Lie Zi (列子)

子列子居鄭圃，四十年人無識者。國君卿大夫眎之，猶眾庶也。國不足，將嫁於衛。弟子曰：「先生往無反期，弟子敢有所謁，先生將何以教？先生不聞壺丘子林之言乎？」子列子笑曰：「壺子何言哉？雖然，夫子嘗語伯昏瞀人。吾側聞之，試以告女。其言曰：有生不生，有化不化。不生者能生生，不化者能化化。生者不能不生，化者不能不化。故常生常化。常生常化者，無時不生，無時不化。陰陽爾，四時爾，不生者疑獨，不化者往復。往復，其際不可終；疑獨，其道不可窮。《黃帝書》曰：『谷神不死，是謂玄牝。玄牝之門，是謂天地之根。綿綿若存，用之不勤。』故生物者不生，化物者不化。自生自化，自形自色，自智自力，自消自息。謂之生化形色智力消息者，非也。」

Liezi lived in Putian in the state of Zheng, and for forty years no one recognized him. The ruler, the ministers, and the grandees regarded him as they regarded the common people. When the state had a poor harvest, he prepared to move to the state of Wei. His disciples said: “Master, once you go there is no day of return. May your disciples venture to ask for instruction: what will you use to teach us? Has the Master not heard the words of Huqiu Zilin?” Liezi smiled and said: “What did Huzi say? Even so, my teacher once told Bohun Wuren, and I heard it standing beside him; let me try to tell you. His words were: there is that which gives life yet is not itself born, there is that which transforms yet is not itself transformed. The unborn can give birth to life, the untransformed can transform into change. What is born cannot but be born, and what is transformed cannot but be transformed. So there is constant birth and constant transformation. What is constantly born and constantly transformed is born at every moment and transformed at every moment. Yin and yang are like this, the four seasons are like this. The unborn stands alone in stillness, the untransformed goes and returns. In going and returning, its boundary cannot be ended; in standing alone, its Way (dao, the word Laozi used to refer to the origin of the myriad things and the manner of their operation, itself beyond description) cannot be exhausted. The Book of the Yellow Emperor says: ‘The spirit of the valley does not die; this is called the mysterious female (xuan pin, a figure for the void that can nevertheless bear the myriad things). The gate of the mysterious female is the root of heaven and earth. Continuous, as if existing, its use is never exhausted.’ So what gives life is not itself born, and what transforms is not itself transformed. It is itself born, itself transformed, itself has form, itself has color, itself has wisdom, itself has strength, itself wanes, itself waxes. To call these things birth, transformation, form, color, wisdom, strength, waning, and waxing is not correct.”

子列子曰：「昔者聖人因陰陽以統天地。夫有形者生於無形，則天地安從生？故曰：有太易，有太初，有太始，有太素。太易者，未見氣也；太初者，氣之始也；太始者，形之始也；太素者，質之始也。氣形質具而未相離，故曰渾淪。渾淪者，言萬物相渾淪而未相離也。視之不見，聽之不聞，循之不得，故曰易也。易無形埒，易變而為一，一變而為七，七變而為九。九變者，究也，乃復變而為一。一者，形變之始也。清輕者上為天，濁重者下為地，沖和氣者為人；故天地含精，萬物化生。」

Liezi said: “In the past the sages relied on yin and yang to govern heaven and earth. What has form is born from the formless, so where are heaven and earth born from? Therefore it is said: there is the Great Change, there is the Great Beginning, there is the Great Origin, and there is the Great Simplicity. The Great Change is when qi (the flowing stuff that makes up and runs through all things) is not yet seen; the Great Beginning is the start of qi; the Great Origin is the start of form; the Great Simplicity is the start of substance. When qi, form, and substance are all present but not yet separated from one another, it is called chaos. Chaos means that the myriad things are mixed together and not yet separated. Looked at, it cannot be seen; listened to, it cannot be heard; touched, it cannot be felt; so it is called change. Change has no form or boundary; change becomes one, one becomes seven, seven becomes nine. When the nine changes are exhausted, it changes back to one. One is the start of the changes of form. What is clear and light rises and becomes heaven, what is turbid and heavy sinks and becomes earth, and the harmonious qi in between becomes humans; thus heaven and earth hold essence, and the myriad things are born and transformed.”

子列子曰：「天地無全功，聖人無全能，萬物無全用。故天職生覆，地職形載，聖職教化，物職所宜。然則天有所短，地有所長，聖有所否，物有所通。何則？生覆者不能形載，形載者不能教化，教化者不能違所宜，宜定者不出所位。故天地之道，非陰則陽；聖人之教，非仁則義；萬物之宜，非柔則剛：此皆隨所宜而不能出所位者也。故有生者，有生生者；有形者，有形形者；有聲者，有聲聲者；有色者，有色色者；有味者，有味味者。生之所生者死矣，而生生者未嘗終；形之所形者實矣，而形形者未嘗有；聲之所聲者聞矣，而聲聲者未嘗發；色之所色者彰矣，而色色者未嘗顯；味之所味者嘗矣，而味味者未嘗呈：皆無為之職也。能陰能陽，能柔能剛，能短能長，能員能方，能生能死，能暑能涼，能浮能沈，能宮能商，能出能沒，能玄能黃，能甘能苦，能羶能香。無知也，無能也，而無不知也，而無不能也。」

Liezi said: “Heaven and earth have no complete achievement, the sage has no complete capacity, and the myriad things have no complete use. So Heaven’s function is to give birth and to cover, Earth’s function is to give form and to bear, the sage’s function is to teach and transform, and a thing’s function is to find what suits it. Then Heaven has what it lacks, Earth has what it excels in, the sage has what hinders him, and things have what they penetrate. Why? What gives birth and covers cannot give form and bear; what gives form and bears cannot teach and transform; what teaches and transforms cannot go against what is fitting; and what is fitting, once settled, cannot go beyond its place. So the Way of heaven and earth is either yin or yang; the teaching of the sage is either benevolence or righteousness; what suits the myriad things is either soft or hard: all follow what suits them and cannot go beyond their place. So whatever has life has something that makes it live; whatever has form has something that gives it form; whatever has sound has something that makes it sound; whatever has color has something that makes it colored; whatever has flavor has something that makes it flavored. What is born dies, yet that which makes it live has never ended; what has been formed takes shape, yet that which gives it form has never existed; the sound that is emitted is heard, yet that which makes it sound has never sounded; the color that is made is made plain, yet that which makes it colored has never appeared; the flavor that is made is tasted, yet that which makes it flavored has never been displayed; all this is the function of non-action (wu wei, not imposing one’s subjective will but letting things run according to their own nature, which does not mean doing nothing). It can be yin and can be yang, can be soft and can be hard, can be short and can be long, can be round and can be square, can live and can die, can be hot and can be cool, can float and can sink, can be the gong note and can be the shang note, can come forth and can vanish, can be black and can be yellow, can be sweet and can be bitter, can be rank and can be fragrant. It has no knowledge and no ability, and yet there is nothing it does not know and nothing it cannot do.”

子列子適衛，食於道，從者見百歲髑髏，攓蓬而指，顧謂弟子百豐曰：「唯予與彼知而未嘗生未嘗死也。此過養乎？此過歡乎？種有幾：若䵷為鶉，得水為㡭，得水土之際，則為䵷蠙之衣。生於陵屯，則為陵舄。陵舄得鬱棲，則為烏足。烏足之根為蠐螬，其葉為胡蝶。胡蝶胥也，化而為蟲，生灶下，其狀若脫，其名曰𪀊掇。𪀊掇千日，化而為鳥，其名曰乾餘骨。乾餘骨之沫為斯彌。斯彌為食醯頤輅。食醯頤輅生乎食醯黃軦，食醯黃軦生乎九猷。九猷生乎瞀芮，瞀芮生乎腐蠸。羊肝化為地皋，馬血之為轉鄰也，人血之為野火也。鷂之為鸇，鸇之為布穀，布穀久復為鷂也，鷰之為蛤也，田鼠之為鶉也，朽瓜之為魚也，老韭之為莧也，老羭之為猨也，魚卵之為蟲。亶爰之獸自孕而生曰類。河澤之鳥視而生曰鶂。純雌其名大𦝫，純雄其名稺蜂。思士不妻而感，思女不夫而孕。后稷生乎巨蹟，伊尹生乎空桑。厥昭生乎濕。醯雞生乎酒。羊奚比乎不筍。久竹生青寧，青寧生程，程生馬，馬生人。人久入於機。萬物皆出於機，皆入於機。」

Liezi went to the state of Wei and was eating by the roadside when his attendants saw a hundred-year-old skull; pushing aside the weeds, he pointed to it and, turning back, said to his disciple Baifeng: “Only you and I know that it has never been born and never died. Was it too lavishly nourished? Was it too joyful? Species change in several kinds of ways: the frog turns into a quail; when it gets water it turns into a water-lace plant; at the margin of water and earth it becomes the coat of frogs and snails. Born on high ground it becomes the plantain. The plantain, getting manure and soil, becomes the crow’s-foot. The roots of the crow’s-foot become grubs, and its leaves become butterflies. The butterfly soon turns again into an insect that lives under the stove, looking as if it had shed its skin, and is called the quduo. After a thousand days the quduo turns into a bird called the ganyugu. The froth of the ganyugu becomes the simi. The simi becomes the shixi yilu. The shixi yilu gives birth to the shixi huangshuang, and the shixi huangshuang gives birth to the jiuyou. The jiuyou gives birth to the maorui, and the maorui gives birth to the fuquan. The liver of a sheep turns into the diqi plant, the blood of a horse turns into the will-o’-the-wisp, and the blood of humans turns into wild fire. The sparrow hawk turns into the hawk, the hawk turns into the cuckoo, and after a long time the cuckoo turns back into the sparrow hawk; the swallow turns into the clam, the field mouse turns into the quail, a rotten melon turns into a fish, old chives turn into amaranth, an old ewe turns into a monkey, and fish roe turns into insects. The beast of Danyuan that conceives by itself and gives birth is called the lei. The birds of the river marshes that conceive by gazing at one another are called the yi. The all-female kind is named the dayi, and the all-male kind is named the zhifeng. A scholar who longs for a wife, without marrying, is moved by his longing; a woman who longs for a husband, without wedding, conceives. Houji was born from a giant’s footprint, and Yi Yin was born from a hollow mulberry tree. The jue zhao was born in damp places. The vinegar fly was born from wine. The yangxi plant grows together with bamboo that does not put out shoots. Old bamboo gives birth to the qingning, the qingning gives birth to the cheng, the cheng gives birth to the horse, and the horse gives birth to the human. After a long time the human goes back into the mechanism. The myriad things all come out of the mechanism and all return into the mechanism.”

《黃帝書》曰：「形動不生形而生影，聲動不生聲而生響，無動不生無而生有。」形，必終者也；天地終乎？與我偕終。終進乎？不知也。道終乎本無始，進乎本不久。有生則復於不生，有形則復於無形。不生者，非本不生者也；無形者，非本無形者也。生者，理之必終者也。終者不得不終，亦如生者之不得不生。而欲恆其生，畫其終，惑於數也。精神者，天之分；骨骸者，地之分。屬天清而散，屬地濁而聚。精神離形，各歸其真，故謂之鬼。鬼，歸也，歸其真宅。黃帝曰：「精神入其門，骨骸反其根，我尚何存？」

The Book of the Yellow Emperor says: “A moving form does not give birth to form but gives birth to a shadow; a moving sound does not give birth to sound but gives birth to an echo; a moving nothing does not give birth to nothing but gives birth to being.” Form is certain to come to an end; do heaven and earth end? They end together with me. After they end, what do they enter? I do not know. The Way ends in what originally had no beginning, and enters what was originally not long-lasting. What has life returns to non-life, what has form returns to formlessness. The unborn is not originally unborn; the formless is not originally formless. What is born must by principle come to an end. What ends cannot but end, just as what is born cannot but be born. Yet to wish for life to last forever and to draw a line against ending is to be deluded about the numbers of fate. The spirit is Heaven’s portion; the bones and body are Earth’s portion. What belongs to Heaven is clear and disperses; what belongs to Earth is turbid and gathers. When the spirit leaves the form, each returns to its true place, and so it is called a ghost (gui). A ghost is a returner (gui), returning to its true home. The Yellow Emperor said: “When the spirit enters its gate and the bones return to their root, what is there left of me?”

人自生至終，大化有四：嬰孩也，少壯也，老耄也，死亡也。其在嬰孩，氣專志一，和之至也；物不傷焉，德莫加焉。其在少壯，則血氣飄溢，欲慮充起；物所攻焉，德故衰焉。其在老耄，則欲慮柔焉；體將休焉，物莫先焉。雖未及嬰孩之全，方於少壯，間矣。其在死亡也，則之於息焉，反其極矣。

From birth to the end, a person goes through four great transformations: infancy, youth and prime, old age, and death. In infancy, qi is focused and the will is one, the utmost of harmony; things cannot harm it, and virtue (de, the capacity that the Way shows when it takes concrete form in things, not virtue in the ethical sense) has nothing more to add. In youth and prime, blood and qi overflow, and desires and anxieties surge up; things come to attack it, and for this reason virtue wanes. In old age, desires and anxieties soften; the body is about to rest, and nothing can get ahead of it. Though it cannot match the completeness of infancy, compared with youth and prime there is already a gap. When death comes, one heads toward rest and returns to the ultimate point.

孔子遊於太山，見榮啟期行乎郕之野，鹿裘帶索，鼓琴而歌。孔子問曰：「先生所以樂，何也？」對曰：「吾樂甚多：天生萬物，唯人為貴。而吾得為人，是一樂也。男女之別，男尊女卑，故以男為貴；吾既得為男矣，是二樂也。人生有不見日月、不免襁褓者，吾既己行年九十矣，是三樂也。貧者士之常也，死者人之終也，處常得終，當何憂哉？」孔子曰：「善乎！能自寬者也。」

Confucius was traveling on Mount Tai when he saw Rong Qiqi walking in the countryside of Cheng, wearing a deerskin coat tied with a rope, playing the zither and singing. Confucius asked: “Sir, what is the reason for your joy?” He replied: “I have many joys: Heaven gives birth to the myriad things, and only the human is most noble. And I have been able to be human; this is the first joy. Men and women are distinguished, and men are honored and women lowly, so being male is regarded as precious; I have already been able to be male; this is the second joy. Some people in life never see the sun and moon and never get out of swaddling clothes; I have already lived to ninety; this is the third joy. Poverty is the normal state of a scholar, and death is the end of humans; dwelling in the normal state and awaiting the end, what is there to worry about?” Confucius said: “Excellent! One who can console himself.”

林類年且百歲，底春被裘，拾遺穗於故畦，並歌並進。孔子適衛，望之於野。顧謂弟子曰：「彼叟可與言者，試往訊之！」子貢請行。逆之壠端，面之而歎曰：「先生曾不悔乎，而行歌拾穗？」林類行不留，歌不輟。子貢叩之不已，乃仰而應曰：「吾何悔邪？」子貢曰：「先生少不勤行，長不競時，老無妻子，死期將至，亦有何樂而拾穗行歌乎？」林類笑曰：「吾之所以為樂，人皆有之，而反以為憂。少不勤行，長不競時，故能壽若此。老無妻子，死期將至，故能樂若此。」子貢曰：「壽者人之情，死者人之惡。子以死為樂，何也？」林類曰：「死之與生，一往一反。故死於是者，安知不生於彼？故吾知其不相若矣。吾又安知營營而求生非惑乎？亦又安知吾今之死不愈昔之生乎？」子貢聞之，不喻其意，還以告夫子。夫子曰：「吾知其可與言，果然，然彼得之而不盡者也。」

Lin Lei was nearly a hundred years old; in late spring, wearing a fur coat, he gleaned fallen ears of grain in an old field, singing as he walked. Confucius, going to the state of Wei, saw him from the countryside. He turned and said to his disciples: “That old man is one one can talk with; try asking him!” Zigong asked to go. At the end of the field ridge he met him and, facing him, sighed and said: “Sir, do you really have no regret, singing as you walk and glean grain?” Lin Lei did not stop walking and did not pause his song. Zigong kept asking, and only then did he raise his head and answer: “What would I regret?” Zigong said: “In youth you were not diligent in your work, in maturity you did not compete for good fortune, in old age you have no wife, and death is near; what joy is there, that you glean grain and sing?” Lin Lei smiled and said: “What I take joy in everyone has, but they take it instead for a worry. I was not diligent in youth and did not compete in maturity, and so I could live to this age. I have no wife in old age and death is near, and so I can be this joyful.” Zigong said: “Long life is what people wish, and death is what people dislike. You take death as a joy; why?” Lin Lei said: “Death and life are one going and one returning. So how do we know that one who dies here is not born there? So I know the two sides do not match. And how do I know that restlessly seeking life is not a delusion? How do I know that my present death is not better than my former life?” Zigong heard this and did not understand his meaning, and came back and told the Master. The Master said: “I knew he was one one could talk with, and so it proved; but he has attained it without having said it all.”

子貢倦於學，告仲尼曰：「願有所息。」仲尼曰：「生無所息。」子貢曰：「然則賜息無所乎？」仲尼曰：「有焉耳。望其壙，睪如也，宰如也，墳如也，鬲如也，則知所息矣。」子貢曰：「大哉死乎！君子息焉，小人伏焉。」仲尼曰：「賜！汝知之矣。人胥知生之樂，未知生之苦；知老之憊，未知老之佚；知死之惡，未知死之息也。晏子曰：『善哉，古之有死也！仁者息焉，不仁者伏焉。』死也者，德之徼也。古者謂死人為歸人。夫言死人為歸人，則生人為行人矣。行而不知歸，失家者也。一人失家，一世非之；天下失家，莫知非焉。有人去鄉土、離六親、廢家業、遊於四方而不歸者，何人哉？世必謂之為狂蕩之人矣。又有人鍾賢世，矜巧能、脩名譽、誇張於世而不知已者，亦何人哉？世必以為智謀之士。此二者，胥失者也。而世與一不與一，唯聖人知所與，知所去。」

Zigong grew weary of study and told Zhongni: “I hope to have some rest.” Zhongni said: “Life has no place of rest.” Zigong said: “Then is there nowhere for Ci to rest?” Zhongni said: “There is. Look at that grave mound, high, cut like a slaughtered carcass, raised up, shaped like a cooking pot; there you will know the place of rest.” Zigong said: “How great death is! The superior person rests there, and the petty person lies prostrate there.” Zhongni said: “Ci! You have understood. People all know the joy of life but not its bitterness; they know the weariness of old age but not its ease; they know the ugliness of death but not its rest. Yanzi said: ‘Excellent, that there has been death since antiquity! The benevolent rest there, and the unbenevolent lie prostrate there.’ Death is the home of virtue. The ancients called the dead returners. Since the dead are called returners, the living are travelers. One who travels without knowing how to return is one who has lost his home. If one person loses his home, the whole age condemns him; if the whole world has lost its home, no one knows to condemn it. If someone leaves his native place, leaves his six kinds of kin, abandons his family property, and wanders the four quarters without returning, what sort of person is that? The people of the world will surely say that he is a wild and dissolute person. And if someone values the present age, boasts of his cleverness, cultivates his reputation, and exaggerates himself in the world without knowing when to stop, what sort of person is that? The people of the world will surely regard him as a person of wisdom and scheming. Both of these kinds of person are mistaken. The world approves of one and disapproves of the other; only the sage knows what to approve and what to discard.”

或謂子列子曰：「子奚貴虛？」列子曰：「虛者無貴也。」子列子曰：「非其名也，莫如靜，莫如虛。靜也虛也，得其居矣；取也與也，失其所矣。事之破䃣而後有舞仁義者，弗能復也。」

Someone said to Liezi: “Why do you value emptiness?” Liezi said: “Emptiness has nothing to be valued.” Liezi said further: “Rather than holding on to that name, it is better to be still, better to be empty. When still and empty, one finds a peaceful dwelling; when taking and giving, one loses one’s place. Those who play with benevolence and righteousness only after things have fallen into ruin cannot restore what was lost.”

粥熊曰：「運轉亡已，天地密移，疇覺之哉？故物損於彼者盈於此，成於此者虧於彼。損盈成虧，隨世隨死。往來相接，間不可省，疇覺之哉？凡一氣不頓進，一形不頓虧；亦不覺其成，亦不覺其虧。亦如人自世至老，貌色智態，亡日不異；皮膚爪髮，隨世隨落，非嬰孩時有停而不易也。間不可覺，俟至後知。」

Yu Xiong said: “Revolving does not stop, and heaven and earth shift in secret; who notices it? So a thing’s loss on that side is gain on this side, and what is completed here is diminished there. Loss and gain, completion and diminishment, go along with the ages and with death. Going and coming join one another so that the gaps cannot be seen; who notices? Generally, one qi does not suddenly increase and one form does not suddenly decrease; one does not feel it complete and one does not feel it diminish. It is also like a person from birth to old age, whose features, intelligence, and bearing are different every day; skin, nails, and hair fall off and are renewed over the ages, and are not fixed at infancy and never changing. The gaps cannot be perceived, and only later are they known.”

杞國有人憂天地崩墜，身亡所寄，廢寢食者；又有憂彼之所憂者，因往曉之，曰：「天，積氣耳，亡處亡氣。若屈伸呼吸，終日在天中行止，奈何憂崩墜乎？」其人曰：「天果積氣，日月星宿，不當墜耶？」曉之者曰：「日月星宿，亦積氣中之有光耀者；只使墜，亦不能有所中傷。」其人曰：「奈地壞何？」曉者曰：「地積塊耳，充塞四虛，亡處亡塊。若躇步跐蹈，終日在地上行止，奈何憂其壞？」其人舍然大喜，曉之者亦舍然大喜。長廬子聞而笑之曰：「虹蜺也，雲霧也，風雨也，四時也，此積氣之成乎天者也。山嶽也，河海也，金石也，火木也，此積形之成乎地者也。知積氣也，知積塊也，奚謂不壞？夫天地，空中之一細物，有中之最巨者。難終難窮，此固然矣；難測難識，此固然矣。憂其壞者，誠為大遠；言其不壞者，亦為未是。天地不得不壞，則會歸於壞。遇其壞時，奚為不憂哉？」子列子聞而笑曰：「言天地壞者亦謬，言天地不壞者亦謬。壞與不壞，吾所不能知也。雖然，彼一也，此一也。故生不知死，死不知生；來不知去，去不知來。壞與不壞，吾何容心哉？」

A man of the state of Qi worried that heaven and earth would collapse and he would have nowhere to lodge his body, and gave up sleeping and eating; another man worried about his worry, and went to enlighten him, saying: “Heaven is nothing but accumulated qi, and there is no place without qi. You bend and stretch, you breathe, all day you walk and stay in the heavens; why worry about it collapsing?” The man said: “If heaven is indeed accumulated qi, should the sun, moon, and stars not fall down?” The one enlightening him said: “The sun, moon, and stars are also luminous things within the accumulated qi; even if they fell, they could not strike or injure.” The man said: “What if the earth breaks apart?” The one enlightening him said: “The earth is nothing but accumulated clods, filling the four quarters, and there is no place without clods. You step and walk, all day you walk and stay on the earth; why worry about its breaking?” The man put his mind at ease and was greatly delighted, and the one enlightening him also put his mind at ease and was greatly delighted. Master Changlu heard of it and laughed, saying: “Rainbows, clouds and mist, wind and rain, the four seasons, these are formed by qi accumulated in the sky. Mountains, rivers and seas, metal and stone, fire and wood, these are formed by forms accumulated on the earth. Knowing that it is accumulated qi, and knowing that it is accumulated clods, how can one say they will not break? Heaven and earth are a tiny thing in the void, the greatest of things that have form. That it is hard to bring to an end and exhaust is certain; that it is hard to measure and know is also certain. To worry that it will break is very far off the mark; to say that it will not break is also wrong. Heaven and earth cannot but break, and in the end will return to breaking. When one meets the time of their breaking, why would one not worry?” Liezi heard of it and laughed, saying: “Those who say that heaven and earth will break are wrong, and those who say that heaven and earth will not break are also wrong. Breaking or not breaking is not something I can know. Even so, that is one and this is one. So the living do not know death, and the dead do not know life; the coming do not know going, and the going do not know coming. Breaking or not breaking, why should I put it in my heart?”

舜問乎烝曰：「道可得而有乎？」曰：「汝身非汝有也，汝何得有夫道？」舜曰：「吾身非吾有，孰有之哉？」曰：「是天地之委形也。生非汝有，是天地之委和也。性命非汝有，是天地之委順也。孫子非汝有，是天地之委蛻也。故行不知所往，處不知所持，食不知所以。天地強陽，氣也；又胡可得而有邪？」

Shun asked Cheng: “Can the Way be obtained and possessed?” He replied: “Your very body is not yours; how can you possess the Way?” Shun said: “My body is not mine; whose is it?” He replied: “It is a form entrusted by heaven and earth. Life is not yours; it is a harmony entrusted by heaven and earth. Your nature and fate are not yours; they are a compliance entrusted by heaven and earth. Your descendants are not yours; they are a shed skin entrusted by heaven and earth. So when you walk, you do not know where you are going; when you dwell, you do not know what you are holding; when you eat, you do not know what by. The vigorous movement of heaven and earth is nothing but qi; how then can you possess it?”

