The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 56 of 57 · tr. James Legge
Book VII (part 4)
It conducts nothing and anticipates nothing; it responds to (what is before it), but does not retain it.
Thus he is able to deal successfully with all things, and injures none.
7.
The Ruler 3 of the Southern Ocean was Shû 4 , the p.
267 Ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hû 1 , and the Ruler of the Centre was Chaos.
Shû and Hû were continually meeting in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well.
They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, 'Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one.
Let us try and make them for him.' Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died 2 .
Footnotes 259:1 See pp.
136 - 138 .
259:2 See p.
190, note 5 .
259:3 An ancient Tâoist, of the time of Shun.
So, Hwang-fû Mî, who adds that Shun served him as his master when he was eight years old.
I suppose the name indicates that his clothes were made of rushes.
259:4 Shun.
See p.
245, note 3 .
259:5 An ancient sovereign, earlier, no doubt, than Fû-hsî; but nothing is known of him.
259:6 He thought nothing about his being, as a man, superior to the lower creatures.
Shun in governing employed his acquired knowledge; Thâi had not begun to do so.
260:1 See p.
170, note 2 .
260:2 See p.
170, note 3 .
260:3 A name;--'a worthy,' it is said.
260:4 Name of some hill, or height.
260:5 A name ('Root of the sky'), but probably mythical.
There is a star so called.
260:6 Probably the name of a mountain, though this meaning of Yin is not given in the dictionary.
261:1 Or, 'a nameless man.' We cannot tell whether Kwang-dze had any particular Being, so named, in view or not.
261:2 The objectionable point in the question is the supposition that doing' was necessary in the case.
261:3 Or, 'I am unprepared!
But as Thien Kän repeats the question, it seems better to supply the second pronoun.
He had thought on the subject.
261:4 See the same phraseology in VI, par.
11.
What follows is merely our author's way of describing the non-action of the Tâo.
261:5 The Yang Kû, whom Mencius attacked so fiercely.
He was, perhaps, a contemporary and disciple of Lâo-dze.
262:1 The may be taken as = in which case we must understand a as its object; or as = , an echo,' indicating the quickness of the man's response to things.
262:2 Compare the language of Lâo Tan, in Bk.
XII, par.
8, near the beginning.
262:3 is generally feminine, meaning 'a witch.' We must take p.
263 it here as masculine (= ).
The general meaning of the character is 'magical,' the antics of such performers to bring down the spirits.
263:1 Literally, 'intoxicated.' 263:2 The teacher in Tâoism of Lieh-dze, called also Hû Khiû, with the name Lin ( ).
See the remarks on the whole paragraph in the Introductory Notice of the Book.
263:3 'The hens' signify the letter of the doctrine; 'the cock,' its spirit; 'the eggs,' a real knowledge of it.
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The story of Chaos illustrates that adding sensory orifices (body parts) to the natural state leads to death, viewing the material form as an impediment to the Dao.
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 mind 'responds... but does not retain it', exemplifying the radical letting-go of will and grasping.
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 description of the mind as a mirror that responds without retaining is a classic metaphor for meditative awareness.
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 text characterizes the Perfect Man with 'pure vacancy (of all purpose)', phenomenologically matching the doctrine of emptiness.
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 explicitly describes the Perfect Man's action as leaving no trace and fulfilling Heaven without seeing himself as a recipient, which is the definition of non-action (Wu-Wei), further confirmed by Footnote 261:4.