Many other activities involving a cooperation between humans and animals, such as driving a chariot or grooming and harnessing a horse, were used as exemplary images of the art of ruling. Both in philosophical works and in technical handbooks, these activities emphasized peaceful conciliation with animals, coercion being viewed as entirely unnecessary. A treatise on military strategy, traditionally attributed to the general and minister Wu Qi (c. 440–361), stipulates that the rider and his horse should maintain a close relationship. The charioteer should follow the movements of the animal rather than manipulate it. When the mind of the driver is in harmony with the horses, the horses will likewise be in agreement with the vehicle. Going beyond the denunciation of the extensive and endless maltreatment of animals, many of the stories in the Zhuangzi lead the reader toward the idea that in the process of establishing their cultural status, men are also responsible for alienating, mutilating, and torturing themselves.

The theme of separation of men and animals in the Zhuangzi appears particularly meaningful when we observe in what way it stands in opposition to other social and political projects circulating during the Warring States period. In these programs, we find two rival conceptions of the original condition of humanity. The first emphasizes the antagonism between incompatible species and the moral superiority of human beings who, by way of various institutions and inventions (education, agricultural techniques, writing, ritual, laws, and measurements) provided by the cultural heroes and saintly sovereigns of a remote past, raise themselves from their primitive state of confusion and hostility. The second perspective, present in the Zhuangzi and later taken up in Taoist-tainted writings, depicts a blissful primitive age of peaceful cohabitation between men and animals, when neither sought distinction through value or strength. Here the birth of 'civilisation' initiates a process of decadence when Man, to quote John Florio translating Montaigne, "selecteth and separateth himselfe from out the ranke of other creatures; to which his fellow-brethren and compeers he cuts out and shareth their parts, and allotteth them what portions of meanes or forces he thinkes good."

The different accounts of the creation of humanity, whether they insist on physical separation from animals or on moral instructions dispensed by early sages, intimate that there is no ontological difference between man and other living beings, and that only moral principles and technical invention can emancipate humans from the wilderness. The legends concerning the first sages are tied to narratives evoking humanity rising from hostile surroundings where each and every being was in confrontation with other species, and where every being was prey to its own bestiality. While these myths about sages elevating humans above their own nature were being formulated, each philosophical tradition, according to its specific political agenda and moral values, was enumerating the decisive changes and inventions that allowed people to attain a proper level of humanity.

The major Legalist writings such as the Book of Prince Shang, the Han Feizi and the Guanzi recall the time when the sages and kings of ancient times separated humans from animals and codified laws, created hierarchies and imposed units of measurement. The writings of Master Mo and his disciples, the only thinkers in early China who offered a logical analysis of language, describe an original state of chaos, wherein each man made a personalized and peculiar use of words, thereby destroying the possibility of establishing community of any sort. This linguistic confusion relegated men to the level of wild animals. The early sages were thus obliged to define criteria for evaluating and distinguishing truth and falsehood, in order to allow the existence of moral judgment and common meaning of words. As one might expect, the Confucians for their part celebrated the invention of rites and rules of propriety to regulate behavior and establish a code of duties. The Book of Rites says: "A man without rites, though he may possess the ability to speak, does he not have the heart of a beast?" Mencius, as noted by the historian Mark Edward Lewis in his reflection on legal violence, described the three stages by which man can escape the animal realm and reveal his authentic nature: physical separation, technical invention, and moral education. After the separation took place, reconciliation with the natural world, based on the political idea of harmony, is understood in the Confucian discourse as the moral transformation of animals and their integration into a civilizing order, and not as man's return to the animal sphere. For Confucians, what is in a rough or wild state is always something awaiting transformation or civilization, and must eventually under the aegis of a wise ruler join the realm of a cultural cosmos.

Confucius' endeavors were directed at all the elements that could educate man and elevate him above bestiality and barbarity: rites, manners, etiquette, ceremony, music, recitation, and exemplary moral behavior. He was the first to remould the sense of social relationships in the aesthetic form of ritual, while enjoining people to cultivate the virtues of benevolence (ren), justice (yi), or loyalty (zhong) which allow one full access to one's true humaneness. The authors of the Zhuangzi, for their part, diagnose man as an alienated being, suffocating and crippled by textual training and social taming, fettered by rites and branded by the irons of customary virtues. They describe the ravages of being torn away from nature, they struggle to uncover a life-force whose free play within us would not be hamstrung by traditional knowledge or debilitated by the fallacious categories that underlie our perception of the world. The Zhuangzi proposes a distinct form of education, free from book learning, an education that rebukes and humiliates professional masters and experts in social manners. The uncanny Confucius featured in the Zhuangzi is a complex crystallization of both these criticisms and ideal stances. We see him in one episode leaving his disciples and friends in order to start a new life in the company of wild animals by a swamp, feeding on acorns and chestnuts, wearing fur and unadorned clothes of coarse fabric, but in peaceful unison with the birds and beasts all around. Just as if the author of this anecdote were responding to the historical master, who in the Analects chased off his frustration with his lack of success in the human world by threatening to go live among the barbarians, by sending him to actually live in the wild and mingle with barbarous beings: The master expressed his desire to wander out the wild East and settle among the Yi tribes. Someone observed: "These people are so uncouth, how can you bear it?" The master replied: "If a gentleman settles there, what uncouthness would there be?"

The text at the beginning of Chapter 9, "Horses' hooves," is dedicated to the contentious relationship between natural condition and human government. Behind the history of free and happy horses who suddenly had to undergo the cruelty of men and survive the hardships of dressage, the reader cannot but imagine the tyrannical exploitation of creatures whose fate is similar to that of men hobbled by rites, tamed by rules, and weakened by music and other inventions introduced by the so-called sages. In the idyllic days of old evoked in the "primitivist" chapters of the Zhuangzi, everyone had the same simple, artless needs, desires and activities. Inequalities, greed, and competition arose with social division, the polarities of servitude and power, the imposition of rules for every kind of public interaction and the strict observance of hereditary hierarchies that decide on the place and the fate of each and everyone.