齊之國氏大富，宋之向氏大貧；自宋之齊，請其術。國氏告之曰：「吾善為盜。始吾為盜也，一年而給，二年而足，三年大穰。自此以往，施及州閭。」向氏大喜。喻其為盜之言，而不喻其為盜之道，遂踰垣鑿室，手目所及，亡不探也。未及時，以贓獲罪，沒其先居之財。向氏以國氏之謬己也，往而怨之。國氏曰：「若為盜若何？」向氏言其狀。國氏曰：「嘻！若失為盜之道至此乎？今將告若矣。吾聞天有時，地有利。吾盜天地之時利，雲雨之滂潤，山澤之產育，以生吾禾，殖吾稼，築吾垣，建吾舍。陸盜禽獸，水盜魚鼈，亡非盜也。夫禾稼、土木、禽獸、魚鼈，皆天之所生，豈吾之所有？然吾盜天而亡殃。夫金玉珍寶，穀帛財貨，人之所聚，豈天之所與？若盜之而獲罪，孰怨哉？」向氏大惑，以為國氏之重罔己也，過東郭先生問焉。東郭先生曰：「若一身庸非盜乎？盜陰陽之和以成若生，載若形，況外物而非盜哉？誠然，天地萬物不相離也；仞而有之，皆惑也。國氏之盜，公道也，故亡殃；若之盜，私心也，故得罪。有公私者，亦盜也；亡公私者，亦盜也。公公私私，天地之德。知天地之德者，孰為盜耶？孰為不盜耶？」

The Guo family of the state of Qi was very rich, while the Xiang family of the state of Song was very poor; Xiang went from Song to Qi to ask how to become rich. Guo told him: “I am good at being a thief. When I first began to steal, one year was enough for my needs, two years made me well off, and the third year I had a great harvest. After that I gave to the districts and neighborhoods.” Xiang was greatly delighted. He understood his words about stealing, but did not understand his way of stealing, and so he climbed walls and dug into rooms, taking everything his hands and eyes could reach. Before long, he was convicted for his stolen goods, and even the wealth he had earlier accumulated was confiscated. Xiang thought Guo had deceived him and went to complain. Guo said: “How did you go about stealing?” Xiang told him what he had done. Guo said: “Ah! Have you lost the way of stealing to this extent? Now let me tell you. I have heard that Heaven has its seasons and Earth has its benefits. I steal Heaven and Earth’s seasons and benefits, the moistening of clouds and rain, the produce of mountains and marshes, to grow my grain, plant my crops, build my walls, and raise my houses. On land I steal birds and beasts, in the water I steal fish and turtles; there is nothing that is not stealing. Grain, earth and timber, birds and beasts, fish and turtles are all born of Heaven; how could they be mine? Yet I steal from Heaven and have no calamity. Gold and jade, rare treasures, grain, silk, and goods are what people have gathered; how could Heaven have given them? You stole and were convicted; whom can you blame?” Xiang was greatly puzzled, thinking that Guo had deceived him again, so he went to ask Master Dongguo. Master Dongguo said: “Is not this whole body of yours stolen? You steal the harmony of yin and yang to form your life and bear your body, so how much more are outside things stolen? Indeed, heaven, earth, and the myriad things are not separate from one another; to take them as one’s own is all delusion. Guo’s stealing is public-spirited, and so it brings no calamity; your stealing is private-minded, and so you were convicted. To have public and private is also stealing; to have no public and private is also stealing. To treat as public what is public and as private what is private is the virtue of heaven and earth. For one who knows the virtue of heaven and earth, who is a thief? And who is not a thief?”

黃帝即位十有五年，喜天下戴己，養正命，娛耳目，供鼻口，焦然肌色皯黣，昏然五情爽惑。又十有五年，憂天下之不治，竭聰明，進智力，營百姓，焦然肌色皯黣，昏然五情爽惑。黃帝乃喟然讚曰：「朕之過淫矣。養一己其患如此，治萬物其患如此。」於是放萬機，舍宮寢，去直侍，徹鐘懸，減廚膳，退而閒居大庭之館，齋心服形，三月不親政事。晝寢而夢，遊於華胥氏之國。華胥氏之國在弇州之西，台州之北，不知斯齊國幾千萬裡，蓋非舟車足力之所及，神遊而已。其國無師長，自然而已。其民無嗜慾，自然而已。不知樂生，不知惡死，故無夭殤；不知親己，不知疏物，故無愛憎；不知背逆，不知向順，故無利害，都無所愛惜，都無所畏忌。入水不溺，入火不熱。斫撻無傷痛，指擿無痟癢。乘空如履實，寢虛若處床。雲霧不硋其視，雷霆不亂其聽，美惡不滑其心，山谷不躓其步，神行而已。黃帝既寤，怡然自得，召天老、力牧、太山稽，告之曰：「朕閒居三月，齋心服形，思有以養身治物之道，弗獲其術。疲而睡，所夢若此。今知至道不可以情求矣，朕知之矣，朕得之矣，而不能以告若矣！」又二十有八年，天下大治，幾若華胥氏之國，而帝登假。百姓號之，二百餘年不輟。

In the fifteenth year after the Yellow Emperor took the throne, he enjoyed having the whole world rally around him; he nourished his life, delighted his ears and eyes, and indulged his nose and mouth, yet his complexion grew sallow and dull, and his five feelings were dim and confused. Fifteen years more passed, and he worried that the world was not well governed; he used up all his intelligence, pushed his wit to the limit, and managed the people, and again his complexion grew sallow and dull, and his five feelings were dim and confused. The Yellow Emperor then sighed and said: "My fault is great. Taking care of one self brings such trouble, and governing the ten thousand things brings the same trouble." So he put aside the myriad affairs of state, left his palace and bedchamber, dismissed his attendants, took down the hanging bells, reduced his kitchen fare, and withdrew to live at leisure in the Great Courtyard Hall, fasting his mind and subduing his body, and for three months did not attend to government. One day, napping, he dreamed that he roamed in the country of the Huaxu clan. The country of Huaxu lay west of Yanzhou and north of Taizhou; no one knows how many tens of millions of li it was from the Central Kingdom, and it could not be reached by boat, cart or foot, but only by the roaming of the spirit. That country had no rulers; it simply went by nature (what is so of itself, as it is originally, not 'Nature' in the sense of the natural world). Its people had no cravings; they simply went by nature. They did not know to delight in life or to hate death, and so there were no early deaths; they did not know to be close to themselves or distant from things, and so there was neither love nor hatred; they did not know to go against or to follow, and so there was no gain or harm; all of them had nothing to cherish and nothing to fear. They entered water without drowning and entered fire without being burned. Being hacked and struck caused them no pain, and being poked or scratched gave them no soreness or itch. They rode the air as if treading on solid ground, and slept in emptiness as if on a bed. Clouds and mist did not obstruct their sight, thunder did not disturb their hearing, beauty and ugliness did not confuse their minds, and mountains and valleys did not trip their steps; it was only the spirit that moved. The Yellow Emperor awoke, content and pleased, and summoned Tianlao, Limu and Taishan Ji, and told them: "I lived at leisure for three months, fasting my mind and subduing my body, wishing to find the Way of nourishing the self and governing things, and I found no method. Tired, I fell asleep, and in the dream it was like this. Now I know that the Supreme Way cannot be sought through feeling. I know it, I have got it, but I cannot tell you!" Twenty-eight years more passed, and the world was well governed, almost like the country of Huaxu, and the Emperor ascended to heaven and departed. The people wailed for him, and did not stop for more than two hundred years.

列姑射山在海河洲中，山上有神人焉，吸風飲露，不食五穀；心如淵泉，形如處女；不偎不愛，仙聖為之臣；不畏不怒，願慤為之使；不施不惠，而物自足；不聚不歛，而己無愆。陰陽常調，日月常明，四時常若，風雨常均，字育常時，年穀常豐；而土無札傷，人無夭惡，物無疵厲，鬼無靈響焉。

Mount Gushe lies on an island in the river-sea, and on the mountain there dwell divine persons, who inhale the wind and drink the dew and do not eat the five grains. Their hearts are like deep springs and their forms like maidens. They show no closeness and no love, yet immortals and sages serve as their ministers; they show no majesty and no anger, yet the honest and sincere are at their command; they give no gifts and bestow no favors, yet things are abundant of themselves; they gather nothing and store nothing, yet they themselves have no lack. Yin and yang are always in harmony, the sun and moon always bright, the four seasons always orderly, wind and rain always even, births always on time, and the years' harvests always rich. The land suffers no harm, people do not die young or fall ill, things have no blemish or plague, and ghosts have no spirit-like response.

列子師老商氏，友伯高子，進二子之道，乘風而歸。尹生聞之，從列子居，數月不省舍。因閒請蘄其術者，十反而十不告。尹生懟而請辭，列子又不命。尹生退。數月，意不已，又往從之。列子曰：「汝何去來之頻？」尹生曰：「曩章戴有請於子，子不我告，固有憾於子。今復脫然，是以又來。」列子曰：「曩吾以汝為達，今汝之鄙至此乎？姬！將告汝所學於夫子者矣。自吾之事夫子友若人也，三年之後，心不敢念是非，口不敢言利害，始得夫子一眄而已。五年之後，心庚念是非，口庚言利害，夫子始一解顏而笑。七年之後，從心之所念，庚無是非；從口之所言，庚無利害，夫子始一引吾並席而坐。九年之後，橫心之所念，橫口之所言，亦不知我之是非利害歟，亦不知彼之是非利害歟，亦不知夫子之為我師、若人之為我友，內外進矣。而後眼如耳，耳如鼻，鼻如口，無不同也。心凝形釋，骨肉都融；不覺形之所倚，足之所履，隨風東西，猶木葉幹殼。竟不知風乘我邪？我乘風乎？今女居先生之門，曾未浹時，而懟憾者再三。女之片體將氣所不受，汝之一節將地所不載。履虛乘風，其可幾乎？」尹生甚怍，屏息良久，不敢復言。

Liezi studied under Master Laoshang and was a friend of Bogao Zi; having mastered the Way of these two, he returned riding on the wind. Yin Sheng heard of it and followed Liezi to live with him, and for several months did not go home to look in on his family. In his spare time he asked to learn Liezi's art, and he went ten times and was refused ten times. Yin Sheng grew resentful and asked to take leave, and Liezi did not detain him. Yin Sheng withdrew. After several months, his heart not at rest, he went again to follow him. Liezi said: "Why do you come and go so often?" Yin Sheng said: "Before, I made a request of you and you did not tell me, and I felt some resentment toward you. Now my mind is set free again, so I have come once more." Liezi said: "I used to think you were broad-minded; are you now so narrow as this? Wait! I will tell you what I learned from my master. Ever since I served my master and befriended that man, after three years my mind did not dare think of right and wrong and my mouth did not dare speak of gain and loss, and only then did my master glance at me, and no more. After five years, my mind began to think of right and wrong and my mouth began to speak of gain and loss, and only then did my master smile. After seven years, I let my mind think whatever it would, yet there was no right or wrong; I let my mouth say whatever it would, yet there was no gain or loss; and only then did my master pull me to sit beside him on the same mat. After nine years, I let my mind think freely and my mouth speak freely, and I did not know my own right and wrong or gain and loss, nor those of others, nor that my master was my teacher and that man was my friend; inside and outside were entirely gone. Then my eyes were like ears, my ears like nose, my nose like mouth, with no difference among them. My mind was concentrated, my form dissolved, my bones and flesh all melted; I did not feel my body leaning on anything or my feet treading on anything, but drifted east and west with the wind like a leaf or a dry husk. I truly did not know whether the wind was riding me, or I was riding the wind. Now you have lived at your teacher's gate for not even a double hour, and have grumbled again and again. Even a single piece of you the air will not accept, and even a single joint of you the earth will not bear. Do you still hope to tread on emptiness and ride the wind?" Yin Sheng was deeply ashamed, held his breath for a long time, and did not dare speak again.

列子問關尹曰：「至人潛行不空，蹈火不熱，行乎萬物之上而不慄。請問何以至於此？」關尹曰：「是純氣之守也，非智巧果敢之列。姬！魚語女。凡有貌像聲色者，皆物也。物與物何以相遠也？夫奚足以至乎先？是色而已。則物之造乎不形，而止乎無所化。夫得是而窮之者，焉得而正焉？彼將處乎不深之度，而藏乎無端之紀，遊乎萬物之所終始。壹其性，養其氣，含其德，以通乎物之所造。夫若是者，其天守全，其神無郤，物奚自入焉？夫醉者之墜於車也，雖疾不死。骨節與人同，而犯害與人異，其神全也。乘亦弗知也，墜亦弗知也。死生驚懼不入乎其胸，是故遌物而不慴。彼得全於酒而猶若是，而況得全於天乎？聖人藏於天，故物莫之能傷也。」

Liezi asked Guan Yin: "The Perfect Person can go underwater without choking, walk through fire without being hot, and walk above the ten thousand things without trembling. May I ask how one arrives at this?" Guan Yin said: "This is guarding the pure qi; it is not a matter of cleverness or daring. Wait! I will tell you. Whatever has form, appearance, sound or color is a thing. Between one thing and another, what makes them so very different? And how could that be enough to reach what comes first? It is no more than color. So things are made up to the formless and stop at what does not change. One who has attained this and exhausted it, how could he still be set straight by external things? He will dwell within measures that are not deep, hide within threads that have no beginning, and roam at the end and beginning of the ten thousand things. He concentrates his nature, nourishes his qi, and holds his virtue in reserve, in order to penetrate to where things are made. A person like this keeps his Heaven whole and his spirit without a crack; how could things enter him? A drunk man falls from a cart, and though he may be hurt, he does not die. His joints are the same as other people's, but the harm he receives is different, because his spirit is whole. He does not know he is riding, and does not know he has fallen. Fear of death and life does not enter his chest, so he does not fear when he strikes things. If he can obtain wholeness from wine to such an extent, how much more from Heaven? The sage is hidden in Heaven, and so things cannot harm him."

列禦寇為伯昏無人射，引之盈貫，措杯水其肘上，發之，鏑矢復沓，方矢復寓。當是時也，猶象人也。伯昏無人曰：「是射之射，非不射之射也。當與汝登高山，履危石，臨百仞之淵，若能射乎？」於是無人遂登高山，履危石，臨百仞之淵，背逡巡，足二分垂在外，揖禦寇而進之。禦寇伏地，汗流至踵。伯昏無人曰：「夫至人者，上闚青天，下潛黃泉，揮斥八極，神氣不變。今汝怵然有恂目之志，爾於中也殆矣夫！」

Lie Yukou was shooting for Bohun Wuren; he drew the bow full, set a cup of water on his elbow, and after he let fly, the arrowheads overlapped and a second arrow was already on the string. At that moment he was like a wooden figure. Bohun Wuren said: "This is a shot with an intending mind, not a shot without intending. Suppose I went up a high mountain with you, stood on a perilous rock, and looked down on a deep chasm of a hundred fathoms; could you still shoot?" Then Wuren climbed a high mountain, stood on a perilous rock overlooking a deep chasm of a hundred fathoms, and stepped backward until two-tenths of his feet hung out over the edge, and bowed to invite Yukou forward. Yukou lay prostrate on the ground, sweat running down to his heels. Bohun Wuren said: "The Perfect Person looks up to the blue sky above, dives into the Yellow Springs below, and moves freely to the eight limits, with no change in his spirit or breath. Now you are so frightened that your eyes are dazzled, and your chance of hitting the target is in danger!"

范氏有子曰子華，善養私名，舉國服之；有寵於晉君，不仕而居三卿之右。目所偏視，晉國爵之；口所偏肥，晉國黜之。遊其庭者侔於朝。子華使其俠客以智鄙相攻，彊弱相凌。雖傷破於前，不用介意。終日夜以此為戲樂，國殆成俗。禾生、子伯，范氏之上客，出行，經坰外，宿於田更商丘開之舍。中夜，禾生、子伯二人相與言子華之名勢，能使存者亡，亡者存；富者貧，貧者富。商丘開先窘於飢寒，潛於牖北聽之。因假糧荷畚之子華之門。子華之門徒皆世族也，縞衣乘軒，緩步闊視。顧見商丘開年老力弱，面目黎黑，衣冠不檢，莫不眲之。既而狎侮欺詒，攩㧙挨抌，亡所不為。商丘開常無慍容，而諸客之技單，憊於戲笑。遂與商丘開俱乘高臺，於眾中漫言曰：「有能自投下者賞百金。」眾皆競應。商丘開以為信然，遂先投下，形若飛鳥，揚於地，𩨒骨無䃣。范氏之黨以為偶然，未詎怪也，因復指河曲之淫隈曰：「彼中有寶珠，泳可得也。」商丘開復從而泳之。既出，果得珠焉。眾昉同疑。子華昉令豫肉食衣帛之次。俄而范氏之藏大火，子華曰：「若能入火取錦者，從所得多少賞若。」商丘開往無難色，入火往還，埃不漫，身不焦。范氏之黨以為有道，乃共謝之曰：「吾不知子之有道而誕子，吾不知子之神人而辱子。子其愚我也，子其聾我也，子其盲我也。敢問其道。」商丘開曰：「吾亡道。雖吾之心，亦不知所以。雖然，有一於此，試與子言之。曩子二客之宿吾舍也，聞譽范氏之勢，能使存者亡，亡者存；富者貧，貧者富。吾誠之無二心，故不遠而來。及來，以子黨之言皆實也，唯恐誠之之不至，行之之不及，不知形體之所措，利害之所存也。心一而已。物亡迕者，如斯而已。今昉知子黨之誕我，我內藏猜慮，外矜觀聽，追幸昔日之不焦溺也，怛然內熱，惕然震悸矣。水火豈復可近哉？

The Fan clan had a son named Zihua, who was good at building up a reputation through private connections, and all the state submitted to him. He was in favor with the lord of Jin, and though he held no office, his position stood above the three high ministers. Whomever his eyes favored, Jin would give rank to; whomever his mouth disparaged, Jin would dismiss. Those who frequented his courtyard were as many as at the court. Zihua let his knight-errant retainers attack each other, the clever against the dull, the strong against the weak. Even if someone was maimed before his eyes, he took no notice. Day and night he took this as amusement, and the state nearly adopted it as a custom. Hesheng and Zibo were honored guests of the Fan household, and on a trip through the countryside they lodged at the home of an old farmer, Shangqiu Kai. At midnight the two men talked of Zihua's fame and power, saying he could make the living perish and the perished live, the rich poor and the poor rich. Shangqiu Kai, who had been worn down by hunger and cold, hid north of the window and listened. Then he borrowed grain, shouldered a basket, and went to Zihua's gate. Zihua's disciples were all from hereditary families, wearing white and riding in carriages, walking slowly and looking about grandly. Seeing that Shangqiu Kai was old and weak, with a dark, weathered face and untidy clothes, none failed to look down on him. Afterward they mocked, cheated, shoved and beat him, leaving nothing undone. Shangqiu Kai often showed no anger, and when the guests had run out of tricks, they grew tired of playing with him. Then they climbed a high terrace together with Shangqiu Kai, and said offhandedly in front of everyone: "Whoever can jump down by himself will be rewarded a hundred pieces of gold." The crowd vied to second it. Shangqiu Kai thought it was real and jumped first, his form like a bird's, drifting down to the ground without any harm to his flesh or bones. The Fan clan's followers thought it was chance and were not much surprised; then they pointed to a deep bend of the river and said: "There is a precious pearl there; one can get it by diving." Shangqiu Kai again followed and swam down. When he came up, he had indeed got the pearl. Only then did the crowd begin to suspect something. Zihua then admitted him to the ranks of those who ate meat and wore silk. Before long a fire broke out in the Fan family's storehouse, and Zihua said: "Who can go into the fire and fetch the brocade? I will reward him according to what he gets." Shangqiu Kai went without any sign of difficulty, went in and out of the fire, and no dust clung to him and his body was not scorched. The Fan clan's followers thought he had the Way, and all apologized: "We did not know you had the Way and so deceived you; we did not know you were a divine person and so insulted you. You took us for fools, deaf men and blind men. May we ask about your Way?" Shangqiu Kai said: "I have no Way. I do not even know by what means my own mind works. Even so, there is one thing here, which I will try to tell you. Before, when you two guests stayed at my house, I heard you praising the power of the Fan clan, saying it could make the living perish and the perished live, the rich poor and the poor rich. I believed it without a second thought, and so I came from afar. After I arrived, I took all your followers' words as true, and feared only that my sincerity was not enough and my action did not reach, so that I did not know where I put my body or where gain and loss lay. My mind was simply single. Things did not oppose me, and that was all. Now that I know you deceived me, I carry suspicion and worry inside and look and listen outside, and when I think back on how fortunate I was not to be scorched or drowned before, I feel a feverish unease and a shuddering fear. How would I dare go near water and fire again?"

」自此之後，范氏門徒路遇乞兒馬醫，弗敢辱也，必下車而揖之。宰我聞之，以告仲尼。仲尼曰：「汝弗知乎？夫至信之人，可以感物也。動天地，感鬼神，橫六合，而無逆者，豈但履危險，入水火而已哉？商丘開信偽物猶不逆，況彼我皆誠哉？小子識之！」

From then on, when the Fan clan's followers met a beggar or a horse doctor on the road, they did not dare insult him, and always got down from their carriages and bowed. Zai Wo heard of it and told Zhongni. Zhongni said: "Do you not know? A person of perfect trust can move external things. He moves heaven and earth, touches ghosts and spirits, and crosses the six directions without opposition; how could it be merely treading on danger and entering water and fire? Shangqiu Kai trusted what was false and things still did not oppose him, so how much more when both sides are sincere? Remember this, young man!"

周宣王之牧正有役人梁鴦者，能養野禽獸，委食於園庭之內，雖虎狼鵰鶚之類，無不柔馴者。雄雌在前，孳尾成群，異類雜居，不相搏噬也。王慮其術終於其身，令毛丘園傳之。梁鴦曰：「鴦，賤役也，何術以告爾？懼王之謂隱於爾也，且一言我養虎之法。凡順之則喜，逆之則怒，此有血氣者之性也。然喜怒豈妄發哉？皆逆之所犯也。夫食虎者，不敢以生物與之，為其殺之之怒也；不敢以全物與之，為其碎之之怒也。時其飢飽，達其怒心。虎之與人異類，而媚養己者，順也；故其殺之，逆也。然則吾豈敢逆之使怒哉？亦不順之使喜也。夫喜之復也必怒，怒之復也常喜，皆不中也。今吾心無逆順者也，則鳥獸之視吾，猶其儕也。故遊吾園者，不思高林曠澤；寢吾庭者，不願深山幽谷，理使然也。」

King Xuan of Zhou's chief herdsman had a menial named Liang Yang, who could raise wild birds and beasts, throwing food to them within the garden courtyard, and even tigers, wolves, eagles and ospreys were all tame. Males and females paired in front of him and bred in groups, creatures of different kinds lived together and did not fight or devour each other. The king feared that this art would end with him alone, and sent Maoqiu Yuan to learn it. Liang Yang said: "I am a lowly servant; what art do I have to tell you? I only fear that the king will say I am hiding it from you, so let me say one thing about how I raise tigers. In general, those with blood and breath are pleased when you follow them and angry when you go against them; this is their nature. But is their pleasure and anger sent out at random? They are all provoked by being crossed. One who feeds tigers does not dare give them live prey, for fear that they will be angered by killing; he does not dare give them whole carcasses, for fear that they will be angered by tearing apart. He judges when they are hungry or full, and eases their angry hearts. Tigers are a different kind from humans, yet they are affectionate to the one who feeds them, because he goes along with them; when they would kill, it is because they were crossed. So how would I dare cross them and make them angry? Nor do I go along with them to make them pleased. The reverse of pleasure is surely anger, and the reverse of anger is often pleasure; neither hits the mark. Now my mind has neither crossing nor going along, so birds and beasts look at me as they would at their own companions. So those that roam in my garden do not long for tall forests and wide marshes, and those that sleep in my courtyard do not wish for deep mountains and hidden valleys; it is the principle that makes them so."

顏回問乎仲尼曰：「吾嘗濟乎觴深之淵矣，津人操舟若神。吾問焉，曰：『操舟可學邪？』曰：『可。能遊者可教也，善遊者數能。乃若夫沒人，則未嘗見舟而謖操之者也。』吾問焉，而不告。敢問何謂也？」仲尼曰：「𧮒！吾與若玩其文也久矣，而未達其實，而固且道與。能遊者可教也，輕水也；善遊者之數能也，忘水也。乃若夫沒人之未嘗見舟也而謖操之也，彼視淵若陵，視舟之覆猶其車卻也。覆卻萬物方陳乎前而不得入其舍。惡往而不暇？以瓦摳者巧，以鉤摳者憚，以黃金摳者惛。巧一也，而有所矜，則重外也。凡重外者拙內。」

Yan Hui asked Zhongni: "I once crossed the deep pool of Shang, and the ferryman handled the boat like a god. I asked: 'Can handling a boat be learned?' He said: 'It can. One who can swim can be taught; one who is good at swimming learns very quickly. As for one who can dive, even if he has never seen a boat, he can handle it at once.' I asked again, and he would not tell me. May I ask what this means?" Zhongni said: "Ah! I have played with its words with you for a long time but have not yet reached its substance, so let me say something. One who can swim can be taught because he takes water lightly; one who is good at swimming learns quickly because he has forgotten the water. As for one who can dive and handle a boat the first time he sees one, he regards the deep pool as a hill and the boat's capsizing as a cart rolling backward. Overturning and collapse of all things are laid out before his eyes, yet they cannot enter his mind. Where would he not be at ease? One who bets with tiles is skillful; one who bets with belt hooks is anxious; one who bets with gold is muddled. His skill is the same, but where he has something to hold dear, he values external things. Whoever values external things is clumsy within."

孔子觀於呂梁，懸水三十仞，流沫三十里，黿鼉魚鼈之所不能遊也，見一丈夫遊之，以為有苦而欲死者也，使弟子並流而承之。數百步而出，被髮行歌，而遊於棠行。孔子從而問之，曰：「呂梁懸水三十仞，流沫三十里，黿鼉魚鼈所不能遊。向吾見子道之，以為有苦而欲死者，使弟子並流將承子。子出而被髮行歌，吾以子為鬼也。察子，則人也。請問蹈水有道乎？」曰：「亡，吾無道。吾始乎故，長乎性，成乎命，與齎俱入，與汩偕出。從水之道而不為私焉，此吾所以道之也。」孔子曰：「何謂始乎故，長乎性，成乎命也？」曰：「吾生於陵而安於陵，故也；長於水而安於水，性也；不知吾所以然而然，命也。」

Confucius was looking out at Lüliang, where a waterfall hung thirty fathoms and the foam flowed thirty li; turtles, crocodiles, fish and terrapins could not swim in it. He saw a man swimming, and thinking he was suffering and wanted to die, he sent his disciples to follow the current and rescue him. After several hundred paces, the man came out, hair loose, singing as he walked along the bank of the pool. Confucius followed and asked: "At Lüliang the waterfall hangs thirty fathoms and the foam flows thirty li, and turtles, crocodiles, fish and terrapins cannot swim in it. Just now I saw you pass through it and thought you were suffering and wanted to die, so I sent my disciples to meet you downstream. You came out with your hair loose, singing, and I took you for a ghost. Looking closely, I see you are a person. May I ask whether there is a Way to treading water?" He said: "No, I have no Way. I began with what was given, grew up with my nature, and was completed by fate; I go in with the whirlpool and come out with the upwelling. I follow the Way of the water and do not make up a separate one for myself; this is how I can cross like this." Confucius said: "What do you mean by beginning with what was given, growing up with nature and being completed by fate?" He said: "I was born on high ground and am at ease on high ground; that is what was given. I grew up by the water and am at ease in water; that is nature. I do not know why I am so and yet I am so; that is fate."

