Chapter 10 Section 3 Zhuangzi's Philosophy of Life

Zhuangzi regards the world as a shooting range. In such a world, not being shot is a fluke. So, what attitude can he adopt?You can only do everything possible to avoid the incoming arrows. Zhuangzi taught people how to dodge, the first is not to be useful.He said that there were people in the Song Dynasty who planted trees, and those that were as thick as a handful were cut down to make pegs for tying monkeys; those that were bigger were cut down to build houses; People made coffins.These trees don't live their own lifespan simply because they are useful. However, uselessness alone is not reliable.One day, Zhuangzi saw a carpenter staring at a big tree in bewilderment on a mountain road.Ask the carpenter why he didn't chop it off?The carpenter said the tree was useless.Zhuangzi sighed, the tree was useless to save his own life.Later, Zhuangzi went to a friend's house, and the friend asked his servant to kill a goose to entertain him.One of the geese can howl, but the other cannot.The master said, kill the one that can't bark.The next day, the disciples asked Zhuangzi, the tree in the mountain was saved because it was useless, but the goose at the friend’s house was killed because it was useless, what kind of person do you want to be, sir?Zhuangzi said: "Zhou will be between material and not material" ("Zhuangzi Shanmu"), that is to say, between useful and useless.

In fact, Chuang Tzu often praises those who are useless.He said that there was a deformed man named Zhilishu, whose chin was close to the navel, shoulders were higher than the head, the back was turned upside down, and the thighs became two sides.He can make a living by sewing and washing clothes for others; he can support a dozen people by telling fortunes for others.National conscription, he dared to wander around the conscription office, anyway, he would not be recruited; if he wanted to be sent to the corvee, he would not be able to send him because of his disability;He was able to live to the end of his life.

Once, Huizi said to Zhuangzi, I have a big tree, which is crooked and crooked [luanluan], so everyone ignores it. Your words are like my tree.Zhuangzi said, you only know the usefulness of the useful, not the usefulness of the useless.The mountain raccoon is very capable, jumping left and right, regardless of height, once he falls into the trap of the hunter, he will die.That useless tree, you should plant it in the country where there is nothing, in the vast wilderness, you can wander beside it, enjoy the shade under it, and it will not suffer from the axe.From this, Zhuangzi came to the conclusion: useless is the most useful.

Lao Tzu is in the late spring and Autumn period, and he thinks that he just needs to give in everywhere.In Zhuangzi's view, even if you have a little talent, you will bring disaster.In Zhuangzi's time, life was even more difficult. Once Zhuangzi saw a skeleton, he said to the skeleton, how pitiful it is!Did you die from the war, or committed a crime, or died of cold and starvation, and couldn't go home?How about I revive you and send you home?The skeleton said, what you said are the encounters and troubles of living people, and they no longer exist for me.My current situation is happier than being king in the south. Why should I be resurrected? !That is to say, only by dying can one obtain the greatest happiness.

Although people cannot avoid death, they cannot avoid living, and to live they must do things. Most of the things scholars do are dealing with the monarchs.Zhuangzi believes that at this time, one should practice "heart fasting" and "sit and forget".The general fast does not eat meat and fish, and the body must be washed.Xinzhai is to make the heart clean, think of nothing, forget everything, make the heart empty, and even forget its own existence.Confused, heartless, only answering questions, hum haha.You can't make suggestions, otherwise you will think that you are deliberately showing off or even slandering the monarch; you can't do good things, otherwise you will think that you are buying people's hearts and plotting wrongdoing.If the monarch does not obey the rules, you will also follow the rules; if the monarch behaves like a child, you will behave like a child, so that you may be able to protect yourself.If you encounter difficult things, you have to accept it as your destiny.

Whether it is between being useful and useless, or practicing mind fasting and sitting and forgetting, it is inevitable to deal with specific things and be involved, so Zhuangzi yearns to escape from this dirty world.In one book, he constantly praised the hermits in ancient times. They refused the request of the monarch, did not become officials, and did not even become monarchs. Instead, they fled into the mountains and lived a hard, but unfettered life.However, it is often impossible to escape in this way.A Yue man named Wang Zisou was afraid that he would be killed if he became a king, so he fled into the deep mountains. The Yue people found him in a cave, and if he didn't come out, they smoked him with mugwort.Lao Tzu had a student named Geng Sang Chu.He said goodbye to his friends, abandoned his family, and hid in a distant mountain.But the locals worshiped him as a god, which made him very uncomfortable. He felt that he had not hidden it deeply.So, how can we hide deeper?

Zhuangzi said that mutton attracts ants because it has a smell of mutton.The real deep hiding is to get rid of your own smell.How can I get rid of it? Zhuangzi despises all worldly pursuits, because these pursuits are all about obtaining something beyond one’s nature, and they are yielding to the power of the world.If people say it is good, they think it is good; if they say it is bad, they think it is not good.So pursue and struggle, in order to get rid of the bad and get the good. Some pursue wealth, toil their bodies, work hard, and accumulate a lot of money but cannot fully enjoy it.As a result, it was nothing more than saving some extraneous possessions.Some pursue nobility, day and night, thinking about how to do good and not do evil, and the result is that they damage their own health.Although people have different purposes, they are the same in terms of damaging their own nature.

Especially those who are chasing fame and fortune, they are complacent when their goals are achieved.Zhuangzi called these people pig lice.The lice on the pig think they have got a fertile land, but they don't know that one day they will be buried in the butcher's fire or boiling water.Those who are self-satisfied will sooner or later be destroyed along with their own gains. Zhuangzi saw that they were just small insects and birds flying around among the basil and branches, but he couldn't understand the roc soaring at a height of 90,000 li with wings as big as the clouds in the sky.Zhuangzi looked down on those little bugs and birds, but he didn't envy the roc either.He knows that although the roc is great, it must rely on the wind to reach an altitude of 90,000 li before it can fly; Zhuangzi also looks down on those guys who are somewhat talented and virtuous and self-satisfied, thinking that they are just like those who can only travel between Penghao little bird.But Zhuangzi also knew that even a roc that can ride the wind to and fro will fall to the ground when the wind stops.He longs for real and absolute freedom without any encumbrances.That kind of freedom is to take advantage of the nature of all things in the world, control the changes of wind, rain, cold and heat, travel beyond the four seas, travel between heaven and earth, settle down in the infinite realm, and be friends with the ancestor of all things.Even the torrential floods could not submerge him; the fire burned the forest, the heat so hot that the stones melted into water, and he couldn't heat him. Earthquakes, landslides, thunderbolts and lightning, he didn't take it to heart at all, let alone working hard to govern the world.Zhuangzi called this kind of freedom "Xiaoyao".

However, the freedom Zhuangzi praised is actually impossible to achieve, it is just a yearning, a fantasy.If you really want to practice it, you can only make yourself "shape like a tree" and "heart like dead ashes" (see "Zhuangzi Equality of Things").That is to say, make the body like a piece of dead wood, and the mind like cold ashes that can no longer generate a spark!