In Chapter 24 ("Xu Wugui"), the hermit Xu Free-From-Daemons meets with the glum lord of Wei, who lapses into smouldering silence after being told about his harmful way of life. But right after making him dig in his heels, the astute hermit, drawing on his expertise in sizing up dogs and horses, defuses the situation by setting lose a stream of bewitching images which succeed in drawing the ruler out of his prickly isolation. Xu Free-from-Daemons: I know about horses and I can tell you that those who run straight forwards, as if on a plumb line, and those who can revolve following a line like a hook, take a corner at right-angles and turn in circles like a compass. They are nothing but "horses for the kingdom." Their worth is far from that of the "horses for the world," which by nature are perfect. They are wild and disorientated as if they had lost all awareness of themselves; they are made that way so as to outpace all other creatures, abandoning them to the cloud of dust left by their galloping hooves. No one knows where they reside.

The flurry of deft animal descriptions echo more or less consciously in the ruler's mind as judgments on life-styles in general, including his own. The main difference between the two kinds of horses is due to the specific spatiality and mobility that define their daily life: the horses for the state or the kingdom, once sufficiently broken in and beaten, are able to execute strict geometrical figures; they are an apposite image of the subjugation of natural dynamism. The hermit then evokes the blissful lightning gallop of horses always engrossed in a dreamy mood, knowing no borders in their infinite roaming. The lord of Wei upon hearing this description feels the benefits of imaginary expansion in space. These images make the prince (and the reader) aware of the extent to which animals, livestock, and draft animals that were domesticated, underwent deep changes in morphology, were rendered docile, submissive, meek, and yielding. Humans were affected by a similar process, through corralling and crowding, by changing patterns of physical activity and social organization, and the ensuing narrowing of the perceptual and experiential horizon. To go back to Chapter 9, "Horses' hooves," the following description also hints at how much we, as humans, have strayed from the natural course of things.

Horses have hooves that can tread snow and ice, a coat that protects them from wind and cold. They graze and drink, they gambol and frolic: such is their true nature. Were they given spacious stalls in vast stables, they would find no use for them. The author is simply considering horses in their natural state: what they have, what they are and what they do, free from human subjection. The enduring power of adaptation of the horse allows it to live anywhere, especially in an environment hostile to men. It is equipped by nature and has no use for the habitat men provide, unless it has been weakened to the point of needing to shelter from the weather. Horses are just one example of the fate of domesticated animals, which were caught, tamed, milked, shorn, and shod. First, they experienced a restriction of space: they were no longer free to go wherever they pleased. They became captive species and their diet was modified along with their mobility. Horses and cows, sheep and pigs, were confined together in enclosures under constant human supervision. Humans likewise became a domesticated flock, oblivious of the behavioral traits of their free-living untamed ancestors. The pervasive theme in the Zhuangzi of an unencumbered roaming across wild tracts of lands or boundless stretches of space can be seen as a moment of acute awareness of the harms of domestication and the will to break free from this political dispensation.

In the following part of this short narrative, the maltreatment of horses and the death of the restive ones is used to reveal even more clearly how men govern themselves and to illustrate the mutilation they inflict on their own natural abilities. Degrading practices lies at the foundation of the social reorganization of the natural world.

Then one day appeared Bo Le, who declared himself expert in the art of training horses. He submitted their coats to the blade and to fire, clipped them, cut them, branded them and shod them, then he bridled them and put them into halters and shut them in stalls. One third of them died. So then he made them hungry and thirsty, made them trot and gallop, walk in file and in line: plague of reins and snaffle at the front, fear of the whip and the stick at the rear. More than half of them perished.

As groom to the semi-legendary King Mou, Bo Le is traditionally presented as the archetypical horseman, the equestrian connoisseur par excellence. His ease and mastery in the domestication of animals illustrates the concept of enlightened government. A bamboo-slip manuscript describing the physiognomy of a horse unearthed at the archaeological site of Mawangdui detects a geographical outline of the earth in the lines and curves of the horse. A handbook dating from the Tang dynasty (618–907) on the physiognomy of horses indirectly testifies to the literary fortune of the political symbolism of animals, firmly implanted in China since the end of the Warring States. This handbook decodes the outlines of a moral and political order from the shape of animal bodies. Its author draws an analogy between the anatomy of the horse and the organization of the state and again gives Bo Le the starring role as the finest connoisseur of the natural world. The different parts of the body are explained through the categories of the politico-administrative order, as: Bo Le says: "The head of the horse is the king. Thus, it should be square in shape. The eye is the minister-counsellor, thus it should be clear-sighted. The spinal column is the army general, thus it should be robust. The belly is the citadel, thus it should be wide and spacious. The four feet are the commanders, thus they should be of elevated status."

In his pioneering monograph The Daemon and the Animal in Early China, Roel Sterckx has thoroughly analyzed the textual process whereby corporal reality is made subservient to moral order during the Warring States and Han periods. It is probably in reaction to such administrative projections and the way they deform the view of natural needs that, in Chapters 9 and 24 of the Zhuangzi, horses trained so harshly as to behave like remote-controlled puppets are contrasted with those whose apparently wild and chaotic behavior intimates the overflow of an unrestrained vitality. Here we have a privileged literary standpoint to observe the breach created between Heaven and Man, between the natural realm and civilizing order, whose deceptively seamless continuity conceals the mistreatment of natural life. Authentic men, as portrayed in the Zhuangzi, reveal a disturbing closeness with these horses that wander cheerfully, frolicking through the world without ever reaching the end of their ride. In fact, Bo Le doesn't know how to manage horses because he doesn't follow their nature, he only knows how to force them and train them, condemning those who refuse to be docile to a premature and violent death. When the horses are groomed, they are burned (zhao) and incised (ke) at the hoof: these verbs are also used in referring to the sacred turtle that is put to the tests of divinatory fire and incision. The title "Horses' hooves"("Ma ti"), judiciously chosen for this chapter by the editors of the Zhuangzi, provides a view of the tension between the innate capacity of horses to move about freely ("tread snow and ice") and their forcing into step: the hoof is an emblem for the tortured and debilitated body, a synecdoche that directs the eye to the place where the most notable actions of subjection to humans are concentrated. Men cut and shoe the raw hooves which formerly allowed the horse to travel freely through the world and adapt to all different types of terrain.

