《南華真經義海纂微》Vol. 88

Quieting oneself can help tend illness; restraining desire can delay aging; calming the mind and spirit can put an end to agitation.

Yet these are methods offered to people burdened by toil. Those who live at ease have never experienced such troubles, so they need not concern themselves with them. The principles by which sages startle the world have never concerned the spiritlike person; those by which worthies startle the people have never concerned the sage; those by which gentlemen startle a whole state have never concerned the worthy; and how petty people cater to the times has never concerned the gentleman.

A man from Yanmen mourned so excessively after his parents died that he wasted away to skin and bone. For this, he was granted a noble title and appointed as an official teacher, responsible for instructing or managing others. People from his home district imitated him, and half of those who grieved themselves to death met the same fate.

Yao wanted to yield the empire to Xu You, but Xu You fled. Tang of Shang wanted to yield the empire to Wuguang, who became angry. Ji Ta heard of this and withdrew with his disciples to live in seclusion by the Kuanshui River. The lords of the states went there to pay their respects, and he remained there for three years. Shentu Di, too, threw himself into a river and died.

A fish basket is for catching fish; once the fish are caught, the basket is forgotten. A snare is for catching rabbits; once the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. Words are for expressing meaning; once the meaning is grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find someone who has forgotten words, so that I may speak with him?

Guo Xiang’s Commentary: “Quieting illness, enduring aging, and putting an end to agitation” does not mean that people never fall ill, grow old, or become agitated. These methods still require effort and exertion, so those who live at ease can rise above them and pay them no heed. The spiritlike person speaks of inner cultivation, while the sage speaks of outward conduct; each has its own choices and its own level. To make a deliberate show of filial piety in pursuit of a reward is to stray far from one’s true nature. This excessive reverence for outward reputation unsettles people’s hearts and harms their nature, and may even lead them to throw themselves into a river, as Shentu Di did. When people misunderstand the true intent of sages such as Yao and Xu You, they may think that nothing needs to be said.

Lü Huiqing’s Commentary: The ideas from “quieting oneself” through “putting an end to agitation” really do appear in the ancient arts of the Dao. But stillness can be discussed only where there has first been activity; reduction, only where there has first been abundance; decline, only where there has first been flourishing; and peace, only where there has first been disturbance. These methods are offered to people burdened by toil, to help them put an end to their weariness. Those who live at ease have never been active, so why seek stillness? They have never been burdened by excess, so why reduce it? They have never flourished to excess, so why seek decline? They have never been disturbed, so why seek peace? Thus, they need not concern themselves with these things. Only people of De (Virtue) can truly live at ease; this is an ease shared by the spiritlike person and the sage. Confucius and Laozi lived in the same age, the Zhou dynasty, and Zhuangzi and Mencius both traveled in the state of Liang, yet their teachings did not…

“The Way differs, so people do not consult together” means that divine beings and sages are each distinct. Sages differ from worthy people in their conduct; worthy people differ from gentlemen in their abilities; and gentlemen differ from petty people in their commitment to moral principle rather than self-interest. Village officials responsible for education urged their fellow villagers to follow their example, and some people responded by injuring themselves or even dying. Xu You fled Emperor Yao’s summons, and one of his followers went so far as to drown himself. The harm caused by clinging rigidly to the conduct of earlier figures reached such extremes. Zhuangzi feared that later readers would remember only his words without understanding why he had said them. So he offered these two examples and ended with the image of fishing baskets and rabbit snares—things used to convey an idea through words—to remind students to set the words aside and grasp their meaning.

Commentary by Yidu: The character ran (“so”) should be a mistaken form of mo (“quiet”). “Trimming the beard and sideburns” means cutting them back to disguise the appearance of age; the character mie can also be written jian (“cut”). “Quietly tending illness” means treating sickness through quiet recuperation; it does not mean that a person was originally free of illness. Resting in old age and stopping hurried, restless activity are both deliberate practices, not following what comes naturally. These are things done by people who toil, so those at ease have never concerned themselves with them. Here, hai means “to control” or “to drive.”

Sages are the remnants left behind by divine beings, and they can govern the world through deliberate action. Worthy people carry on the sages’ Virtue and work, and can bring about effective governance. Gentlemen inherit the worthy people’s reputation and conduct, and attend to the affairs of governing the state. Petty people are the opposite of gentlemen. Those who are free and at ease beyond such concerns have never involved themselves with any of these people.

“Yan Gate” is a city gate in the capital of Song. In that region, a man grieved so excessively over his father’s death that he damaged his own body. The ruler of Song praised his filial conduct and appointed him as a village official responsible for education. The villagers then imitated him, forcing themselves to grieve and deliberately harming their own bodies. As a result, as many as half of them died. This is the harm caused by clinging to outward conduct. Although sages leave behind examples of how to govern the world, their foundation is Wuwei (non-action); through non-action, nothing is left undone.

