1、Lin Yutangs Introduction to Chuangtse: Mystic and HumoristJesus was followed by St. Paul, Socrates by Plato, Confucius by Mencius, and Laotse by Chuangtse. In all four cases, the first was the real teacher and either wrote no books or wrote very little, and the second began to develop the doctrines
2、and wrote long and profound discourses. Chuangtse, who died about 275 B.C., was separated from Laotses death by not quite two hundred years, and was strictly a contemporary of Mencius. Yet the most curious thing is that although both these writers mentioned the other philosophers of the time, neithe
3、r was mentioned by the other in his works. On the whole, Chuangtse must be considered the greatest prose writer of the Chou Dynasty, as Chu: Yu:an must be considered the greatest poet. His claim to this position rests both upon the brilliance of his style and the depth of his thought. That explains
4、the fact that although he was probably the greatest slanderer of Confucius, and with Motse, the greatest antagonist of Confucian ideas, no Confucian scholar has not openly or secretly admired him. People who would not openly agree with his ideas would nevertheless read him as literature.Nor can it b
5、e said truly that a pure-blooded Chinese could ever quite disagree with Chuangtses ideas. Taoism is not a school of thought in China, it is a deep, fundamental trait of Chinese thinking, and of the Chinese attitude toward life and toward society. It has depth, while Confucianism has only a practical
6、 sense of proportions; it enriches Chinese poetry and imagination in an immeasurable manner, and it gives a philosophic sanction to whatever is in the idle, freedom-loving, poetic, vagabond Chinese soul. It provides the only safe, romantic release from the severe Confucian classic restraint, and hum
7、anizes the very humanists themselves; therefore when a Chinese succeeds, he is always a Confucianist, and when he fails, he is always a Taoist. As more people fail than succeed in this world, and as all who succeed know that they succeed but in a lame and halting manner when they examine themselves
8、in the dark hours of the night, I believe Taoist ideas are more often at work than Confucianism. Even a Confucianist succeeds only when he knows he never really succeeds, that is, by following Taoist wisdom. Tseng Kuofan, the great Confucian general who suppressed the Taiping Rebellion, had failed i
9、n his early campaign and began to succeed only one morning when he realized with true Taoist humility that he was “no good,“ and gave power to his assistant generals.Chuangtse is therefore important as the first one who fully developed the Taoistic thesis of the rhythm of life, contained in the epig
10、rams of Laotse. Unlike other Chinese philosophers principally occupied with practical questions of government and personal morality, he gives the only metaphysics existing in Chinese literature before the coming of Buddhism. I am sure his mysticism will charm some readers and repel others. Certain t
11、raits in it, like weeding out the idea of the ego and quiet contemplation and “seeing the Solitary“ explain how these native Chinese ideas were back of the development of the Chan (Japanese Zen) Buddhism. Any branch of human knowledge, even the study of the rocks of the earth and the cosmic rays of
12、heaven, strikes mysticism when is reaches any depth at all, and it seems Chinese Taoism skipped the scientific study of nature to reach the same intuitive conclusion by insight alone. Therefore it is not surprising that Albert Einstein and Chuangtse agree, as agree they must, on the relativity of al
13、l standards. The only difference is that Einstein takes on the more difficult and, to a Chinese, more stupid work of mathematical proof, while Chuangtse furnishes the philosophic import of this theory of relativity, which must be sooner or later developed by Western philosophers in the next decades.
