庄子/骈拇

Excrescences on the person and hanging tumours are growths from the body, but they are unnatural additions to it.

There are many arts of benevolence and righteousness, and the exercise of them is distributed among the five viscera 342 ; but this is not the correct method according to the characteristics of the Tâo.

Thus it is that the addition to the foot is but the attachment to it of so much useless flesh, and the addition to the hand is but the planting on it of a useless finger.

(So it is that) the connecting (the virtues) with the five viscera renders, by excess or restraint, the action of benevolence and righteousness bad, and leads to many arts as in the employment of (great) powers of hearing or of vision.

Therefore an extraordinary power of vision leads to the confusion of the five colours 343 and an excessive use of ornament.

(Its possessor), in the resplendence of his green and yellow, white and black, black and green, will not stop till he has become a Lî Kû 344, An extraordinary power of hearing leads to a confusion of the five notes 345, and an excessive use of the six musical accords 346.

(Its possessor), in bringing out the tones from the instruments of metal, stone, silk, and bamboo, aided by the Hwang-kung and Tâ-lü 346 (tubes), will not stop till he has become a Shih Khwang (So), excessive benevolence eagerly brings out virtues and restrains its (proper) nature, that (its possessor) may acquire a famous reputation, and cause all the organs and drums in the world to celebrate an unattainable condition; and he will not stop till he has become a ng (Sh n) 348 or a Shih ( hiû) An extraordinary faculty in debating leads to the piling up of arguments like a builder with his bricks, or a net-maker with his string.

(Its possessor) cunningly contrives his sentences and enjoys himself in discussing what hardness is and what whiteness is, where views agree and where they differ, and pressing on, though weary, with short steps, with (a multitude of) useless words to make good his opinion ; nor will he stop till he has become a Yang (Kû) 350 or Mo (Tî) But in all these cases the parties, with their redundant and divergent methods, do not proceed by that which is the correct path for all under the sky.

That which is the perfectly correct path is not to lose the real character of the nature with which we are endowed.

Hence the union (of parts) should not be considered redundance, nor their divergence superfluity ; what is long should not be considered too long, nor what is short too short.

A duck’s legs, for instance, are short, but if we try to lengthen them, it occasions pain; and a crane’s legs are long, but if we try to cut off a portion of them, it produces grief.

Where a part is by nature long, we are not to amputate, or where it is by nature short, we are not to lengthen it.

There is no occasion to try to remove any trouble that it may cause.

The presumption is that benevolence and righteousness are not constituents of humanity; for to how much anxiety does the exercise of them give rise !

Moreover when another toe is united to the great toe, to divide the membrane makes you weep; and when there is an extra finger, to gnaw it off makes you cry out.

In the one case there is a member too many, and in the other a member too few; but the anxiety and pain which they cause is the same.

The benevolent men of the present age look at the evils of the world, as with eyes full of dust, and are filled with sorrow by them, while those who are not benevolent, having violently altered the character of their proper nature, greedily pursue after riches and honours.

The presumption therefore is that benevolence and righteousness are contrary to the nature of man :—how full of trouble and contention has the world been ever since the three dynasties 351 began !

And moreover, in employing the hook and line, the compass and square, to give things their correct form you must cut away portions of what naturally belongs to them; in employing strings and fastenings, glue and varnish to make things firm, you must violently interfere with their qualities.

The bendings and stoppings in ceremonies and music, and the factitious expression in the countenance of benevolence and righteousness, in order to comfort the minds of men—these all show a failure in observing the regular principles (of the human constitution).

All men are furnished with such regular principles; and according to them what is bent is not made so by the hook, nor what is straight by the line, nor what is round by the compass, nor what is square by the carpenter’s square.

Nor is adhesion effected by the use of glue and varnish, nor are things bound together by means of strings and bands.

Thus it is that all in the world are produced what they are by a certain guidance, while they do not know how they are produced so; and they equally attain their several ends while they do not know how it is that they do so.