Zhuangzi and Pipajing in Wenzhou

There is such a passage in Zhuangzi's Biography of Heaven and Earth:

Zi Gong went south to conquer Chu, rebelled against Jin, crossed Hanyin, and saw a lady digging a tunnel for a nursery and pouring it out with an urn. However, he made great efforts, but didn't see any results.

It is said that Zigong met an old man in Hanyin. He dug a well to water vegetables. But strangely, the way he draws water from the well is very strange. He dug a tunnel in the well, then took water from an earthenware pot and used it to water the vegetable fields.

? It was always difficult for me to understand this passage before. How can the old man dig a tunnel in the well to draw water? This is incredible. There is no detailed explanation in the notes of past dynasties, so we have to be suspicious.

I didn't expect a Mr. Hu from Wenzhou to send me some photos of Shiziyan and Daitou ancient well in Xiaruoxi village, Yongjia ancient village in Wenzhou today, which suddenly made me realize this problem.

The photo shows a well, which is called Pipa Well locally. Seen from the air, the plane of this well looks like a pipa. The upper mouth of the well is big and the lower mouth is small. It looks like an inverted cone, and the shaft wall is made of stone. There is a stone step from the wellhead to the bottom of the well, leading to the groundwater at the bottom of the well. People go down this step to the bottom of the well to draw water, and then carry the water on the step to the ground with buckets.

? Of course, wells like this are rare now. In addition, the word "tunnel" in Zhuangzi's article is easily misunderstood by people nowadays, thinking that it is to dig an underground tunnel leading to a well. In fact, the original meaning of the word tunnel is the ramp leading to the underground tomb, which is used to transport coffins. Of course, before the tomb was closed, it was just an open soil slope, and it was filled with soil after it was closed.

Therefore, Zhuangzi used very strict words, but later generations were puzzled because they didn't see the real thing.

? At the end of this article, Zhuangzi said that Zi Gong saw the well and the old man with the urn to water the vegetable fields, and felt that he was too backward. Just tell the old man, isn't it hard for you to do this? Why not dig a vertical well and then pump water with a lever, which will save time and effort.

Unexpectedly, the old man sarcastically said, "My teacher, I heard that people who have machinery should do things organically, have organic things, and have an organic mind." If the machine is in the chest, it is pure white; Pure white is not prepared, then god is uncertain; God is uncertain, and Tao does not contain it. I don't know, but I'm ashamed not to do so. 」

It means that I am not ignorant of this method. I just think that the use of mechanical devices will increase people's minds. If people have a mind, they will stay away from the road, feel uneasy and lose their pure nature.

? Then Zhuangzi wrote Zigong and bowed his head in shame and could not speak.

This is Zhuangzi's fable, of course, and it can't be true history. But the oranges and ancient wells mentioned in them should be historical facts.

In that case, the history of Pipajing in Wenzhou can be traced back to the pre-Qin period.

I attached an old article to explain the meaning of this passage.

Zhuangzi didn't preach chaos.

Zhuangzi made up a joke to teach Qi the art of monasticism.

? It is said that Confucius had a disciple named Zi Gong, who was the cleverest and most capable among Confucius. This person specializes in international trade and is famous on the rich list; His eloquence and popularity are excellent, and he has personal relationships with leaders of various countries.

? Once he went to Chu, he met a good old man who grew vegetables by the Hanshui River. In order to draw water to irrigate the land, the old man actually dug a tunnel leading to the bottom of the well, walked to the bottom of the well with a pitcher in his hand, and drew water to water the vegetable fields.

? Zi Gong came forward and said, "This is the method of the Stone Age. It's already out. Now all oranges are used to fetch water. Orange is a lever machine, and the lever fulcrum is located at the well side. Tie a rope on the long arm of the lever, and a bucket is hung at the end of the rope; The short arm presses the weight at one end. The rope at the end of the long arm is controlled by hand, and then the bucket goes up and down to pump up the well water. This kind of orange saves both labor and time. Why not keep pace with the times? "

? Unexpectedly, the old man rolled his eyes and said, "Only smart guys love to use machinery. If you use machinery, you have to be smart, and your heart will be more restless, so you will be farther away from the pure white road. I don't need oranges. "

? When Zi Gong came back, he told it to Mr. Kong as a joke. After listening to this, Lao Shi said, "This old man is not easy to pinch. His practice is called chaos. We are too smart to fix it. "

? Bubu interjected: "Chaos is the name of the Central God, right? I heard you say that. Chaos has nothing on his face, but he is excellent. Our god is Shu, and the god of Beihai is Hu. They love to play with chaos, and chaos is good for them. After a long time, Uncle and Lao suddenly felt embarrassed, so they decided to cut out seven eyes, ears, nose and mouth on the chaotic face as a reward. Dig a hole every day. On the seventh day, all seven holes have been dug, but Chaos is dead. "

? Zhuangzi nodded: "I study chaos. The god of chaos lives in the central place, which actually refers to the true colors of the mind and mind. With the beginning of perceptual knowledge activities of eyes, ears, nose and mouth, people have different concepts of good and bad, beauty and ugliness, truth and falsehood, right and wrong, gain and loss, good and evil, good and evil, and then have feelings of joy, disgust, love and hate. Thinking leads to emotion, and emotion leads to thinking, so the mind is out of the state of chaos and indifference, dragged down by foreign objects, troubled, restless, and even exhausted to death.

? "Shu" and "Hu" refer to people's feelings, cognitive functions and activities. People rely on a set of intentions or a certain model to carry out a series of cognitive activities such as feeling, memory, thinking, judgment, understanding and prediction. This intention lurks deep and starts quickly. Suddenly, the feeling coming from the seven orifices can be processed into a picture of foreign objects and the world. The mind easily accepted the pictures of these two great gods without thinking, and regarded them as the true colors of things and the world or the objective world itself. The mind regards subjective scenes as real things and the world, and thinks that cognitive activities are smart and correct, which leads to endless thinking and emotion, so that the mind loses the tranquility of chaotic state and cannot rest when disturbed. "

? "Old and wet, I understand." Fujibe raised his hand and said, "If the God of Chaos suddenly refuses to repay Er Shen, he will not die. As long as you don't take a set of world pictures deliberately compiled by sensory information seriously and keep the original chaos and tranquility of your mind, people will not fall into the abyss of trouble and pain. "

? "good! Sharp! " Zhuangzi praised: "The root of trouble, pain and confusion is not the feeling of the senses, nor immorality or too much greed. Fundamentally speaking, I was misled by the intention of taking the world as reality, but I didn't know that the world was just a painting, a dream and a set of magic.

? Therefore, when practicing chaos, the key point is to reject all misleading of the two gods. I always forget the difference between truth and falsehood, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, good and bad, good and bad, success and failure, right and wrong, until I forget the existence of my body and the world, and finally I forget my existence, so that the physical and mental world can return to its chaotic true colors. Until you can enter the chaos at any time and are not misled by intentional chaos, you enter the avenue. "

? Second: "It is of course eight mistakes to enter the Tao. But how can I live if I forget everything? "

? Zhuangzi said with a smile, "Those who are enlightened make good use of the seven thieves and those who are interested to cope with life, and are good at seeing through the confusion of the seven thieves and those who are interested, but not being confused by them. You can always go back to the chaotic place and keep your inner peace. "

According to the so-called mind, Zhuangzi is just a hollow reputation. Don't cling to me or me, or you will be fooled again.