莊子·逍遙遊
Zhuangzi: Free and Easy Wandering
Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou) 莊子 (c. 369–c. 286 BCE)
Pre-Qin · c. 4th century BCE

Cold Library · Open Stacks · S-002002 · https://coldlibrary.com/s/002002
Rights: Classical Chinese text of the Warring States period; the author died about 286 BCE. Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice.
Source: Wikisource, https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/逍遙遊 (retrieved 2026-10-11)
English translation: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0
Generated 2026-10-14 from https://coldlibrary.com/en/open-stacks/zhuangzi-free-and-easy-wandering

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北冥有魚，其名爲鯤。鯤之大，不知其幾千里也，化而爲鳥，其名爲鵬。鵬之背，不知其幾千里也，怒而飛，其翼若垂天之雲。是鳥也，海運，則將徙於南冥。南冥者，天池也。齊諧者，志怪者也。諧之言曰：「鵬之徙於南冥也，水擊三千里，摶扶搖而上者九萬里，去以六月息者也。」野馬也，塵埃也，生物之以息相吹也。天之蒼蒼，其正色邪？其遠而无所至極邪？其視下也，亦若是則已矣。且夫水之積也不厚，則負大舟也无力。覆杯水於坳堂之上，則芥爲之舟，置杯焉則膠，水淺而舟大也。風之積也不厚，則其負大翼也无力，故九萬里，則風斯在下矣，而後乃今，培風背，負青天，而莫之夭閼者，而後乃今將圖南。

蜩與鷽鳩笑之曰：「我決起而飛，槍榆枋，時則不至，而控於地而已矣，奚以之九萬里而南爲？」適莽蒼者，三湌而反，腹猶果然；適百里者，宿舂糧；適千里者，三月聚糧。之二蟲，又何知？小知不及大知，小年不及大年。奚以知其然也？朝菌不知晦朔，蟪蛄不知春秋。此小年也。楚之南有冥靈者，以五百歲爲春，五百歲爲秋；上古有大椿者，以八千歲爲春，八千歲爲秋。而彭祖乃今以久特聞，衆人匹之，不亦悲乎！

湯之問棘也是已。窮髮之北，有冥海者，天池也。有魚焉，其廣數千里，未有知其脩者，其名爲鯤。有鳥焉，其名爲鵬，背若太山，翼若垂天之雲，摶扶搖羊角而上者九萬里，絕雲氣，負青天，然後圖南，且適南冥也。斥鴳笑之曰：「彼且奚適也？我騰躍而上，不過數仞而下，翺翔蓬蒿之間，此亦飛之至也。而彼且奚適也？」此小大之辯也。故夫知效一官，行比一鄉，德合一君，而徵一國者，其自視也，亦若此矣，而宋榮子猶然笑之。且舉世而譽之，而不加勸，舉世而非之，而不加沮，定乎內外之分，辯乎榮辱之境，斯已矣。彼其於世，未數數然也，雖然，猶有未樹也。夫列子御風而行，泠然善也，旬有五日而後反。彼於致福者，未數數然也。此雖免乎行，猶有所待者也。若夫乘天地之正，而御六氣之辯，以遊无窮者，彼且惡乎待哉？故曰：「至人无己，神人无功，聖人无名。」

堯讓天下於許由，曰：「日月出矣，而爝火不息，其於光也，不亦難乎？時雨降矣，而猶浸灌，其於澤也，不亦勞乎？夫子立而天下治，而我猶尸之，吾自視缺然，請致天下。」許由曰：「子治天下，天下旣已治也，而我猶代子，吾將爲名乎？名者，實之賓也，吾將爲賓乎？鷦鷯巢於深林，不過一枝；偃鼠飲河，不過滿腹。歸休乎君，予无所用天下爲！庖人雖不治庖，尸祝不越樽俎而代之矣。」

