Zhuangzi 2.2 Joy and Anger, Sorrow and Delight

Original

喜怒哀樂，慮嘆變慹，姚佚啟態；樂出虛，蒸成菌。日夜相代乎前，而莫知其所萌。旦暮得此，其所由以生乎！

Helsing

Joy and anger, sorrow and delight;

Anxiety and regret [*], disruption and fixation [*];

Elegance and indulgence [*], open beginnings and outer forms [*];

(Like) music coming from hollows, (like) mushrooms condensing from steam.

Day and night, mutually replacing and proceeding (each other)

And we do not know from whence they sprout. Let it stop! Let it stop!

Day and night it happens like this, [and] what causes their being born!?

General Note:

The passage introduces a series of characters that seem to describe the complex fluctuations of life. However, the reader is met by a number of problems. Some terms are easily understood as specific emotional states while others terms are less clear. Several phrases seem ambiguous and require active interpretation from the reader. At least one term (zhi) is highly unique to the text (and does not appear to be a mistake). With the exception of Ziporyn, most translations (see below) view this passage as a catalogue of fluctuating emotions. Like Ziporyn, this translation attempts to broaden the scope of interpretation. 

The passage also continues the description of life in 2.2 (a). In both parts of the passage Zhuangzi is clearly concerned with the tumultuous, confrontational nature of life and the strains of psychological experience on the heart-mind. None of the standard sources of moral agency survive Zhuangzi’s critiques to emerge as viable, authoritative foundations of human flourishing. This culminates in identifying the “fixed” mind or cheng-xin as the single largest obstacle to following the continually unfolding possibilities of the Way.

A note on emotions:

Contemporary anglophone discussions of emotion in classic texts frequently limit emotional experience to a kind of Romantic expressionism: emotions are powerful internal states of passion or feeling that require creative expression. Classical Chinese texts certainly contain this mode of emotional experience. This is particularly evident in emotionally charged works such as the Book of Odes.

However, emotional life is more complex than simply passing through continually changing moments of emotional expression. We can also think in terms of attitudes or states: “heightened” emotional states such as excitement or anticipation, or “lowered” emotional states such as regret. We may also consider comportment or composition: how we regulate our emotional interaction in the world: as Zhuangzi notes, we may attempt to carry ourselves with emotional restraint, or we may simply indulge in any emotional impulse.

Anxiety and regret (慮嘆):

Commentary modernizes 慮嘆as 恢虑感叹 “vast worry and lament.” We can infer lament coming from the act of “sighing with feeling.” 虑 can be translated as “anxiety” which I think fits here. The pair match together as a dynamic of anxiety prior to a situation and regret following a situation.

Disruption and fixation (變慹):

Commentary suggests反复“backing out,” “changing” or “unstable” versus 恐惧“fear or dread.” Legge and Watson both agree on  變 as flighty or fickle, while Ziporyn gives a more neutral tone, with “transformations.” I use “disruption” to deconceptualize the term. 變 only appears in one other instance in the Qi Wu Lun, in ZZ 2.11: 死生无變於己，而況利害之端乎！ “Death and life (cause) no change in [him], so how (could) the extremes of profit and harm!” In this context “change” refers to emotional or dispositional disruptions caused by the pressures of profit, harm, life, and death.

The great mystery in this entire passage is 慹, which has no definition in any modern dictionary to the knowledge of this reader. The Shouwen explains 慹as 悑, which also has no immediate translation. Following the Shouwen further we find悑 leads to 惶 huáng, which means “fearful” or “anxious.” Using these ideas to look back at 慹, we can combine 執 (hold, catch, capture) + 心 (heart-mind, consciousness) to suggest 慹 is some kind of emotional paralysis.

Elegance and indulgence (姚佚):

啟 and 態 translate cleanly as “elegance” and “indulgence.” Contrast between “elegance” as a kind of restrained refinement versus vulgar indulgence of impulse or desire.

Open beginnings and outer forms (啟態):

“Beginning” or “opening” versus “form” or “appearance.” An alternate translation might be “enlightenment and appearance.” 啟 appears in Confucius 7.8 不憤不啟 which occurs in contemporary speech as the idiom: “a student shall not be enlightened until trying hard by themselves.” 

Legge

Joy and anger, sadness and pleasure,

Anticipation, regret, fickleness, fixedness,

vehemence and indolence, eagerness and tardiness;

Watson

Joy, anger, grief, delight,

worry, regret, fickleness, inflexibility,

modesty, willfulness, candor, insolence

Ziporyn

Joy and anger, sorrow and happiness,

plans and regrets, transformations and stagnations,

unguarded abandonment and deliberate posturing  

Commentary

喜怒哀乐，恢虑感叹，反复恐惧，轻浮躁动，放纵状况，装模作态;

Happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy; vast worries and sighs of regret; turning around and fear; frivolous and flighty; indulging circumstances and adopting appearances.

Google

joy and sorrow,

sighing and sighing,

Yao Yiqi state;

happy,

Steamed into bacteria.

Day and night have replaced each other,

And don't know how cute it is