Zhuangzi 2.3 Without "that..." there is no "my..."

Zhuangzi 2.3 Without “that…” there is no “my...” 

非彼無我，非我無所取。是亦近矣，而不知其所為使。若有真宰，而特不得其眹。可行已信，而不見其形，有情而無形。百骸、九竅、六藏，賅而存焉，吾誰與為親？汝皆說之乎？其有私焉？如是皆有，為臣妾乎，其臣妾不足以相治乎。其遞相為君臣乎，其有真君存焉。如求得其情與不得，無益損乎其真。一受其成形，不亡以待盡。與物相刃相靡，其行盡如馳，而莫之能止，不亦悲乎！終身役役而不見其成功，苶然疲役而不知其所歸，可不哀邪！人謂之不死，奚益？其形化，其心與之然，可不謂大哀乎？人之生也，固若是芒乎！其我獨芒，而人亦有不芒者乎！ 

Without "that…" there is no "my…" without "my…" there is nowhere to capture. [1] This draws near, but (I) do not know why it is so. It is as if there is some genuine official, [2] but (I) cannot find their gaze. [3] (I) trust it can carry things out, [4] but (I) cannot see its form; there is feeling but no bodily form. [5] One hundred bones, nine openings, six viscera, [6] completed and collected here, which do I follow and regard intimately? Do you delight in each and every one of them? (Or) do you have secret favorites [7] among them?

If you retain them all, treating (them) as ministers and concubines, those ministers and concubines are incapable of mutual [8] governance. (If) they mutually succeed each other as rulers and ministers, some true ruler must remain. [9] Whether (we) succeed in discovering [10] its nature or not, (this) neither benefits nor harms its actuality. Once receiving their fixed bodily form, (they) do not flee, waiting for the end. In going along with things mutually cutting (disobeying) and mutually dispersing (acquiescing), [12] they proceed to exhaustion as if galloping (away), and nothing can bring them to a halt - is it not sad! [13] In the end the body labors and toils [14] and never sees its success, wearily exhausted in pressed service and does not know how to return, is it not a pity! People say it is not death, (but) where is the benefit? [15] Their human forms [16] dissolve, their minds follow along like so, how can this not be called a great pity? Human life truly is like being covered in ignorance! [17] Or am I alone covered in ignorance, and among the people there is none who is ignorant!

Comments

[1] I am hesitant to translate 我 as "self." I don't think the passage is targeting a general concept of self (at least not directly; See Joachim's "No to no-self in Zhuangzi"). Instead, I think the passage is targeting the making of distinctions, passing judgments, holding views, and attempting to fix these through disputation and conflict. I also hesitate to fill the object of “that…” Legge suggests “view,” which is one correct interpretation, but I think the scope is larger. Any distinction, judgment, or view creates a “that,” and any “that” creates a theoretical point of opposition. This suggests the scope of 彼 could range from disconnected minor points to complex views supported by networks of theory.

[2] Some genuine official who can resolve disputes, see 2.3 (below), 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, and 2.11.

[3] 特: 不过; 眹: pupil (ocular); Legge translates this as “we do not find any trace (of his presence and acting). Legge’s translation is valid and is based on the connections between vision, officials, and judgment as “tallying” comparisons: the gaze of the official is the trace of his influence that cannot be found. Zhuangzi will then undercut the role of officials as judging arguments and the simple "tallying" of ideas.

[4] 行: go, walk, travel; circulate; carry out; there is something responsible for the action of the world (Dao), but it cannot be captured in disputation or polar opposition. Rejecting binary opposition removes obfuscations created by trying to "capture" or control a point of dispute.  This draws us closer to the point, but it is difficult to explain because all language involves demonstrative practices, of creating “this” and “that” through discourse.

[5] 竅 the same openings in the pipes of heaven; 藏：脏腑: 心，肝，脾，肺，肾，命门 (source of vitality).

[6] 情feeling, emotion, passion, situation; 形form, shape, appearance.

[7] 说：同情，喜欢，高兴; 私: personal, private; selfish; secret; (opp. 公).

[8] 相: each other; one another; mutually

[9] 遞: v: hand over; pass; give; adv: successively; 存: compare with the discussion on needing a ruler who is not involved in adjudicating (ZZ 2.12); there must be one who is "stored away" who is not involved.

[10] 求得: to look for and obtain.

[11] 相: mutual; consider the mutual generation of opposites: being born through the process of opposition; one's actions being defined only through opposition or acquiescence - the exhaustion stems from actions based on binary opposition.

[12] 刃: edge of a knife: 逆: go against; disobey; defy (opp. 順); 靡: to disperse with the wind: 順: to acquiesce, obey (opp. 逆).

[13] 而莫之能止: reference ZZ 2.1:  the alternating of emotions that do not stop, we do not know from whence they come, and we lead the heart-mind to exhaustion.

[14] 役: forced labor, obligatory task, military service; 苶: weary, tired; lethargic; 然: reading as an adverb suffix; 歸:to return, to go back to, to gather together.

[15] 益: profit, benefit, advantage.

[16] 形: body, thing with form, human body, or appearance.

[17] 芒：愚昧: ignorant; benighted (covered in ignorance). Compare with other images of being overgrown (ZZ 2.2).