齧缺因跃而大喜，行以告蒲衣子。
Chien Wu visited mad Chieh Yu What did Noonbegin tell you?' asked mad Chieh Yu.
蒲衣子曰：“而乃今知之乎？
He told me that a lord of men issues on his own authority rules, conven- tions, forms and regulations, and who dares refuse to obey and be reformed by them?' 'That's a bullying sort of a Power.
有虞氏不及泰氏。
As far as ordering the Empire is concerned, you might as well go wading through oceans, boring holes in rivers, or comanding mosquitoes to carry mountains on their backs.
有虞氏，其犹藏仁以要人，亦得人矣，而未始出于非人。
泰氏，其卧徐徐，其觉于于，一以己为马，一以己为牛；其知情信，其德甚真，而未始入于非人。
When the sage sets in order, is he ordering the external?
It is simply a matter of straightening oneself out before one acts, of being solidly capable of doing one's own work.
”
肩吾见狂接舆。
The birds fly high to be out of danger from the stringed arrows, the field- mice go burrowing deep under the sacred hill, where no one can trouble them by digging down and smoking them out.
狂接舆曰：“日中始何以语女？
Even those two creatures know better than that.' Heaven-based roamed on the south side of Mount Vast, and came to the bank of the River Limpid.
”肩吾曰：“告我君人者以己出经式义度，人孰敢不听而化诸？
Happening to meet a man without a name, he asked him.
” 狂接舆曰：“是欺德也；其于治天下也，犹涉海凿河而使蚉负山也。
夫圣人之治也，治外乎？
'Permit me to inquire how one rules the Empire.
'Away!
正而后行，确乎能其事者而已矣。
You're a bumpkin!
且鸟高飞以避矰弋之害，鼷鼠深穴乎神丘之下以避熏凿之患，而曾二虫之无知！
What a dreary thing to talk about!
”
天根游于殷阳，至蓼水之上，适遭无名人而问焉，曰：“请问为天下。
I am just in the course of becoming fellow man with the maker of things; and when I get bored with that, I shall ride out on the bird which fades into the sky beyond where the six directions end, to travel the realm of Nothingwhatever and settle in the wilds of the Boundless.
”无名人曰：“去！
汝鄙人也，何问之不豫也！
What do you mean by stirring up thoughts in my heart about such a trifle as ruling the Empire?
He repeated the question.
予方将与造物者为人，厌，则又乘夫莽眇之鸟，以出六极之外，而游无何有之乡，以处圹埌之野。
Said the man without a name 'Let your heart roam in the flavourless, blend your energies with the featureless, in the spontaneity of your accord with other things leave no room for selfishness, and the Empire will be order.' NOTE This is the single passage which specifically distinguishes two stages of sage- hood: (1) the ecstatic roaming as 'fellow man with the maker of things', without yet ceasing to be human, like the two mourners singing to the zither who shocked Confu- cius (p. 89 above); (2) the final withdrawal into the impassivity beyond life and death of the mourner Meng-sun (p. 90 above), for whom past and present are the same, and everyone else is as much 'I' as he is, and all the experience of the senses is revealed as a dream.
汝又何帠以治天下感予之心为？
It is a curious paradox of the Taoist mockery of deliberation that the final take-off seems to depend on a choice, perhaps on the verge of death.
”又复问。
Confu- cius says of the cripple Wang T'ai that he 'will pick his own day to rise out of the world (p.77 above).
无名人曰：“汝游心于淡，合气于漠，顺物自然而无容私焉，而天下治矣。
” 阳子居见老聃，曰：“有人于此，向疾强梁，物彻疏明，学道不勌。
What is significant about the nameless man's remarks about government is not the content but the perspective in which the government of the Empire is seen; it is of negligible importance, yet as important as anything else in the world.
Yang Tzu-chu visited Old Tan.
如是者，可比明王乎？
'Suppose we have a man', he said, 'who is alert, energetic, well informed, clear-headed and untiring in learning the Way: may someone like that be ranked with the enlightened Kings?' 'To the sage this is a slave's drudgery, an artisan's bondage, wearing out the body, fretting the heart.
”老聃曰：“是于圣人也，胥易技系，劳形怵心者也。
Besides, it's the elegant markings of tiger and leopard which attract the hunter, and it's the spryest of monkeys and the dog which catches the rat that get themselves on the leash.
且也虎豹之文来田，猨狙之便执斄之狗来藉。
Can someone like that be ranked with the enlightened kings?' Yang Tzu-chu was taken aback.
如是者，可比明王乎？
'May I ask how an enlightened king rules?