Chapter 768: Kongzi Asks About the Dao

Kongzi asks about the Dao.

April 19: Kongzi asks about the Dao.

Laozi's words left Kongzi feeling stifled; what 'Dao' and 'Name', 'flower not flower', 'mist not mist', it leaves people unable to make heads or tails of it. This blockhead, how can his speech be so mysterious? Laozi saw through Kongzi's thoughts and intentions.

Laozi said, "How about it, have you fully understood my words?"

"Half-understood." Kongzi said, feeling a bit embarrassed. This was an embarrassed state Kongzi had never experienced before. Kongzi always taught his students to be humble, to "know what you know and not know what you don't know; that is true knowledge." If you understand, you understand; if you don't, you don't; don't pretend to understand. Regarding the Dao that Laozi spoke of, Kongzi seemed to somewhat understand, but he could not clearly articulate the true meaning of that Dao Laozi spoke of; therefore, when Laozi asked whether he had understood, he replied, "Half-understood."

"What does half-understood mean? Understanding is understanding; not understanding is not understanding; how can one say half-understood?" The usually calm Laozi seemed a bit angry, and he rebuked Kongzi, saying:

Kongzi saw that the teacher was angry, and felt a bit ashamed: "How could I have provoked the teacher's anger?"

Kongzi hurriedly explained to the teacher, saying: "Teacher, please don't be angry with me. I didn't mean it; if my words offended you, please forgive me. Because I have long studied the Classic of Poetry, the Classic of Documents, the Classic of Rites, the Classic of Music, the Classic of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals, what I emphasize in teaching my students is the education of rites. I often teach my students: do not look at what is improper, do not listen to what is improper, do not speak what is improper. Overcome the self and return to propriety. If one day one overcomes the self and returns to propriety, the world will be humane. I once led my students to travel all under heaven, propagating the overcoming of self and return to propriety. As for the so-called Dao you, old sir, spoke of, this thing, I really don't understand what it is."

Laozi said: "The Dao I study is to make people conform to the changes of the six kinds of qi—yin, yang, wind, rain, obscurity, brightness—between heaven and earth, not restricted by time or space, forgetting oneself, not deliberately seeking fame and gain, having a purpose yet also having no purpose; living in a state, a state transcending the mundane. This is the gist of my study of the Dao. As for your study of those Six Classics trifles, they are merely the traces of former kings; those things carry the intentions of the ancients. They are others' secondhand wisdom, chewed-over things. Take those things, for example, like footprints left by a person passing through dust. Someone follows those footprints, wanting to blaze their own trail. Is that possible? Those footprints are forever someone else's. To blaze one's own trail, one must forge a new path, seeking one's own way, but the result is that one will forever fail to find one's own way. Do you know why this is? Because what they walk is not their own path, but a path walked by others. To walk one's own path, one must use one's own feet to walk where no one else has walked. Walking one's own path—that is the Dao. Therefore I say: 'The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. Non-being, named the origin of heaven and earth; being, named the mother of myriad things. Therefore, always being non-being, to observe its subtlety; always being, to observe its boundaries. These two are the same in mystery but different in name. Together they are called the profound, the profound again.'"

Kongzi suddenly interrupted Laozi's train of speech, saying: "Teacher, your words are too profound; my head is all dazed by your profundity. Could you please speak more clearly? I have heard that a Gentleman has three fears: first, fear of the Mandate of Heaven, which Heaven has ordained and cannot be changed; second, fear of those in high positions, for in the eyes of the powerful, everything belongs to them; third, fear of the words of sages, because a Gentleman always takes the words of sages as the norm and standard for his conduct, fearing that his speech and deeds will not meet the sages' requirements. Is this also the Dao?"

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