14、A word must be added about Chuangtses attitude toward Confucius. It will be evident to any reader that he was one of the greatest romanticizers of history, and that any of the anecdotes he tells about Confucius, or Laotse or the Yellow Emperor must be accepted on a par with those anecdotes he tells
15、about the conversation of General Clouds and Great Nebulous, or between the Spirit of the River and the Spirit of the Ocean. It must be also plainly understood that he was a humorist with a wild and rather luxuriant fantasy, with an American love for exaggeration and for the big. One should therefor
16、e read him as one would a humorist writer knowing that he is frivolous when he is profound and profound when he is frivolous.The extant text of Chuangtse consists of thirty-three chapters, all of them a mixture of philosophic disquisition and anecdotes or parables. The chapters containing the most v
17、irulent attacks on Confucianism (not included here) have been considered forgery, and a few Chinese “textual critics“ have even considered all of them forgery except the first seven chapters. This is easy to understand because it is the modern Chinese fashion to talk of forgery. One can rest assured
18、 that these “textual critics“ are unscientific because very little of it is philological criticism, but consists of opinions as to style and whether Chuangtse had or had not enough culture to attack Confucius only in a mild and polished manner. (See samples of this type of “criticism“ in my long int
19、roduction to The Book of History.) Only one or two anachronisms are pointed out, which could be due to later interpolations and the rest is a subjective assertion of opinion. Even the evaluations of style are faulty, and at least a distinction should be made between interpolations and wholesale forg
20、ery. Some of the best pieces of Chuangtse are decidedly outside the first seven chapters, and it has not even occurred to the critics to provide an answer as to who else could have written them. There is no reason to be sure that even the most eloquent exposition of the thieves philosophy, regarded
21、by most as forgery, was not the work of Chuangtse, who had so little to do with the “gentlemen.“ On the other hand, I believe various anecdotes have been freely added by later generations into the extremely loose structure of the chapters.I have chosen here eleven chapters, including all but one of
22、the first best seven chapters. With one minor exception, these chapters are translated complete. The philosophically most important are the chapters on “Levelling All Things“ and “Autumn Floods.“ The chapters, “Joined Toes,“ “Horses Hooves,“ “Opening Trunks“ and “Tolerance“ belong in one group with
23、the main theme of protest against civilization. The most eloquent protest is contained in “Opening Trunks,“ while the most characteristically Taoistic is the chapter on “Tolerance.“ The most mystic and deeply religious piece is “The Great Supreme.“ The most beautifully written is “Autumn Floods.“ Th
24、e queerest is the chapter on “Deformities“ (a typically “romanticist“ theme). The most delightful is probably “Horses Hooves,“ and the most fantastic is the first chapter, “A Happy Excursion.“ Some of Chuangtses parables in the other chapters will be found under “Parables of Ancient Philosophers“ el
25、sewhere in this volume.I have based my translation on that of Herbert A. Giles. It soon became apparent in my work that Giles was free in his translation where exactness was easy and possible, and that he had a glib, colloquial style which might be considered a blemish. The result is that hardly a l
26、ine has been left untouched, and I have had to make my own translation, taking advantage of whatever is good in his English rendering. But still I owe a great debt to my predecessor, and he has notably succeeded in this difficult task in many passages. Where his rendering is good, I have not chosen
27、to be different. In this sense, the translation may be regarded as my own.It should be noted that throughout the text, Giles translates “Heaven“ as “God“ where it means God. On the other hand, the term “Creator“ is an exact rendering of chao-wu, or “he who creates things.“ I will not go into details
28、 of translation of other philosophic terms here.庄子十一篇英译 译者：林语堂Table:A Happy ExcursionLevelling All ThingsPreservation of LifeThis Human WorldDeformitiesThe Great SupremeJoined ToesHorses HoovesOpening TrunksOn ToleranceAutumn FloodsTranslators NotesA Happy ExcursionIn the northern ocean there is a f
29、ish, called the kun, I do not know how many thousand li in size. This kun changes into a bird, called the peng. Its back is I do not know how many thousand li in breadth. When it is moved, it flies, its wings obscuring the sky like clouds. When on a voyage, this bird prepares to start for the Southe
30、rn Ocean, the Celestial Lake. And in the Records of Marvels we read that when the peng flies southwards, the water is smitten for a space of three thousand li around, while the bird itself mounts upon a great wind to a height of ninety thousand li, for a flight of six months duration.There mounting
31、aloft, the bird saw the moving white mists of spring, the dust-clouds, and the living things blowing their breaths among them. It wondered whether the blue of the sky was its real color, or only the result of distance without end, and saw that the things on earth appeared the same to it.If there is
