The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 32 of 57 · tr. James Legge

Book 126 (part 10)

2 Not meaning the king of Khû; but the Tâo, whose will was to be found in his nature and the conditions of his lot.

1 A member of the Yen family of Lû.

We shall meet with him again in Books XIX, XXVIII, and XXXII.

2 A minister of Wei; a friend and favourite of Confucius.

3 Compare in the Kung Yung, ii, ch.



1 Equivalent to 'Do not cross him in his peculiarities.' 217:1 The name of a place; of a road; of a bend in the road; of a hill.

All these accounts of the name are found in different editions of our author, showing that the locality had not been identified.

2 No one has thought it worth cutting down.

1 This is the indignity intended.

1 Probably the Nan-kwo Dze-khî at the beginning of the second Book.

2 In the present department of Kwei-teh, Ho-nan.

3 A difficult sentence to construe.

4 In what part of the duchy we do not know.

5 See Mencius, VI, i, 13.

1 Probably the name of an old work on sacrifices.

But was there ever a time in China when human sacrifices were offered to the Ho, or on any altar?

2 One of Kwang-dze's creations.

1 The deficiency of their faculties--here mental faculties--would assimilate them to the useless trees in the last two paragraphs, whose uselessness only proved useful to them.

2 The great state of the south, having its capital in the present Hû-pei.

3 See the Analects, XVIII, v.

4 The madman would seem to contrast his own course with that of Confucius; but the meaning is very uncertain, and the text cannot be discussed fully in these short notes.

There is a jingle p.

of rhyme also in the sentence, and some critics find something like this in them: 'Ye ferns, ye thorny ferns, O injure not my way!

To save my feet, I backward turn, or winding stray!' 222:1 Literally, 'robs itself;'--exhausts its moisture or productive strength.

Themes

◆Divine Madnesssoteriology

Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.

Note 221:4 references 'The madman' as a figure contrasting with Confucius, alluding to the Daoist trope of the sage appearing as a madman to transcend conventional reason.

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◆Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The passage highlights the paradoxical nature of the text where 'uselessness only proved useful,' using contradiction to convey spiritual insight.

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◆Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The statement that the Tâo's will is found in 'his nature' implies an ontological unity between the divine principle and the natural condition of the being.

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◆Wu Weipraxis

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.

The commentary explicitly explains the theme of useless trees whose 'uselessness only proved useful to them,' a core illustration of non-striving and effortless action aligned with the Dao.

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