仲尼適楚，出於林中，見痀僂者承蜩，猶掇之也。仲尼曰：「子巧乎！有道邪？」曰：「我有道也。五六月，纍垸二而不墜，則失者錙銖；纍三而不墜，則失者十一；纍五而不墜，猶掇之也。吾處也若橜株駒，吾執臂若槁木之枝，雖天地之大、萬物之多，而唯蜩翼之知。吾不反不側，不以萬物易蜩之翼，何為而不得？」孔子顧謂弟子曰：「用志不分，乃疑於神，其痀僂丈人之謂乎！」丈人曰：「汝逢衣徒也，亦何知問是乎？修汝所以，而後載言其上。」

Zhongni went to the state of Chu and came out of a forest, where he saw a hunchbacked old man catching cicadas with a sticky pole as if picking them up. Zhongni said: "How skillful you are! Is there a Way to it?" He said: "I have a Way. For five or six months, I stack two clay pellets on the pole without dropping them, and then I miss very few; when I stack three without dropping them, I miss only one in ten; when I stack five without dropping them, it is like picking them up. I stand like a broken tree stump, and I raise my arm like a withered branch. Though heaven and earth are vast and the ten thousand things many, I know only the cicada's wings. I do not turn or lean, and I will not exchange the ten thousand things for the cicada's wings; how could I fail to get it?" Confucius turned to his disciples and said: "When the mind is not divided, it comes close to the divine; this must be what is said of this hunchbacked old man!" The old man said: "You are Confucians in wide-sleeved robes; what do you understand of asking about this? First perfect your own skill, and then set your words upon it."

海上之人有好漚鳥者，每旦之海上，從漚鳥遊，漚鳥之至者百住而不止。其父曰：「吾聞漚鳥皆從汝遊，汝取來，吾玩之。」明日之海上，漚鳥舞而不下也。故曰：至言去言，至為無為。齊智之所知，則淺矣。

By the sea there was a man who loved gulls, and every morning he went to the sea and roamed with the gulls, and the gulls that came numbered in the hundreds and never stopped. His father said: "I hear that the gulls all roam with you; catch some and bring them to me to play with." The next day he went to the sea, and the gulls circled and did not come down. So it is said: perfect speech drops speech, and perfect action is non-action. To level things by what wisdom knows is shallow.

趙襄子率徒十萬狩於中山，藉芿燔林，扇赫百里。有一人從石壁中出，隨煙燼上下。眾謂鬼物。火過，徐行而出，若無所經涉者。襄子怪而留之。徐而察之，形色七竅，人也；氣息音聲，人也。問：「奚道而處石？奚道而入火？」其人曰：「奚物而謂石？奚物而謂火？」襄子曰：「而嚮之所出者，石也；而嚮之所涉者，火也。」其人曰：「不知也。」魏文侯聞之，問子夏曰：「彼何人哉？」子夏曰：「以商所聞夫子之言，和者大同於物，物無得傷閡者，遊金石，蹈水火，皆可也。」文侯曰：「吾子奚不為之？」子夏曰：「刳心去智，商未之能。雖然，試語之有暇矣。」文侯曰：「夫子奚不為之？」子夏曰：「夫子能之而能不為者也。」文侯大說。

Zhao Xiangzi led a hundred thousand followers hunting at Zhongshan, trampling the wild grass and burning the forest, so that the fire blazed for a hundred li. A man came out from the stone cliff and moved up and down with the smoke and embers. The crowd said he was a ghost. When the fire had passed, he slowly walked out as if nothing had happened. Xiangzi found this strange and detained him. Examining him slowly, his form, color and seven openings were those of a person, and his breath and voice were those of a person. He asked: "By what Way do you live in stone? By what Way do you enter fire?" The man said: "What is it you call stone? What is it you call fire?" Xiangzi said: "The place you came out of just now was stone; what you walked through was fire." The man said: "I do not know." Marquis Wen of Wei heard of it and asked Zixia: "What kind of person is that?" Zixia said: "From what I, Shang, have heard of the Master's words, one who is in harmony is largely the same as things, and things cannot harm or separate him; he can roam through metal and stone and tread water and fire." Marquis Wen said: "Why do you not do this?" Zixia said: "To hollow out the mind and drop knowledge, Shang cannot yet do. Even so, I have spare time to try to speak of it." Marquis Wen said: "Why does the Master not do this?" Zixia said: "The Master can do it, but is able not to." Marquis Wen was greatly pleased.

有神巫自齊來處於鄭，命曰季咸，知人死生、存亡、禍福、壽夭，期以歲、月、旬、日，如神。鄭人見之，皆避而走。列子見之而心醉，而歸以告壺丘子，曰：「始吾以夫子之道為至矣，則又有至焉者矣。」壺子曰：「吾與汝無其文，未既其實，而固得道與？眾雌而無雄，而又奚卵焉？而以道與世抗，必信矣。夫故使人得而相汝。嘗試與來，以予示之。」明日，列子與之見壺子。出而謂列子曰：「譆！子之先生死矣，弗活矣，不可以旬數矣。吾見怪焉，見濕灰焉。」列子入，涕泣霑衿，以告壺子。壺子曰：「向吾示之以地文，罪乎不誫不止，是殆見吾杜德幾也。嘗又與來！」明日，又與之見壺子。出而謂列子曰：「幸矣，子之先生遇我也，有瘳矣。灰然有生矣，吾見杜權矣。」列子入告壺子。壺子曰：「向吾示之以天壤，名實不入，而機發於踵，此為杜權。是殆見吾善者幾也。嘗又與來！」明日，又與之見壺子。出而謂列子曰：「子之先生坐不齋，吾無得而相焉。試齋，將且復相之。」列子入告壺子。壺子曰：「向吾示之以太沖莫眹，是殆見吾衡氣幾也。鯢旋之潘為淵，止水之潘為淵，流水之潘為淵，濫水之潘為淵，沃水之潘為淵，氿水之潘為淵，雍水之潘為淵，汧水之潘為淵，肥水之潘為淵，是為九淵焉。嘗又與來！」明日，又與之見壺子。立未定，自失而走。壺子曰：「追之！」列子追之而不及，反以報壺子，曰：「已滅矣，已失矣，吾不及也。」壺子曰：「向吾示之以未始出吾宗。吾與之虛而猗移，不知其誰何，因以為茅靡，因以為波流，故逃也。」然後列子自以為未始學而歸，三年不出，為其妻爨，食狶如食人，於事無親，雕瑑復樸，塊然獨以其形立，㤋然而封戎，壹以是終。

A divine shaman came from Qi and lived in Zheng, named Jixian, who could know people's life and death, survival and ruin, fortune and misfortune, and long or short life, predicting down to the year, month, ten-day period and day, like a god. The people of Zheng avoided him when they saw him. Liezi saw him and his heart was intoxicated; he came back and told Huzi: "At first I thought the Master's Way was supreme, but there is one even more supreme." Huzi said: "I have shown you only its outward form, not its substance, and you suppose you have attained the Way? Many hens and no rooster, where would the eggs come from? You set the Way against the world, so it is sure to show; thus you let people read your face. Try bringing him, and let him see me." The next day, Liezi brought him to see Huzi. When he came out he said to Liezi: "Alas! Your teacher is dying; he cannot live, he will not last ten days. I saw something strange; I saw wet ashes." Liezi went in and wept, his tears wetting his clothes, and told Huzi. Huzi said: "Just now I showed him the pattern of earth, still and unmoving, not stirring and not stopping; probably he saw the faint stirrings of my blocked-up vitality. Bring him again!" The next day he brought him to see Huzi again. When he came out he said to Liezi: "How fortunate that your teacher met me; he is improving. There seems to be life in the ashes; I saw the stirring of change within the blockage." Liezi went in and told Huzi. Huzi said: "Just now I showed him the Heaven-and-Earth: names and realities do not enter, and the spring of movement comes from the heels; this is called change within the blockage. Probably he saw the faint stirring of my goodness. Bring him again!" The next day he brought him to see Huzi again. When he came out he said to Liezi: "Your teacher sits unevenly; I cannot read his face. Try fasting a while, and then I will read it again." Liezi went in and told Huzi. Huzi said: "Just now I showed him the Great Emptiness, with no sign at all; probably he saw the faint stirrings of my balanced qi. Where whirling fish make water gather into a deep pool, where still water gathers into a deep pool, where flowing water gathers into a deep pool, where overflowing water gathers into a deep pool, where pouring water gathers into a deep pool, where side-springing water gathers into a deep pool, where dammed water gathers into a deep pool, where seeping water gathers into a deep pool, where fertile water gathers into a deep pool: these are the nine pools. Bring him again!" The next day he brought him to see Huzi again. Before he had even stood still, Jixian lost color and fled. Huzi said: "Chase him!" Liezi could not catch him, and came back to report to Huzi: "He has already vanished, he is lost, I could not overtake him." Huzi said: "Just now I showed him what has never yet come out of my source. I followed along with him in emptiness and meandering, and he did not know who or what I was, and so he seemed like grass blown flat, like the flowing of waves, and so he fled." After that Liezi decided that he had not yet begun to learn, went home and did not go out for three years, cooked for his wife, fed pigs as if serving people, showed no favoritism in any affair, and after carving and polishing returned to the uncarved block (the raw, unworked state of the material, not the adjective 'plain'). He stood alone like a clod, only with his own form, and mingled in confusion with the world, and keeping to this single course he ended his life.

子列子之齊，中道而反，遇伯昏瞀人。伯昏瞀人曰：「奚方而反？」曰：「吾驚焉。」「惡乎驚？」「吾食於十漿，而五漿先饋。」伯昏瞀人曰：「若是，則汝何為驚己？」曰：「夫內誠不解，形諜成光，以外鎮人心，使人輕乎貴老，而𩐎其所患。夫漿人特為食羹之貨，多餘之贏；其為利也薄，其為權也輕，而猶若是。而況萬乘之主，身勞於國，而智盡於事；彼將任我以事，而效我以功，吾是以驚。」伯昏瞀人曰：「善哉觀乎！汝處己，人將保汝矣。」無幾何而往，則戶外之屨滿矣。伯昏瞀人北面而立，敦杖蹙之乎頤。立有閒，不言而出。賓者以告列子。列子提履徒跣而走，暨乎門，問曰：「先生既來，曾不廢藥乎？」曰：「已矣。吾固告汝曰，人將保汝，果保汝矣。非汝能使人保汝，而汝不能使人無汝保也。而焉用之感也？感豫出異。且必有感也，搖而本身，又無謂也。與汝遊者，莫汝告也。彼所小言，盡人毒也。莫覺莫悟，何相孰也。」

Liezi went to Qi, and turned back halfway, meeting Bohun Maoren. Bohun Maoren said: "Why have you turned back halfway?" He said: "I was startled." "What startled you?" "I ate at ten soup-sellers' stalls, and at five of them my bowl was served first." Bohun Maoren said: "If so, why were you startled yourself?" He said: "My inner sincerity has not yet dissolved, and its traces leak out as light; I overawe people's minds with outward show, and so make them take honor and age lightly, and so I only bring out my own trouble. The sellers merely trade in soups and broths, and make a little profit above cost; their gain is thin and their power slight, and yet it is like this. How much more for the lord of ten thousand chariots, who wears out his body for the state and exhausts his wit for affairs? He will entrust matters to me and use accomplishments to audit me, and so I was startled." Bohun Maoren said: "You observe well! If you conduct yourself like this, people will come to rely on you." Before long he went again, and the shoes outside the door were already piled up. Bohun Maoren stood facing north with his staff propped under his chin. He stood for a while, and left without a word. The attendant told Liezi. Liezi, carrying his shoes and barefoot, ran to the door and asked: "Since you have come, Master, will you not leave a word of medicine for me?" He said: "Enough. I told you before that people would come to rely on you, and now they do. It is not that you can make people rely on you, but that you cannot keep people from relying on you. What need have you to summon them? What you summon is only something conspicuous. Moreover, there is sure to be something you move, and it shakes your own root, which has no point. Those who keep company with you have not told you these things. Their petty words are all poison that harms people. If you do not awaken, how will you ever know each other?"

楊朱南之沛，老聃西遊於秦，邀於郊。至梁而遇老子。老子中道仰天而歎曰：「始以汝為可教，今不可教也。」楊朱不答。至舍，進涫漱巾櫛，脫履戶外，膝行而前，曰：「曏者夫子仰天而歎曰：『始以汝為可教，今不可教。』弟子欲請夫子辭，行不閒，是以不敢。今夫子閒矣，請問其過。」老子曰：「而睢睢而盱盱，而誰與居？大白若辱，盛德若不足。」楊朱蹵然變容曰：「敬聞命矣。」其往也，舍迎將家，公執席，妻執巾櫛；舍者避席，煬者避灶。其反也，舍者與之爭席矣。

Yang Zhu went south to Pei, and Laozi traveled west to Qin, and they arranged to meet in the countryside. Yang Zhu met Laozi at Liang. On the road, Laozi looked up at the sky and sighed: "At first I thought you could be taught, but now you cannot." Yang Zhu did not answer. When they reached the lodging, he brought water for washing the face, a towel and a comb, left his shoes outside the door, and knelt, advancing on his knees, saying: "Just now the Master looked up to heaven and sighed: 'At first I thought you could be taught, but now you cannot.' Your disciple wished to ask about the Master's words, but we were walking with no leisure, so I did not dare. Now that the Master is at leisure, please tell me my fault." Laozi said: "You look about with a staring, glaring gaze; who would live with you? Great purity seems like soiling, and abundant virtue seems like insufficiency." Yang Zhu changed countenance in alarm and said: "I respectfully accept your instruction." When he arrived, the innkeeper welcomed him with the whole household, the host bringing the mat and his wife the towel and comb; fellow lodgers gave up their mats, and those at the fire gave up the stove. When he returned, the fellow lodgers were already arguing with him over mats.

楊朱過宋，東之於逆旅。逆旅人有妾二人，其一人美，其一人惡，惡者貴而美者賤。楊子問其故。逆旅小子對曰：「其美者自美，吾不知其美也；其惡者自惡，吾不知其惡也。」楊子曰：「弟子記之！行賢而去自賢之行，安往而不愛哉？」

Yang Zhu passed through Song, and in the east he stayed at an inn. The innkeeper had two concubines, one beautiful and one ugly; the ugly one was valued and the beautiful one slighted. Yang Zi asked the reason. A young servant at the inn replied: "The beautiful one considers herself beautiful, and I do not see her beauty; the ugly one considers herself ugly, and I do not see her ugliness." Yang Zi said: "Remember this, disciples! Do worthy deeds and drop the trace of thinking oneself worthy, and where would you not be loved?"

天下有常勝之道，有不常勝之道。常勝之道曰柔，常不勝之道曰彊。二者亦知，而人未之知。故上古之言：彊，先不己若者；柔，先出於己者。先不己若者，至於若己，則殆矣。先出於己者，亡所殆矣。以此勝一身若徒，以此任天下若徒，謂不勝而自勝，不任而自任也。粥子曰：「欲剛，必以柔守之；欲彊，必以弱保之。積於柔必剛，積於弱必彊。觀其所積，以知禍福之鄉。彊勝不若己，至於若己者剛；柔勝出於己者，其力不可量。」老聃曰：「兵彊則滅，木彊則折。柔弱者生之徒，堅彊者死之徒。」

Under heaven there is a Way that always wins, and a Way that does not always win. The Way that always wins is called softness, and the Way that does not always win is called strength. People know both of these, yet still do not understand them. So an ancient saying goes: strength is first dealing with those weaker than oneself; softness is first dealing with those stronger than oneself. One who first deals with those weaker than himself is in danger when the other becomes his equal. One who first deals with those stronger than himself is not in danger. Using this to prevail over oneself, one treats oneself like a servant; using this to take on the world, one treats the world like a servant. This is called winning without seeking to win and taking on without seeking to take on. Master Yu said: "If you want to be hard, you must guard it with softness; if you want to be strong, you must keep it with weakness. Accumulating softness will surely become hard, and accumulating weakness will surely become strong. Look at what someone accumulates, and you know the direction of his fortune and misfortune. Strength that overcomes those weaker than itself breaks when the other becomes its equal; softness that overcomes those stronger than itself has power that cannot be measured." Laozi said: "A strong army is destroyed, and a strong tree is broken. Softness and weakness belong to the class of life, hardness and strength to the class of death."

狀不必童而智童，智不必童而狀童。聖人取童智而遺童狀，眾人近童狀而疏童智。狀與我童者，近而愛之；狀與我異者，疏而畏之。有七尺之骸，手足之異，戴髮含齒，倚而趣者，謂之人，而人未必無獸心。雖有獸心，以狀而見親矣。傅翼戴角，分牙布爪，仰飛伏走，謂之禽獸，而禽獸未必無人心。雖有人心，以狀而見疏矣。庖犧氏、女媧氏、神農氏、夏后氏，蛇身人面，牛首虎鼻，此有非人之狀，而有大聖之德。夏桀、殷紂、魯桓、楚穆，狀貌七竅，皆同於人，而有禽獸之心。而眾人守一狀以求至智，未可幾也。黃帝與炎帝戰於阪泉之野，帥熊、羆、狼、豹、貙、虎為前驅，鵰、鶡、鷹、鳶為旗幟，此以力使禽獸者也。堯使夔典樂，擊石拊石，百獸率舞；《簫韶》九成，鳳皇來儀，此以聲致禽獸者也。然則禽獸之心，奚為異人？形音與人異，而不知接之之道焉。聖人無所不知，無所不通，故得引而使之焉。禽獸之智有自然與人童者，其齊欲攝生，亦不假智於人也。牝牡相偶，母子相親；避平依險，違寒就溫；居則有群，行則有列；小者居內，壯者居外；飲則相攜，食則鳴群。太古之時，則與人同處，與人並行。帝王之時，始驚駭散亂矣。逮於末世，隱伏逃竄，以避患害。今東方介氏之國，其國人數數解六畜之語者，蓋偏知之所得。太古神聖之人，備知萬物情態，悉解異類音聲。會而聚之，訓而受之，同於人民。故先民會鬼神魑魅，次達八方人民，末聚禽獸蟲蛾。言血氣之類心智不殊遠也。神聖知其如此，故其所教訓者無所遺逸焉。

Shapes and looks need not be alike for wisdom to be alike, and wisdom need not be alike for shapes and looks to be alike. The sage takes the same wisdom and discards the same appearance; ordinary people draw near to the same appearance and keep distant from the same wisdom. Those whose appearance is like mine are close and loved; those whose appearance is unlike mine are distant and feared. Beings with a seven-foot frame, with differentiated hands and feet, hair on the head and teeth in the mouth, who walk upright, are called humans, but humans do not necessarily lack the heart of beasts. Even if they have the heart of beasts, they are drawn near because of their appearance. Beings with wings and horns, with teeth and claws displayed, who fly overhead or walk on the ground, are called birds and beasts, but birds and beasts do not necessarily lack a human heart. Even if they have a human heart, they are kept at a distance because of their appearance. Fu Xi, Nuwa, Shennong and the Lord of Xia had snake bodies and human faces, ox heads and tiger snouts; they had non-human appearance, yet possessed the virtue of great sages. Jie of Xia, Zhou of Yin, Duke Huan of Lu and King Mu of Chu had appearance and seven openings the same as humans, yet had the hearts of birds and beasts. For ordinary people to hold to one kind of appearance and seek perfect wisdom is not something to hope for. The Yellow Emperor fought Yan Emperor in the wilds of Banquan, leading bears, brown bears, wolves, leopards, chu and tigers as his vanguard, and eagles, pheasants, hawks and kites as his banners; this was using force to make birds and beasts serve. Yao had Kui take charge of music, striking and tapping the stone chimes, and the hundred beasts led one another in dancing; at the ninth movement of the Xiaoshao, phoenixes came to dance in attendance; this was using sound to draw in birds and beasts. So why should the hearts of birds and beasts be different from the human heart? Their form and voice differ from ours, and we do not know the way to communicate with them. The sage knows everything and penetrates everything, and so can draw them in and employ them. Some of the wisdom of birds and beasts is by nature the same as that of humans; they too wish to preserve their lives and do not lend their wisdom to humans. Males and females pair, mothers and children are close; they avoid flat ground to rely on steep places, avoid cold to approach warmth; when they stay, they have herds, and when they travel, they have lines; the young are inside and the strong outside; when they drink, they lead each other, and when they eat, they call to each other and form groups. In remote antiquity they lived with humans and walked beside them. By the time of emperors and kings, they were startled and scattered. By the last age, they hid and fled to avoid harm. Now in the eastern country of the Jie clan, the people can often understand the speech of the six domestic animals; this is probably a partial knowledge obtained. The divine sages of remote antiquity knew fully the conditions of the ten thousand things and could understand the sounds of different kinds. They gathered them together, taught them and were obeyed, as with human people. So the earliest ones could meet ghosts, spirits and goblins, next reached the people of the eight directions, and last gathered birds, beasts, insects and moths. This is to say that the minds and wits of beings with blood and breath are not far apart. The divine sages knew this, so what they taught left nothing out.

宋有狙公者，愛狙，養之成群，能解狙之意，狙亦得公之心。損其家口，充狙之慾。俄而匱焉，將限其食。恐眾狙之不馴於己也，先誑之曰：「與若芧，朝三而暮四，足乎？」眾狙皆起而怒。俄而曰：「與若芧，朝四而暮三，足乎？」眾狙皆伏而喜。物之以能鄙相籠，皆猶此也。聖人以智籠群愚，亦猶狙公之以智籠眾狙也。名實不虧，使其喜怒哉！

In the state of Song there was a monkey keeper who loved monkeys and raised a flock of them; he could understand the monkeys' meaning, and the monkeys also understood his heart. He cut down the rations of his own household to satisfy the monkeys' appetites. Before long he ran short and was about to limit their food. Fearing the monkeys would not obey him, he first deceived them: "I will give you chestnuts, three in the morning and four in the evening; is that enough?" All the monkeys jumped up in anger. A moment later he said: "I will give you chestnuts, four in the morning and three in the evening; is that enough?" All the monkeys lay down and were pleased. This is how the able and the base use things to bring each other under control. The sage uses wisdom to bring the crowd of fools under control just as the monkey keeper used wisdom to manage the monkeys. In name and reality nothing was lost, yet he could make them pleased or angry!

紀渻子為周宣王養鬭雞，十日而問：「雞可鬭已乎？」曰：「未也，方虛驕而恃氣。」十日又問。曰：「未也，猶應影嚮。」十日又問。曰：「未也，猶疾視而盛氣。」十日又問。曰：「幾矣。雞雖有鳴者，已無變矣，望之似木雞矣，其德全矣。異雞無敢應者，反走耳。」

Ji Xingzi was raising fighting cocks for King Xuan of Zhou, and after ten days the king asked: "Is the cock ready to fight?" He said: "Not yet; it is still empty and arrogant and relies on its spirit." After ten days the king asked again. He said: "Not yet; it still responds to shadows and echoes." After ten days the king asked again. He said: "Not yet; it still glares and is full of spirit." After ten days the king asked again. He said: "It is nearly there. Even if another cock crows, it no longer changes; looking at it, it is like a wooden cock, and its virtue is whole. No other cock dares to answer it, and they turn and run."

惠盎見宋康王。康王蹀足謦欬，疾言曰：「寡人之所說者，勇有力也，不說為仁義者也。客將何以教寡人？」惠盎對曰：「臣有道於此，使人雖勇，刺之不入；雖有力，擊之弗中。大王獨無意邪？」宋王曰：「善。此寡人之所欲聞也。」惠盎曰：「夫刺之不入，擊之不中，此猶辱也。臣有道於此，使人雖有勇，弗敢刺；雖有力，弗敢擊。夫弗敢，非無其志也。臣有道於此，使人本無其志也。夫無其志也，未有愛利之心也。臣有道於此，使天下丈夫女子莫不驩然皆欲愛利之。此其賢於勇有力也，四累之上也。大王獨無意邪？」宋王曰：「此寡人之所欲得也。」惠盎對曰：「孔墨是已。孔丘墨翟無地而為君，無官而為長，天下丈夫女子莫不延頸舉踵而願安利之。今大王，萬乘之主也，誠有其志，則四竟之內皆得其利矣，其賢於孔墨也遠矣。」宋王無以應。惠盎趨而出。宋王謂左右曰：「辯矣，客之以說服寡人也！」

Hui Ang went to see King Kang of Song. King Kang stamped his foot and coughed, and said hastily: "What I like is courage and strength; I do not like people who practice benevolence and righteousness. What will the guest teach me?" Hui Ang replied: "I have a Way here which can make a person, however brave, unable to stab in; however strong, unable to strike home. Does Your Majesty have no interest in it?" The King of Song said: "Good. This is just what I want to hear." Hui Ang said: "Being unable to stab in or strike home is still being humiliated. I have a Way here which can make a person, however brave, not dare to stab; however strong, not dare to strike. Not daring is not the same as lacking the intention. I have a Way here which can make a person lack that intention altogether. Lacking that intention, he still lacks a heart of love and benefit. I have a Way here which can make all men and women under heaven joyfully wish to love and benefit him. This is four levels above courage, strength and worth. Does Your Majesty have no interest in it?" The King of Song said: "This is what I wish to obtain." Hui Ang replied: "Confucius and Mozi were like this. Confucius and Mo Di had no land yet were rulers, had no office yet were leaders, and all men and women under heaven stretched their necks and stood on tiptoe hoping to be given peace and benefit by them. Now Your Majesty is lord of ten thousand chariots; if you truly have this aspiration, then all within your four borders will gain benefit, and you will be far more worthy than Confucius and Mozi." The King of Song had nothing to answer. Hui Ang hurried out. The King of Song said to those at his side: "How well he argues; the guest has subdued me with his speech!"

