Saturday, June 20, 2009

Zhuangzi advocates No Action 庄子提倡无为

Zhuangzi advocates wuwei, which means ‘no action’ and involves knowing when to act and when not to act. This story from the Zhuangzi illustrates the importance of wuwei.
‘The ruler of the South Sea was called Shu (倏), the ruler of the North Sea was called Hu (忽) and the ruler of the Central Region was called Hun Dun ( 浑沌). Shu and Hu often met each other in the land of Hun Dun, who treated them very well. They wanted to repay his kindness, saying, “Every man has seven apertures with which to hear, to see, to eat and to breathe, but Hun Dun alone has none of them. Let’s try and bore some for him.” They bored one aperture each day, and on the seventh day Hun Dun died.’
Shu and Hu literally mean ‘swift’ and ‘unstable’ respectively. Hun implies turbid or murky states, and also something simple and natural. Hun Dun (浑沌) suggests ‘blended’, ‘integral’, or ‘undivided’. So in Chinese expressions, the primeval state of the universe before the earth was first separated from the heavens was called Hun Dun.
Seven apertures here mean the function of so-called the five senses, that is, the sense of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch.
One interpretation says that Shu and Hu did not act ‘spontaneously’ or with ‘non-interference’. They were more concerned with proper protocol such as gift-giving. They had a human-oriented bias in that their response was to give Hun Dun human orifices so that he would have the ‘prestige’ of a human face. They did not act with natural and spontaneous actions in accordance with the core Daoist philosophy of wuwei which demands that one submit to and move with, as opposed to against, the natural processes and change.
As a result of their actions, Hun Dun died.
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庄子提倡无为,意思是没有行动,要知道何时行动,何时不应行动。以下庄子的寓言说明无为的重要。
‘南海之帝为倏,北海之帝为忽,中央之帝为浑沌。倏与忽时相与遇于浑沌之地,浑沌待之甚善。倏与忽谋报浑沌之德,曰:“人皆有七窍以视听食息,此独无有,尝试凿之。”日凿一窍,七日而浑沌死。’
‘倏’意为极快,‘忽意’为不平稳,‘混’表示混浊,朦胧的状态,和简单自然的东西。‘混沌’意味混合、完整、未分开。所以,在华人词语中,在天与地还没有分开之前的原始状态的宇宙就叫混沌。
一种解释说倏与忽没有依自然而行动,或者说没有执行‘不干扰’行为。他们更关心的是还礼之类的适当的礼节。他们有着以人为本的偏见,因而他们的反应是给与混沌人类的窍孔,这样混沌就可以有人类的尊严。他们没有依照道家的无为哲学来依自然行事。无为要求一个人服从或依照自然方法或变动,而不是反其道而行。
他们的行动的结果,混沌死了。

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