How two shepherd boys lost their sheep?

Two shepherd boys, Gu and Zang, went out together with their flocks and both of them lost their sheep.

When their master asked Zang what he had been doing, he answered that he had been reading. When Gu was questioned, he said he had been playing dice.

They were doing different things, yet they both lost their sheep just the same.

Allegorical Meaning

Deconstruction of “Superior” Pursuits

• Zang’s activity: Reading books >> Socially “noble”
• Gu’s activity: Playing dice games >> Socially “base”

Zhuangzi’s verdict: Society’s moral labels are illusions masking equal outcomes, identical loss.

Satire of Meritocracy

Confucian hierarchy:
Scholar ＞ Shepherd ＞ Gambler

Zhuangzi subverts this:
“The shepherd’s original role — tending sheep — was the only authentic action.”

Intellectual/gambling pursuits equally corrupt primal simplicity.

Daoist “Non-Discrimination”

The master’s judgment — “equal blame” — embodies:

• Rejection of moral binaries (good/evil)
• Recognition that all human efforts distort innate nature

True Daoist perspective:
“A lost sheep is just a lost sheep — whether books or dice caused its flight.”