周穆王時，西極之國有化人來，入水火，貫金石；反山川，移城邑；乘虛不墜，觸實不硋。千變萬化，不可窮極。既已變物之形，又且易人之慮。穆王敬之若神，事之若君。推路寢以居之，引三牲以進之，選女樂以娛之。化人以為王之宮室卑陋而不可處，王之廚饌腥螻而不可饗，王之嬪御羶惡而不可親。穆王乃為之改築。土木之功，赭堊之色，無遺巧焉。五府為虛，而臺始成。其高千仞，臨終南之上，號曰中天之臺。簡鄭衛之處子娥媌靡曼者，施芳澤，正娥眉，設笄珥，衣阿錫，曳齊紈。粉白黛黑，珮玉環。雜芷若以滿之，奏《承雲》《六瑩》《九韶》《晨露》以樂之。月月獻玉衣，旦旦薦玉食。化人猶不捨然，不得已而臨之。居亡幾何，謁王同遊。王執化人之袪，騰而上者，中天迺止。暨及化人之宮，化人之宮構以金銀，絡以珠玉，出雲雨之上，而不知下之據，望之若屯雲焉。耳目所觀聽，鼻口所納嘗，皆非人間之有。王實以為清都、紫微、鈞天、廣樂，帝之所居。王俯而視之，其宮榭若累塊積蘇焉。王自以居數十年不思其國也。化人復謁王同遊，所及之處，仰不見日月，俯不見河海。光影所照，王目眩不能得視；音響所來，王耳亂不能得聽。百骸六藏，悸而不凝。意迷精喪，請化人求還。化人移之，王若殞虛焉。既寤，所坐猶嚮者之處，侍御猶嚮者之人。視其前，則酒未清，餚未昲。王問所從來，左右曰：「王默存耳。」由此穆王自失者三月而復，更問化人。化人曰：「吾與王神遊也，形奚動哉？且曩之所居，奚異王之宮？曩之所遊，奚異王之圃？王閒恆有，疑蹔亡。變化之極，徐疾之間，可盡模哉？」王大悅。不恤國事，不樂臣妾，肆意遠遊。命駕八駿之乘，右服𧄪騮而左綠耳，右驂赤驥而左白𣚘，主車則造父為御，𧮼𠱛為右；

In the time of King Mu of Zhou, a conjuring man came from a country at the far west, who entered water and fire and passed through metal and stone; he turned mountains and rivers upside down and moved cities; he rode the air without falling and touched solid things without being blocked. His thousand changes and ten thousand transformations could not be exhausted. He had already changed the forms of things, and then altered people's thoughts. King Mu revered him like a god and served him like a lord. He gave up his own sleeping hall for him to live in, offered him the three sacrificial meats, and chose female musicians to entertain him. The conjuror thought the king's palaces were mean and not fit to live in, the king's kitchen dishes rank and not fit to eat, and the king's consorts and attendants foul-smelling and not fit to approach. King Mu then rebuilt for him. The work of earth and timber, the colors of ochre and white plaster, left no craft unused. The five treasuries were emptied before the terrace was finished. It was a thousand fathoms high, rising above the Zhongnan Mountains, and was called the Terrace of Middle Heaven. He selected girls of Zheng and Wei, beautiful and soft, perfumed them with fragrant oils, shaped their eyebrows, set out hairpins and earrings, dressed them in fine silks and trailing white Qi silk, with powdered white faces and darkened brows and jade rings at their belts. Fragrant herbs were mixed and spread to fill the place, and the Chengyun, Liuying, Jiushao and Chenlu music was played to delight him. Each month they offered him jade robes and each day jade food. The conjuror was still not at ease, and visited only because he had no choice. After he had stayed a short while, he invited the king to travel with him. The king held the conjuror's sleeve and they rose into the air, and did not stop until they reached the middle of heaven. When they arrived at the conjuror's palace, it was built of gold and silver and strung with pearls and jade, rising above the clouds and rain, and no one knew what it rested on; seen from afar it looked like a gathering of clouds. What the eyes and ears saw and heard and what the nose and mouth took in and tasted were nothing found in the human world. The king truly believed these were the Pure Capital, the Purple Subtlety, the Level Heaven and the Wide Music, the dwelling place of the Lord on High. The king looked down and saw his own palaces and pavilions like piles of clods and straw. The king thought he had lived there for dozens of years and did not think of his own country. The conjuror again invited the king to travel, and in the places they reached he could see no sun or moon above and no rivers or seas below. Where the light and shadows shone, the king's eyes were dazzled and he could not look; where sounds came from, the king's ears were confused and he could not listen. His hundred bones and six organs throbbed and would not settle. His mind was lost and his essence gone, and he begged the conjuror to take him back. The conjuror shifted him, and the king felt as if he fell from empty space. When he awoke, he was sitting in the same place as before, and the attendants were the same as before. Looking before him, the wine had not yet cleared and the dishes had not yet dried. The king asked where he had come from, and those at his side said: "The king has only been sitting in silence." From then on King Mu was dazed for three months before he recovered, and he asked the conjuror again. The conjuror said: "The king and I roamed in spirit; did our bodies move? And what difference was there between the place where you stayed before and the king's palace? What difference between where we roamed and the king's garden? The king is used to what is constantly there and doubts what is briefly lost. At the extreme of transformation, between slow and fast, can it be fully imitated?" The king was greatly pleased. He no longer cared for affairs of state or enjoyed his ministers and concubines, and roamed far at will. He ordered a team of eight steeds to be harnessed, Hualiu on the right and Lu'er on the left of the shaft, Chiji as the right outrider and Baixi as the left, with Zaofu driving the royal carriage and Taibing as the spearman on its right;

次車之乘，右服渠黃而左踰輪，左驂盜驪而右山子，柏夭主車，參百為御，奔戎為右。馳驅千里，至於巨蒐氏之國。巨蒐氏乃獻白鵠之血以飲王，具牛馬之湩以洗王之足，及二乘之人。已飲而行，遂宿於崑崙之阿，赤水之陽。別日升於崑崙之丘，以觀黃帝之宮，而封之以詒後世。遂賓於西王母，觴於瑤池之上。西王母為王謠，王和之，其辭哀焉。西觀日之所入。一日行萬裡。王乃歎曰：「於乎！予一人不盈於德而諧於樂，後世其追數吾過乎！」穆王幾神人哉！能窮當身之樂，猶百年乃徂，世以為登假焉。

(The account continued:) The second carriage was drawn by Quhuang on the right and Yulun on the left, with Daoli as left outrider and Shanzi as right outrider, Boyao driving the carriage, Cansan Bai attending, and Benrong as spearman. They galloped a thousand li and arrived at the country of the Jusou clan. The Jusou clan offered the king the blood of white swans to drink, and prepared the milk of oxen and horses to wash the king's feet and those of the men in the two carriages. After drinking, they set out and lodged at the foot of Kunlun, on the south bank of the Red River. On another day they climbed the hill of Kunlun and viewed the palace of the Yellow Emperor, which they sealed up and left for later generations. Then he became a guest of the Queen Mother of the West and drank wine with her at the Jasper Pool. The Queen Mother sang a ballad for the king, and the king answered it, in very sorrowful words. Looking west, he saw where the sun sets. He traveled ten thousand li in a day. The king then sighed and said: "Alas! I, a single man, am not full in virtue and yet am at ease in pleasure; later generations will probably count up my faults!" King Mu was almost a divine person! He was able to exhaust the pleasures of his own life, and he lived to a hundred years before departing, and people of the world thought he ascended to heaven.

老成子學幻於尹文先生，三年不告。老成子請其過而求退。尹文先生揖而進之於室，屏左右而與之言曰：「昔老聃之徂西也，顧而告予曰：『有生之氣，有形之狀，盡幻也。造化之所始，陰陽之所變者，謂之生，謂之死。窮數達變，因形移易者，謂之化，謂之幻。造物者其巧妙，其功深，固難窮難終。因形者其巧顯，其功淺，故隨起隨滅。知幻化之不異生死也，始可與學幻矣。』吾與汝亦幻也，奚須學哉？」老成子歸，用尹文先生之言，深思三月，遂能存亡自在，憣校四時，冬起雷，夏造冰；飛者走，走者飛，終身不箸其術，故世莫傳焉。子列子曰：「善為化者，其道密庸，其功同人。五帝之德，三王之功，未必盡智勇之力，或由化而成。孰測之哉？」

Lao Chengzi studied the art of illusion with Master Yin Wen, and for three years Yin Wen did not tell him anything. Lao Chengzi asked what his fault was and begged leave to go. Master Yin Wen bowed and invited him into the inner room, dismissed his attendants, and said to him: "Before, when Laozi went west, he turned back and told me: 'The breath that has life and the form that has shape are all illusion. What the Creator begins and what yin and yang transform is called birth and called death. Those who exhaust the numbers of qi and penetrate transformation, changing according to form, are called transformation and called illusion. The Creator is skillful and his work is deep, and so is hard to exhaust and hard to finish. The skill shown in form is shallow in work, and so arises and vanishes together. Knowing that illusory transformation is no different from life and death, one may then learn illusion.' You and I are also illusion; why should we learn it?" Lao Chengzi went back and pondered Master Yin Wen's words for three months, and then could be present or absent at will, reverse the four seasons, raise thunder in winter and make ice in summer; make flyers walk and walkers fly. All his life he did not record that art, and so it was not handed down in the world. Liezi said: "For one who is good at transformation, his Way is secret and ordinary, and his work is the same as people's. The virtue of the Five Emperors and the achievements of the Three Kings were not necessarily all exhausted by the power of wisdom and courage; perhaps they were accomplished through transformation. Who can measure it?"

覺有八徵，夢有六候。奚謂八徵？一曰故，二曰為，三曰得，四曰喪，五曰哀，六曰樂，七曰生，八曰死。此者八徵，形所接也。奚謂六候？一曰正夢，二曰蘁夢，三曰思夢，四曰寤夢，五曰喜夢，六曰懼夢。此六者，神所交也。不識感變之所起者，事至則惑其所由然；識感變之所起者，事至則知其所由然。知其所由然，則無所怛。一體之盈虛消息，皆通於天地，應於物類。故陰氣壯，則夢涉大水而恐懼；陽氣壯，則夢涉大火而燔焫；陰陽俱壯，則夢生殺。甚飽則夢與，甚饑則夢取。是以以浮虛為疾者，則夢揚；以沈實為疾者，則夢溺；藉帶而寢則夢蛇，飛鳥銜髮則夢飛；將陰夢火，將疾夢食；飲酒者憂，歌儛者哭。子列子曰：「神遇為夢，形接為事。故晝想夜夢，神形所遇。故神凝者想夢自消。信覺不語，信夢不達，物化之往來者也。古之真人，其覺自忘，其寢不夢，幾虛語哉？」

Waking has eight kinds of signs, and dreaming has six kinds of omens. What are the eight signs? The first is cause, the second is action, the third is gain, the fourth is loss, the fifth is sorrow, the sixth is joy, the seventh is birth, and the eighth is death. These eight signs are what the body comes into contact with. What are the six indications? The first is the regular dream, the second is the nightmare, the third is the dream of thought, the fourth is the dream of waking, the fifth is the dream of joy, and the sixth is the dream of fear. These six are what the spirit meets. One who does not know where a stirring of change arises is bewildered when events come, wondering why they are so; one who knows where it arises, when events come, knows why they are so. Knowing why, there is nothing to fear. The fullness and emptiness, waxing and waning of the body all connect with heaven and earth and respond to the kinds of things. So when yin qi is strong, one dreams of wading through great water and feels fear; when yang qi is strong, one dreams of walking through great fire and being burned; when yin and yang are both strong, one dreams of life and killing. When very full, one dreams of giving; when very hungry, one dreams of taking. Hence those whose illness is floating and empty dream of rising up; those whose illness is heavy and sinking dream of being submerged; sleeping with a belt under one dreams of snakes; when a flying bird holds hair in its beak, one dreams of flying; when about to feel cold, one dreams of fire; when about to fall ill, one dreams of eating; one who drinks wine grieves, and one who sings and dances weeps. Liezi said: "When spirits meet, it is a dream; when forms touch, it is an event. So what one thinks by day and dreams by night is the meeting of spirit and form. Therefore for those whose spirit is concentrated, idle thoughts and dreams vanish of themselves. Those who are certain of waking do not speak, and those who are certain of dreaming are not enlightened; this is the coming and going of the transformation of things. The true persons of old forgot themselves when awake and had no dreams when asleep; how could that be empty talk?""

西極之南隅有國焉，不知境界之所接，名古莽之國。陰陽之氣所不交，故寒暑亡辨；日月之光所不照，故晝夜亡辨。其民不食不衣而多眠。五旬一覺，以夢中所為者實，覺之所見者妄。四海之齊謂中央之國，跨河南北，越岱東西，萬有餘裡。其陰陽之審度，故一寒一暑；昏明之分察，故一晝一夜。其民有智有愚。萬物滋殖，才藝多方。有君臣相臨，禮法相持。其所云為不可稱計。一覺一寐，以為覺之所為者實，夢之所見者妄。東極之北隅有國曰阜落之國。其土氣常燠，日月餘光之照。其土不生嘉苗。其民食草根木實，不知火食，性剛悍，彊弱相藉，貴勝而不尚義；多馳步，少休息，常覺而不眠。

There is a country in the southern corner of the far west, whose boundaries are not known to adjoin anywhere; it is called the Land of Gumang. The qi of yin and yang do not meet there, so there is no distinction between cold and heat; the light of sun and moon does not shine together, so there is no distinction between day and night. The people there neither eat nor wear clothes and sleep a great deal. They awake once every fifty days, take what they did in dreams to be real and what they saw while awake to be false. In the center of the four seas lies what is called the Central Land, spanning north and south of the Yellow River and east and west of Mount Dai, over ten thousand li. There yin and yang are clearly and carefully measured, so there is one cold and one hot season; dusk and dawn are clearly separated, so there is one day and one night. The people there are wise and foolish. The myriad things multiply, and talents and skills are many. There are rulers and ministers presiding over each other, and rites and laws holding each other in check. What they do and say cannot be counted. They awake and sleep, and consider what they do awake to be real and what they see in dreams to be false. In the northern corner of the far east there is a country called the Land of Fuluo. The air of the earth there is always hot, lit by the residual light of the sun and moon. The land does not grow good crops. The people eat roots and fruits of trees, and do not know how to use fire to cook food; their nature is fierce and violent, the strong and weak overpower one another, they value victory and do not esteem righteousness; they run about a great deal and rest little, and are often awake and do not sleep."

周之尹氏大治產，其下趣役者侵晨昏而弗息。有老役夫筋力竭矣，而使之彌勤。晝則呻呼而即事，夜則昏憊而熟寐。精神荒散，昔昔夢為國君，居人民之上，總一國之事，遊燕宮觀，恣意所欲，其樂無比，覺則復役。人有慰喻其懃者，役夫曰：「人生百年，晝夜各分。吾晝為僕虜，苦則苦矣；夜為人君，其樂無比，何所怨哉？」尹氏心營世事，慮鍾家業，心形俱疲，夜亦昏憊而寐，昔昔夢為人僕，趨走作役，無不為也；數罵杖撻，無不至也。眠中啽囈呻呼，徹旦息焉。尹氏病之，以訪其友。友曰：「若位足榮身，資財有餘，勝人遠矣。夜夢為僕，苦逸之復，數之常也。若欲覺夢兼之，豈可得邪？」尹氏聞其友言，寬其役夫之程，減己思慮之事，疾並少間。

A certain Mr. Yin of Zhou greatly managed his estate, and the laborers who served him got no rest from dawn to dusk. There was an old laborer whose strength was already exhausted, yet he was worked even harder. By day he groaned as he worked; at night he slept deeply, worn out. His spirit scattered, and every night he dreamed he was a ruler, set above the people, in charge of all the affairs of a state, feasting and roaming in palaces and pavilions, doing as he pleased, with unmatched joy; then he awoke and served again. Someone consoled him about his hard toil, and the laborer said: "A person lives a hundred years, half by day and half by night. By day I am a servant and slave; it is bitter, to be sure. By night I am a ruler of men, with unmatched joy; what is there to resent?" Mr. Yin, in his heart, devoted himself to worldly affairs and concentrated his thoughts on the family estate, so that mind and body were both worn out; at night he too slept deeply from exhaustion, and every night he dreamed he was another's servant, running about and laboring, with no task he did not do; scolding and beating reached him with nothing spared. In his sleep he talked in a daze and groaned, and stopped only at dawn. Mr. Yin took this as an illness and went to ask a friend. The friend said: "Your position is quite enough to bring you honor, and your wealth has a surplus, far beyond others. At night you dream you are a servant; the cycle of bitterness and ease is the constant pattern of the fated order. If you want to have both waking and dreaming in your favor, could that possibly be had?" Mr. Yin, hearing his friend's words, relaxed the workload of his laborers and reduced the matters he brooded over, and his illness grew a little better."

鄭人有薪於野者，偶駭鹿，御而擊之，斃之。恐人見之也，遽而藏諸隍中，覆之以蕉，不勝其喜。俄而遺其所藏之處，遂以為夢焉，順塗而詠其事。傍人有聞者，用其言而取之。既歸，告其室人曰：「向薪者夢得鹿而不知其處，吾今得之，彼直真夢矣。」室人曰：「若將是夢見薪者之得鹿邪？詎有薪者邪？今真得鹿，是若之夢真邪？」夫曰：「吾據得鹿，何用知彼夢我夢邪？」薪者之歸，不厭失鹿。其夜真夢藏之之處，又夢得之之主。爽旦，案所夢而尋得之，遂訟而爭之，歸之士師。士師曰：「若初真得鹿，妄謂之夢；真夢得鹿，妄謂之實。彼真取若鹿，而與若爭鹿。室人又謂夢仞人鹿，無人得鹿。今據有此鹿，請二分之。」以聞鄭君。鄭君曰：「嘻！士師將復夢分人鹿乎？」訪之國相。國相曰：「夢與不夢，臣所不能辨也。欲辨覺夢，唯黃帝孔丘。今亡黃帝孔丘，孰辨之哉？且恂士師之言可也。」

A man in the state of Zheng was cutting firewood in the wilds and happened to startle a deer; he met it and struck it dead. Afraid someone might see, he hurriedly hid it in a dry ditch and covered it with banana leaves, overjoyed beyond measure. After a while he forgot where he had hidden it, and so took it to have been a dream, and chanted the affair as he went along the road. Someone beside the road overheard and took the deer according to his words. He went home and told his wife: "Just now a woodcutter dreamed he got a deer but did not know where; now I have it, so his was a true dream." His wife said: "Perhaps you dreamed of a woodcutter getting a deer? Where is there really a woodcutter? Now that you really have the deer, is it your dream that is real?" The husband said: "I already have the deer; why need I know whether it was he who dreamed or I?" The woodcutter went home, unwilling to accept the loss of his deer. That night he truly dreamed of the hiding place, and also dreamed of the man who got the deer. At dawn he went looking according to the dream and found him, and so they went to law and brought the case to the judge. The judge said: "At first you really got the deer and falsely called it a dream; you really dreamed of getting a deer and falsely called it real. He really took your deer, yet contends with you over the deer. His wife also says he dreamed of another's deer, so no one got a deer. Now that this deer is in hand, please divide it equally." This was reported to the lord of Zheng. The lord of Zheng said: "Ah! Is the judge now going to dream about dividing another man's deer?" He asked the chief minister. The chief minister said: "Whether it was a dream or not, your servant cannot distinguish. To distinguish waking from dreaming, only the Yellow Emperor and Confucius could. Now there is no Yellow Emperor or Confucius, so who is to distinguish? Let us simply trust the judge's words.""

宋陽裡華子中年病忘，朝取而夕忘，夕與而朝忘；在塗則忘行，在室則忘坐；今不識先，後不識今。闔室毒之，謁史而卜之，弗占；謁巫而禱之，弗禁；謁醫而攻之，弗已。魯有儒生自媒能治之，華子之妻子以居產之半請其方。儒生曰：「此固非卦兆之所占，非祈請之所禱，非藥石之所攻。吾試化其心，變其慮，庶幾其瘳乎！」於是試露之，而求衣；飢之，而求食；幽之，而求明。儒生欣然告其子曰：「疾可已也。然吾之方密，傳世不以告人。試屏左右，獨與居室七日。」從之，莫知其所施為也，而積年之疾一朝都除。華子既悟，迺大怒，黜妻罰子，操戈逐儒生。宋人執而問其以，華子曰：「曩吾忘也，蕩蕩然不覺天地之有無。今頓識既往，數十年來存亡、得失、哀樂、好惡，擾擾萬緒起矣。吾恐將來之存亡、得失、哀樂、好惡之亂吾心如此也，須臾之忘，可復得乎？」子貢聞而怪之，以告孔子。孔子曰：「此非汝所及乎！」顧謂顏回紀之。

Huazi of Yangli in the state of Song fell ill with forgetfulness in middle age: he forgot in the evening what he took in the morning, and in the morning what he gave in the evening; on the road he forgot to walk, and in the house he forgot to sit; now he did not recognize what came before, and later he would not recognize the present. His whole family suffered from it; they asked the court diviner to cast lots, and it did not work; they asked a shaman to pray, and it could not be stopped; they asked a doctor to treat him, and it did not cease. A Confucian scholar of the state of Lu presented himself as able to cure him, and Huazi's wife and children offered half their property for his remedy. The scholar said: "This is not something divination can foretell, prayer can seek, or medicines and stone needles can attack. Let me try to change his mind and alter his thoughts; perhaps he can be cured!" Then he tried making him go bare, and he asked for clothes; made him hungry, and he asked for food; left him in the dark, and he asked for light. The scholar was pleased and told his son: "The illness can be stopped. But my remedy is secret and has been passed down without being told to anyone. Let us try sending away the attendants and staying alone with him in a room for seven days." They agreed, and no one knew what he did, but the illness of years was cleared in a single morning. When Huazi came to his senses, however, he was furiously angry; he drove out his wife and punished his son, and took a spear and chased the scholar. The people of Song seized him and asked the reason, and Huazi said: "Formerly I forgot, vast and empty, not sensing whether heaven and earth existed. Now suddenly I recognize the past, and the myriad threads of decades of survival and loss, gain and loss, sorrow and joy, liking and disliking come tumbling up in confusion. I fear that the future's survival and loss, gain and loss, sorrow and joy, liking and disliking will disturb my mind like this; could I ever again get even a moment of forgetting?" Zigong heard of it and thought it strange, and told Confucius. Confucius said: "This is beyond what you can reach!" Turning, he had Yan Hui record it."

秦人逢氏有子，少而惠，及壯而有迷罔之疾，聞歌以為哭，視白以為黑，饗香以為朽，嘗甘以為苦，行非以為是；意之所之，天地、四方，水火、寒暑，無不倒錯者焉。楊氏告其父曰：「魯之君子多術藝，將能已乎？汝奚不訪焉？」其父之魯，過陳，遇老聃，因告其子之證。老聃曰：「汝庸知汝子之迷乎？今天下之人皆惑於是非，昏於利害。同疾者多，固莫有覺者。且一身之迷不足傾一家，一家之迷不足傾一鄉，一鄉之迷不足傾一國，一國之迷不足傾天下。天下盡迷，孰傾之哉？向使天下之人其心盡如汝子，汝則反迷矣。哀樂、聲色、臭味、是非，孰能正之？且吾之此言未必非迷，而況魯之君子迷之郵者，焉能解人之迷哉？榮汝之糧，不若遄歸也。」

A man named Feng of the state of Qin had a son who was clever and bright in youth, but in adulthood fell ill with delusion: hearing singing, he took it for weeping; seeing white, he took it for black; smelling fragrance, he took it for rot; tasting sweetness, he took it for bitterness; doing wrong, he took it for right; wherever his thoughts reached, heaven and earth, the four directions, water and fire, cold and heat, all were inverted. A man named Yang told his father: "The gentlemen of Lu have many arts; perhaps they can cure him. Why do you not go and ask?" The father went to Lu, and passing through Chen, met Lao Dan, and told him his son's symptoms. Lao Dan said: "How do you know your son is deluded? Now everyone in the world is confused about right and wrong and dazed by profit and harm. Those who share the sickness are many, and there are none who awaken. Moreover, one person's delusion cannot overturn a family, one family's delusion cannot overturn a village, one village's delusion cannot overturn a state, and one state's delusion cannot overturn the world. If the whole world is deluded, who is overturning whom? Suppose everyone's mind in the world were like your son's; then it is you who would be deluded. Sorrow and joy, sound and color, smell and taste, right and wrong, who can set them straight? Moreover, my words here may not be free of delusion either, still less the gentlemen of Lu, who are the most deluded of all; how could they resolve another's delusion? Take your provisions and go home quickly instead.""

燕人生於燕，長於楚，及老而還本國。過晉國，同行者誑之，指城曰：「此燕國之城。」其人愀然變容。指社曰：「此若裡之社。」乃喟然而歎。指舍曰：「此若先人之廬。」乃涓然而泣。指壠曰：「此若先人之冢。」其人哭不自禁。同行者啞然大笑，曰：「予昔紿若，此晉國耳。」其人大慙。及至燕，真見燕國之城社，真見先人之廬冢，悲心更微。

A man of Yan was born in Yan and grew up in Chu, and when he grew old he returned to his own country. Passing through the state of Jin, his companions deceived him, pointing to a city and saying: "This is the city of Yan." The man's face changed in sorrow. Pointing to an earth altar, they said: "This is the altar of your village." He sighed deeply. Pointing to a house, they said: "This is your ancestors' hut." He wept in streams. Pointing to a grave, they said: "This is your ancestors' tomb." The man wept so that he could not control himself. His companions burst out laughing and said: "I was deceiving you just now; this is only Jin." The man was deeply ashamed. When he reached Yan, and truly saw the city and altars of Yan, truly saw his ancestors' huts and tombs, his sorrow was instead much fainter."

