CHUANG TSU

Confucius and Chang Chi were talking about a one-footed man who had as many followers as Confucius had. "When he stands up, he does not teach. When he sits down, he utters no word. People go to him empty, and come back full," Chang Chi reported, and then asked, "Is there such a thing as teaching without words? Can the mind be perfect while the body is deformed?"

QUESTIONS

1. What are your answers to those two questions? Whatever your answers are to Chang Chi's questions, give reasons for your answers.

REFERENCE

Chuang Tsu, Inner Chapters, trans. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974, Chappters 5 and 6. From the biographical note of the translation: "Chuang Tsu was to Lao Tsu [around the fourth century B. C.] as St. Paul was to Jesus and Plato to Socrates."