肩吾問於連叔曰：「吾聞言於接輿，大而无當，往而不反。吾驚怖其言，猶河漢而无極也，大有逕庭，不近人情焉。」連叔曰：「其言謂何哉？」「曰：『藐姑射之山，有神人居焉，肌膚若冰雪，淖約若處子，不食五穀，吸風飲露，乘雲氣，御飛龍，而遊乎四海之外。其神凝，使物不疵癘，而年穀熟。』吾以是狂，而不信也。」連叔曰：「然。瞽者无以與乎文章之觀，聾者无以與乎鍾鼓之聲。豈唯形骸有聾盲哉？夫知亦有之。是其言也，猶時女也。之人也，之德也，將旁礴萬物，以爲一世蘄乎亂，孰弊弊焉以天下爲事？之人也，物莫之傷，大浸稽天而不溺，大旱金石流、土山焦而不熱，是其塵垢秕穅，將猶陶鑄堯、舜者也，孰肯以物爲事？」宋人資章甫而適諸越，越人斷髮文身，无所用之。堯治天下之民，平海內之政，往見四子藐姑射之山，汾水之陽，窅然喪其天下焉。

惠子謂莊子曰：「魏王貽我大瓠之種，我樹之成，而實五石。以盛水漿，其堅不能自舉也。剖之以爲瓢，則瓠落无所容。非不呺然大也，吾爲其无用而掊之。」莊子曰：「夫子固拙於用大矣。宋人有善爲不龜手之藥者，世世以洴澼絖爲事。客聞之，請買其方百金。聚族而謀曰：『我世世爲洴澼絖，不過數金。今一朝而鬻技百金，請與之。』客得之，以說吳王。越有難，吳王使之將。冬，與越人水戰，大敗越人，裂地而封之。能不龜手，一也；或以封，或不免於洴澼絖，則所用之異也。今子有五石之瓠，何不慮以爲大樽，而浮乎江湖？而憂其瓠落无所容，則夫子猶有蓬之心也夫！」

惠子謂莊子曰：「吾有大樹，人謂之樗，其大本擁腫而不中繩墨，其小枝卷曲而不中規矩，立之塗，匠者不顧。今子之言，大而无用，衆所同去也。」莊子曰：「子獨不見狸狌乎？卑身而伏，以候敖者，東西跳梁，不避高下，中於機辟，死於罔罟。今夫犛牛，其大若垂天之雲，此能爲大矣，而不能執鼠。今子有大樹，患其无用，何不樹之於无何有之鄉，廣莫之野，彷徨乎无爲其側，逍遙乎寢臥其下？不夭斤斧，物无害者，无所可用，安所困苦哉？」

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北冥有鱼，其名为鲲。鲲之大，不知其几千里也，化而为鸟，其名为鹏。鹏之背，不知其几千里也，怒而飞，其翼若垂天之云。是鸟也，海运，则将徙于南冥。南冥者，天池也。齐谐者，志怪者也。谐之言曰：「鹏之徙于南冥也，水击三千里，抟扶摇而上者九万里，去以六月息者也。」野马也，尘埃也，生物之以息相吹也。天之苍苍，其正色邪？其远而无所至极邪？其视下也，亦若是则已矣。且夫水之积也不厚，则负大舟也无力。覆杯水于坳堂之上，则芥为之舟，置杯焉则胶，水浅而舟大也。风之积也不厚，则其负大翼也无力，故九万里，则风斯在下矣，而后乃今，培风背，负青天，而莫之夭阏者，而后乃今将图南。

蜩与鸴鸠笑之曰：「我决起而飞，枪榆枋，时则不至，而控于地而已矣，奚以之九万里而南为？」适莽苍者，三餐而反，腹犹果然；适百里者，宿舂粮；适千里者，三月聚粮。之二虫，又何知？小知不及大知，小年不及大年。奚以知其然也？朝菌不知晦朔，蟪蛄不知春秋。此小年也。楚之南有冥灵者，以五百岁为春，五百岁为秋；上古有大椿者，以八千岁为春，八千岁为秋。而彭祖乃今以久特闻，众人匹之，不亦悲乎！

