In determining good and bad luck, in the Confucian Mind there is nothing greater than the divining straws and the tortoise. For lines, concentric circles, and dots represent the most abstract and philosophical conceptions of primeval cosmogony. No unprejudiced person can see any difference between a tortoise and a lamb, as candidates for sacredness: both are mere symbols, and no more. Vishnu is represented in the Kurma-avatara as a tortoise sustaining a circular pillar, on which the semblance of himself (maya) sits with all his attributes. The great Circle of Time, on the face of which fancy in India has represented the tortoise, has the Cross placed on it by nature in its division and localisation of stars, planets, and constellations. Beginning with the Azoic time, corresponding to Ilus, in which Brahm? implants the creative germ, we pass through the Palæozoic and Mesozoic times, covered by the first and second avataric incarnations as fish and tortoise. The avataric succession is a mere allegory for the dual spiritual and physical evolution of creatures and man. From the watery abyss, this dual transformation carries on the physical form through the shape of a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a man-lion, a dwarf human form, a physically perfect but spiritually undeveloped man, and, finally, the apex of physical and spiritual perfection — a god-like man on earth. Having assumed the form of a tortoise, Prajapati began creating offspring. The myths and endless genealogies of the Prajapatis, the Rishis or Manus, and their wives and offspring, are a veiled record of the order of evolution in this round. The sceptics of today are as incapable of rising to the sublimity of Vedantic and Buddhistic philosophy, as a tortoise to soar like the eagle. “Light Divine” in the fancy of the Hylo-Idealist, who confines the whole universe to the phantasms of his grey matter. Every sacred truth, which the ignorant are unable to comprehend under its true light, ought to be hidden within a triple casket concealing itself as the tortoise conceals his head within his shell. The magical figures of Phurbu on a square tortoise have nothing to do with Tibetan Buddhism. Seek not the seeds of Wisdom in Maya’s realm; but soar beyond illusions, search the eternal in the changeless Sat, mistrusting fancy’s false suggestions. Chelas, in their trials of initiation, see in trances the vision of the Earth supported by an elephant on the top of a tortoise standing on nothing, in order to teach them to discern the true from the false. Be of clean heart before thou startest on thy journey. Before thou takest thy first step, learn to discern the real from the false, the ever-fleeting from the everlasting. Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the “Eye” from the “Heart” doctrine.

In this vivid, contemporary translation, Victor Mair captures the quintessential life and spirit of Chuang Tzu while remaining faithful to the original text.

Red Pine's translation of this most revered of Chinese texts breathes new life into the poems and corrects errors in previous interpretations. (Philosophy)