On Leveling All Things (2)

1 Wang Ni was a well-known senior philosopher. Students near by would consult him when they had questions.

2 Chique was an industrious young man. He had fairly profound study on various hot issues in the academic field, and had some questions in mind.

3 One day, during the class break, he went up to ask Wang Ni. “Sir, it is said that everything is made up of the same basic elements when they were examined very closely. Is it so? ”

4 Wang said, “How do I know!”

5 Chique asked again, “They said that a man knows clearly that he knows something and something are beyond his knowledge. These kind of acknowledge is what to know means. Do you know what the category which you don’t know is?”

6 Wang said again, “How do I know!

7 Feeling dissatisfied, Chique asked again, “You are a well-known learned scholar. If you don’t know, would nobody know it?”

8 Wang Ni felt that this student was serious on the issue; he had a swing of his body so as to concentrate his attentions, and said solemnly, “I don’t know yet but I would explain why a man who thinks he knows is actually doesn’t know and a man thinks himself doesn’t know is a man honestly admits that his limit ability to know the world.

9 For example, a man who often slept on moisture ground suffered from rheumatism. No medicine could cure his waist pain. Eventually he kicked the bucket. Eel lives in the moisture mud in its whole life. Why does eel not suffer from it?

10 It is in fear and tremble to climb onto the top of high tree. A man who has acrophobia is scary to a fit of heart attack if he is in the high position. Why does monkey feel well?

11 If we judge things according to a fixed criterion, then which characteristic is good or right among the man, eel and monkey?

12 Do you think there is an absolute criterion in this world? Man is polyphagia; deer only lives on grass; owl likes eating snake and centipede; crow prefers to eating rat. Who among the four is lofty or wild in food?

13 Should we have the absolute criterion? Male monkey makes a mistake to look dog as the female monkey; male deer only mates with the female deer; eel coexists with the common fish in water. They all coexist peacefully.

14 Mao Qiang and Liji were generally accepted beauties, but fishes would dive into the deep water, birds on the tree would flutter away, and deer would be frightened to flee in all directions, as soon as they saw the beauties.

15 So is there a certain criterion of charm to opposite sex? The answer is no.

16 I therefore think people’s criteria of right and wrong, kindness and incumbency are very ambiguous and obscure so as to be difficult in making it clear.

17 Chique was somewhat disappointed in such an explanation of Wang. He said to himself, if so, who I ask when having questions in the future.

18 With such a question, Chique asked directly, “If you didn’t know what is good, what is bad, what is advantage and what is disadvantage, would it mean that all men of perfect practice lack the intelligence in this aspect?”

19 Raising his head to look on far sky, Wang Ni seemed to think aloud. He murmured, “Men of perfect practice actually are no difference from gods. They don’t feel hot even if sea vaporized to dryness; they don’t feel cold even if big rivers were all frozen; they don’t feel scary even if mountains were stroke open by lightning and fierce storm threw over creatures in the deep sea. They perch loftily on the cloud, the sun and the moon following them. They had thrown off the worldly trivia far behind. They control their life and death; what they have done is done, they never suffer again. They don’t care for advantage or disadvantage, good or bad.

20 Based on this cognizance, I candidly confess that there is no fixed criterion to the world. Those who judge and criticize things in their own view are ignorant; however, in the world those who would admit their ignorance are few.”