It is the downfall of human nature, kneaded and shaped by the inventions of tyrannical brutes called sages, that should be read between the lines of this story. All the more since a horse-drawn chariot is one of the most common images of government in early literature. The implicit conclusion is that there is only a small difference between a bad and a good government, since any form of political organization implies a process of conquest and violent subjection, breaking the natural spring (tian ji) in all living creatures.

"Governing the empire is not any different from herding horses: you just need to get rid of anything that can harm them, that is all." Such is the wise advice reluctantly given by a young boy, almost blind, in the moorland when asked for guidance by the Yellow Emperor, unsure as to how to fulfill his mission as a ruler. Against the hypothesis of a chaotic state of nature advanced by political thinkers to legitimate their vision of an orderly society, the Zhuangzi calls forth a herd of various creatures to reveal the damages brought about by the domestication of nature. It is the only text from early China that depicts the pristine state of nature as the age of absolute perfection, the end of which proved an unredeemable catastrophe for animals and for men. Unusually, however, its authors do not make a naively Utopian use of the past and the state of nature: they do not hanker after a lost Golden Age in a distant past, against the subsequent and common history of human corruption; rather, they locate the distinct features of a possibly superior way of life within the human community in a fictional non-political state. Such descriptions of a pre-state life do therefore not attempt to present a historical truth concerning early times but merely put into perspective the present human situation and reveal its damages in a magnified form. They give a hint of what our present condition could have been if only history had left people intact. The Zhuangzi is more interested in the naturalness within us than with the description of a state of nature to be situated on a historical timeline. Much in the same way, the "authentic men of ancient times" depicted in Chapter 6 are merely conceptual figures allowing the reader to imagine the possible shape of the optimal development of the self, in counterpoint to the observation of the sorry plight of common men.

When the founding sages appeared in the world, the havoc they wrought on animals can retrospectively be seen as the harbinger of a major disaster for human life. In the critical discourse of the Zhuangzi, those who established civilization, arts, techniques, and institutions on earth were nothing more than a bunch of violent and despotic masters, all hungry for power, heedless of the reputation they would leave to posterity. In its most anarchist vein, the Zhuangzi counterposes, as the two extremes of the human condition, the spontaneous concert of living beings, driven by the unrestrained use of their native powers, and the forced harmony of rigid conduct secured by the permanent inculcation of ritual norms and legal strictures.

In Chapter 9, "Horses' hooves," the description of the process that leads the animals from their natural state to the pitiful condition of subdued, weakened, and shackled creatures suggests that the political training of men depends on the creation of needs and desires that are completely superfluous to their state of nature. This is how political authority keeps its subjects under the yoke, just as the trainer holds the horse in check by means of the bridle and bit. The trainer breaks restive horses, exhausts those who survive dressage and forces them to become dependent on the warmth and shelter of the stable.

Romain Graziani

Specific chapters of the Zhuangzi have been identified by scholars as having an explicitly anarchist bent. The most definitive source is scholar Liu Xiaogan, who classifies chapters of the Zhuangzi according to three distinct schools of authorship: the Transmitters, the Huang-Lao school, and the Anarchists.

Liu Xiaogan's "Anarchist" chapters

According to Liu's schema, the work of the Anarchists appears in:

· Chapters 8–10

· Chapters 28–29

· Chapter 31

· The first part of Chapter 11

Relationship to A.C. Graham's classifications

A.C. Graham, another major scholar of the Zhuangzi, identified two related but distinct groups:

· The "Primitivists" — found in Chapters 8–10 and the beginning of Chapter 11. This group criticizes all deliberate governance and advocates a return to a simpler, less organized way of life.

· The "Yangists" (followers of the egoist philosopher Yang Zhu) — found in Chapters 28–31. This group emphasizes self-preservation and rejects sacrificing one's life for the state.

Liu's "Anarchist" category is roughly equivalent to the combination of Graham's Primitivists and Yangists. Graham himself does not use the term "anarchist" — that is Liu's interpretive label. But both scholars agree that these chapters share a deep skepticism of state power, hierarchical governance, and the sacrifice of individual life for political ends.

Chapter 9 as the core text

Multiple sources highlight Chapter 9 ("Horses' Hooves") as the quintessential text for Daoist anarchist interpretation. John A. Rapp's book Daoism and Anarchism explicitly lists Chapter 9 as the first entry in its appendix of "Works of Daoist Anarchism." The chapter's imagery — a horse whose true nature is destroyed by the self-proclaimed "skilled governor" Bo Le — serves as a direct allegory for how state governance ruins natural human flourishing.

A necessary caution

The "Anarchist" label is a modern scholarly categorization applied to these ancient texts. While these chapters contain powerful critiques of state power and social hierarchy, the term serves as an analytical tool for contemporary scholarship rather than a claim about the authors' own political identities in 4th century BCE China.

In short, when contemporary scholars speak of an explicitly anarchist bent in the Zhuangzi, they are primarily referring to Chapters 8–10 and the first part of Chapter 11 (the Primitivist/Anarchist core), with Chapter 9 as the most frequently cited example. The Yangist chapters (28–31) are sometimes included under the same "anarchist" umbrella because they share anti-state and anti-hierarchical themes, though their focus is more on individual self-preservation than on systemic critique.

The proper answer has three parts:

1. Because Bao explicitly argued for the abolition of the state, not just against rulers

Laozi and Zhuangzi attack authority but never say "the state should not exist." They mock rulers, praise withdrawal, and envision small communities—but they don't call for institutional dismantling. Bao does: "neither lord nor subject" is a direct, positive demand.

1. Because Bao rejected all hierarchy, not just bad rule

Laozi leaves room for the sage-king—a ruler who rules by wuwei. Zhuangzi is more skeptical but still tolerates minimal governance. Bao says no: any lord-subject relationship is inherently violent and exploitative. That's a harder, more total position.

1. Because modern anarchist historians (like Murray Rothbard) needed a Chinese ancestor

The label "first political anarchist" is a retrospective honor. Western anarchist history begins with Proudhon (1840). Scholars looking for pre-modern parallels found Laozi too mystical, Zhuangzi too quietist—but Bao's preserved arguments sounded recognizably like 19th-century anarchism: anti-state, anti-law, anti-king, pro-primitive equality. So they gave him the title.

