Zhuangzi 1.5
肩吾問於連叔曰：「吾聞言於接輿，大而無當，往而不反。吾驚怖其言，猶河漢而無極也，大有逕庭，不近人情焉。」連叔曰：「其言謂何哉？」曰：「藐姑射之山，有神人居焉，肌膚若冰雪，淖約若處子，不食五穀，吸風飲露。乘雲氣，御飛龍，而遊乎四海之外。其神凝，使物不疵癘而年穀熟。吾以是狂而不信也。」連叔曰：「然，瞽者無以與乎文章之觀，聾者無以與乎鍾鼓之聲。豈唯形骸有聾盲哉？夫知亦有之。是其言也，猶時女也。之人也，之德也，將旁礡萬物，以為一世蘄乎亂，孰弊弊焉以天下為事！之人也，物莫之傷，大浸稽天而不溺，大旱、金石流、土山焦而不熱。是其塵垢粃糠，將猶陶鑄堯、舜者也，孰肯以物為事！宋人資章甫而適諸越，越人斷髮文身，無所用之。堯治天下之民，平海內之政，往見四子藐姑射之山，汾水之陽，窅然喪其天下焉。」
Jian Yu questioned Lian Shu, saying: "I
heard [*1] the words of Jie Yu: great but with no connection [*2] to anything,
going forth with no return! I was frightened by his words, (they were) like the
Han River [Milky Way]: having no limit, abundantly disparate [*3], [and]
nowhere near human sense. [*4]
Lian Shu said: "His words, what did (he) say?"
“[He] said: ‘[At] far-distant Gu Ye Mountain
[*5], a spirit-person dwells, flesh and skin like ice and snow, meek and mild
[*6] like a maiden, not eating the five grains, [but] inhaling wind and
drinking dew, Riding clouds and mist, driving flying dragons, and
wandering beyond the four seas. Their spirit concentrates, causing the living
to be cured of disease and pestilence [*7], and the annual crops to ripen.’ I
thought his affirmations insane and unbelievable.”
Lian Shu said: "Like so. The blind have no
means of following the sight of beautiful writings; the deaf have no means of
following the sounds of bells and drums. [But] are blindness and deafness
exclusive to the bodily form? Sir’s knowing also has it. Regarding these words,
[this is] just like you right now. Such a person, such virtue, could fully
extend to the ten thousand things, taking and regarding all as one, a world
seeking confusion – what fastidious official [*8] would take all under heaven
as their responsibility! Such a person, things can not harm them: great waters
rise to the heavens and [they do] not drown; [in] great droughts, metal and
stone may [melt and] flow, and the earth and mountains burn to ash, but [they
feel] no heat. Regarding their dust and chaff would be like casting a Yao or a
Shun – who would consent to taking [all] creatures and making them [their]
responsibility! The people of Song supplied embroidered crowns [*9] but [when]
fitting everyone in Yue, the people of Yue cut off their hair and tattooed
their bodies, so the [crowns] were useless. Yao ruled everyone (all under
heaven), bringing peace to the governments within the four seas, (but) after
going to see the four great ones of distant Gu Ye Mountain, (everything)
beneath heaven was lost and hidden to him [*10].
Notes:
*1 Note degrees of understanding, as seen in Zhuangzi 4.10.1-4.10.3: 若一志，无聽之以耳而聽之以心，无聽之以心而聽之以氣。聽止於耳，心止於符。氣也者，虛而待物者也。唯道集虛。虛者，心齋也。 “With
a unified focus. Do not listen with the ears, but rather listen by means of the
heart. Do not listen by means of the heart, but rather listen by means of the
spirit. Listening stops at the ears, the heart-mind stops at tallying. But one
of spirit, such a one is empty and waits for things. This emptiness, this is
the fasting of the mind”(Helsing). One of my points here is that “listening”
merely stops at recognition of sense data, while the heart-mind concerns itself
with labels and comparisons. Neither of these degrees of “understanding” is
comparable to understanding with the spirit. I suggest this means having a full
awareness of the dynamic transformations of Dao (or the constantly shifting
fluctuations of experience), keeping the mind from impulsively responding to
sensory information or from fixating on a single conceptual understanding. The
empty heart-mind lets sensory information and conceptual schemas come and go.
*2 當: suit, comply, take charge, administer, equal;
suitable, appropriate; Xunzi 儒效8: 言必當理，事必當務.
*3 徑庭means “very different” but seems to literally
mean “bypassing the court hall.” This may be a moment of humor, as the path is
bypassing the court or great hall where governing decisions would be made.
*4 情: feeling, affection; love, passion; Zhuangzi
2.4.1-2.4.2: 可行已信，而不見其形，有情而無
*5 姑 (mother-in-law) + 射 (discharge,
spout) = Fuming Mother Mountain. Note the similarity in conflict to Zhuangzi
26.79.1-26.79.4: “All things that have consciousness depend upon breath. But if
they do not get their fill of breath, it is not the fault of Heaven. Heaven
opens up the passages and supplies them day and night without stop. But man on
the contrary blocks up the holes. The cavity of the body is a many-storied
vault; the mind has its Heavenly wanderings. But if the chambers are not large
and roomy, then wife and mother-in-law will fall to quarreling. If the mind
does not have its Heavenly wanderings, then the six apertures of sensation will
defeat each other,” (Watson 300-301). The mother vs. maiden image appears in
both passages. This may be stereotypical folk humor, but the chambers also
evoke later images in Daoist meditation and internal alchemy. Resolving the
conflicts in the chambers plays an important role in internal alchemy, and this
may also include images of the mother vs. maiden conflict.
*6 绰约。Meek and mild; soft and tender.
*7 其神凝，使物不疵癘而年穀熟。I want to emphasize the active element of the
spirit here, or the effects of concentrating the spirit. By concentrating or
coalescing the spirit, the spirit-person causes others to be without disease
and causes the crops to ripen for harvest.
*8 弊弊For the reduplication Kroll gives “exceedingly
fastidious, officiously concerned,” (and more). The description targets the
overly-concerned managerial figure seeks to reduce the world to a series of
problems to be controlled.
*9 章甫 court crown from 章甫薦履 “Court
crown beneath straw shoe” or “everything turned upside down.”
*10 汾Fen River (Shanxi); 陽Yang;
capital; 窅hidden, veiled, inscrutable; 喪 to
lose, to fail to keep; to be bereaved; death.
No comments:
Post a Comment