The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters)

In the Northern Ocean a fish named Khwän changes into a bird named Phäng, which flies to the Southern Ocean, the Pool of Heaven. The book Khî Hsieh records the Phäng flapping the water for 3000 lî, ascending 90,000 lî on a whirlwind, resting after six months. The text considers the sky's azure colour and the accumulation of water and wind needed to support boats and wings. A cicada and a little dove laugh at the Phäng, and provisioning for journeys is compared. The mushroom, cicada, the Ming-ling tree, Tâ-khun, and Phäng Zû illustrate short and long life. In Thang's questions to Kî, the khwän and phäng are described again, and a quail laughs at the bird. Men fit for one office are compared to the quail; Yung-dze of Sung would smile at them. Lieh-dze rides the wind, returning after fifteen days. The Perfect man, Spirit-like man, and Sagely-minded man are named. Yâo proposes to resign the throne to Hsü Yû, who declines, saying the name is the guest of the reality. Kien Wû tells Lien Shû of Khieh-yû's words about a Spirit-like man on Kû-shih who inhales wind and drinks dew; Lien Shû affirms them. A man of Sung takes ceremonial caps to Yüeh, where they are useless; Yâo, after seeing the four Ones, forgets his throne. Hui-dze tells Kwang-dze of a large useless calabash; Kwang-dze answers with the story of a salve sold to serve the king of Wû, urging him to make bottle-gourds. Hui-dze describes a useless Ailantus tree; Kwang-dze answers with the wildcat and the yak, suggesting planting it in a barren wild for restful ease.

Nan-kwo Sze-khî sits leaning on his stool as if in a trance; his disciple Yen Khäng Dze-yû asks how his body has become like a withered tree. Dze-khî says he had lost himself, and distinguishes the notes of Man, Earth, and Heaven, describing wind passing through the apertures of trees. When Dze-yû asks about the notes of Heaven, Dze-khî replies that the sounds arise from the apertures themselves. A discourse follows on great and small knowledge and speech, the striving of minds, the succession of moods, and a "true Governor" or "true Ruler" whose form is not seen, and on the toil of life. It considers the predetermined mind, speech compared to wind, and the Tâo obscured, producing the contentions of the Literati and the Mohists and the views of "that" and "this," resolved at the "pivot of the Tâo." Illustrations follow using finger and horse, the stalk of grain and pillar, the leper and Hsî Shih, and the monkey-keeper's "In the morning three." The knowledge of the men of old is discussed, with Kâo Wän's lute, Shih Kwang's staff, and Hui-dze's dryandra tree, and disputes about "the hard" and "the White." Further sayings concern beginnings and non-existence, the autumn down and the Thâi mountain, Phäng Zû, and the numbering of One and Speech. Demarcations are listed as the "Eight Qualities," with remarks on the sage and the Khun Khiû, five great qualities, and the "Heavenly Treasure-house." Yâo asks Shun about smiting Zung, Kwei, and Hsü-âo; Shun answers with the image of ten suns. Nieh Khüeh questions Wang Î about creatures' agreement; Wang Î answers with examples of dwelling, taste, and beauty (Mâo Zhiang and Lî Kî), and describes the spirit-like Perfect man. Khü Zhiâo-dze asks Khang-wû Dze about the Master's words, and Khang-wû dze begins his reply.

The text opens with images of seeing an egg and looking for the cock, seeing a bow and looking for the roasted dove. A speaker offers to explain roughly, asking how anyone could stand beside sun and moon and hold all space and time under his arm; the sagely man keeps his mouth shut and sets aside dark questions. Men in general bustle and toil, while the sagely man seems stupid; he blends ten thousand years into one and lets the myriad things follow their spontaneous course. The speaker asks how one knows love of life is not a delusion, and dislike of death not like a young person losing his way and not knowing he is going home. Lî Kî, daughter of the border Warden of Ai, wept when the state of Zin first took her, but regretted weeping once she shared the king's couch and food; so the dead may not repent their craving for life. Those dreaming of drinking may wail by morning; those dreaming of wailing may go hunting; only on waking is the dream known. There is a great awaking after which this life is known as a great dream, though the stupid think they are awake. Khiû is called bigoted; both he and the listener dream, and the speaker who says so also dreams. In section 10, the speaker questions who has won a dispute and whom to employ to adjudicate, concluding that harmonising lies in the invisible operation of Heaven. The Penumbra asks the Shadow why it lacks stability; the Shadow replies it waits on something else, which waits on another. Finally Kwang Kâu recounts dreaming he was a butterfly, then waking as Kâu, uncertain which dreamed the other—the Transformation of Things.

