Mair - 1:4

[Shidifen]

Mair - 1:4

A man of Sung who traded in ceremonial caps traveled to the state of Viet. But the people of Viet cut off their hair and tattooed their bodies, so the caps were of no use. Yao brought order to all the people under heaven and brought peace to all within the four seas. He went to distant Mount Kuyeh to visit the Four Masters. Upon returning to his capital on the north bank of the Fen River, he fell into a daze and forgot all about his empire.

[Marblehead]

And this is the beginning of my thoughts on the concept of "useful/useless" (to me).

[Miffymog]

This is one of my favourite chapters as the first bit is so accessible and it does nothing but make me smile

[Daeluin]

More on scope, now continuing the implications of value that is tied between scopes. Here we have one who has changed his scope based on the establishment of the values we spoke of in 1:3, such that he depends on the selling of caps in the hopes of gaining more than he needs. Alas, when he travels to a place that differs in its values, his contrivance of scope fails him and he presumably will gain less than he needs.

 

Conversely, Yao worked hard to bring order to all the people under heaven, such that there was a great peace and harmony. Thus his scope, which depended upon the needs of his kingdom, was dissolved along with the need for a king, who became just another part of the whole, not in ownership of any other.

 

Here we learn about the underlying principles related to the binding forces between entities, and why what one depends upon is important, especially if one is choosing to depend upon something based on desires. We learn how one might tie bonds to one's self and how one might dissolve those bonds by nurturing what is naturally self-so rather than contrived.

[dawei]

Conversely, Yao worked hard to bring order to all the people under heaven, such that there was a great peace and harmony. 

 

I tend to not see a conversely in this... but as I mentioned in the previous section, whether the dunce (as in dunce cap too) or sage, their relation to others cannot be measured (or sold)...  the outcome is forgotten.

[Taoist Texts]

There are fairly significant mistakes here

Mair - 1:4
 

Yao brought order to all the people under heaven and brought peace to all within the four seas. 

 

尧治天下之民，平海内之政，

 

Yao governed the people of Underheaven, administrated all withn Four Seas

 

He went to distant Mount Kuyeh to visit the Four Masters. Upon returning to his capital on the north bank of the Fen River, he fell into a daze and forgot all about his empire.

 

往见四子藐姑射之山，汾水之阳，窅然丧其天下焉。

 

Went to visit the 4 immortals on Miǎogūshè, south of Fen River, and abdicated the Underheaven there.

[Shidifen]

Mair's notes -

16. Sung. In the central part of north China.

17. Viet. In the south of China. During Chuang Tzu's time, the people living here were not yet Sinicized.

18. Fen River. In Shansi province.

[Rara]

I feel there's some details missing. What on earth did the Four Masters do to Yao to have that effect on him?!

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I feel there's some details missing. What on earth did the Four Masters do to Yao to have that effect on him?!

 

No details are missing, the Four Masters didn't need to "do" anything to Yao, rather by their very presence they were the "undoing" of Yao.

[Daeluin]

Ziporyn has a detailed exploration of Guo Xiang's commentary of this section in Penumbra Unbound. Can find the excerpt searching "chuangzi yao four masters"

[Taoist Texts]

Ziporyn has a detailed exploration of Guo Xiang's commentary  

Guo, the butcher of Zhuang

 

Guo Xiang (Chinese: 郭象; pinyin: Guō Xiàng; Wade–Giles: Kuo Hsiang; died 312 AD) is credited with the first and most important revision of the text known as the Zhuangzi which, along with the Tao Te Ching, forms the textual and philosophical basis of the Taoistschool of thought. He was also a scholar of xuanxue.

The Guo Xiang redaction of the text revised a fifty-two chapter original by removing material he thought was superstitious and generally not of philosophical interest to his literati sensibilities, resulting in a thirty-three chapter total.