Chuang Tzu Story - Autumn floods

Chuang Tzu Stories

Chuang Tzu Story - Autumn floods

Chuang Tzu told the story
of the autumn floods:

The autumn floods had come.
Thousands of wild torrents
poured furiously into the
Yellow River.
It surged and flooded its banks until,
looking across,
you could not tell an ox from a horse
on the other side.

Then the River God laughed,
delighted to think
that all the beauty in the world
had fallen into his keeping.

So downhill he swung,
untill he came to the ocean.
There he looked out over the waves
towards the empty horizon in the east,
and his face fell.

Gazing out at the far horizon,
he came to his senses
and murmured to the Ocean God:
“Well, proverb is right:
‘He who has got himself a
hundred ideas,
he thinks he knows more than anybody else.’
Such a one am I.
Only now do I see
what they mean by expanse!”

The Ocean God replied,
“Can you talk about the sea to a frog in a well?
Can you talk about ice to a dragonfly?
And can you talk about the Way of life
to a doctor of philosophy?”