The section opens by stating that life has a limit but knowledge does not, and pursuing the unlimited with the limited is perilous. It advises neither doing good for fame nor evil near punishment, but following the Central Element to preserve body, life, parents, and years. Next, a cook cuts up an ox for the ruler Wän-hui, his movements in cadence; he explains he follows the Tâo, working by spirit, following natural lines, keeping his knife sharp nineteen years. Wän-hui declares he has learned nourishment of life. Then Kung-wän Hsien, seeing the one-footed Master of the Left, concludes the condition comes from Heaven. Finally, when Lâo Tan dies, Khin Shih condoles, crying out only three times, and explains to the disciples why prolonged wailing indulges human feeling; he describes death as loosening God's cord and fire transmitted beyond consumed faggots.

Yen Hui informs Kung-nî he intends to go to Wei, whose ruler is reckless and lets his people die. Kung-nî warns him he will only suffer, explains how virtue and wisdom become instruments of contention, and cites Kieh's killing of Kwan Lung-fäng and Kâu's killing of Pî-kan, and Yâo's and Yü's attacks on states. Yen Hui proposes uprightness, then being a co-worker with Heaven, men, and antiquity; Kung-nî rejects each as showing "the mind of a teacher." Kung-nî then teaches the "fasting of the mind": listening with the spirit, freedom from preoccupation. Hui reports the Hui he was has passed away, and Kung-nî approves. Dze-kâo, duke of Sheh, about to go on a mission to Khî, tells Kung-nî of his apprehension. Kung-nî speaks of two cautionary considerations—implanted requirement and duty—and cites the Rules for Speech on transmitting messages exactly and not urging settlements, advising him to be prepared to sacrifice his life. Yen Ho, about to teach duke Ling of Wei's bad-natured son, consults Kü Po-yü, who advises harmony without collision and cites the praying mantis, tiger-keepers, and horse-lovers. The mechanic Shih passes a great altar-oak, calling it useless; the oak appears in his dream defending its uselessness. Nan-po Dze-khî sees another useless large tree, noting useful trees at King-shih are cut down, as the Kieh book marks unfit sacrifices. The deformed Shû supports himself through his deformity. Confucius goes to Khû, where Khieh-yû the madman sings of degenerated virtue and the advantage of being useless.

In Lû, Wang Thâi, who had lost both feet, gathers disciples as numerous as Kung-nî's. Khang Kî questions Kung-nî, who calls Wang Thâi a sage and says he would make him his teacher, describing how Wang Thâi is unchanged by death and life and sees the unity in things, regarding the loss of his feet as loss of so much earth. Second, Shän-thû Kîa, another man without feet, studies alongside Dze-khân of Käng under Po-hwän Wû-zän. Dze-khân disparages him over rank; Shän-thû Kîa answers using the image of a bright mirror and says he has attended the teacher nineteen years without noticing he lacks feet. Dze-khân grows uneasy. Third, Shû-shan the Toeless comes on his heels to Kung-nî, who rebukes him; Toeless replies about preserving what is more honourable than feet. Confucius invites him in and praises his effort to his disciples. Toeless then tells Lâo Tan that Khung Khiû has not attained to be a Perfect man; Lâo Tan responds. Fourth, Duke Âi of Lû asks Kung-nî about Âi-thâi Tho, an ugly man of Wei whom others loved and trusted. Kung-nî explains complete powers and virtue unmanifested in the person, using still water as example. Duke Âi later tells Min-dze he now regards Khung Khiû as a virtuous friend. Fifth, a lipless deformed man counsels duke Ling of Wei, and a man with a goitre counsels duke Hwan of Khî, both esteemed despite deformity. Finally Hui-dze asks Kwang-dze whether a man can be without desires and passions; Kwang-dze affirms, explaining the Tâo and Heaven give form, and rebukes Hui-dze for babbling about the hard and white.

