Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Back Forward
Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> Heaven and Earth -> 11.3

子貢Zi-gong shrunk back abashed, and turned pale.
He was perturbed, and lost his self-possession,
nor did he recover it, till he had walked a distance of thirty li.
His disciples then said,
'Who was that man?
Why, Master, when you saw him, did you change your bearing, and become pale,
?」 so that you have been all day without returning to yourself?'
He replied to them,
天下 'Formerly I thought that there was but one man in the world,
and did not know that there was this man.
I have heard the Master say
that to seek for the means of conducting his undertakings so that his success in carrying them out may be complete, and how by the employment of a little strength great results may be obtained,
聖人。』 is the way of the sage.
Now (I perceive that) it is not so at all.
They who hold fast and cleave to the Dao are complete in the qualities belonging to it.
Complete in those qualities, they are complete in their bodies.
Complete in their bodies, they are complete in their spirits.
聖人To be complete in spirit is the way of the sage.
(Such men) live in the world in closest union with the people, going along with them,
but they do not know where they are going.
Vast and complete is their simplicity!
Success, gain, and ingenious contrivances, and artful cleverness, indicate (in their opinion) a forgetfulness of the (proper) mind of man.
These men will not go where their mind does not carry them, and will do nothing of which their mind does not approve.
天下 Though all the world should praise them,
they would (only) get what they think should be loftily disregarded;
天下 and though all the world should blame them,
they would but lose (what they think) fortuitous and not to be received
天下- the world's blame and praise
can do them neither benefit nor injury.
Such men may be described as possessing all the attributes (of the Dao),
。」 while I can only be called one of those who are like the waves carried about by the wind.'
When he returned to Lu,
孔子 (Zi-gong) reported the interview and conversation to Confucius,
孔子 who said,
'The man makes a pretence of cultivating the arts of the Embryonic Age.
He knows the first thing,
but not the sequel to it.
He regulates what is internal in himself,
but not what is external to himself.
If he had intelligence enough to be entirely unsophisticated,
and by doing nothing to seek to return to the normal simplicity,
embodying (the instincts of) his nature, and keeping his spirit (as it were) in his arms,
so enjoying himself in the common ways,
you might then indeed be afraid of him!
!」But what should you and I find in the arts of the embryonic time, worth our knowing?'


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.