The Huainanzi
Page 10
and do not externally adorn themselves with its branches.
They protect their Quintessential Spirit
and dispense with wisdom and precedent.
In stillness they take no deliberate action, yet there is nothing left undone.
In tranquillity they do not try to govern, but nothing is left ungoverned.
What we call “no deliberate action” is to not anticipate the activity of things.
What we call “nothing left undone” means to adapt to what things have [al ready] done.
What we call “to not govern” means to not change how things are naturally so.
What we call “nothing left ungoverned” means to adapt to how things are mutually so.
The myriad things all have a source from which they arise;
[the sages] alone understand how to guard this root.
The hundred endeavors all have a source from which they are produced;
[the sages] alone understand how to guard this gateway.
Thus exhausting the inexhaustible,
reaching the limit of the infinite,
illuminating things without bedazzling them,
and inexhaustibly responding to things like an echo [responds to sound]:
This is what we call “being released by Heaven.” [1/4/18–26]
1.10
Thus those who attain the Way:
Their wills are supple, but their deeds are strong.
Their minds are empty, but their responses are dead on.
What we mean by a supple will is
being pliant and soft, calm, and tranquil;
hiding when others do not dare to;
acting when others are unable to;
being calm and without worry;
acting without missing the right moment;
and cycling and revolving with the myriad things.
Never anticipating or initiating
but just responding to things when stimulated.
Therefore,
the honored invariably take their titles from the base,
and those of high station invariably take what is below as their foundation.
They rely on the small to embrace the great;
they rest in the inner to regulate the outer;
they act pliantly to become firm;
they utilize weakness to become strong;
they cycle through transformations and push where things are shifting;
they attain the Way of the One and use the few to correct the many.
What we mean by strength of deeds is
responding with alacrity when encountering alterations;
pushing away disasters and warding off difficulties;
being so strong that there is nothing unvanquished;
facing enemies, there are none that are not humiliated;
responding to transformations by gauging the proper moment
and being harmed by nothing.
Therefore,
if you wish to be firm, you must guard it by being pliant.
If you wish to be strong, you must protect it by being supple.
When you accumulate pliability, you become firm.
When you accumulate suppleness, you become strong.
Keep a close watch on what you are accumulating
in order to know the tendencies toward fortune or misfortune.
Strength defeats what is not its equal. When it encounters its equal, it is neutralized.
Pliability defeats what exceeds itself. Its power cannot be measured.
Thus when an army is strong, it will be destroyed.
When a tree is strong, it will be broken.
When leather armor is hard, it will split open.
Because teeth are harder than the tongue, they wear out first.
Therefore, the pliant and weak are the supports of life,
and the hard and strong are the disciples of death.37 [1/4/28–1/5/7]
1.11
To anticipate [the right moment] and initiate is the road to ruin;
to follow is the source of success.38
How do I know this is so? For most people, through a life span of about seventy years until they reach their death; they pursue things and then reject them; they divide them up and then reassemble them; and daily they regret what they are doing. Thus Qu Boyu39 at age fifty had criticized himself for forty-nine of them. Why?
Because those who anticipate have a hard time acting with wisdom,
but those who follow have an easy time acting efficaciously.
When those who anticipate climb up high,
those who follow will pull them down.
When those who anticipate climb down,
those who follow will jump over them.
When those who anticipate fall into a pit,
those who follow will take counsel from this.
When those who anticipate accumulate defeats,
those who follow will avoid them.
Looking at it from this perspective, those who anticipate are the target that draws the bows and arrows away from those who follow. It is as the hilt is to the blade of the sword: the blade suffers the stress while the hilt remains unharmed. Why? Because it places itself in the position of following and has a protected spot.40 This is something widely seen in the vulgar world and among ordinary people, and the worthy and wise cannot avoid it.
What we call “following” does not mean being stagnant and not developing or being congealed and not flowing. It is, rather, to value being able to revolve according to the norms and unite with the right moment.
Now those who grasp the Patterns of the Way and become companions of alterations, their anticipation governs what follows and their following after governs what they anticipated. What is the reason for this? They do not lose what they use to govern others [i.e., the Patterns of the Way], and so others cannot govern them. [1/5/7–17]
Time turns over and over.
There is not a moment’s rest.
To anticipate is to overshoot the mark;
to follow is to not fall short.
The days turn round and the months revolve:
Time does not play with mankind.