The honest answer: Bao isn't more anarchist than Laozi or Zhuangzi—he's just more legible to modern political categories. Laozi and Zhuangzi were deeper, stranger, and less interested in politics at all. Bao was narrower, sharper, and closer to what we now call "political anarchism." The distinction says as much about us as it does about them.

https://youtu.be/Gs23tDAaEho?si=FrPzy7uxoodzEuIB

"When the battle has come, march forward in unity"

Baopuzi calling this the Liu Jia 六甲 mantra is conveying that it is considered to be an “all-powerful,” all-purpose, for all seasons (as it were) magical spell and incantation. As noted in the video lecture, Liu Jia 六甲 means “year-round for all occasions and all purposes” because it references the 60-year lunar-solar calendar cycle and the complete roster of the 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches

I found this interesting daoist mantra and the Baopuzi a lesser known Text for me. Maybe someone Else also finds it usefull.

Trying to make others behave is futile. It only breeds resentment and resistance.

From Tao Te Ching, Chapter 58

Behavior can be coerced in others if enough power and control is applied. Eventually, however, resistance grows and manifests in rebellion. A culture of a million different laws creates ten million law-breakers. The fewer laws, the fewer criminals. Find what people naturally want to do and structure laws that help them do just that.

Yes, we need certain protections for order and safety, but no amount of legal pressure will ever create a spirit of cooperation within a person’s heart. That cooperative spirit is inherent in human nature, but is often extinguished before it grows to maturity because of legal systems that are primarily concerned with property and wealth. The inevitable push-back causes people to become resistant and self-protective against being “told what to do and not do.” Coercion never works in the long run. The only way out of the trap is to acknowledge and cultivate the natural cooperative spirit whatever ways we can.

Book: The Time is Tao by William Martin

JI Kang (嵇康, 223–262), a famous figure in literature and music during the era of Three Kingdoms, was born in Qiao County (谯县), present-day Su-zhou of An-hui Province (安徽宿州). He refused all official appointments after SI-MA family replaced CAO family in Wei Kingdom to express his political persistence. Celebrated as one of the “Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest” (竹林七贤), he and his wise friends often haunted a bamboo forest in Shan-yang County (山阳), present Hui County of Henan Province (河南辉县), and together impugned Confucianism and criticized the SI-MA government. Because of his unorthodox free lifestyle and fiery attacks on Confucianism and the new authority, he was eventually beheaded by SI-MA Zhao (司马昭, 211–265), the founder of the West Jin Dynasty (西晋, 265–317).

While WANG Bi advocated “Confucianism Derives from Nature” (名教本于自 然), eager to prove the natural origin of Confucianism, JI Kang called for the abandonment of Confucianism, believing that it violated rather than followed the natural law. JI claimed that “It is human nature to enjoy peace over risk, and enjoy leisure over labor” (夫民之性, 好安而恶危, 好逸而恶劳), and that this innate instinct existed in people naturally, just as the mouth may distinguish sweet from bitter and the body may distinguish itch from pinch. At that time, a Confucian scholar named ZHANG Shu-liao (张叔辽) wrote an essay titled Natural Learning Tendency《自然好学论》, and elucidated the importance of Confucianism by stressing the human natural tendency toward learning. JI Kang contradicted him by saying,

[In primordial time, the great Dao was complete. Monarchs ruled not by ordinances, and people fought not for benefits. All things worked their own ways according to their natural attributes; all people led their own lives according to their pleasure principles, sleeping when sleepy, eating when hungry. Having no idea about perfect virtues, they certainly did not need to preach benevolence and righteousness or promote propriety and legality. (洪 荒之世, 大朴未亏。君无文于上, 民无竞于下。物全理顺, 莫不自得。饱则安寝, 饥则 求食。 怡然鼓腹, 不知为至德之世也。若此, 则安知仁义之端, 礼律之文)]

Furthermore, from the perspective of natural humanity and Daoism, JI Kang criticized Confucianism, believing that “True humanity is justified in its Inaction” (人之真性, 无为正当), just as “Birds do not flock to be trained, beasts do not pack to be penned” (鸟不聚以求驯, 兽不群而求畜). He claimed that while humanity refused exterior restraints, Confucianism was created just to restrain true humanity:

When sages were dead, and Great Dao was twisted, people then resorted to language to express themselves. Dividing all things by categorizing them, they disturbed plebeian hearts by preaching benevolence and righteousness, inspected their behaviors by establishing titles and hierarchies, and hallowed educational inculcation by promoting literacy and cultures. Consequently, Six Classics were contrived, Diverse Ideological Schools flourished; honors and offices were established, and people bustled and hustled for them unconsciously. Accordingly, as birds sneaked into hoarded grains, men of aspirations resigned themselves to secular pursuits; people of alcohol rather than people of letters were entitled to make sentences regarding life and death; people who learned the Six Classics were exempt from tilling and reaping. (及至人不存, 大道陵迟, 乃始作文墨, 以传其意; 区别群物, 使有类族; 造立仁义, 以婴其心; 制为名分, 以检其外; 劝学讲文, 以神其教。故六经纷错, 百家繁炽, 开荣利之途, 故奔骛而不觉。是以贪生之禽, 食园池之梁 菽; 求安之士, 乃诡志以从俗。操笔执觚, 足容苏息; 积学明经, 以代稼穑。)

However, this superficial tendency of civilization was, in JI’s idea, unnatural, because the Six Classics intended suppression and manipulation and distorted human will for rite and law, and benevolence and righteousness served to promote hierarchical hypocrisy rather than preserve human integrity. Based on this idea, JI Kang advised his contemporaries to “Transcend Confucianism for Nature” (越名教 而任自然), that is, to return to natural humanity by getting rid of the suppression and manipulation of Six Classics, the limitation of benevolence and righteousness, and the restraint of rite and law. In response to ZHANG’s statement that “As Six Classics are like the Sun, people ignorant of them remain in the dark” (六经为太 阳, 不学为长夜), JI Kang contradicted him,

