore he had surplus.” Towering, he had surplus.
His conduct of himself was slow and not wasteful; he did nothing and laughed at cleverness. Others all sought blessing; he alone bent to preserve wholeness. He said: “If only one escapes blame.” He took depth as root and restraint as bond. He said: “The hard is destroyed; the sharp is blunted.” He was always tolerant with things and did not cut others down. Though not reaching the utmost, Guan Yin and Lao Dan were the broad and great True Men of old.
6. Zhuang Zhou
Vague and formless, changing without constancy – death? life? with Heaven and Earth? with the spiritual and bright going? Vast, where does it go? Sudden, where does it arrive? All things are encompassed, and none is sufficient to be its home.
The ancient art of the Way had something in this. Zhuang Zhou heard its wind and delighted in it. With far-fetched sayings, absurd words, and boundless phrases, at times indulging himself without partisanship, he did not show himself in strange ways. He took the world as muddy and could not speak seriously with it. He used goblet words for rambling, weighty words for truth, and imputed words for breadth.
Alone he came and went with the spirit of Heaven and Earth, but did not lord over all things. He did not condemn right and wrong, and so dwelt with the vulgar world. His book, though magnificent, is continuous and harmless. His words, though uneven, are strange and worth observing. He was full and could not stop.
Above he wandered with the Creator; below he was friends with those who put death and life outside and have no end or beginning. As for his root, it was broad and penetrating, deep and wide; as for his ancestor, he can be said to have been well-ordered and ascended. Nevertheless, in responding to transformation and dissolving things, his principle is inexhaustible; his coming does not peel away. Vague and dark – no one has exhausted him.
7. Hui Shi and the Sophists
Hui Shi had many methods; his books filled five carts. His Way was confused and mixed; his words were not centered. He explicated things, saying:
The greatest has no outside – call it the Great One. The smallest has no inside – call it the Small One. That which has no thickness cannot be accumulated, yet it extends a thousand li. Heaven and Earth are low; mountains and marshes are level. The sun is at noon and already declining; things are born and already dying. Great sameness differs from small sameness – this is called “small sameness and difference.” All things are completely same and completely different – this is called “great sameness and difference.” The south is infinite yet finite. Today I go to Yue and yesterday I arrived. A linked ring can be untied. I know the center of Heaven: north of Yan and south of Yue. Universally love all things; Heaven and Earth are one body.
Hui Shi took this as great, displayed it to the world, and instructed the debaters. The debaters of the world delighted with him. They said:
- An egg has hair.
- A chicken has three feet.
- Ying has the world.
- A dog can be a sheep.
- A horse has eggs.
- A tadpole has a tail.
- Fire is not hot.
- A mountain has a mouth.
- A wheel does not tread the ground.
- The eye does not see.
- Pointing does not reach; reaching does not stop.
- A turtle is longer than a snake.
- A square is not square; a compass cannot make a circle.
- A mortise does not surround a tenon.
- The shadow of a flying bird has never moved.
- The swiftness of an arrow has a time of not moving and not stopping.
- A dog is not a dog.
- A yellow horse and a black ox are three.
- A white dog is black.
- An orphan colt has never had a mother.
- A one-foot stick, taken half each day, will never be exhausted in ten thousand generations.
The debaters responded to Hui Shi with these, and to the end of their lives were never exhausted.
Huan Tuan and Gongsun Long and their kind were debaters. They adorned people’s hearts and changed people’s minds. They could overcome people’s mouths but could not subdue people’s hearts – this was the pen of the debaters.
Hui Shi daily used his knowledge to debate with them, and especially made strange things with the world’s debaters – this was his root. Yet Hui Shi’s talk considered himself the most worthy. He said: “How grand are Heaven and Earth! I, Shi, preserve my strength but have no art.”
In the south there was a strange man named Huang Liao. He asked why Heaven and Earth do not fall or sink, and the causes of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Hui Shi did not decline but responded, did not think but answered, and explained all things. He spoke without resting, much and without end, yet thought it little, and added strange things. He took opposition to people as reality and wished to overcome others for fame. Therefore he did not fit with the crowd.
Weak in virtue, strong in things, his road was narrow. Viewed from the Way of Heaven and Earth, Hui Shi’s ability was like the labor of a mosquito or gadfly. What use was it for things? To fill out the One might still be called better; to value the Way is close. Hui Shi could not use this to quiet himself; he scattered himself among all things and was not satisfied. In the end he made a name for good debate.
Alas! Hui Shi’s talent was unrestrained and did not find rest. He chased all things and did not return. It was like using sound to chase an echo, or form racing with its shadow. Sad!
8. Overall Evaluation
The author arranges the schools by their distance from the art of the Way:
- The Mohists suppress human nature through extreme frugality and self-affliction – far from the Way.
- Song Xing and Yin Wen are closer, but they force their doctrines on a world that does not accept them.
- Peng Meng, Tian Pian, and Shen Dao seem to follow nature and abandon right and wrong, but they still set themselves up as right and others as wrong.
- Guan Yin and Laozi are praised as broad and great True Men, close to the author’s standard.
- Zhuangzi wanders with the spirit of Heaven and Earth, beyond life and death, beyond right and wrong.
- Hui Shi, for all his brilliance, is trapped in debate and chases things without return.
The true art of the Way is not a one-sided method. It is unlimited, inexhaustible, and cannot be exhausted. The hundred schools each grasped a fragment. The Way of inner sage and outer king was split by the world.
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