CHAPTER 27
Supposed Words
Supposed words constitute nine-tenths of discourse, quotes make up seven tenths and flowing words are brought forth every day, refined by the influence of Heaven.
Supposed words which constitute nine-tenths are similar to people who are brought in from outside. For example, no father is used as a reference for his son, for the father cannot be as objective as someone not of the family. It is not my fault but the fault of other people (who otherwise wouldn’t listen to me), for otherwise people would only pay attention to what they already know and dismiss anything else. Thus they say that whatever agrees with them is right, but whatever they dislike they call wrong.
Quotes make up seven-tenths and are there to stop arguments, which they do because they are respected as the words of sagacious elders. However, those who are old but have not grasped the warp and weft, the root and branch of things cannot be quoted as sagacious elders. A person like this hasn’t understood the Tao. Nor has he understood the Tao of humanity. He is just a sad remnant of another time.
Flowing words are spoken every day and they harmonize through the influence of Heaven, continuing for ever and so extending my years. If nothing is said about them, they remain in agreement, and agreement is not affected by words: words are in agreement but agreement is not words. So it is said, ‘say nothing’. Words say nothing, so you can talk all your life and say nothing. In contrast you can live your life without speaking and have said things of worth.
There is that which makes things acceptable and that which makes things unacceptable.
There is that which makes things certain and that which makes things uncertain.
How is this?
Because it is.
How is this not so?
It is not so, because it is not so.
How does this occur?
Because it occurs.
How does this not occur?
It does not occur, because it does not occur.
Everything is defined by what is right and everything is defined by what is possible. If there is nothing, then it cannot be. If there is nothing, then it cannot occur. If there are no flowing words every day, influenced by Heaven, then how could all this persist? All forms of life arise from the same base and in their diverse forms they succeed each other. They begin and end like an unbroken circle, and none can say why. This is the influence of Heaven. This influence of Heaven is the harmony of Heaven.
Chuang Tzu asked Hui Tzu, ‘In reaching the age of sixty, Confucius has changed his views sixty times, so what he once held to be right he now holds to be wrong. So who knows now whether what he once called right he hasn’t fifty-nine times called wrong?’
Hui Tzu said, ‘Confucius sincerely tries to pursue understanding and tries to act in accord with this.’
‘Confucius has abandoned that,’ said Chuang Tzu, ‘but he doesn’t talk about it. Confucius said, “We all received our abilities from the Great Origin, and we should try to show them in our lives.” Our singing should accord with the chords and our speech should be an example. But you parade profit and righteousness before us, and your likes and dislikes, and what you approve and disapprove, and you produce nothing more than servile agreement. To ensure people’s hearts submit, so that they dare not resist, that would make everyone under Heaven rest secure. Dear oh dear! I have no chance of managing all this!’
Tseng Tzu twice held power but twice he changed his heart, saying, ‘At first, when I was caring for my parents, my salary was three fu of rice, but I was happy. The second time I received three thousand chung of rice, but my parents were gone and I was sad.’
One of the followers of Confucius said, ‘Surely Tseng Tzu can be described as being free from the folly of entanglement?’
‘But he was already entangled,’ replied Confucius. ‘If he had been free, why should he have been so sad? He would have viewed both his three fu and his three thousand chung as just so many sparrows or mosquitoes flying in front of him.’
Yen Cheng Tzu Yu said to Tzu Chi of the Eastern Suburb. ‘When I listened to your words, Master, the first year I was just a country bumpkin. The second year I was happy to be led. The third year I began to journey with you. The fourth year I was just a thing. The fifth year I began to progress. The sixth year the ghosts came into me. The seventh year Heaven’s perfection came. The eighth year I could not understand death nor life. The ninth year I achieved the great mystery.
‘When life completes its purpose, death results. What is, follows, and each of us has to contemplate death, for it’s the path we tread. That which lives in yang is without a path. Is this certain? How does all this happen? Why is it not so here? Heaven has its time and space and Earth has its calculating peoples. Yet how can I discern all this? We have no idea when and how life will end. But how can we try and decide that they are not destined? Given that we have no idea how and when they began, how can we try and decide that they are destined? Given that there is something there, how is it possible to claim that there are no ghosts? If there is nothing there,
