This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
• Zhuangzi (simplified Chinese: 庄子 ; traditional Chinese: 莊子 ; pinyin: Zhuāng Zǐ; Wade–Giles: Chuang Tzŭ) was an influential Chinese philosopher.
• He lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought.
Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when Zhuangzi said, "See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That's what fish really enjoy!" Huizi said, "You're not a fish — how do you know what fish enjoy?"
Zhuangzi said, "You're not me, so how do you know I don't know what fish enjoy?"
Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On the other hand, you're certainly not a fish — so that still proves you don't know what fish enjoy!"
Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy — so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao river."
• Hueitse said to Chuangtse, "The Prince of Wei gave me a seed of a large-sized kind of gourd. I planted it, and it bore a fruit as big as a five bushel measure. Now had I used this for holding liquids, it would have been too heavy to lift; and had I cut it in half for ladles, the ladles would have been too flat for such purpose. Certainly it was a huge thing, but I had no use for it and so I broke it up."
• "It was rather you did not know how to use large things," replied Chuangtse.
• "There was a man of Sung who had a recipe for hand lotion (salve?) for chapped hands, his family having been silk-washers for generations. A stranger who had heard of it came and offered him a hundred ounces of silver for this recipe; whereupon he called together his clansmen and said, 'We have never made much money by silk-washing. Now, we can sell the recipe for a hundred ounces in a single day. Let the stranger have it.'
• "The stranger got the recipe, and went and had an interview with the Prince of Wu. The Yueh State was in trouble, and the Prince of Wu sent a general to fight a naval battle with Yueh at the beginning of winter. The latter was totally defeated, and the stranger was rewarded with a piece of the King's territory.
• Thus, while the efficacy of the hand lotion (salve) to cure chapped hands was in both cases the same, its applications were different. Here, it secured a title; there, the people remained silk-washers.
• "Now as to your five-bushel gourd, why did you not make a float of it, and float about over river and lake? And you complain of its being too flat for holding things! I fear your mind is stuffy inside.“
• Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. (2, tr. Burton Watson 1968:49)
The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself.-Chapter 7 – Fit for Emperors and Kings
Seven Openings• The Emperor of the South Sea is known as Change. The
Emperor of the North Sea is called Dramatic.
• The Emperor of the Center is called Chaos.
• Change and Dramatic met every so often in the region of Chaos. Chaos always treated them kindly and virtuously.
• Change and Dramatic said, “Everyone has seven orifices (openings) so they can see, hear, eat and breathe. Chaos does not have these. Let us bore some holes into him for him.”
• Each day they bored a hole into Chaos... but on the seventh day Chaos died.
《大宗師 - The Great and Most Honoured Master 》•古之真人,其寢不夢,其覺無憂,其食不甘,其息深深。真人之息以踵,眾人之息以喉。屈服者,其嗌言若哇。其耆欲深者,其天機淺。
• The True men of old did not dream when they slept, had no anxiety when they awoke, and did not care that their food should be pleasant. Their breathing came deep and silently. The breathing of the true man comes (even) from his heels, while men generally breathe (only) from their throats. When men are defeated in argument, their words come from their gullets as if they were vomiting. Where lusts and desires are deep, the springs of the Heavenly are shallow.
• It was separation that led to completion; from completion ensued dissolution. But all things, without regard to their completion and dissolution, may again be comprehended in their unity - it is only the far reaching in thought who know how to comprehend them in this unity. This being so, let us give up our devotion to our own views, and occupy ourselves with the ordinary views. These ordinary views are grounded on the use of things. (The study of that) use leads to the comprehensive judgment, and that judgment secures the success (of the inquiry). That success gained, we are near (to the object of our search), and there we stop. When we stop, and yet we do not know how it is so, we have what is called the Dao. When we toil our spirits and intelligence, obstinately determined (to establish our own view), and do not know the agreement (which underlies it and the views of others).
• A keeper of monkeys, in giving them out their acorns, (once) said, 'In the morning I will give you three (measures) and in the evening four.' This made them all angry, and he said, 'Very well. In the morning I will give you four and in the evening three.' His two proposals were substantially the same, but the result of the one was to make the creatures angry, and of the other to make them pleased - an illustration of the point I am insisting on. Therefore the sagely man brings together a dispute in its affirmations and denials, and rests in the equal fashioning of Heaven. Both sides of the question are admissible.
• An apprentice to Robber Cheh asked him saying, “Is there then Tao (moral principles) among thieves?"
• "Tell me if there is anything in which there is not Tao," Cheh replied.
• “The leader of thieves needs to have the intelligence to know where treasures are located, the courage to go in first, and the chivalry of coming out last. There is the wisdom of calculating success, and kindness in the equal division of the spoil. There has never yet been a great robber who was not possessed of these five leadership qualities.“
Cook Ting ( 庖丁解牛 )• Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. At every touch of his
hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee - zip! zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music.
