Tail in the Mud

Master Chuang was fishing in the P’u River. The king of Ch’u dispatched two high-ranking officials to go before him with this message: “I wish to encumber you with the administration of my realm.”

Without turning around, Master Chuang just kept holding on to his fishing rod and said, “I have heard that in Ch’u there is a sacred tortoise that has already been dead for three thousand years. The king stores it in his ancestral temple inside of a hamper wrapped with cloth. Do you think this tortoise would rather be dead and have its bones preserved as objects of veneration, or be alive and dragging its tail through the mud?”

“It would rather be alive and dragging its tail through the mud,” said the two officials.

“Begone!” said Master Chuang. “I’d rather be dragging my tail in the mud.”

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- Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu

Wellsprings of Nature

In seeds there are germs. When they are found in water they become filaments. When they are found at the border of water and land they become algae. When they germinate in elevated places they become plantain. When the plantain is found in fertile soil it becomes crow’s foot. The crow’s foot’s roots become scarab grubs and its leaves become butterflies… The myriad things all come out from the wellsprings and all reenter the wellsprings.

- Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu

Birds in the Sky

When superiors are genuinely fond of knowledge but lack the Way, all under heaven will be in great confusion. How do we know this is so? The more knowledge there is of bows, crossbows, hand-nets, stringed arrows, and snares, the more the birds in the sky are thrown into confusion... Therefore, whenever all under heaven is in great confusion, the fault lies in fondness of knowledge. Thus, all men under heaven know how to seek what they do not know, but no one knows how to seek what he already knows.

- Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu

Horseness, Nonhorseness

To use a horse as a metaphor for the nonhorseness of a horse is not as good as using nonhorseness as a metaphor for the nonhorseness of a horse. Heaven and earth are the same as a finger; the myriad things are the same as a horse.

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Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu

K'un

In the darkness of the Northern Ocean, there is a fish named K'un. The K'un is so big that no one knows how many thousands of tricents (three hundred paces) its body extends... A question put by t'ang, the first emperor of the shang dynasty, to his wise minister Chi...

T'ang asked, "Do up, down, and the four directions have a limit?"

"Beyond their limitlessness there is another limitlessness.”

- Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu