Gems of Chinese Literature/Chuang Tzŭ-On his own Death-bed

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Gems of Chinese Literature
translated by Herbert Allen Giles

On His Own Death-Bed by Chuang Tzŭ

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CHUANG TZŬ.

4th century b.c.

[A most original thinker, of whom the Chinese nation might well be proud. Yet his writings are tabooed as heterodox, and are very widely unread, more perhaps on account of the extreme obscurity of the text than because they are under the ban of the Confucianists. What little is known of Chuang Tzŭ's life may be gathered from some of the extracts given. He is generally regarded as an advanced exponent of the doctrines of Lao Tzŭ. So late as the 4th century a.d., the work of Chuang Tzŭ appears to have run to fifty-three chapters. Of these, only thirty-three now remain; and several of them are undoubtedly spurious, while into various other chapters, spurious passages have been inserted.]

1518084Gems of Chinese Literature — On His Own Death-BedHerbert Allen GilesChuang Tzŭ

When Chuang Tzŭ was about to die, his disciples expressed a wish to give him a splendid funeral. But Chuang Tzŭ said, “With Heaven and Earth for my coffin and shell; with the sun, moon, and stars as my burial regalia; and with all creation to escort me to the grave,―are not my funeral paraphernalia ready to hand?”^[1]

“We fear,” argued the disciples, “less the carrion kite should eat the body of our Master;” to which Chuang Tzŭ replied, “Above ground, I shall be food for kites; below, I shall be food for mole-crickets and ants. Why rob one to feed the other?

“If you adopt, as absolute, a standard of evenness which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely even. If you adopt, as absolute, a criterion of right which is so only relatively, your results will not be absolutely right. Those who trust to their senses become, as it were, slaves to objective existences. Those alone who are guided by their intuitions find the true standard. So far are the senses less reliable than the intuitions. Yet fools trust to their senses to know what is good for mankind, with alas! but external results.

↑ Compare the following lines by Mrs. Alexander, from The Burial of Moses:―

And had he not high honour?―
The hillside for his pall;
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;
And the dark rock pines like nodding plumes
Above his bier to wave,
And God's own hand in that lonely land
To lay him in the grave.

[1] Compare the following lines by Mrs. Alexander, from The Burial of Moses:―

And had he not high honour?―
The hillside for his pall;
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;
And the dark rock pines like nodding plumes
Above his bier to wave,
And God's own hand in that lonely land
To lay him in the grave.

[1]