仲尼閒居，子貢入侍，而有憂色。子貢不敢問，出告顏回，顏回援琴而歌。孔子聞之，果召回入，問曰：「若奚獨樂？」回曰：「夫子奚獨憂？」孔子曰：「先言爾志。」曰：「吾昔聞之夫子曰：『樂天知命故不憂。』回所以樂也。」孔子愀然有閒，曰：「有是言哉？汝之意失矣。此吾昔日之言爾，請以今言為正也。汝徒知樂天知命之無憂，未知樂天知命有憂之大也。今告若其實：修一身，任窮達，知去來之非我，亡變亂於心慮，爾之所謂樂天知命之無憂也。曩吾修《詩》《書》，正禮樂，將以治天下，遺來世，非但修一身，治魯國而已，而魯之君臣日失其序，仁義益衰，情性益薄。此道不行一國與當年，其如天下與來世矣？吾始知《詩》《書》、禮樂無救於治亂，而未知所以革之之方，此樂天知命者之所憂。雖然，吾得之矣。夫樂而知者，非古人之所謂樂知也。無樂無知，是真樂真知，故無所不樂，無所不知，無所不憂，無所不為。《詩》《書》、禮樂，何棄之有？革之何為？」顏回北面拜手曰：「回亦得之矣。」出告子貢。子貢茫然自失，歸家淫思七日，不寢不食，以至骨立。顏回重往喻之，乃反丘門，絃歌誦書，終身不輟。

Zhongni was at leisure at home, and Zigong went in to attend him and saw that he looked worried. Zigong did not dare ask, and went out and told Yan Hui, and Yan Hui took up his zither and sang. Confucius heard it, and indeed called him in and asked: "Why are you happy by yourself?" Hui said: "Master, why are you worried by yourself?" Confucius said: "First tell me your aim." Hui said: "Formerly I heard the Master say: 'One who delights in Heaven and knows his fate has no worries.' This is why I am happy." Confucius looked sad for a while and said: "Is that so? Your meaning is mistaken. That was merely what I said in the past; please take what I now say as correct. You only know that one who delights in Heaven and knows his fate has no worries; you do not know that delighting in Heaven and knowing fate has great worries. Now I will tell you the truth: cultivating oneself, letting poverty and success take their course, knowing that going and coming are not up to me, with no turmoil in the heart, this is what you call the freedom from worry of delighting in Heaven and knowing fate. In the past I edited the Odes and the Documents and set right the rites and music, intending to use them to govern the world and leave them to later ages; it was not merely to cultivate myself and govern Lu, yet the ruler and ministers of Lu were losing order day by day, benevolence and righteousness declined further, and human nature grew thinner. This Way could not be practiced in one state or in my own time, so how could it be used for the world and later ages? Only then did I know that the Odes, Documents, rites and music cannot save the world from disorder, yet I still did not know the method of reform; this is the worry of one who delights in Heaven and knows fate. Even so, I have grasped it. That which delights and knows is not what the ancients called delighting and knowing. No delight and no knowledge is true delight and true knowledge, and so there is nothing it does not delight in, nothing it does not know, nothing it does not worry about, nothing it does not do. The Odes, Documents, rites and music, why need they be cast aside? And what would reform accomplish?" Yan Hui faced north, bowed with joined hands and said: "I have understood." He went out and told Zigong. Zigong was dazed and lost, and went home to ponder for seven days, not sleeping or eating, until he was nothing but bones. Yan Hui went again to enlighten him, and only then did he return to Confucius's school, playing strings, singing and reciting the books, and never stopped for the rest of his life."

陳大夫聘魯，私見叔孫氏。叔孫氏曰：「吾國有聖人。」曰：「非孔丘邪？」曰：「是也。」「何以知其聖乎？」叔孫氏曰：「吾常聞之顏回曰：『孔丘能廢心而用形。』」陳大夫曰：「吾國亦有聖人，子弗知乎？」曰：「聖人孰謂？」曰：「老聃之弟子有亢倉子者，得聃之道，能以耳視而目聽。」魯侯聞之大驚，使上卿厚禮而致之。亢倉子應聘而至，魯侯卑辭請問之。亢倉子曰：「傳之者妄。我能視聽不用耳目，不能易耳目之用。」魯侯曰：「此增異矣。其道奈何？寡人終願聞之。」亢倉子曰：「我體合於心，心合於氣，氣合於神，神合於無。其有介然之有，唯然之音，雖遠在八荒之外，近在眉睫之內，來幹我者，我必知之。乃不知是我七孔四支之所覺，心腹六藏之所知，其自知而已矣。」魯侯大悅。他日以告仲尼，仲尼笑而不答。

A grandee of Chen came on a mission to Lu and privately met Shusun. Shusun said: "My country has a sage." He asked: "Is it not Kong Qiu?" He said: "It is." "How do you know he is a sage?" Shusun said: "I often heard Yan Hui say: 'Kong Qiu can discard the mind and use the body.'" The grandee of Chen said: "My country also has a sage; do you not know?" He asked: "Who is the sage you mean?" He said: "Among Lao Dan's disciples there is Kangcangzi, who attained Dan's Way and can see with his ears and hear with his eyes." The Marquis of Lu heard this and was greatly astonished, and sent a chief minister with generous gifts to invite him. Kangcangzi came in response to the summons, and the Marquis of Lu asked him humbly. Kangcangzi said: "Those who passed it on were mistaken. I can see and hear without using ears and eyes, but I cannot change what ears and eyes are used for." The Marquis of Lu said: "This is even stranger. What is that Way like? I would like to hear it at last." Kangcangzi said: "My body accords with my mind, my mind accords with qi, my qi accords with spirit, and my spirit accords with nothingness. If there is anything that exists, however slight, or any sound, however faint, even if it is beyond the eight wilds far away or within the eyelashes near, if it comes to touch me, I will certainly know it. Then I do not know whether it was sensed by my seven orifices and four limbs or known by my heart, belly and six viscera; it is simply self-knowing." The Marquis of Lu was greatly pleased. Another day he told Zhongni, who smiled and did not answer."

商太宰見孔子曰：「丘聖者歟？」孔子曰：「聖則丘何敢，然則丘博學多識者也。」商太宰曰：「三王聖者歟？」孔子曰：「三王善任智勇者，聖則丘弗知。」曰：「五帝聖者歟？」孔子曰：「五帝善任仁義者，聖則丘弗知。」曰：「三皇聖者歟？」孔子曰：「三皇善任因時者，聖則丘弗知。」商太宰大駭，曰：「然則孰者為聖？」孔子動容有閒，曰：「西方之人有聖者焉，不治而不亂，不言而自信，不化而自行，蕩蕩乎民無能名焉。丘疑其為聖，弗知真為聖歟？真不聖歟？」商太宰嘿然心計曰：「孔丘欺我哉！」

The Grand Steward of Shang met Confucius and said: "Are you a sage?" Confucius said: "As to being a sage, how would I dare; but I am one who has studied widely and knows much." The Grand Steward of Shang said: "Were the Three Kings sages?" Confucius said: "The Three Kings were good at employing the wise and brave; as to whether they were sages, I do not know." He asked: "Were the Five Emperors sages?" Confucius said: "The Five Emperors were good at employing the benevolent and righteous; as to whether they were sages, I do not know." He asked: "Were the Three Sovereigns sages?" Confucius said: "The Three Sovereigns were good at employing those who suited the times; as to whether they were sages, I do not know." The Grand Steward of Shang was greatly shocked and said: "Then who is a sage?" Confucius's expression changed and after a while he said: "Among the people of the west there is a sage, who does not govern yet there is no disorder, does not speak yet is trusted, does not transform yet things proceed, vast and boundless, so that the people cannot find a name for him. I suspect he is a sage, but I do not know whether he truly is a sage, or truly is not." The Grand Steward of Shang fell silent and thought to himself: "Kong Qiu is deceiving me!""

子夏問孔子曰：「顏回之為人奚若？」子曰：「回之仁賢於丘也。」曰：「子貢之為人奚若？」子曰：「賜之辯賢於丘也。」曰：「子路之為人奚若？」子曰：「由之勇賢於丘也。」曰：「子張之為人奚若？」子曰：「師之莊賢於丘也。」子夏避席而問曰：「然則四子者何為事夫子？」曰：「居！吾語汝。夫回能仁而不能反，賜能辯而不能訥，由能勇而不能怯，師能莊而不能同。兼四子之有以易吾，吾弗許也。此其所以事吾而不貳也。」

Zixia asked Confucius: "What kind of person is Yan Hui?" Confucius said: "Hui's benevolence surpasses mine." He asked: "What kind of person is Zigong?" Confucius said: "Ci's eloquence surpasses mine." He asked: "What kind of person is Zilu?" Confucius said: "You's courage surpasses mine." He asked: "What kind of person is Zizhang?" Confucius said: "Shi's dignity surpasses mine." Zixia left his mat and asked: "Then why do these four serve the Master?" Confucius said: "Sit down! I will tell you. Hui can be benevolent but cannot turn back; Ci can be eloquent but cannot be slow of speech; You can be brave but cannot be timid; Shi can be dignified but cannot be at ease with others. If I were offered the combined strengths of the four in exchange for myself, I would not agree. This is why they serve me without wavering.""

子列子既師壺丘子林，友伯昏瞀人，乃居南郭。從之處者，日數而不及。雖然，子列子亦微焉。朝朝相與辯，無不聞。而與南郭子連牆二十年，不相謁請；相遇於道，目若不相見者。門之徒役以為子列子與南郭子有敵不疑。有自楚來者，問子列子曰：「先生與南郭子奚敵？」子列子曰：「南郭子貌充心虛，耳無聞，目無見，口無言，心無知，形無惕。往將奚為？雖然，試與汝偕往。」閱弟子四十人同行。見南郭子，果若欺魄焉，而不可與接。顧視子列子，形神不相偶，而不可與群。南郭子俄而指子列子之弟子末行者與言，衎衎然若專直而在雄者。子列子之徒駭之，反舍，鹹有疑色。子列子曰：「得意者無言，進知者亦無言。用無言為言亦言，無知為知亦知。無言與不言，無知與不知，亦言亦知。亦無所不言，亦無所不知；亦無所言，亦無所知。如斯而已，汝奚妄駭哉？」

Liezi, having already studied under Huqiu Zilin and become friends with Bohun Wuren, lived in the southern outskirts. The people who came to be with him were too many to count each day. Even so, Liezi remained obscure. Day after day they debated with one another, and there was nothing he did not hear. Yet he lived next to Nanguozi, wall by wall, for twenty years without visiting him; when they met on the road, their eyes were as if they did not see each other. The disciples at his gate thought Liezi and Nanguozi were enemies, without the slightest doubt. A man came from Chu and asked Liezi: "Master, why are you at odds with Nanguozi?" Liezi said: "Nanguozi has a full appearance but an empty mind; his ears hear nothing, his eyes see nothing, his mouth says nothing, his mind knows nothing, and his body feels no alarm. What would be the use of going? Even so, let me try going with you." Inspecting his disciples, he chose forty to go together. When they saw Nanguozi, he was indeed like a clay figure, impossible to engage. Turning to look at Liezi, they found form and spirit did not match, and could not be joined in company. After a while Nanguozi pointed at the last disciple in Liezi's row and spoke to him, cheerfully, as though upright and standing in the male position. Liezi's disciples were shocked, and back at the lodging all looked doubtful. Liezi said: "One who has attained his meaning does not speak; one who has advanced in knowledge does not speak either. To take speechlessness as speech is also speech; to take non-knowing as knowing is also knowing. Speechlessness and not speaking, non-knowing and not knowing, are also speech and also knowing. There is nothing it does not say and nothing it does not know; and there is nothing it says and nothing it knows. It is just like this, so why should you be needlessly alarmed?""

子列子學也，三年之後，心不敢念是非，口不敢言利害，始得老商一眄而已。五年之後，心更念是非，口更言利害，老商始一解顏而笑。七年之後，從心之所念，更無是非；從口之所言，更無利害，夫子始一引吾並席而坐。九年之後，橫心之所念，橫口之所言，亦不知我之是非利害歟，亦不知彼之是非利害歟，外內進矣。而後眼如耳，耳如鼻，鼻如口，口無不同。心凝形釋，骨肉都融，不覺形之所倚，足之所履，心之所念，言之所藏。如斯而已，則理無所隱矣。

Liezi said: In his studies, after three years, he did not dare think of right and wrong in his heart or speak of profit and harm with his mouth, and only then did Lao Shang give him a single glance. After five years, he instead thought of right and wrong in his heart and spoke of profit and harm with his mouth, and only then did Lao Shang open his face in a smile. After seven years, letting his heart think as it would, he found no right and wrong; letting his mouth say as it would, he found no profit and harm; and only then did the master pull me to sit beside him on the same mat. After nine years, I let my heart think whatever it would and my mouth say whatever it would, not knowing my own right and wrong, profit and harm, nor knowing those of others, and inside and outside were both used up. Then my eyes were like ears, my ears like a nose, my nose like a mouth, and there was no difference among them. My mind was concentrated and my form dissolved, bones and flesh all melted; I did not feel what my body leaned on, what my feet trod on, what my mind thought, or what my words hid. It was just this, and then principle had nothing left to hide."

初，子列子好遊。壺丘子曰：「禦寇好遊，遊何所好？」列子曰：「遊之樂所玩無故。人之遊也，觀其所見；我之遊也，觀其所變。遊乎遊乎！未有能辨其遊者。」壺丘子曰：「禦寇之遊固與人同歟，而曰固與人異歟？凡所見，亦恆見其變。玩彼物之無故，不知我亦無故。務外遊，不知務內觀。外遊者，求備於物；內觀者，取足於身。取足於身，遊之至也；求備於物，遊之不至也。」於是列子終身不出，自以為不知遊。壺丘子曰：「遊其至乎！至遊者，不知所適；至觀者，不知所眂。物物皆遊矣，物物皆觀矣，是我之所謂遊，是我之所謂觀也。故曰：遊其至矣乎，遊其至矣乎！」

At first, Liezi was fond of traveling. Huqiuzi said: "Yukou is fond of traveling; what is it about traveling that you like?" Liezi said: "The joy of traveling lies in nothing I enjoy becoming stale. Other people travel to look at what they see; I travel to look at what changes. Travel, travel! No one yet can distinguish what traveling is." Huqiuzi said: "Is Yukou's traveling really the same as other people's, and yet you say it is different? Of everything one sees, one always sees its change. To enjoy outer things as never stale is not to know that I too am never stale. You devote yourself to traveling outward and do not know to devote yourself to looking within. Those who travel outward seek completeness in things; those who look within take sufficiency in themselves. To take sufficiency in oneself is the utmost of traveling; to seek completeness in things is traveling that falls short." After that Liezi never went out for the rest of his life, thinking that he did not know how to travel. Huqiuzi said: "Has your traveling reached its utmost! One who has reached the utmost in traveling does not know where he goes; one who has reached the utmost in observing does not know what he looks at. All things are traveled, all things are observed; this is what I call traveling and what I call observing. So it is said: traveling has reached the utmost, traveling has reached the utmost!""

龍叔謂文摯曰：「子之術微矣。吾有疾，子能已乎？」文摯曰：「唯命所聽。然先言子所病之證。」龍叔曰：「吾鄉譽不以為榮，國毀不以為辱；得而不喜，失而弗憂；視生如死，視富如貧；視人如豕，視吾如人。處吾之家，如逆旅之舍；觀吾之鄉，如戎蠻之國。凡此眾疾，爵賞不能勸，刑罰不能威，盛衰、利害不能易，哀樂不能移。固不可事國君，交親友，御妻子，制僕隸。此奚疾哉？奚方能已之乎？」文摯乃命龍叔背明而立，文摯自後嚮明而望之。既而曰：「嘻！吾見子之心矣，方寸之地虛矣。幾聖人也！子心六孔流通，一孔不達。今以聖智為疾者，或由此乎！非吾淺術所能已也。」

Long Shu said to Wen Zhi: "Your art is subtle. I have an illness; can you stop it?" Wen Zhi said: "I am at your command. But first tell me your symptoms." Long Shu said: "If my village praises me, I do not count it as glory; if the state slanders me, I do not count it as disgrace; I do not rejoice at gain or grieve at loss; I see life as death and wealth as poverty; I see people as pigs and myself as a person. Living in my own house is like staying at an inn; looking at my village is like looking at a land of barbarians. Of all these ailments, rank and reward cannot encourage me, punishment cannot overawe me, flourishing and decline and profit and harm cannot change me, and sorrow and joy cannot move me. By nature I cannot serve a ruler, mingle with relatives and friends, manage wife and children, or discipline servants. What illness is this? What remedy can stop it?" Wen Zhi then had Long Shu stand with his back to the light, and Wen Zhi looked at him from behind, facing the light. After a while he said: "Ah! I see your heart; the square inch of it is empty. You are nearly a sage! Six of the openings of your heart are open and flowing, and only one is not open. Now, that you take sagely wisdom as an illness may come from this! It is not something my shallow art can stop.""

無所由而常生者，道也。由生而生，故雖終而不亡，常也。由生而亡，不幸也。有所由而常死者，亦道也。由死而死，故雖未終而自亡者，亦常也。由死而生，幸也。故無用而生謂之道，用道得終謂之常；有所用而死者亦謂之道，用道而得死者亦謂之常。季梁之死，楊朱望其門而歌；隨梧之死，楊朱撫其屍而哭。隸人之生，隸人之死，眾人且歌，眾人且哭。

That which constantly lives without depending on anything is the Way. Living from life, so that even at its end it does not perish, is constancy. Perishing from life is misfortune. That which constantly dies while depending on something is also the Way. Dying from death, so that even if it has not ended it perishes of itself, is also constancy. Living from death is good fortune. Therefore, to live by means of nothing is called the Way, and to attain one's end by means of the Way is called constancy; to die by means of something is also called the Way, and to attain death by means of the Way is also called constancy. When Jiliang died, Yang Zhu looked at his door and sang; when Suiwu died, Yang Zhu stroked his corpse and wept. When a servant is born or dies, the crowd sings and weeps."

目將眇者，先睹秋毫；耳將聾者，先聞蚋飛；口將爽者，先辨淄澠；鼻將窒者，先覺焦朽；體將僵者，先亟犇佚，心將迷者，先識是非，故物不至者則不反。

One whose eyes are about to go blind first sees the finest autumn hair; one whose ears are about to go deaf first hears a gnat in flight; one whose mouth is about to lose taste first distinguishes the waters of the Zi and the Sheng; one whose nose is about to be blocked first smells scorched and rotten things; one whose body is about to stiffen first hurries to run and flee; one whose mind is about to be confused first distinguishes right and wrong. So a thing does not turn back until it reaches its extreme."

鄭之圃澤多賢，東裡多才。圃澤之役有伯豐子者，行過東裡，遇鄧析。鄧析顧其徒而笑曰：「為若舞，彼來者奚若？」其徒曰：「所願知也。」鄧析謂伯豐子曰：「汝知養養之義乎？受人養而不能自養者，犬豕之類也；養物而物為我用者，人之力也。使汝之徒食而飽，衣而息，執政之功也。長幼群聚而為牢藉庖廚之物，奚異犬豕之類乎？」伯豐子不應。伯豐子之從者越次而進曰：「大夫不聞齊魯之多機乎？有善治土木者，有善治金革者，有善治聲樂者，有善治書數者，有善治軍旅者，有善治宗廟者，群才備也。而無相位者，無能相使者。而位之者無知，使之者無能，而知之與能為之使焉。執政者，迺吾之所使，子奚矜焉？」鄧析無以應，目其徒而退。

In the state of Zheng, Puze had many worthies and Dongli had many talents. A dependent from Puze named Bofengzi passed through Dongli and met Deng Xi. Deng Xi turned to his followers, laughing, and said: "Let me put on a show for you; what of this man coming?" The followers said: "We would like to know." Deng Xi said to Bofengzi: "Do you know the meaning of feeding and being fed? One who is fed by others and cannot feed himself is of the kind of dogs and pigs; one who feeds things and has things used by him is human strength. For you people to have your fill, to have clothes and rest is the achievement of those who govern. Old and young gather in groups, yet they are creatures of pens and kitchens; how are they different from dogs and pigs?" Bofengzi did not respond. A follower of Bofengzi stepped forward out of turn and said: "Has the grandee not heard that Qi and Lu have many skilled arts? There are those good at earthwork and woodwork, those good at metal and leather, those good at music, those good at writing and mathematics, those good at military matters, and those good at ancestral temples; all kinds of talent are complete. Yet there is no one who holds the post of minister, no one who can command them. The ones in office are ignorant, the ones who give orders are incapable, and those with knowledge and ability are instead ordered about. Those who govern are exactly the ones we command; what do you boast of?" Deng Xi had no reply, and watched his followers withdraw."

公儀伯以力聞諸侯，堂谿公言之於周宣王，王備禮以聘之。公儀伯至，觀形，懦夫也。宣王心惑而疑曰：「女之力何如？」公儀伯曰：「臣之力能折春螽之股，堪秋蟬之翼。」王作色曰：「吾之力能裂犀兕之革，曳九牛之尾，猶憾其弱。女折春螽之股，堪秋蟬之翼，而力聞天下，何也？」公儀伯長息退席，曰：「善哉王之問也！臣敢以實對。臣之師有商丘子者，力無敵於天下，而六親不知，以未嘗用其力故也。臣以死事之。乃告臣曰：『人慾見其所不見，視人所不窺；欲得其所不得，修人所不為。故學眎者先見輿薪，學聽者先聞撞鐘。夫有易於內者無難於外。於外無難，故名不出其一家。』今臣之名聞於諸侯，是臣違師之教，顯臣之能者也。然則臣之名不以負其力者也，以能用其力者也，不猶愈於負其力者乎？」

Gongyi Bo was known among the feudal lords for his strength, and Tangxi Gong told King Xuan of Zhou, who invited him with full ceremony. When Gongyi Bo arrived, the king looked at his appearance and he was a weakling. King Xuan, doubtful in his heart, asked: "What is your strength like?" Gongyi Bo said: "Your servant's strength can break the leg of a spring locust and bear the wing of an autumn cicada." The king changed color and said: "My strength can tear the hide of a rhinoceros and drag the tail of nine oxen, and I still regret being weak. You break the leg of a spring locust and bear the wing of an autumn cicada, yet your strength is known throughout the world; why?" Gongyi Bo sighed deeply and left his seat, saying: "The king asks well! Your servant dares answer truthfully. Your servant's teacher was Shangqiuzi, whose strength was unmatched in the world, yet even his six kinds of kin did not know it, because he never used his strength. Your servant served him until death. Only then did he tell your servant: 'A person who wants to see what cannot be seen should look at what others do not peer at; one who wants to obtain what cannot be obtained should cultivate what others do not do. So one who learns to see first sees a cartload of firewood, and one who learns to hear first hears a bell struck. When what is within is easy, there is no difficulty outside. With no difficulty outside, one's name does not go beyond one's own household.' Now your servant's name is known among the feudal lords because your servant disobeyed my teacher's instruction and displayed my ability. Then my name does not rest on carrying that strength but on being able to use it; is that not still better than those who merely carry that strength?""

中山公子牟者，魏國之賢公子也，好與賢人遊，不恤國事，而悅趙人公孫龍。樂正子輿之徒笑之。公子牟曰：「子何笑牟之悅公孫龍也？」子輿曰：「公孫龍之為人也，行無師，學無友，佞給而不中，漫衍而無家，好怪而妄言，欲惑人之心，屈人之口，與韓檀等肄之。」公子牟變容曰：「何子狀公孫龍之過歟？請聞其實。」子輿曰：「吾笑龍之詒孔穿，言『善射者能令後鏃中前括，發發相及，矢矢相屬，前矢造準而無絕落，後矢之括猶銜弦，視之若一焉。』孔穿駭之。龍曰：『此未其妙者。逢蒙之弟子曰鴻超，怒其妻而怖之。引烏號之弓，綦衛之箭，射其目。矢來注眸子而眶不睫，矢隧地而塵不揚。』是豈智者之言與？」公子牟曰：「智者之言固非愚者之所曉。後鏃中前括，鈞後於前。矢注眸子而眶不睫，盡矢之勢也。子何疑焉？」樂正子輿曰：「子，龍之徒，焉得不飾其闕？吾又言其尤者。龍誑魏王曰：『有意不心。有指不至。有物不盡。有影不移。髮引千鈞。白馬非馬。孤犢未嘗有母。』其負類反倫，不可勝言也。」公子牟曰：「子不諭至言而以為尤也，尤其在子矣。夫無意則心同；無指則皆至；盡物者常有；影不移者，說在改也；髮引千鈞，勢至等也；白馬非馬，形名離也；孤犢未嘗有母，非孤犢也。」樂正子輿曰：「子以公孫龍之鳴皆條也。設令發於餘竅，子亦將承之。」公子牟默然良久，告退，曰：「請待餘日，更謁子論。」

Prince Mou of Zhongshan was a worthy prince of the state of Wei, who liked to roam with worthy men, did not care for affairs of state, but liked Gongsun Long of Zhao. Yuezheng Ziyu and others laughed at him. Prince Mou said: "Why do you laugh at Mou for liking Gongsun Long?" Ziyu said: "Gongsun Long as a person acts without a teacher and studies without friends; his eloquence is glib yet off the mark, his speech sprawling without a school; he likes the strange and speaks wildly, wishing to confuse people's minds and silence people's mouths, and he studies together with Han Tan and others." Prince Mou changed his expression and said: "What do you base your account of Gongsun Long's faults on? Please hear the truth." Ziyu said: "I laugh at Long for deceiving Kong Chuan, saying: 'A good archer can make a later arrowhead hit the notch of the previous arrow, shot after shot reaching one another, arrow after arrow joined, so that the first arrow reaches the target without falling off, and the notch of the last still holds the string; it looks like a single line.' Kong Chuan was shocked. Long said: 'That is not yet the most wonderful. Pang Meng's disciple was named Hong Chao, and in anger at his wife he frightened her. He drew the Wuhao bow, set the Qiwei arrow, and shot at her eye. The arrow reached the pupil and the eyelid did not blink; the arrow fell to the ground and no dust rose.' Is this the talk of a wise man?" Prince Mou said: "The words of the wise are not what fools can understand. For the later arrowhead to hit the earlier notch is to even out the later force with the earlier. For the arrow to reach the pupil without a blink is for the arrow's momentum to be spent. What do you doubt?" Yuezheng Ziyu said: "You are Long's follower; how could you not cover up his flaws? I will say something more extreme. Long deceived the King of Wei, saying: 'Having intention is not the mind. Having a pointer does not reach. Having a thing is not exhaustive. Having a shadow does not move. A hair can pull a thousand jun. A white horse is not a horse. A lone calf never had a mother.' He goes against categories and contradicts common order, and there is no end to it." Prince Mou said: "You do not understand the utmost words and take them as faults; the fault is yours. Without intention, the mind is the same; without pointing, everything arrives; exhausting things, there is always something left; the shadow does not move, because the principle is that once it changes, it is no longer the original shadow; a hair pulling a thousand jun means the force has reached an even balance; a white horse is not a horse because form and name are separated; a lone calf never had a mother, for if it had a mother it would not be a lone calf." Yuezheng Ziyu said: "You take all of Gongsun Long's crowing as orderly reasoning. If it came from another orifice, you would also accept it." Prince Mou was silent for a long time, then withdrew, saying: "Let us wait for another day, and I will come to see you again to discuss it.""

