‘Great knowledge has a clear understanding of the past and present, which is why it can be unconcerned by the remoteness of the past and not worry about striving to grasp the present, for it knows that time never stops.
‘Great knowledge understands the differences between fullness and emptiness, and is neither exalted by success nor disheartened by failure, for it knows of the inconsistency of fate.
‘Great knowledge knows the straight and quiet road, so it does not get excited about life nor dejected by death, for it knows that neither beginning nor end is regulated.
‘What people know is as nothing to what they don’t know. The time since they were born is nothing in comparison to the time before they were born. When people take something minor and try to make it major, this is the path to mistake and confusion and they cannot achieve what they set out to do. Consider it thus: how can you know the tip of a hair can be used as a measure of smallness? How can we know that Heaven and Earth are equal to being the measure of the truly great?’
The Lord of the Yellow River said, ‘The debaters of this generation say, “The tiniest thing has no body, the most enormous thing cannot be contained.” Are these words true?’
Jo of the North Ocean replied, ‘From the viewpoint of the tiniest, we look at what is so enormous and we cannot comprehend it. From the viewpoint of the most enormous, we look at what is tiniest and we cannot see it clearly. The tiniest is the smallest of the small, the biggest is the largest of the large; so we must distinguish between them, even though this is just a matter of circumstance. However, both the coarse and the refined have form. Without any form, there is no way to enumerate them. What can be said in words is the coarseness of things; what can be grasped through ideas is the subtlety of things. But words cannot describe nor ideas grasp, and this has nothing to do with coarseness or refinement.
‘So it is that the great man through his actions will not set out to harm others, nor make much of benevolence and charity; he does not make any move for gain, nor consider the servant at the gate as lowly; he will not barter for property and riches, nor does he make much of his having turned them down; he asks for no one’s help, nor does he make much of his own self-reliance, nor despise the greedy and mean; he does not follow the crowd, nor does he make much of being so different; he comes behind the crowd, but does not make much of those who get ahead through flattery. The titles and honours of this world are of no interest to him, nor is he concerned at the disgrace of punishments. He knows there is no distinction between right and wrong, nor between great and little. I have heard it said, “The Tao man earns no reputation, perfect Virtue is not followed, the great man is self-less.” In perfection, this is the path he follows.’
The Lord of the Yellow River asked, ‘Whether they are external or internal, how come we have these distinctions between noble and mean? Why do we distinguish between small and great?’
‘Viewed from the perspective of the Tao,’ said Jo of the North Ocean, ‘things are neither elevated nor lowly. Viewed from the perspective of things, each one considers itself as elevated and the rest as lowly. Viewed from the perspective of the everyday opinion, neither elevation nor lowliness is to be understood from the perspective of individual things. Taking into account differing views, something which is seen as big because it is big means that, in all the multitudes of life, everything can be viewed as big. Likewise, if something is seen as small because it is small, then all forms of life can be viewed as small. If we know that Heaven and Earth are as tiny as a grain or the tip of a hair is as vast as a mountain range, then we will have grasped that our understanding of size is relative. In terms of what each does, we view something as useful because it is useful, which means that, in all the multitudes of life, everything can be viewed as useful. In the same way, if something is viewed as useless because it appears useless, then all forms of life can be viewed as useless. If we know that east and west are opposite each other, but also need each other, then we can understand how mutual exchange and interaction work. Viewed from the perspective of choice, if something is seen as good because it undoubtedly is good, then in all the multitudes of life there is nothing which is not good. Likewise, if something is viewed as wrong because it undoubtedly is wrong, then there is no form of life which cannot be viewed as wrong. If we understand that Yao and Chieh both considered themselves good, but saw the other as wrong, then we can understand how we perceive things differently.
‘In the past Yao gave way to Shun and Shun ruled as Emperor. Ki Kuai61 resigned and was disgraced. Chih ruled then and was finished off. Tang and Wu struggled and became kings. Duke Po62 struggled and was executed. Looking at these models of struggle and defeat, acting like Yao or like Chieh, we can see that there is a time for noble behaviour and a time to be mean. There is nothing fixed about either. A battering ram can be used to storm a city wall but it is useless for filling a little hole: there is a difference here of function. The horses Chih Chi and