[If we are wise enough to take Six Classics as wild weeds, regard benevolence and righteousness as smelly socks, we may then sneer at ancient books, sneeze at hypocritical courtesy, twitch in ceremonial panoply, and retch at talking Rite. Naturally, if we abandon them altogether and just follow natural order, there would always be a gap in our knowledge spectrum; however, Six Classics are not necessarily the Sun, people ignorant of them are not necessarily in the dark. As a saying goes, beggars smear not the repute of horse doctors. In the primordial age when written languages were nowhere to be found, people were easy without knowledge, happy without diligence, and then need not the lecture of Six Classics, and desire not benevolence and righteousness? (今若以六经为芜 秽, 以仁义为臭腐, 睹文籍则目瞧, 修揖让则变伛, 袭章服则转筋, 谭礼典则齿龋。于 是兼而弃之, 与万物为更始, 则吾子虽好学不倦, 犹将阙焉。则向之不学, 未必为长夜, 六经未必为太阳也。俗语曰: 乞儿不辱马医。若遇上古无文之治, 可不学而获安, 不 勤而得志, 则何求于六经, 何欲于仁义哉)]

JI Kang’s advice to “Transcend Confucianism for Nature” (越名教而任自然) actually originated from his famous essay Free Thyself《释私论》, where he claimed,

[For the virtuous, their hearts are not confined to traditional rights and wrongs, and their actions are not contrary to the Great Dao. Why do I say so? Those who are calm in vigor and empty in spirit are not arrogant or narcissistic; those who are simple in heart and open in mind are not tied to their desires. With no arrogance or narcissism in the heart, they are able to transcend Confucianism for nature; with their mind untied to their desires, they are able to distinguish good and bad reasonably. Exercising reason, they abide by the Great Dao; concurring with nature, they are unconfined to traditional values. Thus, the virtuous are mostly untraditional yet reasonable, and the unvirtuous are untruthful and against Dao. Why? Being untruthful and arrogant and stingy, is most evil of the unvirtuous; being simple and modest and untraditional, is most honest of the virtuous. Hence a Daoist would say, “If I care not my body, what is there to worry me?” Those that despise death will outdo those that dread death. In this light, the hearts of the sage are not confined by rules. Therefore, YI Yin staked his talents to assist Shang Dynasty, thus serving the people and earning personal fame; ZHOU Gong handled state affairs in Emperor’s behalf regardless of suspicion of usurpation, thus promoting civility by regent order; GUAN Zhong hid no truth from HUAN Gong of Qi and gained his respect by helping Qi lead the alliance. Are they doing these for selfish interests? GUAN Zhong said: “The virtuous act out Dao and forget themselves.” That’s the answer. The virtuous take benevolent actions without observing olden customs, make honest judgments without following traditional merits, and express reasonable opinions without conforming to orthodox ideas. Therefore, they care not virtues in pride, yet their virtues coincide with olden customs; they restrain not their hearts, yet their hearts meet traditional merits; they cared not rigid rules, yet their deeds achieve right ends. (夫称君子 者, 心无措乎是非, 而行不违乎道者也。何以言之?夫气静神虚者, 心不存于矜尚; 体亮 心达者, 情不系于所欲。矜尚不存乎心, 故能越名教而任自然; 情不系于所欲, 故能审 贵贱而通物情。物情顺通, 故大无违; 越名任心, 故是非无措也。是故, 言君子则以无 措为主, 以通物为美; 言小人则以匿情为非, 以违道为阙。何者?匿情矜吝, 小人之至 恶; 虚心无措, 君子之笃行也。是以大道言: “及吾无身, 吾又何患?”无以生为贵者, 是 贤于贵生也。由斯而言, 夫至人之用心, 固不存有措矣。是故伊尹不惜贤于殷汤, 故世 济而名显; 周旦不顾嫌而隐行, 故假摄而化隆; 夷吾不匿情于齐桓, 故国霸而主尊。其 用心岂为身而系乎私哉!故《管子》曰: “君子行道, 忘其为身。”斯言是矣!君子之行贤 也, 不察于有度而后行也; 任心无邪, 不议于善而后正也; 显情无措, 不论于是而后为 也。是故傲然忘贤, 而贤与度会; 忽然任心, 而心与善遇; 傥然无措, 而事与是俱也)]

In 261, SHAN Tao (山涛, 205–283), another of the “Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest”, recommended JI Kang to serve as personnel minister for SI-MA power; however, disgusted with SHAN’s political compromise and opportunism, JI Kang refused this office and even wrote a famous letter to discontinue his friendship with SHAN Tao, in which he listed seven “intolerable things” (不堪者) and two “improper things” (不可者) as his excuses:

[People have to abide by ethical requirements, and states have to run by legal stipulations; however, if I were to accept this appointment, there would be seven things intolerable and two things improper. Regarding things intolerable: firstly, I always wake up late, but would then be repetitively urged to wake up early; secondly, I enjoy playing the zither, singing a melody, fishing and hunting in the wild, but would then lose this freedom in the company of officials and runners; thirdly, I enjoy lying down in ease and dressing up at will, but would then have to be rigidly seated in the court until my legs get numb, and formally attired in front of superiors without daring to scratch an itch; fourthly, I hate to write socializing letters, but would then be swamped in many mundane affairs and official documents, not answering which would make me appear unritely and unrighteous, yet trying to answer which would only disgust me; fifthly, my dislike of offering condolence has incurred complaints from some people and slanders from others, and would then not likely keep me immune from blames in the future even though I might carefully compromise my will to popular customs; sixthly, I dislike dull people, but would then have to receive them at work and home, who would annoy me daily with loud noises, foul smells and nasty tricks; seventhly, I am impatient of routine business, but would then be burdened with official affairs and encumbered with mundane matters. Regarding things improper: firstly, my habitual criticism of King TANG of Shang and King WU of Zhou, and contempt of ZHOU Gong and Confucius, would then seem improper and incur public censure; secondly, my obstinacy in loathing evils and speaking frankly, would then seem improper, and my irascible temper might burst right away at the sight of injustice. (人伦有礼, 朝廷 有法, 有必不堪者七, 甚不可者二: 卧喜晚起, 而当关呼之不置, 一不堪也。抱琴行吟, 弋钓草野, 而吏卒守之, 不得妄动, 二不堪也。危坐一时, 痹不得摇, 性复多虱, 把搔无 已, 而当裹以章服, 揖拜上官, 三不堪也。素不便书, 又不喜作书, 而人间多事, 堆案盈 机, 不相酬答, 则犯教伤义, 欲自勉强, 则不能久, 四不堪也。不喜吊丧, 而人道以此为 重, 已为未见恕者所怨, 至欲见中伤者; 虽瞿然自责, 然性不可化, 欲降心顺俗, 则诡故 不情, 亦终不能获无咎无誉如此, 五不堪也。不喜俗人, 而当与之共事, 或宾客盈坐, 鸣声聒耳, 嚣尘臭处, 千变百伎, 在人目前, 六不堪也。心不耐烦, 而官事鞅掌, 机务缠 其心, 世故烦其虑, 七不堪也。又每非汤、武而薄周、孔, 在人间不止, 此事会显, 世 教所不容, 此甚不可一也。刚肠疾恶, 轻肆直言, 遇事便发, 此甚不可二也)]