堯治天下五十年，不知天下治歟、不治歟，不知億兆之願戴己歟、不願戴己歟，顧問左右，左右不知；問外朝，外朝不知；問在野，在野不知。堯乃微服遊於康衢，聞兒童謠曰：「立我蒸民，莫匪爾極。不識不知，順帝之則。」堯喜問曰：「誰教爾為此言？」童兒曰：「我聞之大夫。」問大夫，大夫曰：「古詩也。」堯還宮，召舜，因禪以天下。舜不辭而受之。

Yao had governed the world for fifty years and did not know whether the world was well governed or not, did not know whether the myriads wanted to support him or not; he turned and asked those around him, who did not know; he asked the outer court, who did not know; he asked those in the countryside, who did not know. Yao then went about in plain clothes along the great thoroughfare of Kang, and heard children chanting: "You settle our multitudes; none but follows your highest standard. Without knowing or recognizing, we follow the Emperor's rule." Yao asked happily: "Who taught you to say this?" The children said: "We heard it from a grandee." He asked the grandee, who said: "It is an old poem." Yao returned to the palace, summoned Shun, and handed over the world to him. Shun accepted without declining."

關尹喜曰：「在己無居，形物其箸。其動若水，其靜若鏡，其應若響。故其道若物者也，物自違道，道不違物。善若道者，亦不用耳，亦不用目，亦不用力，亦不用心。欲若道而用視聽形智以求之，弗當矣。瞻之在前，忽焉在後；用之彌滿六虛，廢之莫知其所；亦非有心者所能得遠，亦非無心者所能得近。唯默而得之而性成之者得之。知而亡情，能而不為，真知真能也。發無知，何能情？發不能，何能為？聚塊也，積塵也，雖無為而非理也。」

Yin Xi of the Pass said: "If there is no stagnation in oneself, the forms of things reveal themselves naturally. In movement be like water, in stillness like a mirror, in response like an echo. So his Way is like things; things themselves depart from the Way, but the Way does not depart from things. One who is good at following the Way uses neither ears, nor eyes, nor strength, nor mind. To wish to follow the Way yet seek it with seeing, hearing, form and knowledge is wrong. Gazing at it in front, suddenly it is behind; use it and it fills the six voids, put it aside and one does not know where it is; it cannot be pushed far by one with a mind, nor drawn near by one without a mind. Only one who gets it in silence and completes it through his nature obtains it. Knowing without feeling, able without acting, is true knowing and true ability. Issuing from not knowing, how could there still be feeling? Issuing from inability, how could there still be action? Clods gathered and dust piled up, though without action, are not principle.""

殷湯問於夏革曰：「古初有物乎？」夏革曰：「古初無物，今惡得物？後之人將謂今之無物，可乎？」殷湯曰：「然則物無先後乎？」夏革曰：「物之終始，初無極已。始或為終，終或為始，惡知其紀？然自物之外，自事之先，朕所不知也。」殷湯曰：「然則上下八方有極盡乎？」革曰：「不知也。」湯固問。革曰：「無則無極，有則有盡，朕何以知之？然無極之外復無無極，無盡之中復無無盡。無極復無無極，無盡復無無盡。朕以是知其無極無盡也，而不知其有極有盡也。」湯又問曰：「四海之外奚有？」革曰：「猶齊州也。」湯曰：「汝奚以實之？」革曰：「朕東行至營，人民猶是也。問營之東，復猶營也。西行至豳，人民猶是也。問豳之西，復猶豳也。朕以是知四海、四荒、四極之不異是也。故大小相含，無窮極也。含萬物者，亦如含天地。含萬物也故不窮，含天地也故無極。朕亦焉知天地之表不有大天地者乎？亦吾所不知也。然則天地亦物也。物有不足，故昔者女媧氏練五色石以補其闕，斷鼇之足以立四極。其後共工氏與顓頊爭為帝，怒而觸不周之山，折天柱，絕地維，故天傾西北，日月辰星就焉；地不滿東南，故百川水潦歸焉。」湯又問：「物有巨細乎？有修短乎？有同異乎？」革曰：「渤海之東不知幾億萬裡，有大壑焉，實惟無底之谷，其下無底，名曰歸墟。八紘九野之水，天漢之流，莫不注之，而無增無減焉。其中有五山焉：一曰岱輿，二曰員嶠，三曰方壺，四曰瀛洲，五曰蓬萊。其山高下週旋三萬裡，其頂平處九千里。山之中閒相去七萬裡，以為鄰居焉。其上臺觀皆金玉，其上禽獸皆純縞。珠玕之樹皆叢生，華實皆有滋味，食之皆不老不死。所居之人皆仙聖之種，一日一夕飛相往來者，不可數焉。而五山之根無所連箸，常隨潮波上下往還，不得蹔峙焉。仙聖毒之，訴之於帝。

Tang of Yin asked Xia Ge: "At the beginning of antiquity, were there things?" Xia Ge said: "If at the beginning of antiquity there were no things, how could there be things now? If people later were to say that now there are no things, would that be acceptable?" Tang of Yin said: "Then are things without before and after?" Xia Ge said: "The end and beginning of things have no ultimate limit at first. The beginning may be the end, and the end may be the beginning; how could one know their order? But what lies beyond things and before affairs, I do not know." Tang of Yin said: "Then do the above, below and eight directions have an end?" Ge said: "I do not know." Tang insisted on asking. Ge said: "If there is nothing, there is no limit; if there is something, there is an end; how would I know? But beyond the limitless there is no further 'non-limitless', and within the endless there is no further 'non-endless'. Beyond the limitless there is no further non-limitless, and beyond the endless there is no further non-endless. From this I know it is limitless and endless, and I do not know that it has limits and an end." Tang asked again: "What is beyond the four seas?" Ge said: "It is just like the Central Land." Tang said: "What do you use to prove it?" Ge said: "I traveled east to Ying, and the people were the same. I asked about the east of Ying, and it was like Ying. I traveled west to Bin, and the people were the same. I asked about the west of Bin, and it was like Bin. From this I know that the four seas, four wastelands and four extremities are no different from here. So large and small contain one another without end. That which contains the myriad things also resembles that which contains heaven and earth. Because it contains the myriad things it is inexhaustible, and because it contains heaven and earth it is limitless. How would I know whether beyond heaven and earth there is not a greater heaven and earth? That too is what I do not know. Then heaven and earth are also things. Things have deficiencies, so in former times Nuwa melted five-colored stones to mend the gap and cut off the legs of a giant turtle to set up the four poles. Later Gong Gong contended with Zhuanxu to be emperor, and in anger struck Mount Buzhou, breaking the pillar of heaven and snapping the cords of the earth; so the sky tilts to the northwest, and the sun, moon and stars lean that way; the earth is not full in the southeast, so the hundred rivers and floodwaters flow that way." Tang asked again: "Do things have large and small? Long and short? Same and different?" Ge said: "East of the Bohai Sea, I do not know how many hundreds of millions of li, there is a great chasm, truly a valley without bottom, below which there is no floor; it is called Guixu. The waters of the eight bonds and nine fields and the flow of the Celestial River all pour into it, yet it neither increases nor decreases. In it there are five mountains: the first is called Daiyu, the second Yuanjiao, the third Fanghu, the fourth Yingzhou, and the fifth Penglai. The mountains are thirty thousand li in height and circumference, and the flat tops are nine thousand li. The mountains are seventy thousand li from one another, as neighbors. The terraces and towers on them are all of gold and jade, and the birds and beasts on them are all pure white. Trees of pearl and jade grow in clumps, their flowers and fruits all have flavor, and those who eat them neither grow old nor die. Those who dwell there are all of the race of immortals and sages, flying back and forth in a single day and night, too many to count. But the roots of the five mountains are attached to nothing, and always rise and fall and go back and forth with the tides and waves, unable to stand still for a moment. The immortals and sages suffered from this and complained to the Emperor."

帝恐流於西極，失群仙聖之居，乃命禺彊使巨鼇十五舉首而戴之。迭為三番，六萬歲一交焉。五山始峙而不動。而龍伯之國有大人，舉足不盈數步而暨五山之所，一釣而連六鼇，合負而趣歸其國，灼其骨以數焉。於是岱輿員嶠二山流於北極，沈於大海，仙聖之播遷者巨億計。帝憑怒，侵減龍伯之國使阨，侵小龍伯之民使短。至伏羲神農時，其國人猶數十丈。從中州以東四十萬裡得僬僥國，人長一尺五寸。東北極有人名曰諍人，長九寸。荊之南有冥靈者，以五百歲為春，五百歲為秋。上古有大椿者，以八千歲為春，八千歲為秋。朽壤之上有菌芝者，生於朝，死於晦。春夏之月有蠓蚋者，因雨而生，見陽而死。終北之北有溟海者，天池也，有魚焉，其廣數千里，其長稱焉，其名為鯤。有鳥焉，其名為鵬，翼若垂天之云，其體稱焉。世豈知有此物哉？大禹行而見之，伯益知而名之，夷堅聞而志之。江浦之間生麼蟲，其名曰焦螟，群飛而集於蚊睫，弗相觸也。棲宿去來，蚊弗覺也。離朱子羽方晝拭眥揚眉而望之，弗見其形；䚦俞師曠方夜擿耳俛首而聽之，弗聞其聲。唯黃帝與容成子居空峒之上，同齋三月，心死形廢，徐以神視，塊然見之，若嵩山之阿；徐以氣聽，砰然聞之，若雷霆之聲。吳楚之國有大木焉，其名為櫾，碧樹而冬生，實丹而味酸。食其皮汁，已憤厥之疾。齊州珍之，渡淮而北而化為枳焉。鸜鵒不踰濟，貉踰汶則死矣，地氣然也。雖然，形氣異也，性鈞已，無相易已。生皆全已，分皆足已，吾何以識其巨細？何以識其修短？何以識其同異哉？」

The Emperor, fearing they would drift to the far west and lose the dwelling of the immortals and sages, ordered Yuqiang to have fifteen giant turtles lift their heads and carry them. They took turns in three shifts, changing once every sixty thousand years. Only then did the five mountains stand still. But in the Land of Longbo there were giants, who in a few steps of raising their feet reached where the five mountains stood, and with a single cast of the line hooked six turtles, carried them off together on their backs to their own country, and burned their bones for divination. So the two mountains Daiyu and Yuanjiao drifted to the far north and sank into the great sea, and the immortals and sages who were displaced numbered in the hundreds of millions. The Emperor was greatly angered, and reduced the land of Longbo to make it narrow and shrank the people of Longbo to make them short. Even in the time of Fuxi and Shennong, the people of that country were still dozens of zhang tall. Four hundred thousand li east of the Central Land is the Land of Jiaoyao, whose people are one chi five cun tall. At the far northeast there are people called Zheng, nine cun tall. South of Jing there is the Mingling tree, for which five hundred years is a spring and five hundred years is an autumn. In remote antiquity there was the great Chun tree, for which eight thousand years was a spring and eight thousand years was an autumn. On rotten soil there is the fungus Junzhi, born in the morning and dead by evening. In the months of spring and summer there are midges and gnats, born of rain and dying on seeing the sun. North of Zhongbei is the Ming Sea, which is the Heavenly Pool, and there is a fish, several thousand li wide and equally long, named Kun. There is a bird named Peng, whose wings are like clouds hanging from the sky, and whose body matches them. How would people of the world know there are such things? Yu the Great walked and saw them, Boyi knew and named them, and Yijian heard and recorded them. Between the river banks of the Yangtze there lives a tiny creature named Jiaoming, which gathers in flocks on the eyelash of a mosquito without touching one another. It roosts and comes and goes, and the mosquito does not feel it. Li Zhu and Zi Yu, in broad daylight, wiped their eyes and raised their brows to look, and could not see its form; Chuyu and Shi Kuang, at night, cleaned out their ears and lowered their heads to listen, and could not hear its sound. Only the Yellow Emperor and Rongchengzi, dwelling on Mount Kongtong, fasted together for three months, their hearts dead and their forms discarded, then slowly looked with spirit, and saw it as a lump, like the bend of Mount Song; slowly listened with qi, and heard it with a crash, like the sound of thunder. In the states of Wu and Chu there is a great tree named the pomelo, a green tree that keeps growing in winter, with red fruit of sour taste. Eating its rind and juice can stop the illness of rage and fainting. China treasures it, but when carried across the Huai northward it becomes a bitter orange. The mynah does not cross the Ji, and the badger dies when it crosses the Wen; this is the doing of the earth's qi. Even so, forms and qi differ, yet nature is equalized, and nothing can be exchanged. Life is entire and allotment is sufficient, so how am I to distinguish their large and small? How to distinguish their long and short? How to distinguish their same and different?""

太行、王屋二山，方七百里，高萬仞，本在冀州之南，河陽之北。北山愚公者，年且九十，面山而居，懲山北之塞，出入之迂也，聚室而謀曰：「吾與汝畢力平險，指通豫南，達於漢陰，可乎？」雜然相許。其妻獻疑曰：「以君之力，曾不能損魁父之丘，如太行、王屋何？且焉置土石？」雜曰：「投諸渤海之尾，隱土之北。」遂率子孫荷擔者三夫，叩石墾壤，箕畚運於渤海之尾。鄰人京城氏之孀妻有遺男，始齔，跳往助之。寒暑易節，始一反焉。河曲智叟笑而止之，曰：「甚矣，汝之不惠！以殘年餘力，曾不能毀山之一毛，其如土石何？」北山愚公長息曰：「汝心之固，固不可徹，曾不若孀妻弱子。雖我之死，有子存焉；子又生孫，孫又生子；子又有子，子又有孫，子子孫孫無窮匱也，而山不加增，何苦而不平？」河曲智叟亡以應。操蛇之神聞之，懼其不已也，告之於帝。帝感其誠，命誇蛾氏二子負二山，一厝朔東，一厝雍南。自此，冀之南，漢之陰，無隴斷焉。

The two mountains Taihang and Wangwu, seven hundred li in circuit and ten thousand ren high, originally stood south of Jizhou and north of Heyang. Yu Gong of North Mountain, nearly ninety years old, lived facing the mountains and suffered from the blockage to the north of the mountains and the roundabout way in and out; he gathered his whole family to discuss, saying: "I and you will do our best to level the obstacles, open a straight way to southern Yu, and reach the south bank of the Han; would that be acceptable?" Everyone agreed at once. His wife raised a doubt, saying: "With your strength you cannot even diminish a little mound like Kuifu; what can you do to Taihang and Wangwu? And where would the earth and stones go?" The others said: "Throw them to the edge of the Bohai Sea, north of Yintu." So he led his sons and grandsons who could carry loads, three of them, to hack stone and break earth, and carry it in baskets to the edge of the Bohai Sea. A neighbor, the widow of the Jingcheng family, had a posthumous son who was just losing his baby teeth, and he skipped over to help. When cold and hot seasons changed, they made just one round trip. Zhi Sou of Hequ stopped him with a laugh, saying: "You are too foolish! With your remaining years and strength you cannot destroy even a single hair of the mountain; what can you do to the earth and stones?" Yu Gong of North Mountain sighed deeply and said: "Your heart is stubborn, so stubborn it cannot be penetrated, and you are not even as good as a widow and a weak child. Even if I die, I have sons; the sons bear grandsons, the grandsons bear sons; the sons again have sons, and the sons again have grandsons; sons and grandsons are without end, but the mountains do not increase; why worry about not leveling them?" Zhi Sou of Hequ had no reply. The god who held the snakes heard it and feared he would not stop, and reported it to the Emperor. The Emperor was moved by his sincerity and ordered the two sons of Kua'e to carry the two mountains away on their backs, one placed east of Shuo and one south of Yong. From then on, there were no hills blocking the way south of Ji and north of the Han."

夸父不量力，欲追日影，逐之於隅谷之際，渴欲得飲，赴飲河渭。河渭不足，將走北飲大澤。未至，道渴而死。棄其杖，屍膏肉所浸，生鄧林，鄧林彌廣數千里焉。

Kuafu did not measure his strength and wanted to chase the shadow of the sun. He chased it as far as Yugu, and being thirsty and wanting to drink, ran to drink the Yellow and Wei Rivers. The Yellow and Wei were not enough, and he was about to go north to drink the Great Marsh. Before he got there, he died of thirst on the road. He threw down his staff, and where the fat and flesh of his corpse soaked, the Deng forest grew, and the Deng forest spread several thousand li."

大禹曰：「六合之間，四海之內，照之以日月，經之以星辰，紀之以四時，要之以太歲。神靈所生，其物異形，或夭或壽，唯聖人能通其道。」夏革曰：「然則亦有不待神靈而生，不待陰陽而形，不待日月而明，不待殺戮而夭，不待將迎而壽，不待五穀而食，不待繒纊而衣，不待舟車而行，其道自然，非聖人之所通也。」

Yu the Great said: "Within the six directions and inside the four seas, the sun and moon illuminate, the stars run their courses, the four seasons mark the time, and Taisui is the reckoning. Spirits and numinous powers produce them, and the forms of things differ, some dying young and some living long; only the sage can understand that Way." Xia Ge said: "Then there are also those that are born without waiting for spirits, have form without waiting for yin and yang, are bright without waiting for sun and moon, die young without waiting for killing, live long without waiting for sending off and welcoming, eat without waiting for the five grains, wear clothes without waiting for silk and cotton, and travel without waiting for boats and carriages; that Way is natural, and not something the sage can penetrate.""

禹之治水土也，迷而失塗，謬之一國。濱北海之北，不知距齊州幾千萬裡。其國名曰終北，不知際畔之所齊限，無風雨霜露，不生鳥獸、蟲魚、草木之類。四方悉平，周以喬陟。當國之中有山，山名壺領，狀若甔甀。頂有口，狀若員環，名曰滋穴。有水湧出，名曰神瀵，臭過蘭椒，味過醪醴。一源分為四埒，注於山下。經營一國，亡不悉徧。土氣和，亡札厲。人性婉而從物，不競不爭；柔心而弱骨，不驕不忌；長幼儕居，不君不臣；男女雜遊，不媒不聘；緣水而居，不耕不稼；土氣溫適，不織不衣；百年而死，不夭不病。其民孳阜亡數，有喜樂，亡衰老哀苦。其俗好聲，相攜而迭謠，終日不輟音。飢惓則飲神瀵，力志和平。過則醉，經旬乃醒。沐浴神瀵，膚色脂澤，香氣經旬乃歇。周穆王北遊過其國，三年忘歸。既反周室，慕其國，𢠵然自失，不進酒肉，不召嬪御者，數月乃復。管仲勉齊桓公因遊遼口，俱之其國，幾尅舉。隰朋諫曰：「君舍齊國之廣，人民之眾，山川之觀，殖物之阜，禮義之盛，章服之美，妖靡盈庭，忠良滿朝。肆吒則徒卒百萬，視撝則諸侯從命，亦奚羨於彼而棄齊國之社稷，從戎夷之國乎？此仲父之耄，柰何從之？」桓公乃止，以隰朋之言告管仲。仲曰：「此固非朋之所及也。臣恐彼國之不可知之也。齊國之富奚戀？隰朋之言奚顧？」

When Yu was controlling the waters and lands, he lost his way and strayed into a country. It lay along the shore north of the Northern Sea, I do not know how many thousands of li from China. That country was called Zhongbei, and its borders and limits were not known; there was no wind, rain, frost or dew, and no birds, beasts, insects, fish, grasses or trees of any kind. The four directions were all level, surrounded by high steep mountains. In the middle of the country was a mountain named Huling, shaped like a clay jar. At the top was an opening shaped like a ring, named Ziyue. Water gushed out of it, named the Divine Fountain, with a scent surpassing orchid and pepper and a flavor surpassing fine wine. One source divided into four streams, which poured down the mountain. It irrigated the whole country, reaching everywhere. The air of the earth was mild, without plague. People were gentle by nature and yielding to things, not competing or contending; soft in heart and weak in bone, not proud or jealous; old and young lived as equals, with neither ruler nor minister; men and women roamed together, without matchmaker or betrothal gifts; living along the water, they neither plowed nor sowed; the air of the earth was temperate, so they neither wove nor wore clothes; they died at a hundred years, neither young nor sick. The people multiplied in countless numbers, had joy and delight, and had no aging, sorrow or bitterness. Their custom was to love sound, and they took one another by the hand and sang songs in turn, their singing not stopping all day. When hungry and tired they drank from the Divine Fountain, and their strength and will were at peace. When they drank too much they were drunk, and only woke after ten days. Bathing in the Divine Fountain made their skin glossy, and the fragrance lasted more than ten days. King Mu of Zhou, traveling north, passed through that country and forgot to return for three years. After returning to the Zhou court, he longed for that country, and was dejected and lost, did not take wine or meat, did not summon his consorts, and only recovered after several months. Guan Zhong urged Duke Huan of Qi to take the opportunity to travel to Liaokou, and go together to that country, and they nearly set out. Xi Peng remonstrated, saying: "My lord would give up Qi's vastness, the people's multitude, the scenery of mountains and rivers, the abundance of products, the splendor of rites and righteousness, the beauty of robes and insignia, with charming beauties filling the courtyard and loyal and good men filling the court. One shout and a million soldiers answer, one glance and the feudal lords obey, so what do you envy over there that makes you abandon the altars of Qi to follow a land of barbarians? Uncle Zhong has become senile; how can you follow him?" Duke Huan then stopped, and told Guan Zhong what Xi Peng said. Zhong said: "This is certainly beyond what Peng can reach. I fear that country is not something one can know. What is there to cherish in the wealth of Qi? What is there to heed in Xi Peng's words?""

南國之人祝髮而裸，北國之人鞨巾而裘，中國之人冠冕而裳。九土所資，或農或商，或田或漁，如冬裘夏葛，水舟陸車。默而得之，性而成之。越之東有輒沐之國，其長子生，則鮮而食之，謂之宜弟。其大父死，負其大母而棄之，曰：「鬼妻不可以同居處。」楚之南有炎人之國，其親戚死，㱙其肉而棄之，然後埋其骨，迺成為孝子。秦之西有儀渠之國者，其親戚死，聚祡積而焚之。燻則煙上，謂之登遐，然後成為孝子。此上以為政，下以為俗，而未足為異也。

The people of the southern lands shave their heads and go naked, the people of the northern lands wrap their heads and wear furs, and the people of the Central Land wear caps and skirts. What the land of the Nine Provinces provides, some farm or trade, some till or fish, like fur in winter and linen in summer, boats on water and carts on land. They attain it in silence and complete it by nature. East of Yue is the land of Zhemu, where the eldest son, when born, is killed and eaten, and this is called "befitting to younger brothers." When a grandfather dies, they carry the grandmother on their back and throw her away, saying: "The wife of a ghost cannot live together." South of Chu is the land of the Yan people, where when a relative dies, they strip off the flesh and throw it away, and then bury the bones, and only then are they considered filial sons. West of Qin is the land of Yiqu, where when a relative dies, they pile firewood and burn him. The smoke rising is called ascending to the far heavens, and only then are they filial sons. Above, this is taken as government; below, this is taken as custom; yet it is not enough to be regarded as strange."

孔子東遊，見兩小兒辯鬬，問其故。一兒曰：「我以日始出時去人近，而日中時遠也。」一兒以日初出遠，而日中時近也。一兒曰：「日初出大如車蓋，及日中則如盤盂，此不為遠者小而近者大乎？」一兒曰：「日初出滄滄涼涼，及其日中如探湯，此不為近者熱而遠者涼乎？」孔子不能決也。兩小兒笑曰：「孰為汝多知乎？」

Confucius was traveling in the east when he saw two small boys arguing, and asked the reason. One boy said: "I think the sun is closer to people when it first rises, and farther at noon." The other boy thought the sun was farther at sunrise and closer at noon. The first boy said: "When the sun first rises it is as big as a carriage canopy, and at noon it is like a plate or a bowl; isn't that because what is far looks small and what is near looks large?" The other boy said: "When the sun first rises it is cool and chilly, and at noon it is like putting your hand into hot water; isn't that because what is near is hot and what is far is cool?" Confucius could not decide. The two boys laughed and said: "Who says you know so much?"

