人間世

Yan Hui went to see Confucius and asked permission to travel. 'Where are you going?' 'I am going to Wei.' 'What for?' 'I have heard that the ruler of Wei is young and headstrong in his actions. He uses his state recklessly and does not see his faults. He thinks nothing of letting his people die — the dead fill the state like grass in a marsh, and the people have nowhere to turn! I once heard you say, Master: "Leave the well-ordered state and go to the disordered one. A doctor's door is crowded with the sick." I wish to use what I have learned to ponder a remedy — perhaps his state can still be healed!'

Yan Hui said: 'May I ask about the fasting of the heart-mind?' Confucius said: 'Unify your will. Do not listen with your ears but listen with your heart-mind. Do not listen with your heart-mind but listen with your vital breath. Hearing stops with the ears, the heart-mind stops at matching things up. But the vital breath is empty and waits for things. Only the Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness — this is the fasting of the heart-mind.'

Carpenter Shi was traveling to Qi when he came to Crooked Shaft and saw an oak tree at the village shrine. It was so large that several thousand oxen could shelter under it, a hundred spans around, taller than the hills with branches beginning only eighty feet up — a dozen of them big enough to be carved into boats. Spectators gathered like a market crowd, but the Master Carpenter did not even glance at it, walking on without stopping. His apprentice stared at it in wonder, then ran to catch up, saying: 'Since I first took up my axe and followed you, Master, I have never seen timber as beautiful as this. Yet you won't even look at it and walk right past. Why?' The carpenter said: 'Stop, say no more! It is worthless wood. Make a boat from it and it will sink. Make a coffin and it will rot quickly. Make a vessel and it will break quickly. Make a door and it will sweat sap. Make a pillar and it will be eaten by worms. This is wood that has no talent. There is nothing it can be used for — that is why it has lived so long.'

Shu the Deformed — his chin was tucked into his navel, his shoulders rose above his head, the bump at the base of his skull pointed toward the sky, his five vital organs were on top, his thighs pressed against his ribs. By doing a bit of tailoring and washing, he earned enough to fill his mouth. By winnowing and sifting grain, he could feed ten people. When the authorities called up soldiers, Shu stood among them flapping his arms. When there was a great public work project, Shu was excused because of his chronic illness. When the authorities distributed grain to the sick, he received three bushels of grain and ten bundles of firewood. A man deformed in body can still nourish himself and live out the years Heaven gave him — how much more can someone deformed in virtue!

The mountain tree invites its own cutting down. The lamp oil burns itself up. Cinnamon bark can be eaten, so the tree is cut down. Lacquer can be used, so the tree is slashed. Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful, but no one knows the usefulness of the useless.