Xu You and Wuguang were ancient proponents of Wuwei. They fled the summonses of Yao and Tang, which shows that they had not yet attained “non-action, yet nothing left undone.” Ji Ta and Shentu Di took things even further.

The meaning of the metaphor of fishing baskets and rabbit snares is not difficult to understand.

Commentary by Bixu: Quietly tending illness cannot yet make the spirit fully healthy; trimming the beard and sideburns and resting in old age cannot restore youth; and settling down and stopping hurried, restless activity cannot yet make the mind completely empty. The Zhengao (a Daoist text) says that one can regularly press the eye sockets at the sides of the eyes with one’s hands to make vision clear and bright; this is a way of examining the eyes’ vitality. If one does this for a long time, one will see the myriad spirits. When signs of age appear at the corners of the eyes, trimming the sideburns and smoothing the wrinkles can, through bathing, make the face look young. In the end, though, these are things done by people who toil, so those at ease transcend them and pay them no heed. Sages have a reputation; divine beings leave no traces. Worthy people still esteem Virtue and moral principle—these are matters beyond the sages’ concerns. Gentlemen value… (The original text ends here.)

Adapting to the way things are is, in the eyes of the worthy, already like a tiny speck of dust. When petty people act carelessly, however, they seem as loathsome to the gentleman as a growth on the body.

A villager from Yanmen won a noble rank by skillfully slandering others. The people of his village envied him and began slandering others too; half of them ended up losing their lives. This shows that chasing fame invites disaster. Some people grieve excessively while observing mourning, violate ritual norms, and even force themselves to weep, harming their own nature. All of this comes from being pulled along by external things and losing one’s true nature. It shows how deeply people can become attached to stipends or fame.

Ji Ta admired Xu You and Wuguang, who had gained renown through living in seclusion, and imitated them. He crouched beside the Kuan River with a contemptuous air toward worldly ways, hoping the feudal lords would yield their states to him. The whole thing was absurd. Three years later, Shentu, admiring the reputation this kind of seclusion had earned, eventually threw himself into a river and died. This passage makes clear just how absurdly far the pursuit of fame can lead people. Crouching by the Kuan River and throwing oneself into a river are mistakes caused by deliberately advertising one’s virtue and seeking renown.

Once you have caught the fish and the hare, you can forget the fish trap and the net. Once you have grasped the subtle mystery of the Dao (the Way), you can set aside words and teachings. People who fish and hunt need not decorate their tools to make them look impressive. Why, then, should those who seek subtle truths play clever tricks with their discussions and words?

The Kouyi of Yanzhai explains: When the mind can become still, what was lost before can be made whole again. By cutting away desires for external things, one can live at ease into old age and bring peace to both body and mind. Repairing damage, nurturing oneself into old age, and stopping urgent, exhausting labor all refer to seeking recovery after prior depletion. It is like seeking a cure only after falling ill. That is why those who are worn out need to work at restoring themselves. Those who are at ease to begin with and whose hearts are clear have none of these problems, so they naturally pay them no heed. Such matters are no concern of the person who is already at ease.

When the sage governs the world through benevolence and righteousness, this too seems, in the eyes of the spirit person, like a disturbance of the human heart. The worthy stir the world with their lofty De (Virtue/Power); gentlemen stir an entire state with their reputations; petty people busy themselves with pandering to the mood of the moment. Those who can see beyond all these people will not be moved by such things. If one devotes oneself to pleasing current tastes, one remains far from the way of the gentleman.

Nurturing oneself, recovering from illness, living peacefully into old age, and stopping urgent toil all seek to restore what has been worn down; they are not concerns of those who are at ease to begin with, so such people pay them no heed. The spirit person’s view of the sage, the sage’s view of the worthy, and the worthy’s view of the gentleman are much the same. Their measure of De is broad enough to contain these differences. They no longer cling to questions about them, and ultimately allow people to follow their nature and transform of their own accord. By rising through these successive levels, one can gradually approach higher realms. Thus, the sage does not regard external things as necessities that must be obtained. This is how one can act in the world without being constrained by external things.

Where do troubles come from? The sages of the Three Teachings—Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism—taught the world in different ways, but their words never disparaged one another. Their aim was simply to awaken people’s minds, support good governance, and guide people toward goodness.