汤之问棘也是已。穷发之北，有冥海者，天池也。有鱼焉，其广数千里，未有知其修者，其名为鲲。有鸟焉，其名为鹏，背若太山，翼若垂天之云，抟扶摇羊角而上者九万里，绝云气，负青天，然后图南，且适南冥也。斥𫛩笑之曰：「彼且奚适也？我腾跃而上，不过数仞而下，翱翔蓬蒿之间，此亦飞之至也。而彼且奚适也？」此小大之辩也。故夫知效一官，行比一乡，德合一君，而征一国者，其自视也，亦若此矣，而宋荣子犹然笑之。且举世而誉之，而不加劝，举世而非之，而不加沮，定乎内外之分，辩乎荣辱之境，斯已矣。彼其于世，未数数然也，虽然，犹有未树也。夫列子御风而行，泠然善也，旬有五日而后反。彼于致福者，未数数然也。此虽免乎行，犹有所待者也。若夫乘天地之正，而御六气之辩，以游无穷者，彼且恶乎待哉？故曰：「至人无己，神人无功，圣人无名。」

尧让天下于许由，曰：「日月出矣，而爝火不息，其于光也，不亦难乎？时雨降矣，而犹浸灌，其于泽也，不亦劳乎？夫子立而天下治，而我犹尸之，吾自视缺然，请致天下。」许由曰：「子治天下，天下既已治也，而我犹代子，吾将为名乎？名者，实之宾也，吾将为宾乎？鹪鹩巢于深林，不过一枝；偃鼠饮河，不过满腹。归休乎君，予无所用天下为！庖人虽不治庖，尸祝不越樽俎而代之矣。」

肩吾问于连叔曰：「吾闻言于接舆，大而无当，往而不反。吾惊怖其言，犹河汉而无极也，大有迳庭，不近人情焉。」连叔曰：「其言谓何哉？」「曰：『藐姑射之山，有神人居焉，肌肤若冰雪，淖约若处子，不食五谷，吸风饮露，乘云气，御飞龙，而游乎四海之外。其神凝，使物不疵疠，而年谷熟。』吾以是狂，而不信也。」连叔曰：「然。瞽者无以与乎文章之观，聋者无以与乎钟鼓之声。岂唯形骸有聋盲哉？夫知亦有之。是其言也，犹时女也。之人也，之德也，将旁礴万物，以为一世蕲乎乱，孰弊弊焉以天下为事？之人也，物莫之伤，大浸稽天而不溺，大旱金石流、土山焦而不热，是其尘垢秕穅，将犹陶铸尧、舜者也，孰肯以物为事？」宋人资章甫而适诸越，越人断发文身，无所用之。尧治天下之民，平海内之政，往见四子藐姑射之山，汾水之阳，窅然丧其天下焉。

惠子谓庄子曰：「魏王贻我大瓠之种，我树之成，而实五石。以盛水浆，其坚不能自举也。剖之以为瓢，则瓠落无所容。非不呺然大也，吾为其无用而掊之。」庄子曰：「夫子固拙于用大矣。宋人有善为不龟手之药者，世世以洴澼絖为事。客闻之，请买其方百金。聚族而谋曰：『我世世为洴澼絖，不过数金。今一朝而鬻技百金，请与之。』客得之，以说吴王。越有难，吴王使之将。冬，与越人水战，大败越人，裂地而封之。能不龟手，一也；或以封，或不免于洴澼絖，则所用之异也。今子有五石之瓠，何不虑以为大樽，而浮乎江湖？而忧其瓠落无所容，则夫子犹有蓬之心也夫！」

惠子谓庄子曰：「吾有大树，人谓之樗，其大本拥肿而不中绳墨，其小枝卷曲而不中规矩，立之涂，匠者不顾。今子之言，大而无用，众所同去也。」庄子曰：「子独不见狸狌乎？卑身而伏，以候敖者，东西跳梁，不避高下，中于机辟，死于罔罟。今夫牦牛，其大若垂天之云，此能为大矣，而不能执鼠。今子有大树，患其无用，何不树之于无何有之乡，广莫之野，彷徨乎无为其侧，逍遥乎寝卧其下？不夭斤斧，物无害者，无所可用，安所困苦哉？」