均，天下之至理也，連於形物亦然。均髮均縣，輕重而髮絕，髮不均也。均也，其絕也莫絕。人以為不然，自有知其然者也。詹何以獨繭絲為綸，芒針為鉤，荊篠為竿，剖粒為餌，引盈車之魚於百仞之淵、汩流之中，綸不絕，鉤不伸，竿不橈。楚王聞而異之，召問其故。詹何曰：「臣聞先大夫之言，蒲且子之弋也，弱弓纖繳，乘風振之，連雙鶬於青雲之際。用心專，動手均也。臣因其事，放而學釣，五年始盡其道。當臣之臨河持竿，心無雜慮，唯魚之念；投綸沈鉤，手無輕重，物莫能亂。魚見臣之鉤餌，猶沈埃聚沫，吞之不疑。所以能以弱制彊，以輕致重也。大王治國誠能若此，則天下可運於一握，將亦奚事哉？」楚王曰：「善。」

Evenness is the utmost principle of the world, even in things with form. A hair, if it is even, can hold something hanging; if the weights are uneven the hair breaks, which is because the hair is not even. If it is even, what should break does not. People think it is not so, but naturally some know that it is so. Zhan He used a single cocoon thread for his fishing line, a needle-awn for his hook, a bough of thorn-bamboo for his rod, and a split grain of rice for bait, and from a deep pool a hundred fathoms deep, in a rushing current, he drew out fish enough to fill a cart, and the line did not snap, the hook did not straighten, and the rod did not bend. The King of Chu heard of it and thought it remarkable, and summoned him to ask the reason. Zhan He said: "I have heard the words of my late master: Pu Ju Zi shot at birds with a weak bow and a fine cord, rising on the wind, and in the space of the blue clouds hit two cranes at once. His mind was concentrated, and his hand was even. Following this I learned fishing by imitation, and only after five years did I master the way. When I stand at the river holding the rod, my mind has no stray thoughts and I think only of the fish; as I cast the line and sink the hook, my hand has no sense of light or heavy, and nothing can disturb me. The fish see my hook and bait like sunk dust and gathered foam, and swallow without suspicion. Thus with the weak I can master the strong, and with the light I can draw in the heavy. If Your Majesty could govern the state like this, the world could be turned in the palm of your hand, and what would there be left to do?" The King of Chu said: "Good."

魯公扈、趙齊嬰二人有疾，同請扁鵲求治。扁鵲治之。既同愈，謂公扈、齊嬰曰：「汝曩之所疾，自外而幹府藏者，固藥石之所已。今有偕生之疾，與體偕長，今為汝攻之，何如？」二人曰：「願先聞其驗。」扁鵲謂公扈曰：「汝志彊而氣弱，故足於謀而寡於斷。齊嬰志弱而氣彊，故少於慮而傷於專。若換汝之心，則均於善矣。」扁鵲遂飲二人毒酒，迷死三日，剖胷探心，易而置之；投以神藥，既悟如初。二人辭歸。於是公扈反齊嬰之室，而有其妻子，妻子弗識。齊嬰亦反公扈之室，有其妻子，妻子亦弗識。二室因相與訟，求辨於扁鵲。扁鵲辨其所由，訟乃已。

Gong Hu of Lu and Qi Ying of Zhao were both ill and together asked Bian Que for treatment. Bian Que treated them. When both had recovered, he said to Gong Hu and Qi Ying: "The illnesses you had before came from outside and encroached on your organs, and they were things that medicine and stone needles could stop. Now there is an illness born with you, which grew along with your body; now I could treat it for you; what do you say?" The two said: "We would like first to hear the evidence." Bian Que said to Gong Hu: "Your will is strong but your energy is weak, so you plan well enough but lack decisiveness. Qi Ying's will is weak but his energy is strong, so he thinks little and errs by being headstrong. If you exchanged your hearts, you would both come out well." Bian Que then gave the two a poisonous wine, and they lay stupefied as if dead for three days; he cut open their chests, took out their hearts, exchanged and set them in place, and applied divine medicine, and when they awoke they were as before. The two took their leave and went home. Then Gong Hu went to Qi Ying's house and took his wife, and the wife did not recognize him. Qi Ying likewise went to Gong Hu's house and took his wife, and the wife did not recognize him either. The two households then sued each other and asked Bian Que to settle it. Bian Que explained the reason, and the dispute ended.

匏巴鼓琴而鳥舞魚躍，鄭師文聞之，棄家從師襄遊。柱指鈞弦，三年不成章。師襄曰：「子可以歸矣。」師文舍其琴，歎曰：「文非弦之不能鈞，非章之不能成。文所存者不在弦，所志者不在聲。內不得於心，外不應於器，故不敢發手而動弦。且小假之，以觀其後。」無幾何，復見師襄。師襄曰：「子之琴何如？」師文曰：「得之矣。請嘗試之。」於是當春而叩商弦以召南呂，涼風忽至，草木成實。及秋而叩角弦以激夾鍾，溫風徐迴，草木發榮。當夏而叩羽弦以召黃鐘，霜雪交下，川池暴沍。及冬而叩徵弦以激蕤賓，陽光熾烈，堅冰立散。將終，命宮而總四弦，則景風翔，慶雲浮，甘露降，澧泉湧。師襄乃撫心高蹈曰：「微矣，子之彈也！雖師曠之清角，鄒衍之吹律，亡以加之。彼將挾琴執管而從子之後耳。」

When Pao Ba played the zither, birds danced and fish leapt. Shi Wen of the state of Zheng heard of it, left his home and followed Shi Xiang to study. He pressed the strings and tuned them, but for three years could not complete a piece. Shi Xiang said: "You may go home." Shi Wen put down his zither and sighed, saying: "It is not that I cannot tune the strings, nor that I cannot complete a piece. What I hold in mind is not in the strings, and what I aim at is not in the sound. If I do not get it within my heart, and outside it does not respond in the instrument, I dare not let go my hand and move the strings. Please allow me a little longer, and see afterward." Not long after, he saw Shi Xiang again. Shi Xiang said: "How is your zither?" Shi Wen said: "I have got it. Please try me." Then in spring he struck the shang string to call the note Nanlu, and a cool wind suddenly arrived and the grasses and trees bore fruit. In autumn he struck the jue string to rouse the note Jiazhong, and a warm wind slowly returned and the grasses and trees put forth flowers. In summer he struck the yu string to call the note Huangzhong, and frost and snow fell together and rivers and ponds suddenly froze. In winter he struck the zhi string to rouse the note Ruibin, and the sun blazed fiercely and the hard ice melted at once. As the piece was ending, he sounded the gong note and gathered the four strings, and then a bright wind soared, auspicious clouds floated, sweet dew fell, and sweet springs welled up. Shi Xiang then beat his breast and leapt about, saying: "How subtle is your playing! Even Shi Kuang's Qingjiao and Zou Yan's pitch-pipe tuning could add nothing to it. They would have to take up their zithers and pipes and follow after you."

薛譚學謳於秦青，未窮青之技，自謂盡之，遂辭歸。秦青弗止，餞於郊衢，撫節悲歌，聲振林木，響遏行雲。薛譚乃謝求反，終身不敢言歸。秦青顧謂其友曰：「昔韓娥東之齊，匱糧，過雍門，鬻歌假食。既去而餘音繞梁欐，三日不絕，左右以其人弗去。過逆旅，逆旅人辱之。韓娥因曼聲哀哭，一里老幼悲愁，垂涕相對，三日不食，遽而追之。娥還，復為曼聲長歌。一里老幼喜躍抃舞，弗能自禁，忘向之悲也，乃厚賂發之。故雍門之人至今善歌哭，放娥之遺聲。」

Xue Tan studied singing with Qin Qing, and before he had exhausted Qing's skill, thought he had, and took his leave to go home. Qin Qing did not stop him, but gave him a farewell feast at the outskirts, beat time and sang a sorrowful song, and the sound shook the trees of the forest and its echo halted the moving clouds. Xue Tan then apologized and asked to return, and for the rest of his life did not dare speak of leaving. Qin Qing turned to his friends and said: "Long ago Han E went east to Qi, ran out of food, and passing the Yong Gate sold songs in exchange for food. After she left, the lingering sound still wound around the beams for three days without stopping, and those around her thought she had not left. As she passed an inn, the people of the inn insulted her. Han E then drew out a long sorrowful wail, and old and young in the whole neighborhood were sad and grieved, wept facing each other, and did not eat for three days, and hurried to chase after her. E came back and sang a long song again. Old and young in the neighborhood leapt for joy, clapped and danced, unable to restrain themselves, forgetting their former sorrow, and sent her off with generous gifts. So the people of Yong Gate to this day are good at singing and weeping, imitating the sounds that E left behind."

伯牙善鼓琴，鍾子期善聽。伯牙鼓琴，志在登高山，鍾子期曰：「善哉！峩峩兮若泰山！」志在流水，鍾子期曰：「善哉！洋洋兮若江河！」伯牙所念，鍾子期必得之。伯牙遊於泰山之陰，卒逢暴雨，止於巖下，心悲，乃援琴而鼓之，初為霖雨之操，更造崩山之音。曲每奏，鍾子期輒窮其趣。伯牙乃舍琴而嘆曰：「善哉，善哉，子之聽夫！志想像猶吾心也。吾於何逃聲哉？」

Bo Ya was good at playing the zither, and Zhong Ziqi was good at listening. When Bo Ya played, with his mind set on climbing a high mountain, Zhong Ziqi said: "Excellent! Lofty like Mount Tai!" When his mind was on flowing water, Zhong Ziqi said: "Excellent! Vast like the Yangtze and the Yellow River!" Whatever Bo Ya thought of, Zhong Ziqi was sure to grasp. Bo Ya was traveling on the north side of Mount Tai when he suddenly met a violent rainstorm and stopped under a cliff, feeling sad in his heart, and took up his zither and played, first making the tune of Continuous Rain, then composing the sound of Collapsing Mountains. At each piece Zhong Ziqi was always able to exhaust its meaning. Bo Ya then put down his zither and sighed, saying: "Excellent, excellent, your listening! What you imagine from my aim is just like my heart. Where could I hide my sound from you?"

周穆王西巡狩，越崑崙，不至弇山。反還，未及中國，道有獻工人名偃師，穆王薦之，問曰：「若有何能？」偃師曰：「臣唯命所試。然臣已有所造，願王先觀之。」穆王曰：「日以俱來，吾與若俱觀之。」越日偃師謁見王。王薦之，曰：「若與偕來者何人邪？」對曰：「臣之所造能倡者。」穆王驚視之，趣步俯仰，信人也。巧夫顉其頤，則歌合律；捧其手，則舞應節。千變萬化，惟意所適。王以為實人也，與盛姬內御並觀之。技將終，倡者瞬其目而招王之左右侍妾。王大怒，立欲誅偃師。偃師大懾，立剖散倡者以示王，皆傅會革、木、膠、漆、白、黑、丹、青之所為。王諦料之，內則肝、膽、心、肺、脾、腎、腸、胃，外則筋骨、支節、皮毛、齒髮，皆假物也，而無不畢具者，合會復如初見。王試廢其心，則口不能言；廢其肝，則目不能視；廢其腎，則足不能步。穆王始悅而歎曰：「人之巧乃可與造化者同功乎？」詔貳車載之以歸。夫班輸之雲梯，墨翟之飛鳶，自謂能之極也。弟子東門賈禽滑釐聞偃師之巧以告二子，二子終身不敢語藝，而時執規矩。

King Mu of Zhou made a tour of inspection in the west, crossed the Kunlun, and did not reach Mount Yan. On his way back, before he reached the Central States, a craftsman who offered his skill, named Yan Shi, met him on the road; King Mu summoned him and asked: "What can you do?" Yan Shi said: "I only follow orders and try things. But I have already made something, and wish Your Majesty to see it first." King Mu said: "Bring it with you another day, and I will see it with you." A day later Yan Shi had an audience with the king. The king summoned him and said: "Who is it that came with you?" He answered: "It is a performer I made." King Mu looked at it in alarm; it hurried along, bowed and looked up, just like a real person. How skillful! When he lifted its chin it sang in tune; when he held up its hand it danced in time. It changed in a thousand ways, following whatever he wished. The king thought it was a real person, and watched with his consort Sheng Ji and the inner attendants. As the performance was about to end, the performer winked at the king's attendant concubines. The king was furious and wanted to execute Yan Shi at once. Yan Shi was terrified, and immediately took the performer apart in front of the king, showing that it was all made of leather, wood, glue, lacquer, white, black, red and blue pigments joined together. The king looked it over carefully: inside were liver, gallbladder, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, intestines and stomach, outside were sinews, bones, limbs, skin, hair, teeth and hair of the head, all artificial things, yet none lacking, and when put together again it was as it had looked at first. The king tried removing its heart, and its mouth could not speak; removing the liver, its eyes could not see; removing the kidneys, its feet could not walk. King Mu then was pleased and sighed, saying: "Can human skill truly match the work of the Creator?" He ordered it to be carried back in a following carriage. As for Gongshu Ban's cloud ladder and Mo Di's flying kite, they thought they had reached the limit. Their disciples Dongmen Jia and Qin Guli, hearing of Yan Shi's skill, told the two of them, and for the rest of their lives they did not dare speak of craft and always carried only the compass and square.

甘蠅，古之善射者，彀弓而獸伏鳥下，弟子名飛衛，學射於甘蠅，而巧過其師。紀昌者，又學射於飛衛。飛衛曰：「爾先學不瞬，而後可言射矣。」紀昌歸，偃臥其妻之機下，以目承牽挺。二年之後，雖錐末倒眥，而不瞬也。以告飛衛，飛衛曰：「未也，必學視而後可。視小如大，視微如著，而後告我。」昌以氂懸蝨於牖，南面而望之。旬日之間，浸大也；三年之後，如車輪焉。以覩餘物，皆丘山也。乃以燕角之弧、朔蓬之簳射之，貫蝨之心，而懸不絕。以告飛衛，飛衛高蹈拊膺曰：「汝得之矣！」紀昌既盡衛之術，計天下之敵己者，一人而已，乃謀殺飛衛。相遇於野，二人交射，中路矢鋒相觸，而墜於地，而塵不揚。飛衛之矢先窮，紀昌遺一矢。既發，飛衛以棘刺之端扞之，而無差焉。於是二子泣而投弓，相拜於塗，請為父子；尅臂以誓，不得告術於人。

Gan Ying was an archer of ancient times: when he drew his bow full, beasts crouched and birds fell. His disciple named Fei Wei studied archery with Gan Ying and surpassed his teacher in skill. Ji Chang then studied archery with Fei Wei. Fei Wei said: "First learn not to blink, and only then can we talk about shooting." Ji Chang went home and lay on his back under his wife's loom, with his eyes fixed on the treadle. After two years, even if the point of an awl reached his eyelid, he did not blink. He told Fei Wei, and Fei Wei said: "Not yet; you must learn to see, and then it will do. Learn to see the small as large, and the subtle as clear, and then tell me." Chang hung a louse in the window with a yak hair and gazed at it facing south. Within ten days it grew larger; after three years it was like a cartwheel. When he looked at other things, they were all like hills and mountains. Then he took a bow of Yan horn and an arrow of northern fleabane shaft and shot at it, piercing the louse's heart while the hanging thread did not break. He told Fei Wei, and Fei Wei leapt about and beat his chest, saying: "You have got it!" Ji Chang had exhausted Wei's art, and calculated that the only one in the world who could be his match was one man, and so he plotted to kill Fei Wei. They met in the wilds, and the two shot at each other; halfway the arrowheads met and fell to the ground, raising no dust. Fei Wei's arrows ran out first, and Ji Chang had one arrow left. After he loosed it, Fei Wei parried it with the point of a thorn and made no error. Then the two wept and threw down their bows, bowed to each other on the road, and asked to be father and son; they cut their arms and swore not to tell the art to others.

造父之師曰泰豆氏。造父之始從習御也，執禮甚卑，泰豆三年不告。造父執禮愈謹，乃告之曰：「古詩言：『良弓之子，必先為箕；良冶之子，必先為裘。』汝先觀吾趣。趣如吾，然後六轡可持，六馬可御。」造父曰：「唯命所從。」泰豆乃立木為塗，僅可容足；計步而置，履之而行。趣走往還，無跌失也。造父學之，三日盡其巧。泰豆歎曰：「子何其敏也？得之捷乎！凡所御者，亦如此也。曩汝之行，得之於足，應之於心。推於御也，齊輯乎轡銜之際，而急緩乎唇吻之和，正度乎胷臆之中，而執節乎掌握之間。內得於中心，而外合於馬志，是故能進退履繩而旋曲中規矩，取道致遠而氣力有餘，誠得其術也。得之於銜，應之於轡；得之於轡，應之於手；得之於手，應之於心，則不以目視，不以策驅；心閑體正，六轡不亂，而二十四蹄所投無差，迴旋進退，莫不中節，然後輿輪之外可使無餘轍，馬蹄之外可使無餘地，未嘗覺山谷之嶮，原隰之夷，視之一也。吾術窮矣，汝其識之！」

Zao Fu's teacher was called Tai Dou Shi. When Zao Fu began studying chariot driving with him, his manner of respect was very humble, but Tai Dou did not tell him anything for three years. Zao Fu was even more careful in his respect, and only then Tai Dou told him: "The old poem says: 'The son of a good bowyer must first learn to make winnowing baskets; the son of a good smith must first learn to make fur coats.' First watch me walk. When you walk like me, then you can hold the six reins and drive the six horses." Zao Fu said: "I will follow your command." Tai Dou then set up posts as a path, just wide enough for a foot; he placed them by steps, and walked on them. He walked back and forth at speed without a slip. Zao Fu learned this and in three days had mastered the skill. Tai Dou sighed and said: "How quick you are! You got it so fast! Whatever you drive will be like this. Just now when you walked, you got it in your feet and answered it in your heart. Apply this to driving: evenness lies in the bit and reins, quickness and slowness in the harmony of the lips and mouth, correct measure in the chest, and control of the beat in the grip of the hand. Inwardly you get it in your heart, and outwardly you accord with the horses' will, so you can advance and retreat on the line, wheel and curve in accord with the compass, take a road far and still have strength to spare; you have truly got the art. You get it in the bit and answer it in the reins; you get it in the reins and answer it in the hand; you get it in the hand and answer it in the heart, and then you do not use the eyes to look nor the whip to drive; the mind is at ease and the body upright, the six reins are not disordered, the twenty-four hooves land without error, turning and advancing and retreating all in time, and then outside the wheel track there will be no extra rut, and outside the hooves no extra ground; one never notices any difference between the danger of the mountain gorge and the flatness of the plain. My art is exhausted; remember this!"

魏黑卵以暱嫌殺丘邴章，丘邴章之子來丹謀報父之讐。丹氣甚猛，形甚露，計粒而食，順風而趨。雖怒，不能稱兵以報之。恥假力於人，誓手劍以屠黑卵。黑卵悍志絕眾，力抗百夫；節骨皮肉，非人類也，延頸承刀，披胸受矢，鋩鍔摧屈，而體無痕撻。負其材力，視來丹猶雛鷇也。來丹之友申他曰：「子怨黑卵至矣，黑卵之易子過矣，將奚謀焉？」來丹垂涕曰：「願子為我謀。」申他曰：「吾聞衛孔周其祖得殷帝之寶劍，一童子服之，卻三軍之眾，奚不請焉？」來丹遂適衛，見孔周，執僕御之禮，請先納妻子，後言所欲。孔周曰：「吾有三劍，唯子所擇；皆不能殺人，且先言其狀。一曰含光，視之不可見，運之不知有。其所觸也，泯然無際，經物而物不覺。二曰承影，將旦昧爽之交，日夕昏明之際，北面而察之，淡淡焉若有物存，莫識其狀。其所觸也，竊竊然有聲，經物而物不疾也。三曰宵練，方晝則見影而不見光，方夜見光而不見形。其觸物也，騞然而過，隨過隨合，覺疾而不血刃焉。此三寶者，傳之十三世矣，而無施於事。匣而藏之，未嘗啟封。」來丹曰：「雖然，吾必請其下者。」孔周乃歸其妻子，與齋七日。晏陰之間，跪而授其下劍，來丹再拜受之以歸。來丹遂執劍從黑卵。時黑卵之醉偃於牖下，自頸至腰三斬之，黑卵不覺。來丹以黑卵之死，趣而退。遇黑卵之子於門，擊之三下，如投虛。黑卵之子方笑曰：「汝何蚩而三招予？」來丹知劍之不能殺人也，歎而歸。黑卵既醒，怒其妻曰：「醉而露我，使我嗌疾而腰急。」其子曰：「疇昔來丹之來，遇我於門，三招我，亦使我體疾而支彊。彼其厭我哉！」

Wei Heiluan killed Qiu Bingzhang because of a private grudge, and Qiu Bingzhang's son Lai Dan plotted to avenge his father. Dan's spirit was fierce but his body was frail; he counted grains of rice to eat, and could walk fast only with the wind behind him. Even in anger he could not raise troops for revenge. Ashamed to borrow others' strength, he swore to slaughter Heiluan with his own sword. Heiluan's fierce will exceeded that of ordinary men, and his strength could resist a hundred; his joints, bones, skin and flesh were not like those of human beings, he stretched his neck to receive the blade and bared his chest to receive the arrow, and the sharp edges bent and broke on him, leaving no mark on his body. Relying on his strength, he looked on Dan as a fledgling. Lai Dan's friend Shen Ta said: "Your resentment of Heiluan is extreme, and Heiluan's contempt for you is excessive; what will you plan?" Lai Dan wept and said: "I hope you will plan it for me." Shen Ta said: "I have heard that the ancestors of Kong Zhou of Wei obtained a sword of the Yin emperor, which a child could wear and with it drive back the host of three armies; why not go and ask for it?" Lai Dan then went to Wei and saw Kong Zhou, offering the courtesy of a servant, and asked first to present his wife, and then to say what he sought. Kong Zhou said: "I have three swords, and you may choose only one; none of them can kill people, but let me first describe them. The first is called Hanguang. Look and you cannot see it; wield it and you do not know it is there. Where it touches it vanishes without a trace, and passes through things without their feeling it. The second is called Chengying. At the time between dawn and daylight, or the twilight between dusk and dark, face north and look, and faintly it seems something is there, but you cannot make out its shape. Where it touches there is a faint sound, and it passes through things without hurting them. The third is called Xiaolian. In the daytime you see its shadow but not its light, and at night you see its light but not its shape. It touches a thing and passes through in a flash, closing as it passes; one feels pain but no blood is on the blade. These three treasures have been handed down for thirteen generations, but have never been used for anything. They are kept in their cases and have never been unsealed." Lai Dan said: "Even so, I must ask for the lowest one." Kong Zhou then gave back his wife, and they fasted together for seven days. In a space between cloud and clear weather, kneeling, he handed him the lowest sword, and Lai Dan bowed twice and took it back. Lai Dan then took the sword and followed Heiluan. At the time Heiluan was lying drunk under the window, and he struck three times from neck to waist, and Heiluan did not feel it. Lai Dan thought Heiluan was dead and hurried away. At the door he met Heiluan's son and struck him three times, as if throwing it at empty space. Heiluan's son was laughing and said: "Why do you wave at me three times like a fool?" Lai Dan knew that the sword could not kill people, sighed and went home. When Heiluan woke up, he scolded his wife: "Getting drunk, you left me uncovered, and now my throat hurts and my waist is tight." His son said: "The other day Lai Dan came, met me at the door, and waved at me three times, and also made my body ache and my limbs stiff. He probably put a curse on us!"

周穆王大征西戎，西戎獻錕鋙之劍，火浣之布。其劍長尺有咫，練鋼赤刃，用之切玉如切泥焉。火浣之布，浣之必投於火，布則火色，垢則布色；出火而振之，皓然疑乎雪。皇子以為無此物，傳之者妄。蕭叔曰：「皇子果於自信，果於誣理哉！」

King Mu of Zhou made a great campaign against the Western Rong, and the Western Rong presented him with the Kunwu sword and fire-washed cloth. The sword was one foot eight inches long, forged of steel with a red blade, and with it one could cut jade like clay. As for the fire-washed cloth, to wash it one must throw it into fire, and the cloth takes on the color of fire and the dirt takes on the color of cloth; when it comes out of the fire and is shaken, it is white as snow. The prince thought there was no such thing and that those who passed it on were lying. Xiao Shu said: "The prince is rash in trusting himself, and rash in slandering principle!"

力謂命曰：「若之功奚若我哉？」命曰：「汝奚功於物而欲比朕？」力曰：「壽夭、窮達，貴賤、貧富，我力之所能也。」命曰：「彭祖之智不出堯舜之上，而壽八百；顏淵之才不出眾人之下，而壽十八。仲尼之德不出諸侯之下，而困於陳蔡；殷紂之行不出三仁之上，而居君位。季札無爵於吳，田恆專有齊國。夷齊餓於首陽，季氏富於展禽。若是汝力之所能，柰何壽彼而夭此，窮聖而達逆，賤賢而貴愚，貧善而富惡邪？」力曰：「若如若言，我固無功於物，而物若此邪，此則若之所制邪？」命曰：「既謂之命，柰何有制之者邪？朕直而推之，曲而任之。自壽自夭，自窮自達，自貴自賤，自富自貧，朕豈能識之哉？朕豈能識之哉？」

Effort said to Fate: "How does your merit compare with mine?" Fate said: "What merit do you have toward things, that you want to compare with me?" Effort said: "Long life and early death, poverty and success, high and low rank, poor and rich, are things my effort can do." Fate said: "Peng Zu's wisdom did not surpass Yao and Shun, yet he lived eight hundred years; Yan Yuan's talent was not below that of ordinary men, yet he lived eighteen years. Confucius's virtue was not below that of the feudal lords, yet he was in distress between Chen and Cai; King Zhou of Yin's conduct did not surpass the Three Benevolent Ones, yet he held the throne. Ji Zha had no title in Wu, while Tian Heng held the state of Qi for himself. Bo Yi and Shu Qi starved on Mount Shouyang, and the Ji family was richer than Zhan Qin. If it is what your effort can do, why do you make that one live long and this one die young, make the sage poor and the rebel successful, make the worthy low and the foolish high, make the good poor and the wicked rich?" Effort said: "If it is as you say, then I have no merit toward things at all, and things are like this; is this what you control?" Fate said: "Since it is called fate, how can there be anything that controls it? What is straight I push, and what is crooked I let be. Each lives long or dies young of itself, is poor or successful of itself, noble or lowly of itself, rich or poor of itself; how could I know? How could I know?"

