Returning to Primordially Creative Thinking by Shuren Wang

Author:Shuren Wang
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

4.1.4 The “xiang” of Huge Gourd and Great Tree

At the end of Xiaoyaoyou, two dialogues between Zhuangzi and Huizi are employed to set the context for connotations. The first dialogue centers on the usage of huge gourd and great tree. Huizi says that he got a seed of huge gourd from the king of the Wei State and harvested a huge gourd later whose volume is five dan 石 (a unit of dry measure for grain equaling 100L), but it cannot hold water for its fragility. When cut open into two gourd ladles, it is merely huge but is of no use. Zhuangzi however effects sharp criticisms on Huizi, pointing out, “You have been restricted to the size of it”. Zhuangzi then tells a historical story to illustrate the difference or the skillfulness and awkwardness of usages: People in the Song State were capable of making a medicine preventing one’s hands from being chapped from the cold, but they lived from generation to generation on bleaching and dying silk. One day a person learned about the medicine and offered a large amount of money for the prescription. After discussions, the Song people decided to sell it. Later, “The king of the Wu State sent armies to the Yue State and fought with the latter on the winter river” and won utterly. The medicine of the Song people being one of the key factors contributing to the victory, and the person who bought the prescription was “awarded fiefs”. By virtue of this story, Zhuangzi further criticizes Huizi for the latter’s “being restricted to the size”, pointing out, “Being capable of preventing one’s hands from being chapped is one and the same. As to whether the Song people hand down the medicine or go on living on bleaching and dying silk, it is the matter of different usages.” That is to say, with respect to the medicine, the Song people can either hand it down but live on bleaching and dying silk for generations or sell it hence enable the buyer to be awarded fiefs for his contribution. It can be seen that different usages result differently. In what follows, Zhuangzi compares Huizi’s experience with this story and points out, “Now you have a gourd of the volume of five dan, why not think about using it as a vessel drifting over the river instead of worrying about it being a useless gourd ladle? Alas! Your mind remains to be limitless!” Here, Zhuangzi’s criticism is exactly directed to Huizi’s sayings about the fragile huge gourd. In the view of Zhuangzi, Huizi’s intelligence remains to be sufficiently limitless but is still blocked with something which, as it were, has hit home the problem of Huizi, and that of the common people’s “being restricted to the size”. Why, then, cannot the mind of Huizi and of the common people be limitless but is always blocked with something? That Huizi “has been restricted to the size” of the huge gourd or gourd ladles and even

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.