13:04

東郭子問於莊子曰:「所謂道,惡乎在?」

莊子曰:「無所不在。」

東郭子曰:「期而後可。」

莊子曰:「在螻蟻。」

曰:「何其下邪?」

曰:「在稊稗。」

曰:「何其愈下邪?」

曰:「在瓦甓。」

曰:「何其愈甚邪?」

曰:「在屎溺。」

東郭子不應。莊子曰:「夫子之問也,固不質。正獲之問於監市履狶也,每下愈況。汝唯莫必,無乎逃。至道若是,大言亦然。周、遍、咸三者,異名同實,其指一也。

嘗相與游乎無何有之宮,同合而論,無所終窮乎!嘗相與無為乎!澹而靜乎!而清乎!調而閒乎!

寥已吾志,無往焉而不知其所至;去而來而不知其所止,吾已往來焉而不知其所終;彷徨乎馮閎,大知入焉而不知其所窮。

者與無際,而有際者,所謂際者也;不際之際,際之不際者也。謂盈虛衰殺,彼為盈虛非盈虛,彼為衰殺非衰殺,彼為本末非本末,彼為積散非積散也。」[a]


Mister East Wall asked Zhuangzi, “Where is this so-called Way?”

Zhuangzi said, “There’s nowhere it isn’t.”

Mister East Wall said “You must be more specific.”

Zhuangzi said, “It’s in an ant.”

“How about even lower?”

“It’s in weeds.”

“How about lower still?”

“In trash.”

“Even more?”

“It’s in shit and piss.”

When Mister East Wall did not reply, Zhuangzi said, “Your questions don’t get to the substance. When the inspector of the hunt asked the superintendent of the market about poking pigs for fatness, he was told the lower the better. But you shouldn’t insist on that here. Don’t reject anything. The perfect Way is like this and so are great words. ‘Whole,’ ‘everywhere,’ and ‘all’ are three different names for the same thing, making a single point.

"Let's try wandering together in Nothing-at-all Castle, discoursing in unity without end. Try doing nothing together. Quiet and clear! Empty and pure! Harmonious and free!

"Once my goals are deserted, I go nowhere and don't know where I've gotten; leave and come and don't know where I've stopped; already been and back and don't know where it ends, dilly-dallying in the large barge.Great knowledge finds its way in but has no idea where it runs out.

What things things isn't conditioned by things. What we call conditions are the conditions things have. It's the the unconditioned condition the unconditioned which conditions. Talk about filling and emptying, dying and death. What does the filling and emptying isn't full or empty. What does the dying and death isn't dying or dead. What roots and branches is not a root or branch. What collects and distributes isn't collected or distributed." [1]

[1] When he says in the beginning of this passage that the way is in everything, it is tempting to think of the way as a substance: the stuff out of which all things are made. But I think that is a misunderstanding of the metaphor. The way is less of an object and more of a method: a way to get somewhere or do something. So he is not saying that grass, tiles, piss and shit are made out of the way, but that they also follow the way. Our existences share a common pattern.

[a] CTP 22.06, HYZY 22/43-52.