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English translation by Claude (an AI)

In the northern darkness there is a fish whose name is Kun. The Kun is so large that no one knows how many thousand miles it measures. It changes and becomes a bird whose name is Peng. The back of the Peng is so broad that no one knows how many thousand miles it measures. When it rouses itself and flies, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. When the sea begins to move, this bird sets out for the southern darkness. The southern darkness is the Pool of Heaven. The Qi Xie is a record of marvels. It says: "When the Peng journeys to the southern darkness, it beats the water for three thousand miles, rises on a whirlwind ninety thousand miles high, and goes, and rests only after six months." Heat haze, motes of dust, living things blowing breath at one another. The blue of the sky: is that its true colour? Or is it only that it is so far away and has no end? When the Peng looks down, it must see the same, and nothing more. If water is not piled deep enough, it will not have the strength to carry a large boat. Pour a cup of water into a hollow in the floor, and a mustard seed will sail on it as a boat; set the cup itself there and it sticks, because the water is shallow and the boat is large. If wind is not piled deep enough, it will not have the strength to carry great wings. So only at ninety thousand miles is the wind beneath it. Only then can it ride the wind, with the blue sky on its back and nothing to hold it back; only then can it set its course for the south.

The cicada and the little dove laughed at it, saying: "When we make an effort and fly, we can reach the elm or the sandalwood tree, and sometimes we do not even make it, and simply drop to the ground. What is the point of going ninety thousand miles to the south?" Someone who goes out to the green fields takes three meals and comes back with a belly still full. Someone who goes a hundred miles must pound grain for the journey the night before. Someone who goes a thousand miles must gather provisions for three months. What do these two little creatures know? Small knowledge does not reach great knowledge; a short life does not reach a long one. How do we know this is so? The morning mushroom does not know the turn from dark to new moon; the summer cicada does not know spring and autumn. These are short lives. South of Chu there is a tree called the Dark Spirit, for which five hundred years are a spring and five hundred years an autumn. In high antiquity there was a great Chun tree, for which eight thousand years were a spring and eight thousand years an autumn. And yet Pengzu is famous today for living long, and everyone wishes to match him. Is that not sad?

This is what Tang asked of Ji. North of the bare and barren lands there is a dark sea, the Pool of Heaven. In it is a fish several thousand miles wide, and no one knows its length. Its name is Kun. There is a bird there whose name is Peng. Its back is like Mount Tai, and its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. It rises on a whirlwind spiralling like a ram's horn ninety thousand miles high, beyond the clouds and vapours, with the blue sky on its back, and then sets its course for the south and travels to the southern darkness. The quail laughed at it, saying: "Where does he think he is going? I leap up and rise no more than a few yards before I come down, and flutter about among the brambles and weeds. That is as far as flying goes. Where does he think he is going?" This is the difference between the small and the great. So there are those whose knowledge is enough for one office, whose conduct suits one village, whose virtue pleases one ruler and wins the trust of one state. They look at themselves in just this way. Song Rongzi would smile at them. If the whole world praised him, he would not be spurred on; if the whole world condemned him, he would not be discouraged. He was sure of the line between inner and outer, and clear about the boundaries of honour and disgrace, and that was all. He did not chase after the things of the world. Even so, there was something he had not yet planted. Liezi rode the wind and travelled on it, lightly and well, and came back after fifteen days. He did not chase after good fortune. But though he was spared walking, he still depended on something. If one were to ride the truth of heaven and earth, drive the changes of the six energies, and wander in the boundless, what would one depend on then? So it is said: the perfect person has no self, the spirit person has no merit, the sage has no name.

Yao offered to give up the world to Xu You, saying: "When the sun and moon have come out, to keep the torches burning is surely to make light the hard way. When the seasonal rains have fallen, to go on watering the fields is surely wasted labour. If you, sir, took the throne, the world would be in order, and yet I still occupy it. I see my own shortcomings. Let me hand over the world." Xu You said: "You govern the world, and the world is already in order. If I were to take your place, would I be doing it for the name? A name is the guest of reality. Shall I play the guest? The wren nests in the deep forest, but uses no more than one branch. The mole drinks at the river, but takes no more than a bellyful. Go home and rest, my lord. I have no use for the world. Even if the cook does not tend his kitchen, the priest of the offerings does not leap over the wine vessels and the altar stands to take his place."

