Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer

Systems of government are many. Each man thinks his own perfect. Where then does what the ancients called the system of TAO come in? There is nowhere where it does not come in.

Chuang Tzŭ[1] belongs to the third and fourth centuries before Christ. He lived in the feudal age, when China was split up into a number of States owning a nominal allegiance to...

The Prince greeted him sympathisingly, and said, "You are suffering, Sir. You must have endured great hardships in your mountain life that you should be willing to leave it and...

He who knows what God is, and who knows what Man is, has attained. Knowing what God is, he knows that he himself proceeded therefrom. Knowing what Man is, he rests in the knowle...

Vast as is the universe, its phenomena are regular. Countless though its contents, the laws which govern these are uniform. Many though its inhabitants, that which dominates the...

Yen Ch'êng Tzŭ Yu, who was standing by him, exclaimed, "What are you thinking about that your body should become thus like dry wood, your mind like dead ashes? Surely the man no...

Robber Chê had a band of followers nine thousand strong. He ravaged the whole empire, plundering the various nobles and breaking into people's houses. He drove off oxen and hors...

_Argument_:--Greatness and smallness always relative--Time and space infinite--Abstract dimensions do not exist--Their expression is concrete--Terms are not absolute--Like cause...

"I hear," answered Yen Hui, "that the Prince of Wei is of mature age, but of an unmanageable disposition. He behaves as if the State were of no account, and will not see his own...

He then offered it to Tzŭ Chou Chih Fu, who said, "There is no objection to making me emperor. But just now I am suffering from a troublesome disease, and am engaged in trying t...

"The sky turns round; the earth stands still; sun and moon pursue one another. Who causes this? Who directs this? Who has leisure enough to see that such movements continue?

"Kindly tell me by what thoughts, by what cogitations, may TAO be known? By resting in what, by according in what, may TAO be approached? By following what, by pursuing what, ma...

_Argument_:--The soul is from God--Man's body its vehicle--The soul quickening the body is life--Care of the internal and of the external must be simultaneous--In due nourishmen...

"In winter," said Wang Kuo, "he catches turtles on the river. In summer, he reposes in some mountain copse. If any passers-by ask of him, he tells them, "This is my home." Where...

_Argument_:--The operation of TAO is not seen--Spheres of action vary--TAO remains the same--Spontaneity essential--TAO can be divided but remains entire--It is infinite as Time...

Letting alone springs from fear lest men's natural dispositions be perverted and their virtue laid aside. But if their natural dispositions be not perverted nor their virtue lai...

The TAO of GOD operates ceaselessly; and all things are produced. The TAO of the sovereign operates ceaselessly; and the empire rallies around him. The TAO of the Sage operates...

Chuang Tzŭ was travelling over a mountain when he saw a huge tree well covered with foliage. A woodsman had stopped near by, not caring to take it; and on Chuang Tzŭ enquiring t...

_Argument_:--TAO cannot be imparted in words--It is not at man's disposal--It does not consist in formal morality--It is an inalienable element of existence--Without it the soul...

Lieh Yü K'ou, a name well known in connection with TAO. But it is extremely doubtful if such a man ever lived. His record is not given by the historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, and he may...

asked Confucius, saying, "This Wang T'ai has been mutilated, yet he divides with you, Sir, the teaching of the Lu State. He neither preaches nor discusses; yet those who go to h...

In the northern ocean there is a fish, called the Leviathan, many thousand _li_ in size. This leviathan changes into a bird, called the Rukh, whose back is many thousand _li_ in...

Contingencies are uncertain. Hence the decapitation of Lung Fêng, the disembowelment of Pi Kan, the enthusiasm of Chi Tzŭ, the death of Wu Lai, the flights of Chieh and Chou.

_Argument_:--The uncertainty of human happiness--What the world aims at is physical well-being--This is not profitable even to the body--In inaction alone is true happiness to b...

Half way through the song, an old fisherman stepped out of a boat and advanced towards them. His beard and eyebrows were snowy white. His hair hung loose, and he flapped his lon...

The precautions taken against thieves who open trunks, search bags, or ransack tills, consist of securing with cords and fastening with bolts and locks. This is what the world c...

_Argument_:--Princes should reign, not rule--Rulers find their standards of right in themselves--They thus coerce their people into obeying artificial laws, instead of leaving t...

Joined toes and extra fingers are an addition to nature, though, functionally speaking, superfluous. Wens and tumours are an addition to the bodily form, though, as far as natur...

Of language put into other people's mouths, nine tenths will succeed. Of language based upon weighty authority, seven tenths. But language which flows constantly over, as from a...

Of old, Wên Wang of Chao loved sword-play. Swordsmen thronged his halls, to the number of three thousand and more. Day and night they had bouts before the prince. In the course...

Self-conceit and assurance, which lead men to quit society, and be different from their fellows, to indulge in tall talk and abuse of others,--these are nothing more than person...

My life has a limit, but my knowledge is without limit. To drive the limited in search of the limitless, is fatal; and the knowledge of those who do this is fatally lost.

Those who exercise their faculties in mere worldly studies, hoping thereby to revert to their original condition; and those who sink their aspirations in mundane thoughts, hopin...

Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels over the champaign. Such...