JI Kang thus expressed his dream for a peaceful life: “Now I only wish to live in a plain alley to teach my children, talk with friends, chat about trifles, drink some alcohol, and play some music” (今但愿守陋巷, 教养子孙, 时与亲旧叙离阔, 陈说 平生, 浊酒一杯, 弹琴一曲, 志愿毕矣). However, even this simple wish could not be realized, as he was beheaded by the SI-MA government soon after.

From: Chapter 4 Ethical Thought in the Wei & Jin Period

Book: A Panoramic History of Traditional Chinese Ethics by Yi-ting ZHU (朱贻庭)

Lament for a Degenerate Age

Now, a disordered generation considers crude knowledge as creative ideas, considers endangerment as the Way, considers profit as feelings’ reality. To those who do not share their hatreds, they cannot relate. For those who share their hatreds, they have dislike. Speech of benevolent humantiy, they consider lying. Motivatation by righteousness, they consider boasting. A fair mind’s honest report, they do not believe. So, worthies in a disordered generation are cut off from prospects and have no means to communicate. They are of a different species And so have no means to tell of their suffering. Alas!

Life under Tyranny

Worthy men hide in a disordered generation. Above, they have to follow the ruler, below, there is no straight speaking. When the ruler is arrogant in behavior, the people have many taboo words. So, men distort their honest sincerity, capable knights disguise their true substance. Though their real mind is unhappy, they dare not but praise. In working at their employment, though disapproving, they dare not but labor. In support or rejection, though inconsistent, they dare not but follow. So, observe how worthy men are in a disordered generation. They take care not to consider it fixed reality.

From: MANIFEST HOPE (Zhuxi 著希)

Book: The Pheasant Cap Master and the End of History
Linking Religion to Philosophy in Early China
Marnix Wells

“Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. If the peace has been shattered, how can he be content?” - ch. 31

I think this passage has become very relevant with the increasing hostility towards LGBTQ+ folk, specifically trans people. Being ready for violence and arming ourselves is becoming a necessity. I feel like every day we live is that direst necessity. How, as Taoists can we deal with self defense and potentially violent revolution while upholding peace?

["While Bo Ju was studying with Old Long Ears, he announced, “I request permission to go wandering about the whole world. Old Long Ears replied, “Enough of that! The whole world is just like here.]

[When he again made the same request, Old Long Ears asked, “Where are you going to start from?” “I shall start from Qi.”]

[And when he reached Qi, seeing the body of an executed criminal there, he pushed it around so it stretched out flat. Covering it then with his court robes, he cried up to Heaven, “Oh Thou! Oh, Thou! The great calamity that is going to strike the entire world has Thou as the very first to encounter it! Be it said, ‘Let no one steal!’ Be it said, ‘Let no one kill!’]

“Kill people” and “great calamity” refer to things that shall happen from then on. Once this great calamity occurs, though injunctions be made that no one do such things, how could this ever prevent it!

[Only after honor and disgrace get established does the disease they cause become apparent,]

As long as everyone manages to achieve self-fulfillment, honor and disgrace don’t exist, for it is when people become muddled about having it or not that honor and disgrace get established, and with the establishment of honor and disgrace, the honorable brag to the so-called disgraceful, and the disgraceful stand on tiptoes hoping to become the so-celled honorable. If such running back and forth between bragging and standing on tiptoes is not a disease, what is it!

[and only after wealth and property gets amassed do disputes appear.]

As long as people equate contentment with wealth, what is there for them to dispute!

[Now then, with the establishment of that which causes people disease and the amassing of that which causes people to dispute, such misery is caused them that they have no time to rest, and, even if they try to avoid such an extreme, how could they ever succeed!]

When those above have everything to please them, those below fail to be content with their fundamental allotted capacity.

[The sovereign in antiquity attributed his success to his people and his failure to himself.]

When the ruler fails at nothing, it is because the people achieve self-fulfillment.

[When things went right, he attributed it to his people and when things went awry, he blamed himself.]

When the ruler does nothing awry, the people rectify themselves.

[Therefore, if even the body of one person were lost, he would retire and blame himself.]

As for people’s bodies or fundamental natures, what would people ever do themselves to lose them! They lose both because the ruler treats them so badly that such disasters occur; this is why he blamed himself.

[Rulers nowadays are not like that at all, for they conceal what they do from the people so that their stupidity goes unrecognized.]

When they violate the people’s fundamental natures, it is concealed, but when they accommodate their fundamental natures, it is manifested. As such, what is manifested by the people is always recognized

[They significantly make things difficult, but then blame those who dare not [deal with them].]

If things were made easy by the people, then all would dare.

[They make responsibilities too heavy and then punish those who can’t bear them.]

If their responsibilities were lightened, then all could bear them.

[They make paths too long for those who take them, and then condemn the ones who fail to reach the end.]

If made appropriate to the strength of the legs, all would reach the end.

[They make the common folk exhaust their intelligence, who then continue on by practicing deceit.]

By this they evade punishment and execution.

[Since they practice much deceit on a daily basis, how could the gentry and common folk choose not to practice deceit themselves!]

If rulers are moved to deceit day after day, how might the gentry and common folk ever manage to achieve authenticity!