Jian Wu said to Lian Shu: "I heard Jie Yu talk, and what he said was huge and had nothing to hold on to; it went off and never came back. I was startled and frightened by his words. They were like the Milky Way, without end, wildly different from anything ordinary, far from what people feel." Lian Shu said: "What did he say?" "He said: 'Far away on Mount Gushe there lives a spirit person, whose skin is like ice and snow, gentle as a young girl. He does not eat the five grains but breathes the wind and drinks the dew. He rides the clouds and mist, drives flying dragons, and wanders beyond the four seas. His spirit is concentrated, so that things are kept from sickness and plague, and the harvest ripens every year.' I thought this was madness and did not believe it." Lian Shu said: "Of course. The blind have no part in the beauty of patterns, the deaf have no part in the sound of bells and drums. But is it only in body that there is blindness and deafness? There is blindness and deafness in understanding too. Those words describe you, as you are now. This person, with such virtue, would embrace the ten thousand things and make them one. The age longs for order; why would he wear himself out making the world his business? Nothing can harm this person. A flood that reaches the sky would not drown him; a drought that melts metal and stone and scorches the earth and hills would not make him hot. From his dust and leavings, his chaff and husks, you could still mould a Yao or a Shun. Why would he be willing to make things his business?" A man of Song took ceremonial caps to sell in Yue, but the people of Yue cut their hair short and tattoo their bodies, and had no use for them. Yao governed the people of the world and brought peace to everything within the seas. Then he went to see the four masters on far Mount Gushe, north of the river Fen, and in a daze he forgot that he had the world.

Huizi said to Zhuangzi: "The king of Wei gave me the seeds of a great gourd. I planted them and they grew into a gourd that could hold five piculs. I filled it with water, but it was not strong enough to be lifted. I split it to make ladles, but they were too wide and flat to hold anything. It was not that it was not wonderfully large, but because it was useless, I smashed it." Zhuangzi said: "You are clumsy, sir, at using large things. There was a man of Song who was good at making a salve to keep hands from chapping, and for generations his family had made their living bleaching silk in the river. A traveller heard of it and offered a hundred pieces of gold for the recipe. The family gathered to discuss it and said: 'For generations we have bleached silk, and never earned more than a few pieces of gold. Now in one morning we can sell the skill for a hundred. Let us give it to him.' The traveller took it and went to persuade the king of Wu. When Yue made trouble, the king of Wu made him a general. In winter he fought the men of Yue in a battle on the water and defeated them utterly, and he was given a fief of land. The power to keep hands from chapping was the same; one man won a fief with it, the other never escaped from bleaching silk. The difference was in how it was used. Now you have a gourd that holds five piculs. Why not think of making it into a great float and drifting on the rivers and lakes? Instead you worry that it is too flat to hold anything. Your mind, sir, is still full of brambles."

Huizi said to Zhuangzi: "I have a great tree that people call the stink-tree. Its trunk is so gnarled and knotted that no carpenter's line can be laid on it, and its branches are so twisted that no compass or square can be used on them. It stands beside the road and no carpenter gives it a glance. Your words are just the same: big and useless, and everyone turns away from them." Zhuangzi said: "Have you never seen a wildcat or a weasel? It crouches low and lies in wait for something to wander past, leaps east and west, high and low, and ends up caught in a trap or dead in a net. Then there is the yak, as big as a cloud hanging from the sky. It certainly knows how to be big, but it cannot catch a mouse. Now you have a great tree and you worry that it is useless. Why not plant it in the village of nothing at all, in the wide and empty wilds, and wander idly beside it doing nothing, or lie down to sleep beneath it, free and easy? No axe will cut it short, nothing will harm it. If it is of no use, how could it come to grief?"