Question 4
In Chapter 23, Zhuang-zi, remarking on an expert archer from history, says that while skilled, he would have been better off had he simply "made the whole world a cage" so that the sparrows would have had nowhere to fly to. In early chapters, Zhuang-zi gives similar advice about hiding a boat--instead of hiding it where someone might steal it, one should hide the world in the world so that no one can take it. What do you think Zhuang-zi's trying to express here?
Most of us love life but hate death and so we do everything we can to preserve our life and avoid death, like carefully hiding a boat in a small creek off the main river, but however careful we are there is no guarantee we can extend our lives (even the most carefully hidden boat may be stolen during the night). But if we identify ourselves, not with our present conscious, living human form, but with the entire universe, then no one can take that away from us. Similarly, if the archer had "made the whole world a cage," the sparrows would have nowhere to fly to and, hence, as Chuang Tzu mentions in Chapter 4, the archer would be shooting for nothing and when he is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots, however, for a specific target, he cares more about winning than of shooting and his need to win drains him of power even though he has the same skill level. Once the sparrows are in the cage, there's no point in shooting them because they have nowhere to fly to anyway and shooting at the cage, the whole world, wouldn't make any sense because the targets have nowhere to go and there's no use in showing off one's skills. If the whole world's a cage, the archer doesn't need his skills to kill the sparrows because they're already locked up so his skill is of no use to him. Hence, the point that Chuang zu is trying to make is that the skills one values, boasts about, and gets a lot of praise for is nothing if looked at in context of the whole world because it doesn't require a lot of skill to kill something that's already locked up.
Most of us love life but hate death and so we do everything we can to preserve our life and avoid death, like carefully hiding a boat in a small creek off the main river, but however careful we are there is no guarantee we can extend our lives (even the most carefully hidden boat may be stolen during the night). But if we identify ourselves, not with our present conscious, living human form, but with the entire universe, then no one can take that away from us. Similarly, if the archer had "made the whole world a cage," the sparrows would have nowhere to fly to and, hence, as Chuang Tzu mentions in Chapter 4, the archer would be shooting for nothing and when he is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots, however, for a specific target, he cares more about winning than of shooting and his need to win drains him of power even though he has the same skill level. Once the sparrows are in the cage, there's no point in shooting them because they have nowhere to fly to anyway and shooting at the cage, the whole world, wouldn't make any sense because the targets have nowhere to go and there's no use in showing off one's skills. If the whole world's a cage, the archer doesn't need his skills to kill the sparrows because they're already locked up so his skill is of no use to him. Hence, the point that Chuang zu is trying to make is that the skills one values, boasts about, and gets a lot of praise for is nothing if looked at in context of the whole world because it doesn't require a lot of skill to kill something that's already locked up.
posted by cricketaddict at 8:28 AM
1 Comments:
Your discussion of death in connection with this story is interesting. Zhuang-zi loves paradox and the idea of "making the whole world a cage" is certainly paradoxical and humorous, anyway we look at it. I wonder if Zhuang-zi is questioning the human tendency to identify the self with that which is limited and small (the human body) instead of with that which is limitless (the universe).
Post a Comment
<< Home