Thus sages do not value a foot of jade as much as they esteem an inch’s movement of the sundial’s shadow. Time is difficult to gain but easy to lose.
When Yu was chasing the right moment,
if he lost his sandal, he would not stop to pick it up.
If he snagged his cap on a branch, he would not even glance back at it.
It was not that he was striving to anticipate the right moment; he was striving to attain it.
Therefore, sages guard the Pure Way and embrace the limits of the feminine principle. They adapt to things and comply with them; they respond to alterations spontaneously; they constantly follow and do not anticipate.
They are pliant and supple and thereby become tranquil,
They are relaxed and calm, and therefore their minds are stable.
They defeat the great and grind down the hard, and none is able to compete with them. [1/5/19–22]
1.12
Of all things under Heaven, none is more pliant and supple than water.
Nonetheless, it is
so great that its limits cannot be reached;
so deep that it cannot be fathomed;
so high that it reaches the infinite;
so distant it merges into the boundless.
Increasing and decreasing, draining away and filling up,
it circulates without restraints into the immeasurable.
When it ascends into the heavens, it becomes the rain and the dew.
When it descends to the earth, it becomes moisture and dampness.
If the myriad things do not gain it, they will not be born.
If the various endeavors do not gain it, they will not succeed.
It completely embraces the various things without partiality or favoritism.
It seeps through to the tiniest of c
reatures without seeking their gratitude.
Its richness sustains the entire world without being depleted.
Its Potency extends to the hundred clans without being expended.
It circulates [everywhere], yet we cannot exhaust it.
It is so subtle that we cannot seize it in our hands.
Strike it, and it is not wounded.
Pierce it, and it is not injured.
Chop it, and it is not cut apart.
Try to set it alight, and it will not burn.
Seeping, draining, flowing, disappearing,
Mixing and blending, intertwining with [things], it cannot be differentiated.
It is so sharp it can pierce a hole in metal and stone.
It is so strong it can give sustenance to the entire world.
It dissolves into the realm of the Formless,
And soars beyond the region of the Nebulous.
It meanders its way through the rivers and valleys,
and surges out into the vast wildernesses.
Depending on whether it is abundant or deficient,
it takes from or gives to Heaven and Earth.
It gives to the myriad things equally without preferences.
Therefore,
without being partial or impartial, gushing and undulating, it totally merges with Heaven and Earth.
Without favoring the left or the right, coiling and swirling, it ends and begins with the myriad things.
This is what we call “Perfect Potency.” [1/5/24–1/6/7]
The reason that water is able to achieve its Perfect Potency within the entire world is that it is gentle and soaking, moist and slippery. Thus, in the words of Lao Dan:
The most pliant things in the world
ride roughshod over the most rigid.
[This is because] they emerge from the Nonexistent
and enter into the Seamless.
I thereby understand the benefits of taking no action.41 [1/6/9–10]
Now the Formless is the Great Ancestor of things,
and the Toneless is the Great Ancestor of sound.
Their son is light;
their grandson is water;
And both are generated by the Formless.
Light can be seen but cannot be held;
water can be held but cannot be destroyed.
Thus of all things that have shapes, none is more honored than water.
1.13
Emerging into life, entering into death;
from Nothing treading into Something;
from Something treading into Nothing,
we thereby decline into lowliness. [1/6/10–13]
Therefore,
clarity and tranquillity are the perfections of Potency;
pliancy and suppleness are the essentials of the Way.
Empty Nonexistence and calm serenity are the ancestors of the myriad things.42
To quickly respond when stimulated,
to boldly43 return to the Root,
is to be merged with the Formless.
What we call “the Formless” is a designation for the One. What we call “the One” is that which has no counterpart in the entire world.
Majestically independent,
immensely solitary;
above, it permeates the Nine Heavens;
below, it threads through the Nine Regions.
Though round, it does not fit within the compass;
though square, it does not fit within the carpenter’s square.
Multifarious, yet constituting a unity;
proliferating, yet without a root.
It envelops Heaven and Earth like a sack;
it closes the gates to the Way.
Mysterious and vague, hidden and dark,
its whole Potency is preserved in its solitude.
Spread it out: it never ceases;
utilize it: it is never exhausted.
Therefore,
though you look for it, you will never see its form;
though you listen for it, you will never hear its sound;
though you hold it, you will never feel its contours.
It is a formlessness from which forms are generated;
It is a soundlessness from which the five tones call out.
It is a tastelessness from which the five flavors take shape.
It is a colorlessness from which the five colors develop.
