The Book of Chuang Tzu (Penguin)

didn’t seem bothered in the slightest, swinging around and showing off before the King. The King fired an arrow at him, which the monkey simply caught cleverly in his hand. The King then called up his followers to join the hunt and soon they had the monkey trapped and killed.

The King said to his friend Yen Pu I, ‘This monkey showed off, relied on its skills and was rude to me, and this resulted in its death! Be warned by this! Ah, do not let yourself seem arrogant to others!’ So Yen Pu I went home and began to study with Tung Wu, to eliminate this look of arrogance from his face, to give up happiness and to leave reasoning. Within three years he was praised by everyone.

Tzu Chi of the Southern Suburb was sitting, leaning on the arm of his chair, gazing into Heaven and singing. Yen Cheng Tzu came in and, seeing him, said, ‘Master, you surpass all others. Is it true that your body can be made to look like a pile of dried bones and your heart be made like cold, dead ashes?’

Tzu Chi replied, ‘I used to live in a cave in a mountain. At that time Tien Ho⁸⁹ came to see me for a visit, and the citizens of the kingdom of Chi congratulated him three times. I must have shown him who I am, since he obviously knew me. I must have been selling something and that is why he came to buy. If I had not displayed something, then how could he have known who or what I was? If I had not been selling something, then how could he have been able to buy anything? Oh dear! I do so pity those who lose themselves. I also pity those who pity others. However, I also pity those who pity those who pity others, but that was long ago.’

Confucius went to Chu, and the King of Chu offered a toast in wine. Sun Shu Ao stepped forward and raised the wine glass in his hand and I Liao from the Southern Market took some wine and poured it out as a libation, saying, ‘You are like a man of old! They would make speeches.’

Confucius said, ‘I have heard of speech which is without words, but I have never spoken it. I shall do so now. I Liao from the Southern Market played with a set of balls and the problems between the two houses were solved. Sun Shu Ao slept quietly,⁹⁰ his fan waving gently, and the men of Ying prepared for war. How I wish I had a beak three feet long.’⁹¹

People like these follow the Tao that is not the Tao, and this discussion is the Argument Without Words. So it is that, when Virtue is fully integrated into the Tao and words stop where knowledge can know nothing more, there is perfection. The oneness of the Tao is beyond Virtue and what knowledge does not know is beyond what argument can cover. To label things as the Literati and the Mohists do is useless.

The sea does not reject the rivers that flow into it from the east; this is great perfection.

The sage holds both Heaven and Earth and his benign influence reaches out to all below Heaven, yet we know nothing of his background.

So it is that he has no official title while he is alive and no eulogies when he is dead. His reality is not known and labels do not stick to him: this is known as the great man.

A dog is not thought special just because it can bark, and no man is thought wise just because he can speak. Even less is he thought to be great. Anyone who thinks he is great is not to be counted as such, nor seen as virtuous. Nothing is greater than Heaven and Earth, but they do not seek greatness. One who knows what it is to be great does not go looking for it, does not lose it nor reject it and does not change his opinions in order to be great. He turns inward and finds what is without end. He follows the ancient ways and finds what never dies. This is the sincerity of the great man.

Tzu Chi had eight sons, and he called them before him, and summoned Chiu Fang Yin and said, ‘Study the physiognomy of my sons and tell me which one is to be the greatest.’

‘Kun is the most fortunate,’ said Chiu Fang Yin.

Tzu Chi was stunned and yet also delighted. ‘How is this?’ he said.

‘Kun will dine with the ruler of a kingdom and this will last all his life.’

Tears poured from Tzu Chi’s eyes and he said unhappily, ‘What has my son done to deserve this?’

‘One who shares the table of a ruler of a kingdom brings blessings to all three sections of his family, and especially to his father and mother!’ said Chiu Fang Yin. ‘Now, Master, when I said this to you, you wept. This will disturb the fortune. The son is fortunate indeed, but his father is not so fortunate.’

Tzu Chi said, ‘Yin, how do you know that this will be fortune for Kun? What you describe, the food and drink, only touches on the nose and the mouth, so how can you claim to know where such things come from? I have never been a shepherd, but a ewe gave birth to a lamb in the south-west corner of my fields. I have never been a hunter, but a flock of quail have arrived in the south-east corner of my fields.⁹² If this isn’t strange, then what is? When I go out wandering and travelling with my son, we journey through Heaven and Earth. We look for pleasure in Heaven and we look for nourishment from Earth. He and I don’t get caught up in the affairs of the world, or in plots or in any strange practices. He and I ride upon the reality