知北游

Knowledge wandered north to the banks of the Black Water, climbed the hill of Hidden Heights, and there met Do-Nothing-Say-Nothing. Knowledge said: 'I have some questions for you. What thought and effort will let me know the Way? Where must I dwell and what must I do to find peace in the Way? What path and what method will let me attain the Way?' Three times Knowledge asked, and Do-Nothing-Say-Nothing did not answer. Not that he would not answer — he did not know the answer.

Dongguozi asked Zhuangzi: 'This thing called the Way — where is it?' Zhuangzi said: 'There is nowhere it is not.' Dongguozi said: 'Be more specific.' Zhuangzi said: 'It is in the ant.' 'How can it be so low?' 'It is in the panic grass.' 'How can it be even lower?' 'It is in the tiles and shards.' 'How can it be even more so?' 'It is in urine and excrement.' Dongguozi said nothing.

Human life is the gathering of vital breath. When it gathers, there is life; when it scatters, there is death. If life and death are companions, what is there to worry about? Therefore all things are one. What we consider beautiful is the marvelous and miraculous; what we consider ugly is the rotten and putrid. But the rotten and putrid transforms back into the marvelous and miraculous, and the marvelous and miraculous transforms back into the rotten and putrid. Therefore it is said: 'All under heaven is one breath.' The sage therefore values oneness.