Therefore,
the Existent arises from the Nonexistent;
the Real emerges from the Empty.
Because the entire world is encircled by it,
names and realities converge.
The number of the tones does not exceed five, yet their variations cannot be fully heard.
The harmony of the flavors does not exceed five, yet their transformations cannot be fully savored.
The number of the colors does not exceed five, yet their variations cannot be fully seen.
Thus,
as for tone: when the gong note is established, the five tones all take shape;
as for flavor: when sweetness is established, the five flavors all become fixed;
as for color: when white is established, the five colors all develop;
as for the Way: when the One is established, then the myriad things all are born. [1/6/15–23]
Therefore,
the guiding principle of the One
spreads throughout the Four Seas.
The diffusion of the One
extends throughout Heaven and Earth.
In its wholeness, it is pure like uncarved wood.
In its dispersal, it is jumbled like murky water.
Although it is murky, it gradually becomes clear;
although it is empty, it gradually becomes full.
Still! It resembles a deep pool.
Buoyant! It resembles floating clouds.44
It seems to be nonexistent yet it exists;
it seems to be absent yet it is present.
The myriad things in their totality
all pass through this one portal.
The roots of the hundred endeavors
all emerge from this one gateway.
Its movements are formless;
its alterations and transformations are spiritlike [i.e., unfathomable];
its actions are traceless;
it constantly anticipates by following after. [1/6/25–27]
Therefore, in the governing of the Perfected,
they conceal their mental acuity;
they extinguish their literary brilliance.
Relying on the Way, they set aside wisdom and, toward the people, act impartially.
They limit their possessions
and reduce their needs.45
They cast off their ambitions,
discard lusts and desires,
and abandon worries and anxieties.
Limiting their possessions, they see things clearly;
reducing their needs, they attain them.
Now those who rely on their ears and eyes to hear and see, tire out their bodies, and are not clear. Those who use knowledge and deliberation to govern afflict their minds and achieve no success.
Therefore, sages make use of the one measure to comply with the tracks of things.
They do not alter its suitability;
they do not change its constancy.
Applying it as their level,46 relying on it as their marking cord,47 through the meanderings [of life], they follow it as their benchmark. [1/6/29–1/7/2]
1.14
Joy and anger are aberrations from the Way;
worry and grief are losses of Potency.
Likes and dislikes are excesses of the mind;
lusts and desires are hindrances to nature.
Violent anger ruins the yin;
extreme joy collapses the yang.
The suppression of vital energy brings on dumbness;
fear and terror bring on madness.
When you are worried, aggrieved, or enraged,
<
br /> sickness will increasingly develop.
When likes and dislikes abundantly pile up,
misfortunes will successively follow.
Thus,
when the mind is not worried or happy, it achieves the perfection of Potency.
When the mind is inalterably expansive, it achieves the perfection of tranquillity.
When lusts and desires do not burden the mind, it achieves the perfection of emptiness.
When the mind is without likes and dislikes, it achieves the perfection of equanimity.
When the mind is not tangled up in things, it achieves the perfection of purity.
If the mind is able to achieve these five qualities, then it will break through to spirit-like illumination. To break through to spiritlike illumination is to realize what is intrinsic.
Therefore,
if you use the internal to govern the external,
then your various endeavors will not fail.
If you are able to realize internally,
then the external can be attended to.
If you realize it internally
then your Five Orbs48 will be in repose;
worries and anxieties will be at peace.
Your sinews will be powerful, and your muscles will be strong;
your ears and eyes will be acute and clear.
Though you are placid and calm, you do not waver.49
Though you are hard and strong, you do not break.
There is nothing you overshoot
and nothing you fall short of.
When you dwell in the small, you will not be cramped;
when you dwell in the great, you will be unrestrained.
Your soul will not be agitated;
your spirit will not be troubled.
Clear and limpid, still and calm,
you will become a hero50 to the entire world. [1/7/4–11]
1.15
The Great Way is vast and serene.
It is never far away from your own person.
If you seek it in what is close at hand,
you will go forth with it and return to it.51
When stimulated, you will be able to respond;
when pressed you will be able to move.
Mysteriously subtle and inexhaustible,
you alter without form or image.
When you fully roam [with the Way] in complete abandonment,
you will be like an echo to it or a shadow of it.
Climbing up high and gazing down on what is below,
you will never lose what you are hanging onto.
When treading through dangers and traversing defiles,
you will never forget your mysterious support.