The text opens Book VI, "The Great and Most Honoured Master." Section 1 states that knowing the parts the Heavenly and the Human play brings perfection of knowledge, but that True knowledge requires a True man. Section 2 describes the True men of old: their conduct, breathing from the heels, and indifference to life and death. Section 3 describes their untroubled minds, and names Hû Pû-kieh, Wû Kwang, Po-î, Shû-khî, the count of Kî, Hsü-yü, Kî Thâ, and Shän-thû Tî as men who served others. Section 4 describes the True men's demeanour and their views of punishments, ceremonies, wisdom, and virtue. Section 5 states death and life are ordained by Heaven, and offers the image of fishes stranded when springs dry, and forgetting Yâo and Kieh. Section 6 speaks of the great Mass of nature and hiding a boat in a ravine. Section 7 describes the Tâo and lists beings who "got It": Shih-wei, Fû-hsî, the Wei-tâu, Sun and Moon, Khan-pei, Fäng-î, Kien Wû, Hwang-Tî, Kwan-hsü, Yü-khiang, Hsî Wang-mû, Phäng Zû, and Fû Yüeh. Section 8 recounts Nan-po Dze-khwei questioning Nü Yü about the Tâo, and Nü Yü's account of instructing Pû-liang Î and a lineage of transmission. Section 9 tells of four friends, Dze-yü falling ill, deformed yet content. Section 10 tells of Dze-lâi's illness and Dze-lî's visit. Section 11 tells of three friends, Dze-sang Hû's death, and Confucius sending Dze-kung, who finds mourners singing. Section 12 has Yen Hui asking Kung-nî about Mäng-sun Zhâi's tearless mourning.

The opening lines are fragmentary: they mention that when others wailed, he wailed, having a reason within himself; that all have individuality, but questions whether it is determined correctly; that one may dream of being a bird soaring or a fish diving without knowing whether those now speaking are awake or dreaming. It states that pleasure does not produce the smile, nor the smile the arrangement, and that resting in what is arranged brings unity with the mysterious Heaven. In section 13, Î-r Dze visits Hsü Yû, who asks what benefit he received from Yâo. Î-r Dze reports Yâo told him to labour at benevolence and righteousness and distinguish right from wrong. Hsü Yû asks why he then came, saying Yâo has branded and disfigured him. Î-r Dze wishes to skirt its hedges; Hsü Yû says this cannot be, citing the blind. Î-r Dze cites Wû-kwang, Kü-liang, and Hwang-Tî recovering their qualities, asking whether the Maker might restore him. Hsü Yû replies it cannot yet be known, then praises the Master who blends all things. In section 14, Yen Hui tells Kung-nî he is making progress, having ceased thinking of benevolence and righteousness, then ceremonies and music, then sitting and forgetting everything—becoming one with the Great Pervader. Kung-nî declares Hui his superior and asks to follow him. In section 15, Dze-yü, fearing his friend Dze-sang is in distress after ten days of rain, wraps rice and brings it. At the door he hears singing and wailing to a lute: "O Father! O Mother! O Heaven! O Men!" Dze-sang explains he sought in vain the cause of his extremity, concluding it was appointed for him.

Section VII opens with Nieh Khüeh putting four questions to Wang Î, none of which Wang Î can answer. Delighted, Nieh Khüeh informs Phû-î-dze, who compares him of the line of Yü, who retained benevolence to win men, with him of the line of Thâi, who slept tranquilly, considered himself as horse or ox, and did not proceed by what belonged to him as a man. Kien Wû visits the mad recluse Khieh-yü, who asks what Zäh-kung Shih told him. Kien Wû reports advice about rulers enacting regulations; Khieh-yü calls this the hypocrisy of virtue and likens it to wading the sea or a mosquito carrying a mountain. Thien Kän, rambling near the Liâo-water, asks a nameless man how to govern the world. The nameless man rebuffs him, then, asked again, advises pure simplicity and admitting no selfish consideration. Yang Dze-kü asks Lao Tan whether an alert, intelligent student of the Tâo compares to the intelligent kings. Lao Tan describes the intelligent kings' influence as unattributed to themselves. In Käng, the wizard Ki-hsien foretells lives. Lieh-dze, fascinated, tells Hû-dze he has found a superior doctrine. Hû-dze shows himself to the wizard on four successive days—as earth's forms, earth beneath sky, grand harmony, and vacancy—until the wizard flees. Lieh-dze then withdraws home for three years, cooking, feeding pigs, returning to simplicity. A passage describes non-action and the perfect man's mind as a mirror. Finally, Shû and Hû, meeting in Chaos's land, bore seven orifices in Chaos to repay his kindness; Chaos dies.