The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 8 of 57 · tr. James Legge
Book II (part 1)
p.
176 BOOK II.
PART I.
SECTION II.
Khî Wû Lun, or 'The Adjustment of Controversies 1 .' 1.
Nan-kwo Sze-khî 2 was seated, leaning forward on his stool.
He was looking up to heaven and breathed gently, seeming to be in a trance, and to have lost all consciousness of any companion.
(His disciple), Yen Khäng Dze-yû 3 , who was in attendance and standing before him, said, 'What is this?
Can the body be made to become thus like a withered tree, and the mind to become like slaked lime?
His appearance as he leans forward on the stool to-day is such as I never saw him have before in the same position.' Dze-khî said, 'Yen, you do well to ask such a question, I had just now lost myself 4 ; but how should you understand it?
You p.
177 may have heard the notes 1 of Man, but have not heard those of Earth; you may have heard the notes of Earth, but have not heard those of Heaven.' Dze-yû said, 'I venture to ask from you a description of all these.' The reply was, 'When the breath of the Great Mass (of nature) comes strongly, it is called Wind.
Sometimes it does not come so; but when it does, then from a myriad apertures there issues its excited noise;--have you not heard it in a prolonged gale?
Take the projecting bluff of a mountain forest;--in the great trees, a hundred spans round, the apertures and cavities are like the nostrils, or the mouth, or the ears; now square, now round like a cup or a mortar; here like a wet footprint, and there like a large puddle.
(The sounds issuing from them are like) those of fretted water, of the arrowy whizz, of the stern command, of the inhaling of the breath, of the shout, of the gruff note, of the deep wail, of the sad and piping note.
The first notes are slight, and those that follow deeper, but in harmony with them.
Gentle winds produce a small response; violent winds a great one.
When the fierce gusts have passed away, all the apertures p.
178 are empty (and still);--have you not seen this in the bending and quivering of the branches and leaves?' Dze-yû said, 'The notes of Earth then are simply those which come from its myriad apertures; and the notes of Man may just be compared to those which (are brought from the tubes of) bamboo;--allow me to ask about the notes of Heaven 1 .' Dze-khî replied, 'When (the wind) blows, (the sounds from) the myriad apertures are different, and (its cessation) makes them stop of themselves.
Both of these things arise from (the wind and the apertures) themselves:--should there be any other agency that excites them?' 2.
Great knowledge is wide and comprehensive; small knowledge is partial and restricted.
Great speech is exact and complete; small speech is (merely) so much talk 2 .
When we sleep, the soul communicates with (what is external to us); when we awake, the body is set free.
Our intercourse with others then leads to various activity, and daily there is the striving of mind with mind.
There are hesitancies; deep difficulties; reservations; small apprehensions causing restless distress, and great p.
179 apprehensions producing endless fears.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The parallel structure of Notes of Man, Earth, and Heaven suggests a reflection of cosmic structure at different scales.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
The master's statement 'I had just now lost myself' corresponds to the self-effacement described in the definition.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The master is depicted seated, breathing gently, and in a trance-like state, which aligns with disciplined inward attention.
The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.
The description of apertures becoming empty and still after the wind passes aligns with the concept of emptiness as a positive state.
Effortless action aligned with the spontaneous flow of the Dao; non-coercive, non-striving conduct that yields results without forcing — the sage acts without acting.
[auto] The passage uses the metaphor of wind blowing through apertures to illustrate spontaneous action arising naturally without external agency, central to the concept of effortless action.