Zhuangzi 2.5 This and That

Original

物無非彼，物無非是。

自彼則不見，自知則知之。

故曰：彼出於是，是亦因彼。

彼是，方生之說也。

 

雖然，方生方死，方死方生；

方可方不可，方不可方可；

因是因非，因非因是。

是以聖人不由，而照之于天，亦因是也。

 

是亦彼也，彼亦是也。

彼亦一是非，此亦一是非。

果且有彼是乎哉？

果且無彼是乎哉？

 

彼是莫得其偶，謂之道樞。

樞始得其環中，以應無窮。

是亦一無窮，非亦一無窮也。

故曰「莫若以明」。

 

Translation

There is nothing without “that,” there is nothing without “this.

From the method of “that” (it) is not seen; (only) from the method of knowing (awareness) it is known.

Therefore it is said: “that” emerges from “this,” and “this” depends on “that” (*)

“That” and “this,” it is said they are born together.

 

Even though: together born and passing away, together passing away and being born;

Together admissible and inadmissible, together inadmissible and admissible;

(There is still) “because (this is) right and because (that is) wrong,” or "because (that is) wrong and because (this is) right."

Therefore the sagely person does not use this method, but rather illuminates things together in Heaven, which is also "because of this."

 

“This” is also “that,” and “that” is also “this.”

“That” is merely one “right and wrong,” and “this” is merely one “right and wrong.”

Does (this) result in having “this” and “that?”

Does (this) result in not having “this” and “that?”

 

“That” and “this” have not reached their coincidence, (which) is called the Pivot (Hinge) of Dao.

The hinge is found in the center of circumstances, taking affirmation without exhaustion.

Affirmation without exhaustion, negation without exhaustion.

Thus it is said, (there is) nothing like using clarity!

 

There is Nothing without That/This

As noted recently by one colleague, “the linguistic contradictions of the Qi Wu Lun either delight someone’s heart or give them chills.” I suspect he had this passage in mind. You are free to guess how I feel (which should not be difficult). The key to the passage is that any linguistic distinction (whether this-or-that or this-and-not-this) is an act of conceptual abstraction. Or, any conceptual abstraction is also a linguistic distinction. For Zhuangzi, linguistic distinctions occur within the world, and thus can never fully encapsulate or capture the world.

 

Consider the problem from the earlier question: “how is the way obscured by language?” In Zhuangzi’s view, the world is irreducibly complex. The Way is the totality of complex interdependent relationships that drives all transformation and the experience of change. For Zhuangzi, any attempt to reduce the world to language will be insufficient and partializing. The problem is a problem of demarcation, abstraction, conceptualization, and oversimplification. Every act of linguistic demarcation (this-or-that, (is-the-case, is-not-the-case) is an incomplete abstract conceptualization that creates the possibility of opposition. By virtue of stating “this” we create a “that.” By virtue of identifying anything as “this” we raise the possibility of “not this” or “opposite to this.” This is the “birth of opposites.” The problem is a problem of language, and it is a problem for all language.

 

The Hinges of Dao

The name of this blog and the center of all affirmation and negation. Zhuangzi’s broader point is that disputation reduces discourse to arguments based on limited perspectives and partisan distinctions. When forced to give advice the sage keeps their own views hidden and provides discourse that provides possibilities of transformation. Instead of trying to emerge victorious in disputations about what is or is not, or what should or should not be, the sage provides insights related to what is possible and what could be possible. This moves the goal of the argument from proving-right-versus-wrong to establishing models of possible action that integrate the concerns of all parties involved. Or at least those parties wise enough to listen to sage.

 

Notes

Legge, Watson, and Ziporyn all utilize quotation marks to highlight the role of linguistic denotation in discourse and disputation. I follow their practice here. I think this is warranted due to the frequent use of shi/fei in both content and grammar (structure). The terms are frequently used to preface or mark statements the speaker thinks should be affirmed or negated.