The chapter “The Sign of Virtue Complete” describes people who were astonished by acts of goodness. In the version by Cui Zhuan, the word “astonished” is written as “shocked”; either reading works. For example, a virtuous man from Yanmen ruined his household to do good. The people of his district admired him and, as a result, even forgot to preserve their own lives. Xu You withdrew from Yao’s offer to abdicate, and Shentu Jia admired him and consequently fell into a river. These people mistook another person’s conduct for the Dao itself. They imitated it and, in doing so, lost their own true nature. This is like staring only at a fish basket or a rabbit snare without actually fishing or catching rabbits—an utter confusion. What the Nanhua True Scripture, that is, the Zhuangzi, seeks is a person who can forget words. Only when the words are forgotten can their true meaning be understood.

At the beginning, this chapter discusses which matters more, the inner or the outer, to show that people and external things differ in how closely they are connected to us. What is external depends on things outside us and cannot be secured by our own efforts. Inner cultivation, by contrast, depends on ourselves; if we strive for it, we can attain it. Yet people often chase external things single-mindedly and, when they cannot get them, grow bitter and resentful. The chapter argues in order to dispel this confusion. Loyalty and filial devotion are virtues by which one establishes oneself, but even practicing them does not guarantee that one’s ruler or parents will understand one. That is because one seeks external approval through one’s own inner conduct. How much less can one obtain one external thing by pursuing another?

From this we can see that the Dao is present everywhere within our nature and life; realizing this allows us to preserve them. Beyond our nature and life, everything is an external thing. Insisting on pursuing such things makes us lose our true nature. Only by remaining at ease, without contention or action, and keeping the mind deep and tranquil in harmony with the Dao can we avoid the troubles that arise both within and without.

Zhuangzi’s story of borrowing grain from the Marquis of Jianhe, with its comparison to a crucian carp stranded in a cart rut, shows that aid should be given in time. Ren Gongzi’s fishing, by contrast, criticizes narrow and shallow understanding, showing that the pursuit of the Dao should look to the long term. Great Confucian scholars quote the Book of Odes and study ritual, yet sometimes they also rob tombs to steal pearls. Their initial pursuit of learning may have been sincere, but later they were changed by material desires. They broke prohibitions, harmed moral instruction, and gave no thought to the consequences. In this respect, they were worse than uneducated fools, who at least have some scruples and keep to their proper place.

All these cases arise from the mistakes of those in high positions who govern the people through sagacity and wisdom. In time, even the deceitful and violent may steal the wisdom of the sages. The chapter also uses stories about Lao Laizi and Confucius to show that when praise and blame are forgotten, the troubles of the world subside. This is the meaning of “I practice Wuwei, and the people transform themselves.”

The white tortoise could send a warning in a dream, yet could not escape the fishing net. This shows that supposedly supernatural abilities cannot keep it from being caught. It did not know that there is a wondrous state of “the spirit that is not spiritual.” The point is that relying on cleverness to escape misfortune is inferior to forgetting cleverness and thereby remaining free of trouble. The chapter then goes on to discuss how knowledge is sometimes of no use, and therefore…

The meaning of “use” can be clarified by comparing it with “meaning.” Here, “wandering” means letting the mind and spirit roam in calm detachment and stillness: an inward wandering of the mind. The preceding passages conveyed their ideas largely through parables; here, Zhuangzi states the chapter’s central theme directly: to free the student from the burdens imposed by external things and lead them into a state of stillness and openness. When the mind and spirit are at ease, one’s sense of purpose is untroubled, and one can go anywhere. This is close to the Dao (the Way).

As the world declines, people often wander where they should not, racing ahead like galloping horses until they tumble and fall, without turning back. Even if a sage appeared once more, it would be hard to save them. Some people enjoy traveling, but they merely treat rivers and seas as places of leisure and mountains and forests as scenic retreats, indulging in aimless wandering throughout their lives. Though they live in the world, their minds take crooked paths; they, too, cannot escape chasing after external things.

The text then teaches people to value their own lives and to keep the six roots—the six faculties of perception and understanding: ear, eye, nose, mouth, body, and mind—open and unobstructed. It also says that those who are conscious should prize stillness and openness. When the chamber of the mind is empty and still, light arises of itself. Wherever one may be, one can follow the natural course of things in “wandering in Heaven.” Thus, those who labor need not pursue ease at all costs, and those at ease need not concern themselves with those who labor. This is like the different levels represented by the gentleman, the worthy person, and the sage.

As for Yan Men, who sought an official title after being slandered, and Shentu, who fled from King Tang of Shang and drowned himself in a river, both were driven by the world’s esteem for extraordinary conduct. Later generations therefore made purity and self-restraint, along with deliberate self-cultivation, into their standards. Such conduct may have been intended to refine social customs and revive instruction, but its practitioners did not realize that it could harm life and damage customs. These examples are therefore presented as warnings for later generations.

To understand words through conduct is still to look at outward signs. Yet without guidance, one cannot see the moon. For this reason, the gentleman who sets forth teachings does not fear explaining them again and again; the student need only be skilled at grasping their essential point.