The deepest feeling is beyond feeling

When you were asking someone for a favor, why demand all the bells and whistles?

Whether he got a seat hardly mattered.

As long as he could get his household registration sorted out!

Wang Yang took it in stride. He waved at Liu Zhao and gave him a meaningful look.

There was nothing Liu Zhao could do but sit down first and explain the purpose of their visit to his old friend.

To his surprise, Zong Ce interrupted him almost as soon as he began, plainly resistant.

"Stop, stop! You came to me for something so mundane? You really do think little of me! Besides, I don't understand these things. If you want something done, go straight to Zong Rui!"

Liu Zhao said, "You know perfectly well what your son is like. He's every bit as stubborn as you. Unless you say something, how could he agree to help me with this?"

"Not my concern, not my concern. I never concern myself with mundane affairs, as you well know. I didn't even intervene when your Commandery Academy was about to collapse. I'm certainly not getting involved in fabricating household registrations."

Liu Zhao frowned. "What do you mean, fabricating a household registration? He really is a member of the Langya Wang. He simply wasn't registered before and needs to do it now. How can you call that-"

"Nonsense! Since when do aristocratic clans need to register someone after the fact? If that really were necessary, the Langya Wang would approach the Department of State Affairs themselves. Why are you meddling? Enough of this. Tell me, is your Commandery Academy really about to collapse? Then come study Neo-Daoism with me instead. That whole Confucian business is utterly dull."

"Bullshit!"

Liu Zhao lost his temper and refused to indulge him. Anyone who dared disparage his learning deserved a scolding, even an old friend!

"I haven't called your Laozi and Zhuangzi empty talk, so don't you disparage the great principles of my Sage Confucius! Even if the Commandery Academy collapses, I shall hold fast to the virtuous way and never repent, though I die nine deaths!"

Zong Ce folded his hands behind his head, slowly lay back, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes. "Only with a great awakening do we realize that this is a great dream. Yet fools believe themselves awake, smugly certain of their knowledge. A ruler? A herdsman? How narrow-minded!"

This passage came from "Discussion on Making All Things Equal" in the Zhuangzi. It meant that foolish people were trapped in a great dream without waking, yet still believed themselves awake, talking of rulers and subjects—utterly shallow notions. Confucianism placed the greatest emphasis on the proper roles of ruler and subject, so these words struck directly at the "great principles of Sage Confucius" Liu Zhao had just mentioned.

Since Liu Zhao needed Zong Ce's help, he could only ignore the mockery, swallow his anger, and continue pleading:

"I know your attitude toward Confucian learning, which is why I never asked you to help with the Commandery Academy. But this matter truly requires your intervention. For the sake of our many years of friendship, could you help me just this once?"

Zong Ce drawled, "You know perfectly well that I follow Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi advocated freedom from feeling above all else. Why talk to me of friendship?"

Wang Yang suddenly interjected, "Zhuangzi wasn't without feeling. On the contrary, his feelings ran deepest."

Liu Zhao's expression froze. Although he studied Confucianism, he knew that Zhuangzi advocated freedom from feeling. Wang Yang's assertion plainly contradicted common knowledge. Still, he could hardly be blamed. Having mastered the Book of Documents at such a young age, he probably had not had time to explore Daoist texts.

Zong Ce paid him little mind and chuckled. "You probably haven't even read the Zhuangzi."

Wang Yang said calmly:

"Laozi said, 'When the six relations fall into discord, filial devotion and parental kindness appear. When the state falls into darkness and chaos, loyal ministers appear.'

Only when filial devotion and parental kindness are lacking among relatives do people begin to advocate them.

Only when a state sinks into chaos and mortal peril do loyal ministers stand out.

By the same reasoning,

what sort of person would cry out for the way of 'freedom from feeling'?

Someone whose feelings run deep.

The highest transcend feeling; the lowest never attain it.

Those who never attain feeling cannot even be described as possessing or lacking it.

Only those whose devotion runs deep, who suffer because of that devotion, long to be free of feeling and work out a way to achieve it.

Throughout the Zhuangzi, we find laments such as 'Is this not sorrowful?' 'Is this not tragic?' 'Alas!' and 'Is this not also cause for grief?' Taken together, such lamentations occur more than twenty times. Would someone truly without feeling ever say such things?"

"Zhi Yan... you..."

Liu Zhao was utterly astonished!

He had always thought Wang Yang a Confucian scholar. Who would have imagined he could discuss Laozi and Zhuangzi as well?!

Zong Ce also sat up and studied Wang Yang from head to toe, his expression turning serious. "When Zhuangzi's wife died, he beat on a basin and sang. If that wasn't heartlessness, what was it?"