Zhuangzi 2.4 (Part 1) The Fixed Mind

Zhuangzi 2.4, Part 1: “If someone follows the fixed mind…” [1]

夫隨其成心而師之，誰獨且無師乎？奚必知代而心自取者有之？愚者與有焉。未成乎心而有是非，是今日適越而昔至也。是以無有為有。無有為有，雖有神禹，且不能知，吾獨且柰何哉！

If someone follows a fixed-mind and makes it their master, who alone is without a master? [*] Why must (you) understand generation and change and be one whose mind itself selects and chooses (to) have this? A fool can also have (it). [2] Lacking completion in the heart but having affirmations and negations, this is “going to Yue today but arriving yesterday.” It is taking “not having something” and calling it “something.” [3] Having nothing and calling it something, even the Divine Yu cannot understand this. [4] How could I myself endure it! 

師 shī n: teacher, tutor, master; model; v (lit): learn, imitate

成心 chéngxīn n: fixed-mind; adv: intentional; on purpose; deliberate

代 dài v: replace; n: replacements; era, generation

取 qǔ v: take, get, fetch; aim at, seek; adopt, assume, choose

乎 hū similar to 于 in mid-sentence

柰 nài n: crab-apple; v: endure, bear 

[1] There are no passage numbers in the original text. Chinese commentaries and English translations both provide passage numbers, but not always in agreement. After re-reading this passage for this project, I think this discussion on the fixed mind follows more closely with the preceding passage (2.3).

[2] 師 can be a teacher or a master, someone presumably skilled in some art who instructs or guides others. Literary verb usage suggests learning from or imitating an earlier example. This gets at Zhuangzi’s point: if we can regard having a fixed or resolute mind as equivalent to a wise master or teacher, then who doesn’t have a master or teacher? I use the translation “master” to emphasize an unreflective imitation.

[3] 無有為有 wúyǒu wéiyǒu not having something and calling it something; I think it is important to emphasize the linguistic or evaluative aspect of 為 in this context; to look at the absence of something and to regard it the same as having that something.

[4] 神禹 Shén Yǔ the spirit-like Yu; the Great Yu, legendary founder of the Xia Dynasty; tamer of floods.

[*] The modern usage of 成心 refers to intentional, deliberate, or on purpose; “having one’s mind made up,” to act in a certain manner. The mind holds and idea and seeks to act on the idea. In the classical context this might mean a “fixed heart-mind.” The heart-mind “serves” as the “ruler” of the other senses: receiving and evaluating sensory distinctions from the sense organs, and making and evaluating linguistic distinctions in relation to sensory distinctions (including its own emotional and cognitive activity).

As a compound term, 成心 is unique to Zhuangzi in the entirety of pre-Han literature, appearing only in this passage. Zhuangzi’s recognition of the 成心 as a problem is one of the unique aspects of Zhuangzi’s thought. The conflicts that emerge from disputation 辯 of right and wrong (shi/fei) are in part predicated on the cheng-xin, or the inflexibility of thought in the “complete” or fixed-mind.

This is more complicated than simply establishing a position of right and wrong; fixing any linguistic marker obscures the Way. Ordinary usage carves paths through the world establishing linguistic identity (是、彼), establishing proper usage (用) or appropriateness (是、非) and then debating (辯) and holding fast to fixed methods.

This linguistic fixation has important linguistic and ethical consequences, which are explored in other passages through the Inner Chapters. Here are two issues, in brief: (1) the 成心 imposes and holds fixed linguistic terms, obscuring the complex interplay of emerging conditions or possibilities; (2) the 成心 holds fast to binary oppositions, which by their very nature are limited and partisan understandings of complex experience. These fixations prevent the heart-mind from observing the complex fluctuations of experience, the transformations of change, and from responding to emerging conditions.

References/Further Reading:

The Wandering Heart-Mind: Zhuangzi and Moral Psychology in the Inner Chapters | SpringerLink 

Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China - Paperback - Tao Jiang - Oxford University Press (oup.com)

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).

