Yang Chu was a philosopher of Chinese thought who probably lived in the
300's B.C.E. although no one knows for sure. He has been associated with other Taoists
like Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu although they are quite different and were not
considered to be members of a single school. In the texts that follow, Yang Chu
is far from being a mystic. Indeed he is concerned mainly with enjoying life to
its fullest; allowing a person's individual character the fullest expression
possible while not interfering with natural flow.
-------------------------------------------------------------
YANG CHU, when travelling in Lu, put up at Meng Sun Yang's.
Meng asked him: "A man can
never be more than a man; why do people still trouble themselves about
fame?"
Yang Chu answered: "If they
do so their object is to become rich."
Meng: "But when they have
become rich, why do they not stop?"
Yang Chu said: "They aim at
getting honors."
Meng: "Why then do they not
stop when they have got them?"
Yang Chu: "On account of
their death."
Meng: "But what can they
desire still after their death?"
Yang Chu: "They think of
their posterity."
Meng: "How can their fame
be available to their posterity?"
Yang Chu: "For fame's sake
they endure all kinds of bodily hardship and mental pain. They dispose of their
glory for the benefit of their clan, and even their fellow-citizens profit by
it. How much more so do their descendants! It becomes those desirous of real
fame to be disinterested, and disinterestedness means poverty; and likewise
they must be un-ostentatious, and this is equivalent to humble condition."
How then can fame be
disregarded, and how can fame come of itself?
The ignorant, while seeking to
maintain fame, sacrifice reality. By doing so they will have to regret that
nothing can rescue them from danger and death, and not only learn to know the
difference between ease and pleasure and sorrow and grief.
