The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 33 of 57 · tr. James Legge
Book V (part 1)
p.
223 BOOK V.
PART I.
SECTION V.
Teh Khung Fû, or 'The Seal of Virtue Complete 1 .' 1.
In Lû 2 there was a Wang Thâi 3 who had lost both his feet 4 ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those of Kung-nî.
Khang Kî 5 asked Kung-nî about him, saying, 'Though Wang Thâi is a cripple, the disciples who follow him about divide Lû equally with you, Master.
When he stands, he does not teach them; when he sits, he does not discourse to them.
But they go to him empty, and come back full.
Is there indeed such a thing as instruction without words 6 ?
and while the body is imperfect, may the mind be complete?
What sort of man is he?' Kung-nî replied, 'This master is a sage.
I have p.
224 only been too late in going to him.
I will make him my teacher; and how much more should those do so who are not equal to me!
Why should only the state of Lû follow him?
I will lead on all under heaven with me to do so.' Khang Kî rejoined, 'He is a man who has lost his feet, and yet he is known as the venerable Wang 1 ;--he must be very different from ordinary men.
What is the peculiar way in which he employs his mind?' The reply was, 'Death and life are great considerations, but they could work no change in him.
Though heaven and earth were to be overturned and fall, they would occasion him no loss.
His judgment is fixed regarding that in which there is no element of falsehood 2 ; and, while other things change, he changes not.
The transformations of things are to him the developments prescribed for them, and he keeps fast hold of the author of them 2 .' Khang Kî said, 'What do you mean?
When we look at things,' said Kung-nî, 'as they differ, we see them to be different, (as for instance) the liver and the gall, or Khû and Yüeh; when we look at them, as they agree, we see them all to be a unity.
So it is with this (Wang Thai).
He takes no knowledge of the things for which his ears and eyes are the appropriate organs, but his mind delights itself in the harmony of (all excellent) qualities.
He looks at the unity which belongs to things, and does not perceive where they have suffered loss.
He looks p.
225 on the loss of his feet as only the loss of so much earth.' Khang Kî said, 'He is entirely occupied with his (proper) self 1 .
By his knowledge he has discovered (the nature of) his mind, and to that he holds as what is unchangeable 1 ; but how is it that men make so much of him?' The reply was, 'Men do not look into running water as a mirror, but into still water;--it is only the still water that can arrest them all, and keep them (in the contemplation of their real selves).
Of things which are what they are by the influence of the earth, it is only the pine and cypress which are the best instances;-in winter as in summer brightly green 2 .
Of those which were what they were by the influence of Heaven 3 , the most correct examples were Yâo and Shun; fortunate in (thus) maintaining their own life correct, and so as to correct the lives of others.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The sage's indifference to the loss of his feet demonstrates a radical letting-go of attachment to physical form.
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 text references contemplation of real selves and the stillness required for spiritual receptivity.
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
Disciples go to the master empty and come back full, resonating with the concept of spiritual emptiness as receptivity.
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 describes a sage who teaches without words or discourse, embodying effortless action and non-coercive influence central to Taoist wu wei.