|
惠子相梁，莊子往見之。或謂惠子曰:「莊子來，欲代子相。」 於是惠子恐，搜於國中三日三夜。莊子往見之，曰：「南方有鳥，其名為鵷鶵，子知之乎？夫鵷鶵發於南海而飛於北海，非梧桐不止，非練實不食，非醴泉不飲。於是鴟得腐鼠，鵷鶵過之，仰而視之曰：『嚇！』今子欲以子之梁國而嚇我邪？」[a]
|
When Huizi was a minister in Liang, Zhuangzi went to see him. Someone told Huizi, "Zhuangzi is coming. He wants to replace you as minister!" Then Huizi was scared and put out a search for him, state-wide, for three day and three nights. Zhuangzi went to see him and said, "In the south there's a bird called the Firechick. Are you familiar with it? The Firechick takes off from the south sea and flies to the north sea. It only rests in the Parasol Tree, only eats bamboo seeds, and only drinks from sweet wine springs. But when the hoot owl who's just got a dead rat looks up and sees Firechick passing overhead, it says, 'Scat!' Now do you really want to 'Scat!' me on account of your little state of Liang?" [1]
|
|
[1] This is a strange story. Would Huizi really worry either that Zhuangzi would want his government job or the he could get it if he did? The line at the end could be endearing, not derisive. If nothing else, though, this story may tell us something about how Zhuangzi and Huizi understood their relationship, with Zhuangzi soaring over the world and Huizi busying himself within it. If, as we speculated in 1:01, Zhuangzi has second thoughts about the soaring bird, he may be reflecting either on the accuracy or on the justice of Huizi's criticisms of him. [a] CTP 17.12, HYZU 17/84-87.
|