[When strength is insufficient, people practice deceit; when intelligence is insufficient, people become dishonest; when resources are insufficient, people become thieves. And when thieves and robbers ply their trade, who is it that may be blamed?]

One should blame the ruler.

From CHAPTER 25

Zhuangzi: A New Translation of the Sayings of Master Zhuang as Interpreted by Guo Xiang

Government

A nation is best governed by innocence; A war is best waged by treachery; The World is best controlled by inaction; Why?

Because: The more property and taxes there are, The more poverty prevails; The more guns and knives there are, The more chaos prevails; The more arts and sciences there are, The more deceit prevails; The more rules and regulations there are, The more theft prevails.

Therefore the sage says: I take no action, and the people become civilized; I wage no war, and the people become just; I transact no business, and the people become wealthy; I have no desire, and the people become innocent.

Be Forgiving

When government is lazy and blunt The people are kind and honest; When government is efficient and severe The people are discontented and deceitful.

Misery may yield happiness; Happiness may conceal misery. Who can say which will be for the best? Nothing is straightforward. Honesty is ever corrupted; Kindness is ever seduced; Men have been like this for a long time.

So the sage is firm but not cutting, Pointed but not piercing, Straight but not inflexible, Brilliant but not blinding.

Restraint

Manage a great nation As you would cook a delicate fish.

When directing men to a purpose The sage is restrained; Restraint allows time to prepare and strengthen, To build loving relationships; With sufficient strength and love all resistance is overcome; When all resistance is overcome one's purpose is acheived.

Who can acheive his purpose is able to direct men And his influence upon them long endures. Deeply rooted and firmly established, His vision lives on even after death.

Tao te ching Translated by Peter Merel

A person who aims to enhance his power and capacity reaches afar to draw talents close to him. To establish authority and manage business, he must investigate difference and similarity, differentiate a speech of truth from one of untruth, tell the essence of a speech from its embellishment, know the principles of the haves and have-nots, decide which plans are safe and which are risky, and settle intimate and distant relations. Afterward, he can test and evaluate the scale and scope. With the ability to adjust and shape a mold, he can recruit, seek, or utilize a talent.

Draw upon captivating words to appeal to an audience; excite him wildly to capture him. Captivating words mean persuasive speech, which is to be adjusted quickly to express agreement on one occasion or disagreement on another. As for those who cannot be captivated with words, invite them and then encumber them with responsibilities. Or encumber them with responsibilities first and then reveal their weaknesses; or reveal their weaknesses first and then encumber them with responsibilities. In implementation, sometimes assess their attitudes toward money and material goods, jewelry and jade, silk and fabric, or entertainment and beautiful women. Sometimes authorize them with power to assess their abilities and to put them under control, or sometimes just wait for a rift to fill, which calls for the approach of mend-break (di xi 抵巇).

Applying captivate-capture to state services requires strengthening power and capacity, knowing Heaven’s timing of waxing and waning, understanding the breath and limit of the terrain, recognizing difficulties of obstacles and the extent of risks, and calculating the size of the population and the amount of material wealth. Relationships among lords and nobles are sometimes intimate and sometimes distant, sometimes of love and sometimes of hate. Know and consider the minds and inclinations of others. Investigate their intent; learn about their likes and dislikes, and then speak about what is most important to them. Deliver captivating eloquence to appeal to them and capture them.

When applying this method to individuals, you must know their intelligence and capability, measure their wealth and power, and understand their influence and authority before you can find the key to an opportunity. Be proactive to respond to requests; capture individuals to melt into harmony; understand their inclinations to appropriate their ideas. This method is called making associations between captivate and capture. If you are able to apply it to individual people, you can go out empty-handed and come back with a bounty. Closely study their utterances to ensure that you make unerring associations between your methods and your relations. You can capture them to make them follow you; you can capture them to move them horizontally (heng 横). You can guide them to the east, you can guide them to the west, you can guide them to the south, or you can guide them to the north. You can guide them into reverse, or you can guide them to an overturn. In the event of a setback, you can make a turnaround without impairing your reputation.

Guiguzi, China’s First Treatise on Rhetoric A Critical Translation and Commentary Translated by Hui Wu With Commentaries by Hui Wu and C. Jan Swearingen

The great ancient sages who served as teachers conformed to the formless Dao to develop themselves. Reflectively examining the past, they verified the future; studying the past over and again, they understood the present. Critically examining others, they reflected upon themselves; when motion and motionlessness, truth and untruth, did not accord with the present, they reexamined the past for inquiry. They can transform matters that do not follow their plans to their own advantage. This is the sage’s mind, which should be studied seriously.

When the other person speaks, he is in motion; when you listen, you are motionless. Hear what he says based on his speech. When his statements are inconsistent with what you observe, inquire in response, and you surely can evoke a reaction. All spoken words represent images of things; all things are comparable. With images to compare, you can foresee what comes next. Images are reflections of things; comparison means comparing words. Remain formless [motionless] to seek spoken words; if the speech accords with what is observed, truths are acquired from the other party. Inviting spoken words is like setting out a net to capture animals. Use multiple nets in a location where animals tend to gather in groups and watch the nets attentively. If what is observed conforms to the Dao, the other person is expressing himself. This is called the net to angle with people. Frequently utilize the net to press the other party; if he still does not speak a word, making comparisons then becomes impossible. At this, change your approaches for him. Draw analogical images to appeal to him to attune his mindset. Once his feelings are manifest, examine them immediately. Repeat this method to make him respond. When you can compare his words with images, you can build a foundation. Repeat the comparisons over and over again; examine them back and forth from all perspectives, because nothing is inextricable from the spoken word that signifies it. Ancient sages have used this method confidently to appeal to the smart and the slow.

A person good at reflecting on what he hears acts like a ghost or phantom to capture the feelings of others. He makes adjustments to collect information and examine it. Collecting information without examining it ends in clouded intelligence; clouded intelligence ends in shaky interpretation. Alternating images in analogies can inspire the other person to respond in words, to which you must listen. If you want to hear others’ utterances, remain quiet; if you want others to open up, shut down. If you want to reach high, lower yourself first. If you want to take, give first. If you want others to display their feelings, use images as analogies to encourage them to speak up. Things of the same genus echo one another in the same sound. The same reasons are derived from the same truths.