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

 

 

 

 

Zhuangzi 2.2 Big knowing and small knowing

大知閑閑，小知閒閒；大言炎炎，小言詹詹。其寐也魂交，其覺也形開，與接為構，日以心鬭。縵者，窖者，密者。小恐惴惴，大恐縵縵。其發若機栝，其司是非之謂也；其留如詛盟，其守勝之謂也；其殺如秋冬，以言其日消也；其溺之所為之，不可使復之也；其厭也如緘，以言其老洫也；近死之心，莫使復陽也。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。已乎已乎！旦暮得此，其所由以生乎！

Big knowing (zhi 知) is bound and idle[1]; Small knowing is partial and incomplete; big speech is hot and rousing; Small speech is verbose and indistinct. When sleeping the spirit wanders, upon waking the body rushes out, meeting and receiving [others] for building schemes, daily using the heart-mind in struggle. There are hesitations, pitfalls, and secrets, [there are] small fears that are apprehensive and worried, [there are] great fears like [endless] sheets of silk. [Everyone makes] pronouncements [flying out] like arrows from a bow, they take charge of naming of right and wrong, they stand their ground as if having sworn an oath; they struggle for victory in speech, and they decline like autumn and winter, and so dwindle like the light of day. [Like] those who have drowned in water, they cannot be ordered to return home; their distastes hold them like binding cords, taking words they (become) (dry overgrown) ditch, their heart-minds approach death and cannot return to the light. (Zhuangzi 2/3/26–29)

[1] 大知閑閑

Legge: “Great knowledge is wide and comprehensive; small knowledge is partial and restricted. Great speech is exact and complete; small speech is (merely) so much talk.”

Watson: “Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy. Great words are clear and limpid; little words are shrill and quarrelsome.”

Ziporyn: “A large consciousness is idle and spacey” (Ziporyn 2009: 9).

Commentary: 大智广博，小智偏下，大言生气凌人，小言争辩不休。"Great knowledge is broad and extensive; small knowledge is biased and narrow-minded; great speech (exaggeration) is grand and overbearing; small speech is contentious and unceasing."

My Commentary:

My interpretation is unconventional: I pair big knowledge and small knowledge together as both being problematic, in the same way that big speech and small speech are both problematic.

The dilemma is how to interpret 大知閑閑. Watson and Legge both view 大知 positively but try to force a parallel structure with 大言. Before looking at dazhi we can look at dayan.

There are two problems with their translations of 大言炎炎: the first is that the better translation is "great speech is bright and incendiary." This is a more direct translation (fiery) with a stronger series of connotations: n: fire; TCM: internal heat, a cause of disease; n: anger; v: to get angry; adj: fiery, flaming, or popular ("hot"). Legge and Watson treat 火 more like 光 (bright, smooth, polished), but without any reason other than trying to force a positive connotation parallel to their positive translations of 大知.

The second problem is that Zhuangzi is actually quite critical of exaggeration:

First, exaggeration is a further distortion of communication. If language is already an imperfect abstraction, then exaggeration further distorts the relationship between language and ongoing conditions.

Second, exaggeration exacerbates the problems of mistrust. If language is an imperfect conceptualization this is even more so for “great words.” Exaggeration creates aggrandized conceptualizations aimed in a particular direction for a particular effect.

The irony here is that Zhuangzi uses exaggeration to great effect, but that effect is often to draw attention to the shortcomings of language and knowledge (as opposed to applying a concept via shi/fei distinction and then “using” that concept appropriately).

The third problem is that Zhuangzi does not view speech as the source of illumination.  Words function like traps and snares, "capturing" meaning. [*] Once the meaning is found the words are not needed. Words are empty, and only by accepting the emptiness of words can we really understand how to have a word. 

More frequently, words obscure the Way. Words are actually complex schema types that combine distinctions and judgments (and really, all distinctions are judgments). Words "carve up" the world; they create objects (calling a thing makes it so), they create footpaths, and they create fixed systems of understanding.

So, big speech is not clear, limpid, complete, or any other of the adjectives applied; big speech (exaggeration) attempts to overcome the intrinsic uncertainty of knowledge through overstatement; but exaggeration is by nature “unrealistic” and so breeds suspicion, suspicion leads to contention, contention leads to dispute, and so forth.

So: If we reject a positive reading of "big words," this suggests we should also be skeptical of "big knowing." So how should we view 大知? All translations agree that big knowledge or big knowing should be interpreted in a positive manner. I offer a different approach that views 大知 in a critical light, parallel to 大言.

Stay tuned for updates. Currently revising notes for the second part of this commentary, which may form part of a conference paper. 

If you curious in reading an earlier version of this argument in article form, please DM me at: Wandering Clouds (@hingesofdao) / Twitter