Zhuang Zhou Quotes

"In the northern darkness there is a fish and his name is K'un. The K'un is so huge I don't know how many thousand li he measures. He changes and becomes a bird whose name is P'eng. The back of the P'eng measures I don't know how many thousand li across and, when he rises up and flies off, his wings are like clouds all over the sky. When the sea begins to move, this bird sets off for the southern darkness, which is the Lake of Heaven.

The Universal Harmony records various wonders, and it says: "When the P'eng journeys to the southern darkness, the waters are roiled for three thousand li. He beats the whirlwind and rises ninety thousand li, setting off on the sixth month gale." Wavering heat, bits of dust, living things blowing each other about – the sky looks very blue. Is that its real color, or is it because it is so far away and has no end? When the bird looks down, all he sees is blue too."

with the answers.” The question Zhuangzi faces is indeed among the most fundamental human problems: How should I live my life? Which of the alternate courses should I take as my guide? How is it that I come to choose one course over another? Given that there are alternate ways to see things, why do I, and why should I, see things the way I do rather than another way and thus follow one path rather than another? Zhuangzi’s response to this problem, simply stated, is this: This question can never be answered in the terms in which it has been put, because our understanding consciousness can never know why it sees things one way rather than another, can never ultimately ground its own judgments, and is actually in no position to serve as a guide for living. To consciously weigh alternatives, apply your understanding to making a decision about what is best, and then deliberately follow the course you have decided on — this is the fundamental structure of all purposive activity and conscious knowledge, the basis of all ethics, all philosophy, all politics, all human endeavors at improvement, and this is precisely what Zhuangzi seems to consider ridiculous and impossible. Knowledge is unreliable; Will is unreliable; Tradition is unreliable; Intuition is unreliable; Logic is unreliable; Faith is unreliable. But what else is there?

The True Men of old used the eye to look at the eye, the ear to look at the ear, the heart to recover the heart. Such men as that when they were level were true to the carpenter’s line, when they were altering stayed on course.

Maan musiikin synnyttävät siis erilaiset onkalot; ihmisten musiikki syntyy bambupillistä, mutta rohkenenko kysyä, mitä on taivaan musiikki?

Tuuli puhaltaa kymmenellätuhannella eri tavalla ja jokainen ääni syntyy omalla tavallaan. Tämä tapahtuu luonnostaan, mutta kenen käskystä ne syntyvät?

But Tian Gen asked the same question again. The nameless man then said, “Let your mind roam in the flavorless, blend your vital energy with the boundless silence, follow the rightness of the way each thing already is without allowing yourself the least bias. Then the world will be in order.

Довершений чоловік не має свого, божий чоловік не має заслуг, а мудрець не має імені.

[le monde] n’a pas besoin d’être gouverné ; en fait, il ne devrait pas être gouverné

To try to govern the world by doubling the number of sages would merely double the profits of the great robbers. If you create pounds and ounces to measure them with, they’ll steal the pounds and ounces and use them to rob you further. If you make scales and balances to regulate them with, they’ll steal the scales and balances and use them to rob you more. If you create tallies and seals to enforce their reliability, they’ll steal the tallies and seals and use them to rob you too. If you create ideals of humankindness and responsible conduct to regulate them with, why, they’ll just steal humankindness and responsible conduct and use them to rob you all the more. How do I know this is so? He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.

Quand on a compris ce que sont le commencement, la noblesse, l'intelligence, la transformation, l'infiini, la foi et la sérénité, alors on a atteint la connaissance suprême.

When Yan He was appointed tutor to the crown prince of Wei, son of Duke Ling, he went to consult with Qu Boyu. “Here is a man who is just naturally no good. If I find no way to contain him, he will endanger my state, but if I do try to contain him, he will endanger my life. His cleverness allows him to understand the crimes people commit, but not why they were driven to commit these crimes.10 What should I do?” Peng Boyu said, “Good question! Be careful and cautious and rectify yourself! Be compromising in appearance and harmonious in mind. But even these measures can present problems. Don’t let the external compromise get inside you, and don’t let your inner harmony show itself externally. If you let the external compromise get inside you, it will topple you, destroy you, collapse you, cripple you. If the harmony in your heart shows itself externally, it will lead to reputation and renown, until you are haunted and plagued by them. If he’s playing the baby, play baby with him. If he’s being lawless and unrestrained, be lawless and unrestrained with him. If his behavior is unbounded and shapeless, be unbounded and shapeless with him. You must master this skill to the point of flawlessness. Don’t you know the story of the praying mantis? It flailed its pincers around to stop an oncoming chariot wheel, not realizing the task was beyond its powers. This is how it is for those with ‘great talents.’ Be careful, be cautious! If you irritate him by flaunting your talents, you will be in more or less the same position. Don’t you know how the tiger trainer handles it? He doesn’t feed the beast live animals for fear of arousing its lust for killing. He doesn’t feed it uncut sides of meat for fear of arousing its lust for dismemberment. He carefully times out the feedings and comprehends the creature’s propensity for rage. The tiger is a different species from man but can be tamed through affection for its feeder. The ones it kills are the ones who cross it. However, a man who

Et kysy sokean mielipidettä kauniista maalauksesta etkä kutsu kuuroa kuuntelemaan musiikkia. Eivätkä sokeus ja kuurous ole vain fyysisiä vikoja. On olemassa myös mielen sokeutta ja mielen kuuroutta, ja sinun sanasi osoittavat, että sinä kärsit niistä.

I know the joy of fishes
In the river
Through my own joy, as I go walking
Along the same river.

Täydellinen Ihminen on jumalan kaltainen. Vaikka suuret suot palaisivat, ne eivät pystyisi polttamaan häntä; vaikka nopeat salamat iskisivät vuoria halki ja tuuli kuohuttaisi merta, ne eivät säikäyttäisi häntä. Koska hän on sellainen, hän ratsastaa pilvillä ja usvalla, satuloi auuringon ja kuun ja vaeltaa Neljän Meren rajojen ulkopuolelle. Kuolema ja elämä eivät pysty häntä muuttamaan, saati sitten hyödyn ja vahingon ajatukset.

Zhao Wen’s zither playing, Master Kuang’s baton waving, Huizi’s desk slumping — the understanding these three had of their arts flourished richly. This was what they flourished in, and thus they pursued these arts to the end of their days. They delighted in them, and observing that this delight of theirs was not shared, they wanted to make it obvious to others. So they tried to make others understand as obvious what was not obvious to them, and thus some ended their days debating about the obscurities of “hardness” and “whiteness,” and Zhao Wen’s son ended his days still grappling with his father’s zither strings. Can this be called success, being fully accomplished at something? In that case, even I am fully accomplished. Can this be called failure, lacking the full accomplishment of something? If so, neither I nor anything else can be considered fully accomplished.

Celui qui craint de mourir n'est qu'un enfant perdu à la recherche de sa maison.