32、not sufficient depth, water will not float large ships. Upset a cupful into a hole in the yard, and a mustard-seed will be your boat. Try to float the cup, and it will be grounded, due to the disproportion between water and vessel.So with air. If there is not sufficient a depth, it cannot support la
33、rge wings. And for this bird, a depth of ninety thousand li is necessary to bear it up. Then, gliding upon the wind, with nothing save the clear sky above, and no obstacles in the way, it starts upon its journey to the south.A cicada and a young dove laughed, saying, “Now, when I fly with all my mig
34、ht, tis as much as I can do to get from tree to tree. And sometimes I do not reach, but fall to the ground midway. What then can be the use of going up ninety thousand li to start for the south?“He who goes to the countryside taking three meals with him comes back with his stomach as full as when he
35、 started. But he who travels a hundred li must take ground rice enough for an overnight stay. And he who travels a thousand li must supply himself with provisions for three months. Those two little creatures, what should they know?Small knowledge has not the compass of great knowledge any more than
36、a short year has the length of a long year. How can we tell that this is so? The fungus plant of a morning knows not the alternation of day and night. The cicada knows not the alternation of spring and autumn. Theirs are short years. But in the south of Chu there is a mingling (tree) whose spring an
37、d autumn are each of five hundred years duration. And in former days there was a large tree which had a spring and autumn each of eight thousand years. Yet, Peng Tsu 1 is known for reaching a great age and is still, alas! an object of envy to all!It was on this very subject that the Emperor Tang 2 s
38、poke to Chi, as follows: “At the north of Chiungta, there is a Dark Sea, the Celestial Lake. In it there is a fish several thousand li in breadth, and I know not how many in length. It is called the kun. There is also a bird, called the peng, with a back like Mount Tai, and wings like clouds across
39、the sky. It soars up upon a whirlwind to a height of ninety thousand li, far above the region of the clouds, with only the clear sky above it. And then it directs its flight towards the Southern Ocean.“And a lake sparrow laughed, and said: Pray, what may that creature be going to do? I rise but a fe
40、w yards in the air and settle down again, after flying around among the reeds. That is as much as any one would want to fly. Now, wherever can this creature be going to?“ Such, indeed, is the difference between small and great.Take, for instance, a man who creditably fills some small office, or whos
41、e influence spreads over a village, or whose character pleases a certain prince. His opinion of himself will be much the same as that lake sparrows. The philosopher Yung of Sung would laugh at such a one. If the whole world flattered him, he would not be affected thereby, nor if the whole world blam
42、ed him would he be dissuaded from what he was doing. For Yung can distinguish between essence and superficialities, and understand what is true honor and shame. Such men are rare in their generation. But even he has not established himself.Now Liehtse 3 could ride upon the wind. Sailing happily in t
43、he cool breeze, he would go on for fifteen days before his return. Among mortals who attain happiness, such a man is rare. Yet although Liehtse could dispense with walking, he would still have to depend upon something. 4As for one who is charioted upon the eternal fitness of Heaven and Earth, drivin
44、g before him the changing elements as his team to roam through the realms of the Infinite, upon what, then, would such a one have need to depend? Thus it is said, “The perfect man ignores self; the divine man ignores achievement; the true Sage ignores reputation.“The Emperor Yao 5 wished to abdicate
45、 in favor of Hsu: Yu, saying, “If, when the sun and moon are shining, the torch is still lighted, would it be not difficult for the latter to shine? If, when the rain has fallen, one should still continue to water the fields, would this not be a waste of labor? Now if you would assume the reins of g
46、overnment, the empire would be well governed, and yet I am filling this office. I am conscious of my own deficiencies, and I beg to offer you the Empire.“You are ruling the Empire, and the Empire is already well ruled,“ replied Hsu: Yu. “Why should I take your place? Should I do this for the sake of
47、 a name? A name is but the shadow of reality, and should I trouble myself about the shadow? The tit, building its nest in the mighty forest, occupies but a single twig. The beaver slakes its thirst from the river, but drinks enough only to fill its belly. I would rather go back: I have no use for th
48、e empire! If the cook is unable to prepare the funeral sacrifices, the representative of the worshipped spirit and the officer of prayer may not step over the wines and meats and do it for him.“Chien Wu said to Lien Shu, “I heard Chieh Yu: talk on high and fine subjects endlessly. I was greatly star
49、tled at what he said, for his words seemed interminable as the Milky Way, but they are quite detached from our common human experience.“What was it?“ asked Lien Shu.“He declared,“ replied Chien Wu, “that on the Miao-ku-yi mountain there lives a divine one, whose skin is white like ice or snow, whose grace and elegance are like those of a virgin, who eats no grain, but lives on air and dew, and who, riding on clouds with flying dragons for his team, roams beyond the limits of the mortal regions. When his spirit gravitates, he can ward off corruption fr