• "Ah, this is marvelous!" said Lord Wen-hui. "Imagine skill reaching such heights!“
• From The Secret of Caring for Life 養生主 • http://www.terebess.hu/english/chuangtzu.html
• Cook Ting laid down his knife and replied, "What I care about is the Way, which goes What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skillbeyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole oxI no longer saw the whole ox. And now - now I go at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.
• "A good cook changes his knife once a year-because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month-because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I've cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone.
• There are spaces between the jointsThere are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there's plenty of room - more than enough for the blade to play about it. That's why after nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from the grindstone.
• "However, whenever I come to a complicated However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I'm doing, work very slowly, and move the knife I'm doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until - flopwith the greatest subtlety, until - flop! The whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it awaywipe off the knife and put it away."
• "Excellent!" said Lord Wen-hui. "I have heard the words of Cook Ting and learned how to care learned how to care for lifefor life!"
• Modularization: Simple, stable, and clearly defined interface for each module, no need to understand the internal structure or design of the module to use it.
• Design Criteria: Low coupling between modules and high cohesiveness within modules
• 'When the Peng (a huge bird) is migrating to the Southern Ocean it flaps (its wings) on the water for 3000 miles. Then it ascends on a whirlwind (jet stream) in June 90,000 miles high‘ …
• The little quail laughs at him (Peng), saying, "Where does he think he's going? I give a great leap and fly up, but I never get more than ten or twelve yards before I come down fluttering among the weeds and brambles. And that's the best kind of flying anyway! Where does he think he's going?" Such is the difference between big and little.
Huizi, having heard of this counsel, introduced to the king Dai Jin-ren, who said, 'There is the creature called a snail; does your majesty know it?' 'I do.' 'On the left horn of the snail there is a kingdom which is called Provocation, and on the right horn another which is called Stupidity. These two kingdoms are continually striving about their territories and fighting. The corpses that lie on the ground amount to several myriads. The army of one may be defeated and put to flight, but in fifteen days it will return.' The king said, 'Pooh! that is empty talk!' The other rejoined, 'Your servant begs to show your majesty its real significance. When your majesty thinks of space - east, west, north, and south, above and beneath - can you set any limit to it?' 'It is illimitable,' said the king; and his visitor went on, 'Your majesty knows how to let your mind thus travel through the illimitable, and yet (as compared with this) does it not seem insignificant whether the kingdoms that communicate one with another exist or not?' The king replies, 'It does so;' and Dai Jin-ren said, finally, 'Among those kingdoms, stretching one after another, there is this Wei; in Wei there is this (city of) Liang; and in Liang there is your majesty. Can you make any distinction between yourself, and (the king of that kingdom of) Stupidity?' To this the king answered, 'There is no distinction,' and his visitor went out, while the king remained disconcerted and seemed to have lost himself.
Huang-Di was going to see Da-gui at the hill of Ju-Zi. Fang Ming was acting as charioteer, and Chang Yu was occupying the third place in the carriage. Zhang Ruo and Xi Peng went before the horses; and Kun Hun and Gu Ji followed the carriage. When they arrived at the wild of Xiang-cheng, the seven sages were all perplexed, and could find no place at which to ask the way. just then they met with a boy tending some horses, and asked the way of him. 'Do you know,' they said, 'the hill of Ju-zi?' and he replied that he did. He also said that he knew where Da-gui was living. 'A strange boy is this!' said Huang-Di. 'He not only knows the hill of Ju-zi, but he also knows where Fa-gui is living. Let me ask him about the government of mankind.' The boy said, 'The administration of the kingdom is like this (which I am doing) - what difficulty should there be in it? When I was young, I enjoyed myself roaming over all within the six confines of the world of space, and then I began to suffer from indistinct sight. A wise elder taught me, saying, "Ride in the chariot of the sun, and roam in the wild of Xiang-cheng." Now the trouble in my eyes is a little better, and I am again enjoying myself roaming outside the six confines of the world of space.
As to the government of the kingdom, it is like this (which I am doing) - what difficulty should there be in it?' Huang-Di said, 'The administration of the world is indeed not your business, my son; nevertheless, I beg to ask you about it.' The little lad declined to answer, but on Huang-Di putting the question again, he said, 'In what does the governor of the kingdom differ from him who has the tending of horses, and who has only to put away whatever in him would injure the horses?' Huang-Di bowed to him twice with his head to the ground, called him his 'Heavenly Master,' and withdrew.
• Tao Zhugong/Fan Li was unusual among tycoons for his view of money.
• He believed that one who understood money would be willing to abandon it if it became a burden. It (money) is only a means to an end and should not be taken too seriously. Nonetheless, it must be handled and acquired according to principles.
• Fan Li also urged a somewhat loose construction of these principles, encouraging broad and flexible utilization in various situations.