Wang Yang countered, "If he truly felt nothing, why beat on a basin? Why sing?

He could do nothing else, so he spoke with open-minded acceptance to console himself.

Beating on a basin and singing was merely his way of letting a long song stand in place of tears!

Nothing in this world is more desolate than finding oneself utterly helpless.

When Ruan Ji's mother died, he played a board game and ate meat, steamed a fat piglet, and drank three measures of wine. Why?

Through wild acts that defied all human feeling and reason, he sought to dispel the knots of anguish in his heart!

Zhuangzi said, 'Rather than moisten one another with spit, fish would do better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes.'

For someone truly cold-hearted, what need would there be to speak of forgetting?

The cold-hearted have no need to forget their feelings. Only those who feel deeply must do so.

That 'better to forget one another' was merely a sigh. Seemingly heartless, it was in fact an expression of profound feeling.

Thus, the greatest music has little sound, the greatest snow leaves no trace, the greatest joy is beyond joy, and the deepest feeling is beyond-"

With a cry of "Ah!" Zong Ce sprang to his feet, gooseflesh rising all over his body, his voice trembling:

"The deepest feeling is beyond feeling! The deepest feeling is beyond feeling! Well said, wonderfully said! I've read the Zhuangzi for more than forty years, yet never grasped this!"

He rushed forward, seized Wang Yang's hand, and pulled him toward Shan Tao's seat. "Come, come, Brother Wang! Sit here and keep talking!"

Still utterly stunned, Liu Zhao stared blankly at Wang Yang. "Zhi Yan, you... how did you... when..."

"Don't interrupt, don't interrupt!" Zong Ze rolled up his sleeves and waved Liu Zhao into silence.

Wang Yang was tired of standing anyway, so he sat down and, hoping to resolve his household registration problem, continued:

"Zhuangzi regarded the world as sunk in murk, unfit for earnest discourse.

Thus he devised strange words and extraordinary tales, treated the universe as a mere trifle, and mocked the sages and worthies, couching his words in apparent humor.

Everyone knows Qu Zi's sorrow and resentment, but no one knows Zhuangzi's.

Qu Zi's sorrow and resentment concerned one state; Zhuangzi's concerned the whole world.

Qu Zi's sorrow and resentment concerned one age; Zhuangzi's concerned all ages.

In 'Letting Be and Exercising Forbearance,' the Zhuangzi says, 'In the present age, those put to death lie pillowed upon one another; those in stocks crowd against one another; those subjected to punishment and slaughter stretch as far as the eye can see. Yet only now do the Confucians and Mohists rise on tiptoe and bare their arms amid the fetters and shackles. Alas, how extreme it has become!'

Could someone capable of words so filled with grief for the world and compassion for humanity be without feeling?

This was what he meant by 'the world sunk in murk.' Neither the Confucians nor the Mohists could save it, so Zhuangzi devised his teachings to remedy the world's ills and restore it to the proper path!"

"Well said! Wonderfully said!"

Zong Ce slapped his thigh and looked smugly at Liu Zhao.

"Well? You're always saying Laozi and Zhuangzi were passive and of no benefit to the world. You never knew Zhuangzi harbored such concern for it, did you?"

Liu Zhao said irritably:

"What are you so pleased about? Didn't you only just learn it yourself?"

Zong Ce eagerly beckoned to Wang Yang. "Come, come, Brother Wang, get up! Don't sit in Shan Tao's place. Sit in Ji Kang's! Your lofty insights have earned you that seat!"

"It's fine. I'm perfectly comfortable here."

"How can that possibly be fine? How could Shan Tao compare with Court Gentleman Ji?!"

Zong Ce insisted on changing Wang Yang's seat, so Wang Yang could only follow his host's wishes.

"Brother Wang, do go on."

Zong Ce rubbed his hands, his expression eager, his cheeks seemingly flushed with excitement.

Wang Yang continued:

"Zhuangzi spoke of kingdoms on a snail's horns waging war, leaving a million corpses behind. He said that those who steal a belt hook are executed, while those who steal a state become lords-"

"Zhi Yan!" Seeing Wang Yang's words stray beyond safe bounds, Liu Zhao stopped him at once, then glanced warily around them.

Southern Qi had been founded only eleven years earlier. Its founding emperor, Emperor Gao of Qi-also the present emperor's father-had once been a minister of the Liu Song dynasty. After seizing power, he had followed Cao Pi's example and forced the Song emperor to abdicate in his favor, thereby taking the realm. Thus, Zhuangzi's talk of "stealing a state" touched a very real taboo at court.