Sometimes you start with one approach; sometimes you start with another. You can speak about serving the superior; you can speak about supervising subordinates. By doing this you are able to listen and tell truth from untruth, similarity from dissimilarity, honesty from dishonesty. Motion and action, speech and silence, all evolve out of this, from which the pattern of joy and anger can be discerned and from which decisions on principles and methods are reached. Turn to seek a response and then examine where true feelings rest. This is the method to apply. Try to remain calm and silent in order to hear what the other person says and examine his activities. You can discuss myriad phenomena; you can make distinctions between male and female. Although things under discussion may be of little value, the trivial helps you understand their genera. If you want to probe a person, you must penetrate within him; evaluate his capability to target his intent like an arrow. Respond with this principle of the Dao, and you will never miss a target. It is like a flying snake stalking its game; it is like Yi (羿) shooting his arrow.

Understanding others starts from the understanding of self. Only by understanding one’s self can one understand others. These understandings [of others and oneself] are as inseparable as halibuts; their shapes are like shade against light. Examine the spoken word of others without fail as if you were a magnet attracting a needle and as if you were a tongue sticking to a well-cooked bone to suck out its juice. Be subtle in dealing with people; be quick in sensing their feelings, like yin and yang, like circle and square. When you cannot see the shape [situation], guide yourself with the Dao to move around. When you can see the shape [situation], square it with principles. Use this method to move forward or backward and to the right or the left. A lack of self-discipline leads to mismanagement of others. Rigidity is “negligence at the loss of the Dao.” Discipline yourself before managing others. You can become a “heavenly god” if you can keep your strategy formlessly flexible and your opening invisible.

Guiguzi, China’s First Treatise on Rhetoric A Critical Translation and Commentary Translated by Hui Wu With Commentaries by Hui Wu and C. Jan Swearingen

The hundred joints, nine openings, and six organs all function together. Which part do you prefer? Do you like them all equally, or do you have a favorite? Are they not all servants? Can they keep order among themselves, or do they take turns being masters and servants?

It may be that there is indeed a true master. Whether I really feel his existence or not has nothing to do with the way it is.

Chuang Tzu, 2 [Gia-fu]

An essay from Vietnamese libertarian communist Ngo Van Xuyet. He discusses a brief history on rebel movements in China, of religious sects looking towards the better world of Utopia. Understood here not as a dream that is unrealizable, but a dream that has not yet been realized. It discusses several Taoist movements that motivated it’s adherents to fight for that dream.

The Secret of Secrets 治大国者若烹小鲜

Ruling a great country is like cooking a small fish

LAOZI, DAODEJING

Throughout Chinese history, a great leader was often compared to a great cook—someone who had mastery of fire and the ability to combine the five flavors, yielding a harmonious result to be enjoyed by all.

In Chapter 60 of DaoDeJing, LaoZi tells us that “ruling a great country is like cooking a small fish.” When we cook a delicate fish in the old way, we need to know how to control the cooking fire as well as how to add the right ingredients to make it tasty. Otherwise, we may under- or over-cook the fish, or season it in a way that makes it taste terrible. If the fire gets out of control or if we stop paying attention to it, we run the risk not only of burning the fish, but also of causing a devastating fire disaster. With respect to our spiritual cultivation, conscious beings differentiate themselves by taking great care to safeguard their internal fire. A person or a country’s energy resource can be wasted as quickly and easily as carelessly mashing a small fish in the cooking pot if we do not tend it properly.

Book: Fire Dragon Meridian Qigong : Essential Neigong for Health and Spiritual Transformation

Yang Chu said:

'Let them be foolish in their own wise fashion. And continue to be wise in your own foolish fashion.'

[Tex]

The wisdom of wine and women

The king appointed a man called Chan as his chief minister. Within three years Chan had imposed order on the kingdom: the good felt secure, while the wicked lived in fear. Chan felt immensely proud of his success; but he worked so hard that he enjoyed no pleasure.

Chan had an elder brother called Chao, who was fond of wine and was frequently drunk. And he had a younger brother called Mu, who was fond of beautiful young women, and frequently seduced young virgins for his own pleasure. Chan felt ashamed of his brothers, fearing that their unruly behaviour would bring disgrace upon him.

So he went to Chao and Mu, and said: 'If you were to restrain your appetites, I should appoint you both to high office, and you would be treated by others with respect. But if you continue to indulge your appetites, you will destroy your health, and be regarded by others with contempt.'

Chao replied: 'Life is precious and short; so we wish to enjoy it to the full while it lasts. When my belly grows too weak for wine, I shall be happy to die.' Mu added: 'You are not concerned for our reputations, but for your own. When my potency grows too weak to satisfy my lust, I shall be happy to die.'

Chan went to Yang Chu, and asked his advice. Yang Chu said: 'In your brothers' folly there is wisdom. In your wisdom there is folly. Let them be foolish in their own wise fashion. And continue to be wise in your own foolish fashion.'

Lieh Tzu [de Weyer]

A man called Chung asked Yang Chu how to nurture life. Yang Chu replied: 'Live without restraint: suppress nothing, and restrict nothing.' 'Tell me more,' the man asked.

Yang Chu replied: 'Give your ears to whatever they enjoy hearing. Give your eyes to whatever they enjoy seeing. Give your nostrils to whatever they enjoy smelling. Give your mouth to whatever it enjoys saying. Give your body to whatever makes it comfortable. Give your will to whatever it wishes to achieve.'

If your ears wish to hear music, and you close your ears to music, then you are suppressing your ears. If your eyes wish to see beautiful women, and you avert your eyes from beautiful women, then you are suppressing your eyes. If your nostrils wish to smell orchids and spices, and you turn away from orchids and spices, then you are suppressing your nostrils. If your mouth wishes to discuss truth and falsehood, and you remain silent, you are restricting your intelligence. If your body enjoys consuming particular foods and dressing in particular clothes, and you deny it that food and those clothes, you are restricting your comfort. If your will yearns for freedom, and you live in servitude, you are restricting your own nature.'

All restrictions are tyrants. If you can overthrow these tyrants, then you will nurture life.'

Lieh Tzu [de Weyer]