Chuang Tzu 6.11

Tsze-sang Hû, Mang Tsze-fan, and Tsze-khin Kang, these three men, were friends together. 

One of them said, "Who can associate together without any thought of such association, or act together without any evidence of such cooperation? Who can mount up into the sky and enjoy himself amidst the mists, disporting beyond the utmost limits of things, and forgetting all others as if this were living, and would have no end?" 

The three men looked at one another and laughed, not perceiving the drift of the questions; and they continued to associate together as friends. 

Suddenly, after a time, Tsze-sang Hû died. Before he was buried, Confucius heard of the event, and sent Tsze-kung to go and see if he could render any assistance. 

One of the survivors had composed a ditty, and the other was playing on his lute. Then they sang together in unison, 

"Ah! come, Sang Hû! ah! come, Sang Hû! 

Your being true you've got again,
While we, as men, still here remain,
Alas!" 

Tsze-kung hastened forward to them, and said, "I venture to ask whether it be according to the rules to be singing thus in the presence of the corpse?" 

The two men looked at each other, and laughed, saying, "What does this man know about the idea that underlies our rules?" 

Tsze-kung returned to Confucius, and reported to him, saying, "What sort of men are those? They had made none of the usual preparations, and treated the body as a thing foreign to them. They were singing in the presence of the corpse, and there was no change in their countenances. I cannot describe them—what sort of men are they?" 

Confucius replied, "Those men occupy and enjoy themselves in what is outside the common ways of the world, while I occupy and enjoy myself in what lies within those ways. There is no common ground for those of such different ways; and when I sent you to condole with those men, I was acting stupidly. 

"They, moreover, make man to be the fellow of the Creator, and seek their enjoyment in the formless condition of heaven and earth. They consider life to be an appendage attached, an excrescence annexed to them, and death to be a separation of the appendage and a dispersion of the contents of the excrescence. 

"With these views, how should they know wherein death and life are to be found, or what is first and what is last? They borrow different substances, and pretend that the common form of the body is composed of them. They dismiss the thought of its inward constituents like, the liver and gall, and its outward constituents, the ears and eyes. 

"Again and again they end and they begin, having no knowledge of first principles. They occupy themselves ignorantly and vaguely with what they say lies outside the dust and dirt of the world, and seek their enjoyment in the business of doing nothing. How should they confusedly address themselves to the ceremonies practiced by the common people, and exhibit themselves as doing so to the ears and eyes of the multitude?" 

Tsze-kung said, "Yes, but why do you, Master, act according to the common ways of the world?" 

The reply was, "I am in this under the condemning sentence of Heaven. Nevertheless, I will share with you what I have attained to." 

Tsze-kung rejoined, "I venture to ask the method which you pursue." 

Confucius said, "Fishes breed and grow in the water; man develops in the Tâo. Growing in the water, the fishes cleave the pools, and their nourishment is supplied to them. Developing in the Tâo, men do nothing, and the enjoyment of their life is secured. Hence it is said, 'Fishes forget one another in the rivers and lakes; men forget one another in the arts of the Tâo.'" 

Tsze-kung said, "I venture to ask about the man who stands aloof from others." 

The reply was, "He stands aloof from other men, but he is in accord with Heaven! Hence it is said, 'The small man of Heaven is the superior man among men; the superior man among men is the small man of Heaven!'"