北宮子謂西門子曰：「朕與子並世也，而人子達；並族也，而人子敬；並貌也，而人子愛；並言也，而人子庸；並行也，而人子誠；並仕也，而人子貴；並農也，而人子富；並商也，而人子利。朕衣則裋褐，食則粢糲，居則蓬室，出則徒行。子衣則文錦，食則粱肉，居則連欐，出則結駟。在家熙然有棄朕之心，在朝諤然有敖朕之色。請謁不相及，遨遊不同行，固有年矣。子自以德過朕邪？」西門子曰：「予無以知其實。汝造事而窮，予造事而達，此厚薄之驗歟？而皆謂與予並，汝之顏厚矣。」北宮子無以應，自失而歸。中塗遇東郭先生，先生曰：「汝奚往而反，偊偊而步，有深愧之色邪？」北宮子言其狀。東郭先生曰：「吾將舍汝之愧，與汝更之西門氏而問之。」曰：「汝奚辱北宮子之深乎？固且言之。」西門子曰：「北宮子言世族、年貌、言行與予並，而賤貴、貧富與予異。予語之曰：『予無以知其實。汝造事而窮，予造事而達，此將厚薄之驗歟？而皆謂與予並，汝之顏厚矣。』」東郭先生曰：「汝之言厚薄不過言才德之差，吾之言厚薄異於是矣。夫北宮子厚於德，薄於命；汝厚於命，薄於德。汝之達，非智得也；北宮子之窮，非愚失也。皆天也，非人也。而汝以命厚自矜，北宮子以德厚自愧，皆不識夫固然之理矣。」西門子曰：「先生止矣！予不敢復言。」北宮子既歸，衣其裋褐，有狐貉之溫；進其茙菽，有稻粱之味；庇其蓬室，若廣廈之蔭；乘其篳輅，若文軒之飾。終身逌然，不知榮辱之在彼也、在我也。東郭先生聞之曰：「北宮子之寐久矣，一言而能寤，易悟也哉！」

Beigong Zi said to Ximen Zi: "You and I live in the same age, yet people let you succeed; we are of the same clan, yet people respect you; we look alike, yet people love you; we speak alike, yet people use you; we act alike, yet people trust you; we both serve in office, yet people honor you; we both farm, yet you become rich; we both trade, yet you profit. I wear short coarse cloth, eat coarse grain, live in a hut of brushwood, and go on foot. You wear patterned brocade, eat fine millet and meat, live in joined halls, and go out with a team of four. At home you have a cheerful air of putting me aside, and at court you have an upright air of looking down on me. When I ask for an audience it does not reach you, and when we roam we do not go together; it has been years already. Do you think your virtue surpasses mine?" Ximen Zi said: "I have no way to know the truth. You work and are poor, I work and succeed; is this a proof of thick and thin? Yet you say you are my equal, and your face is thick." Beigong Zi had no reply, and went home dejected. Halfway he met Master Dongguo, who said: "Where are you coming from, walking alone like this, with a look of deep shame?" Beigong Zi told him what had happened. Master Dongguo said: "I will remove your shame, and go with you to ask the Ximen again." He said: "Why did you shame Beigong Zi so deeply? Please tell me." Ximen Zi said: "Beigong Zi says that in clan, age, looks, speech and conduct he is my equal, but that in low and high, poor and rich he differs from me. I told him: 'I have no way to know the truth. You work and are poor, I work and succeed; is this perhaps a proof of thick and thin? Yet you say you are my equal, and your face is thick.'" Master Dongguo said: "What you call thick and thin is only a difference of talent and virtue; the thick and thin I speak of are different from this. Beigong Zi is thick in virtue and thin in fate; you are thick in fate and thin in virtue. Your success was not gained by wisdom, and Beigong Zi's poverty was not lost by folly. It is all heaven, not man. You boast because your fate is thick, and Beigong Zi feels shame because his virtue is thick, and neither of you recognizes the principle of how things must be." Ximen Zi said: "Please stop, sir! I dare not speak again." After Beigong Zi went home, wearing his short coarse cloth he had the warmth of fox and badger furs; eating beans he had the taste of rice and millet; sheltered in his brushwood hut he felt like in a grand hall's shade; riding his firewood cart he felt like having an ornamented carriage. All his life he was at ease, not knowing whether glory and disgrace were over there or in himself. Master Dongguo, hearing of it, said: "Beigong Zi has slept a long time, and one word could wake him; he is easy to awaken!"

管夷吾、鮑叔牙二人相友甚戚，同處於齊。管夷吾事公子糾，鮑叔牙事公子小白。齊公族多寵，嫡庶並行，國人懼亂。管仲與召忽奉公子糾奔魯，鮑叔奉公子小白奔莒。既而公孫無知作亂，齊無君，二公子爭入。管夷吾與小白戰於莒，道射中小白帶鉤。小白既立，脅魯殺子糾，召忽死之，管夷吾被囚。鮑叔牙謂桓公曰：「管夷吾能，可以治國。」桓公曰：「我讐也，願殺之。」鮑叔牙曰：「吾聞賢君無私怨，且人能為其主，亦必能為人君。如欲霸王，非夷吾其弗可。君必舍之！」遂召管仲。魯歸之，齊鮑叔牙郊迎，釋其囚。桓公禮之，而位於高國之上，鮑叔牙以身下之，任以國政，號曰仲父。桓公遂霸。管仲嘗歎曰：「吾少窮困時，嘗與鮑叔賈，分財多自與，鮑叔不以我為貪，知我貧也。吾嘗為鮑叔謀事而大窮困，鮑叔不以我為愚，知時有利不利也。吾嘗三仕，三見逐於君，鮑叔不以我為不肖，知我不遭時也。吾嘗三戰三北，鮑叔不以我為怯，知我有老母也。公子糾敗，召忽死之，吾幽囚受辱，鮑叔不以我為無恥，知我不羞小節而恥名不顯於天下也。生我者父母，知我者鮑叔也！」此世稱管鮑善交者，小白善用能者。然實無善交，實無用能也。實無善交、實無用能者，非更有善交、更有善用能也。召忽非能死，不得不死；鮑叔非能舉賢，不得不舉；小白非能用讐，不得不用。及管夷吾有病，小白問之，曰：「仲父之病病矣，可不諱。雲至於大病，則寡人惡乎屬國而可？」夷吾曰：「公誰欲歟？」小白曰：「鮑叔牙可。」曰：「不可。其為人也，潔廉善士也，其於不己若者不比之人，一聞人之過，終身不忘。使之理國，上且鉤乎君，下且逆乎民。其得罪於君也，將弗久矣。」小白曰：「然則孰可？」對曰：「勿已，則隰朋可。其為人也，上忘而下不叛，愧其不若黃帝而哀不己若者。

Guan Yiwu and Bao Shuya were very close friends and lived together in Qi. Guan Yiwu served Prince Jiu, and Bao Shuya served Prince Xiaobai. The ducal clan of Qi had many favorites, sons of wives and concubines stood side by side, and the people of the state feared disorder. Guan Zhong and Shao Hu took Prince Jiu and fled to Lu, and Bao Shu took Prince Xiaobai and fled to Ju. Afterward Gongsun Wuzhi made a rebellion, Qi was without a ruler, and the two princes raced to enter the state. Guan Yiwu fought Xiaobai on the road from Ju and shot him in the belt hook. After Xiaobai was established, he forced Lu to kill Prince Jiu; Shao Hu died, and Guan Yiwu was imprisoned. Bao Shuya said to Duke Huan: "Guan Yiwu is able and can govern the state." Duke Huan said: "He is my enemy, and I wish to kill him." Bao Shuya said: "I have heard that a worthy ruler has no private grudges, and moreover one who can serve his own lord can surely be a lord to others. If you wish to become hegemon, it must be Yiwu. Please pardon him, my lord!" So he summoned Guan Zhong. Lu sent him back, and Bao Shuya of Qi went to the outskirts to meet him and freed him from his bonds. Duke Huan treated him with courtesy, placing him above the Gao and Guo families, while Bao Shuya himself took a lower place and entrusted the government of the state to him, calling him Zhongfu. Duke Huan then became hegemon. Guan Zhong once sighed and said: "When I was young and poor, I once went into business with Bao Shu and took more of the profit for myself, and Bao Shu did not think me greedy, for he knew I was poor. I once planned something for Bao Shu and fell into great distress, and Bao Shu did not think me foolish, for he knew that times may be favorable or unfavorable. I held office three times and was dismissed by my lord three times, and Bao Shu did not think me unworthy, for he knew I had not met the right time. I fought three battles and was defeated three times, and Bao Shu did not think me a coward, for he knew I had an old mother. When Prince Jiu was defeated and Shao Hu died, I was imprisoned and disgraced, and Bao Shu did not think me shameless, for he knew I was not ashamed of small points of conduct but ashamed that my name was not known in the world. It was my parents who gave birth to me, but it was Bao Shu who knew me!" This is why people of the world praise Guan and Bao for their good friendship and Xiaobai for his good use of ability. But in truth there was no good friendship, and in truth there was no use of ability. In truth there was no good friendship and no use of ability, and it is not that there was anything else called good friendship or good use of ability. Shao Hu did not die because he was able to, but because he had to; Bao Shu did not recommend the worthy because he was able to, but because he had to; Xiaobai did not use an enemy because he was able to, but because he had to. When Guan Yiwu became ill, Xiaobai asked him: "Zhongfu's illness is serious, and one may now speak without taboo. If it comes to a grave illness, to whom should I entrust the state?" Yiwu said: "Whom does Your Lordship wish to use?" Xiaobai said: "Bao Shuya would do." He said: "No. As a man he is a pure and upright good scholar, but he does not draw close to those who are not his equal, and once he hears of a person's fault he never forgets it all his life. If he governed the state, above he would hook the ruler and below he would go against the people. He would offend the ruler and would not last long." Xiaobai said: "Then who can?" He answered: "If there is no help for it, then Xi Peng will do. As a man, above he can forget himself and below he does not rebel; he is ashamed that he is not equal to the Yellow Emperor and pities those who are not his equal.

以德分人謂之聖人，以財分人謂之賢人。以賢臨人，未有得人者也；以賢下人者，未有不得人者也。其於國有不聞也，其於家有不見也。勿已，則隰朋可。」然則管夷吾非薄鮑叔也，不得不薄；非厚隰朋也，不得不厚。厚之於始，或薄之於終；薄之於終，或厚之於始。厚薄之去來，弗由我也。

(Guan Zhong continued:) One who shares his virtue with others is called a sage, and one who shares his wealth with others is called a worthy. One who treats people from the position of a worthy never wins people; one who places himself below others from the position of a worthy never fails to win people. In the state there are things he does not hear, and in his household there are things he does not see. If there is no help for it, then Xi Peng will do." So Guan Yiwu did not think lightly of Bao Shu; he had to think lightly of him; he did not think highly of Xi Peng; he had to think highly of him. Thick at the start, perhaps thin at the end; thin at the end, perhaps thick at the start. The coming and going of thick and thin is not up to me.

鄧析操兩可之說，設無窮之辭，當子產執政，作《竹刑》。鄭國用之，數難子產之治。子產屈之。子產執而戮之，俄而誅之。然則子產非能用《竹刑》，不得不用；鄧析非能屈子產，不得不屈；子產非能誅鄧析，不得不誅也。

Deng Xi held the doctrine that both sides are permissible and set up endless arguments, and at the time Zi Chan was in office he made the Bamboo Penal Code. The state of Zheng used it, and it many times stumped Zi Chan's governance. Zi Chan was brought to submission. Zi Chan seized him, humiliated him, and soon had him executed. So Zi Chan did not use the Bamboo Penal Code because he was able to, but because he had to; Deng Xi did not humble Zi Chan because he was able to, but because he had to; Zi Chan did not execute Deng Xi because he was able to, but because he had to.

可以生而生，天福也；可以死而死，天福也。可以生而不生，天罰也；可以死而不死，天罰也。可以生，可以死，得生得死，有矣；不可以生，不可以死，或死或生，有矣。然而生生死死，非物非我，皆命也，智之所無柰何。故曰：窈然無際，天道自會；漠然無分，天道自運。天地不能犯，聖智不能幹，鬼魅不能欺。自然者默之成之，平之寧之，將之迎之。

To live when one can live is heaven's blessing; to die when one can die is heaven's blessing. To not live when one can live is heaven's punishment; to not die when one can die is heaven's punishment. That one can live and can die, and gets to live and die, does happen; that one cannot live and cannot die, and yet dies or lives, also happens. Yet living and dying, are neither things nor me; all is fate, and wisdom can do nothing about it. So it is said: dim and without limit, the Way of heaven comes together of itself; vast and without distinction, the Way of heaven runs of itself. Heaven and earth cannot encroach on it, sage wisdom cannot interfere with it, and ghosts and demons cannot deceive it. What is natural quietly completes it, levels it, calms it, sends it off and welcomes it.

楊朱之友曰季梁。季梁得病，七日大漸。其子環而泣之，請醫。季梁謂楊朱曰：「吾子不肖如此之甚，汝奚不為我歌以曉之？」楊朱歌曰：「天其弗識，人胡能覺？匪祐自天，弗孽由人。我乎汝乎，其弗知乎！醫乎巫乎，其知之乎？」其子弗曉，終謁三醫，一曰矯氏，二曰俞氏，三曰盧氏，診其所疾。矯氏謂季梁曰：「汝寒溫不節，虛實失度，病由飢飽色慾。精慮煩散，非天非鬼。雖漸，可攻也。」季梁曰：「眾醫也。亟屏之！」俞氏曰：「女始則胎氣不足，乳湩有餘。病非一朝一夕之故，其所由來漸矣，弗可已也。」季梁曰：「良醫也。且食之！」盧氏曰：「汝疾不由天，亦不由人，亦不由鬼。稟生受形，既有制之者矣，亦有知之者矣。藥石其如汝何？」季梁曰：「神醫也。重貺遣之！」俄而季梁之疾自瘳。

Yang Zhu's friend was named Ji Liang. Ji Liang fell ill, and on the seventh day was in danger. His sons gathered around weeping and asked for a doctor. Ji Liang said to Yang Zhu: "My sons are this unworthy; why don't you sing something to enlighten them for me?" Yang Zhu sang: "Heaven itself does not know, so how can man become aware? Blessing does not come from heaven, and calamity does not arise from man. I and you, do we know it? Doctor and shaman, do they know it?" The sons did not understand, and in the end called three doctors, one named Jiao, one named Yu, and one named Lu, who examined his illness. Doctor Jiao said to Ji Liang: "Your cold and warmth are not regulated, your emptiness and fullness have lost their measure, and your illness comes from hunger and fullness and sexual desire. Your vital essence and thoughts are disturbed and scattered, and it is not from heaven or ghosts. Though dangerous, it can be treated." Ji Liang said: "He is an ordinary doctor. Dismiss him at once!" Doctor Yu said: "At the start your embryonic breath was insufficient and your mother's milk too abundant. The illness is not from a single day or evening, but has come gradually, and cannot be stopped." Ji Liang said: "He is a good doctor. Give him something to eat for now!" Doctor Lu said: "Your illness is not from heaven, nor from man, nor from ghosts. In receiving life and taking form, there is something that governs it, and something that knows it. What can medicine and stone needles do to you?" Ji Liang said: "He is a divine doctor. Send him off with a generous reward!" Soon Ji Liang's illness got better by itself.

生非貴之所能存，身非愛之所能厚；生亦非賤之所能夭，身亦非輕之所能薄。故貴之或不生，賤之或不死；愛之或不厚，輕之或不薄。此似反也，非反也；此自生自死，自厚自薄。或貴之而生，或賤之而死；或愛之而厚，或輕之而薄。此似順也，非順也；此亦自生自死，自厚自薄。鬻熊語文王曰：「自長非所增，自短非所損。算之所亡若何？」老聃語關尹曰：「天之所惡，孰知其故？」言迎天意，揣利害，不如其已。

Life cannot be preserved by honoring it, and the body cannot be made thicker by loving it; life also cannot be cut short by despising it, and the body also cannot be made thinner by slighting it. So honoring it may not give life, and despising it may not bring death; loving it may not make it thick, and slighting it may not make it thin. This seems contrary but is not contrary; it is that each lives and dies of itself, and each is thick or thin of itself. Or one honors it and it lives, or despises it and it dies; or one loves it and it grows thick, or slights it and it grows thin. This seems in accord but is not in accord; this too is that each lives and dies of itself, and each is thick or thin of itself. Yu Xiong told King Wen: "What is long of itself cannot be increased, and what is short of itself cannot be reduced. What good is it to calculate what does not exist?" Lao Dan told Guan Yin: "What heaven dislikes, who knows the reason?" This says that it is better to stop than to cater to heaven's will and weigh gain and loss.

楊布問曰：「有人於此，年兄弟也，言兄弟也，才兄弟也，貌兄弟也，而壽夭父子也，貴賤父子也，名譽父子也，愛憎父子也。吾惑之。」楊子曰：「古之人有言，吾嘗識之，將以告若。不知所以然而然，命也。今昏昏昧昧，紛紛若若，隨所為，隨所不為。日去日來，孰能知其故？皆命也夫。信命者，亡壽夭；信理者，亡是非；信心者，亡逆順；信性者，亡安危。則謂之都亡所信，都亡所不信。真矣慤矣，奚去奚就？奚哀奚樂？奚為奚不為？黃帝之書云：『至人居若死，動若械。』亦不知所以居，亦不知所以不居；亦不知所以動，亦不知所以不動。亦不以眾人之觀易其情貌，亦不謂眾人之不觀不易其情貌。獨往獨來，獨出獨入，孰能礙之？」

Yang Bu asked: "Here is a person whose years are like those of a brother, whose speech is like a brother's, whose talent is like a brother's, whose looks are like a brother's, yet whose long or short life differs like father and son, whose high or low rank differs like father and son, whose fame differs like father and son, and whose being loved or hated differs like father and son. I am puzzled." Master Yang said: "The ancients had a saying which I once remembered, and I will tell you. Not to know why it is so and yet it is so, is fate. Now in the murk and dimness, in confusion and disorder, one follows what one does and what one does not do. The days go and the days come; who can know the reason? It is all fate. One who trusts fate has no long or short life; one who trusts principle has no right or wrong; one who trusts the heart has no contrary or following; one who trusts nature has no safety or danger. That is to say, he trusts in nothing and distrusts in nothing. When truly sincere, what is there to get rid of and what to keep? What to grieve and what to rejoice at? What to do and what not to do? The book of the Yellow Emperor says: 'The utmost person dwells like one dead and moves like a machine.' He does not know why he dwells, nor why he does not dwell; nor does he know why he moves, nor why he does not move. He does not change his feelings or looks because the crowd is watching, nor does he say that he would not change them if the crowd were not watching. Alone he goes and alone he comes, alone he goes out and alone he comes in; who can hinder him?"

墨杘、單至、嘽咺、憋懯四人相與遊於世，胥如志也。窮年不相知情，自以智之深也。巧佞、愚直、婩斫、便辟四人相與遊於世，胥如志也。窮年而不相語術，自以巧之微也。㺒㤉、情露、𧮈極、凌誶四人相與遊於世，胥如志也。窮年不相曉悟，自以為才之得也。眠娗、諈諉、勇敢、怯疑四人相與遊於世，胥如志也。窮年不相讁發，自以行無戾也。多偶、自專、乘權、隻立四人相與遊於世，胥如志也。窮年不相顧眄，自以時之適也。此眾態也，其貌不一，而鹹之於道，命所歸也。

Mo Qiu, Shan Zhi, Chan Xuan and Bie Yi, four people, consorted with each other in the world, each as he wished. All year they did not know one another's feelings, and each thought his own wisdom very deep. Qiao Ning, Yu Zhi, Wan Zhuo and Pian Bi, four people, consorted with each other in the world, each as he wished. All year they did not tell each other their tricks, and each thought his own cleverness very subtle. Zao Ji, Qing Lu, Ling Li and Ling Sui, four people, consorted with each other in the world, each as he wished. All year they did not enlighten one another, and each thought his own talent had something to show. Mian Ting, Wei Wei, Yong Gan and Qie Yi, four people, consorted with each other in the world, each as he wished. All year they did not point out each other's faults, and each thought his own conduct without fault. Duo Ou, Zi Zhuan, Cheng Quan and Zhi Li, four people, consorted with each other in the world, each as he wished. All year they did not look at each other, and each thought the times suited him just right. These many different attitudes, with looks that are not alike, all return to the Way, and are where fate returns.

佹佹成者，俏成也，初非成也；佹佹敗者，俏敗者也，初非敗也。故迷生於俏，俏之際昧然。於俏而不昧然，則不駭外禍，不喜內福，隨時動，隨時止，智不能知也。信命者於彼我無二心。於彼我而有二心者，不若揜目塞耳，背坂面隍亦不墜僕也。故曰：死生自命也，貧窮自時也。怨夭折者，不知命者也；怨貧窮者，不知時者也。當死不懼，在窮不戚，知命安時也。其使多智之人量利害，料虛實，度人情，得亦中，亡亦中。其少智之人不量利害，不料虛實，不度人情，得亦中，亡亦中。量與不量，料與不料，度與不度，奚以異？唯亡所量，亡所不量，則全而亡喪。亦非知全，亦非知喪。自全也，自亡也，自喪也。

What is almost completed seems completed, but at first it was not completed; what is almost ruined seems ruined, but at first it was not ruined. So confusion is born of likeness, and at the point of likeness there is dimness. One who is not dim about what is alike is not alarmed by outside misfortune, nor delighted by inner blessing, moves with the season and stops with the season, and wisdom cannot know it. One who trusts fate has no double mind about this and that. One who has a double mind about this and that is better off covering his eyes and stopping his ears, so that walking backward with his back to a slope toward a ditch, he would not fall. So it is said: life and death come from fate, and poverty comes from the times. One who resents dying young does not know fate; one who resents poverty does not know the times. To face death without fear and dwell in poverty without grief is to know fate and be at peace with the times. Let a person of much wisdom weigh gain and loss, estimate real and empty, and measure human feelings; when he gets he is right, and when he loses he is also right. A person of little wisdom does not weigh gain and loss, does not estimate real and empty, does not measure human feelings; when he gets he is right, and when he loses he is also right. What difference is there between weighing and not weighing, estimating and not estimating, measuring and not measuring? Only one who has nothing he weighs and nothing he does not weigh stays whole without loss. Nor does he know wholeness, nor does he know loss. Each is whole of itself, each perishes of itself, and each is lost of itself.

齊景公遊於牛山，北臨其國城而流涕曰：「美哉國乎！鬱鬱芊芊，若何滴滴去此國而死乎？使古無死者，寡人將去斯而之何？」史孔、梁丘據皆從而泣曰：「臣賴君之賜，疏食惡肉可得而食，駑馬稜車可得而乘也，且猶不欲死，而況吾君乎？」晏子獨笑於旁。公雪涕而顧晏子曰：「寡人今日之遊悲，孔與據皆從寡人而泣。子之獨笑，何也？」晏子對曰：「使賢者常守之，則太公桓公將常守之矣；使有勇者而常守之，則莊公靈公將常守之矣。數君者將守之，吾君方將被蓑笠而立乎畎畝之中，唯事之恤，行假念死乎？則吾君又安得此位而立焉？以其迭處之迭去之，至於君也，而獨為之流涕，是不仁也。見不仁之君，見諂諛之臣。臣見此二者，臣之所為獨竊笑也。」景公慙焉，舉觴自罰，罰二臣者各二觴焉。

Duke Jing of Qi was traveling on Mount Niu and wept facing north toward the capital of the state, saying: "How beautiful this state is! So lush and green; how could it be that I flow away like this, leave this state and die? If from ancient times no one had died, where would I be going from here?" Shi Kong and Liangqiu Ju both followed and wept, saying: "Because of Your Lordship's gifts, we can get coarse food and poor meat to eat, and poor horses and plain carts to ride, and still do not want to die; how much more our lord?" Master Yan alone laughed at the side. The duke wiped his tears, turned and said to Master Yan: "I am traveling today in great sorrow, and Kong and Ju both wept with me. Why do you alone laugh?" Master Yan answered: "If worthy men could always hold the position, Duke Tai and Duke Huan would always hold it; if brave men could always hold it, Duke Zhuang and Duke Ling would always hold it. If these rulers held it, our lord would now be standing in the fields wearing a straw cape and bamboo hat, worrying only about farm work, and how would he have time to think of dying? Then how would our lord have gotten this position to stand in? They took turns being there and taking turns leaving, and when it came to our lord, he alone weeps over this, which is unbenevolent. I see an unbenevolent ruler and I see flattering ministers. Seeing these two kinds of people is the reason I laughed to myself." Duke Jing was ashamed, raised a cup and punished himself, and punished the two ministers with two cups each.

魏人有東門吳者，其子死而不憂。其相室曰：「公之愛子，天下無有。今子死不憂，何也？」東門吳曰：「吾常無子，無子之時不憂。今子死，乃與嚮無子同，臣奚憂焉？」

There was a man of Wei named Dongmen Wu whose son died, yet he did not grieve. His steward said: "No one in the world loves a son more than you. Now your son has died and you do not grieve; why?" Dongmen Wu said: "I once had no son, and when I had no son I did not grieve. Now my son has died, so it is the same as before when I had no son; what is there to grieve?"

農赴時，商趣利，工追術，仕逐勢，勢使然也。然農有水旱，商有得失，工有成敗，仕有遇否，命使然也。

Farmers hurry to the seasons, merchants head for profit, artisans pursue skill, and officials chase power, and it is circumstance that makes them so. Yet farmers meet flood or drought, merchants gain or lose, artisans succeed or fail, and officials meet or do not meet a patron, and it is fate that makes them so.