Theme 4.1
The wheelwright down at the bottom of the hall
(from Chapter 13)
Up at the top of the hall Outstanding Duke is reading a book.
Down at the bottom of the hall Wheelwright Flatten is hewing a wheel.
Putting his mallet and chisel aside he goes up and puts a question to Outstanding Duke, saying:
I venture to ask, whose words is Your Grace reading?
The duke says:
The words of a sage.
The wheelwright says:
Is this sage alive?
The duke says:
Dead.
The wheelwright says:
So what My Lord is reading is just the dregs of the once living-spirit of an ancient, no?
Outstanding Duke says:
When the Lonely One reads a book, who’s the wheelwright to have an opinion!
If you can explain yourself, the Lonely One will allow it.
If not, you die.
Wheelwright Flatten says:
Your subject sees it in terms of his work.
When hewing a wheel, if you’re too slow it’s easy going but the wheel ends up wobbly. If you’re too fast it’s a hard slog and the ends don’t meet.
Neither too slow nor too fast—
Your subject feels it in his hands and responds from his heart.
He can’t put it into words.
There’s a knack to it, in the spaces.
He can’t impart it to his son and his son isn’t able to receive it from him, which is why your subject is seventy years old and still making wheels.
The ancients, along with what they couldn’t teach, are dead.
So what My Lord is reading is just the dregs of the once living-spirit of an ancient, no?
* * * * *
This book that you’re reading is just the dregs of Chuang Tzu’s lived life, his once living-spirit. High-quality dregs, but dregs all the same. Dear friend, let’s enjoy these tasty dregs, but let’s not be satisfied with them. May they make us thirsty for actual wine. May they motivate us to go find our own pitcher of living spirit and get properly drunk.
My fellow book-reader, let’s take care not to squander our lives dallying at the top of the hall reading other people’s words. Let’s make sure to get down into the courtyard and make wheels.
Let’s learn the knack of navigating the space between things (Chapter 3.2).