Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy Part 24

They fly like an arrow from a bow That's the way they guard their rights and wrongs.

They stick like they'd sworn an oath.

That's the way they hold to victory.

They die like fall and winter.

That describes their daily deterioration. They drown; and what makes it happen can't bring them back.

They're sated as though sealed.

That describes their stagnation. As the mind nears death, nothing can bring it back to vitality.

Happiness, anger, despair, joy, planning, sighing, bending, freezing, elegance, ease, candor, posturing- They are music out of emptiness, mist condensing into mushrooms!

Day and night they alternate in front of us without our knowing where they sprout. Enough! Enough! Morning and evening we've got them, wherever they come from.

Without them there would not be me, without me there would be nothing to choose.

This is close. But no one knows what makes it like this. It seems as though there is a true master, but you can't get a glimpse of it. In our actions we take the self on faith, but we can't see its form. There is essence but no form.20 The hundred bones, the nine orifices, the six organs all exist together. Which do I think of as closest to me? Do you like them all? Or do you have a favorite? If so, are the rest its servants and concubines? Can't servants and concubines rule among themselves? Can they take turns being lord and servant? But if there is a true lord among them, whether I find its essence or not makes no difference to its truth.

Once you take a complete form, you don't forget it until the end. Clashing with things and rubbing against them, the race is run at a gallop and nothing can stop it. Isn't it sad? Your whole life slaving away and never seeing the completion of your labors. Exhausted, you drudge and slave away without knowing where to turn for rest. Can you not mourn? People say they are not dead, but what difference does it make? Your form changes and your mind goes with it. Can you tell me that's not mournful? Is everyone's life really this confused? Or am I the only one confused and not other people?

If a made-up mind counts as a teacher, then who doesn't have a teacher? Why should it just be the self-chosen experts on the order of things who have them? Stupid people would have them, too. But to have right and wrong before you've made up your mind-that's like leaving for Yue today and getting there yesterday! That's like saying what isn't is. What isn't is? Even the spiritual sage Yu couldn't make sense of that. How could I?

Saying is not just blowing. Saying says something. But if what it says is not fixed, then does it really say anything? Or does it say nothing? We think it is different from the peeping of fledglings. But is there really any difference or isn't there? How is the Way obscured that there are true and false? How are words obscured that there are shi , "right," and fei , "wrong"? Where can you go that the Way does not exist? How can words exist and not be okay? The Way is obscured by small completions.21 Words are obscured by glory and show. So we have the rights and wrongs of the Confucians and the Mohists. Each calls right what the other calls wrong and each calls wrong what the other calls right. But if you want to right their wrongs and wrong their rights, it's better to throw them open to the light.

There is nothing that cannot be looked at that way.

There is nothing that cannot be looked at this way.

But that is not the way I see things; Only as I know things myself do I know them.

Hence it is said, " Bi , 'that,' comes from shi , 'this,' and this follows from that." This is the doctrine of the parallel birth of "this" and "that." Even so, born together they die together. Dying together they are born together. If they are both okay, they are both not okay. If they are both not okay, they are both okay. If they are right in a way, they are wrong in a way. If they are wrong in a way, they are right in a way. For this reason the sage does not follow this route but illuminates things with Heaven's light.22 He just goes along with things. What is this is also that, and what is that is also this. That is both right and wrong. This is also both right and wrong. So is there really a this and a that? Or isn't there any this or that? The place where neither this nor that finds its counterpart is called the pivot of the Way. Once the pivot finds its socket it can respond endlessly. What's right is endless. And what's wrong is endless, too. This is why I say it's better to throw them open to the light.

Making a point to show that a point is not a point is not as good as making a nonpoint to show that a point is not a point. Using a horse to show that a horse is not a horse is not as good as using a nonhorse to show that a horse is not a horse.23 Heaven and earth are one point, the ten thousand things are one horse.

Okay? Okay. Not okay? Not okay. A way is made by walking it. A thing is so by calling it. How is it so? In so-ing it, it is so. How is it not so? In not-so-ing it, it is not so. There is always a way in which things are so. There is always a way in which things are okay. There is nothing that is not so, nothing that is not okay. You can insist that it is a twig or a pillar, a freak or the beautiful Xi Shi.24 No matter how diverse or strange, the Way comprehends them as one. Their division is their completion and their completion is their ruin. But nothing is completed or injured when they are again comprehended as one. Only the penetrating person knows to comprehend them as one. Don't insist but lodge in the usual. The usual is useful. You can use it to penetrate. When you penetrate, you get it. Get it and you're almost there. Just go along with things. Doing that without knowing how things are is what I call the Way.

But exhausting the spirit trying to illuminate the unity of things without knowing that they are all the same is called "three in the morning." What do I mean by "three in the morning"? When the monkey trainer was pa.s.sing out nuts he said, "You get three in the morning and four at night." The monkeys were all angry. "All right," he said, "you get four in the morning and three at night." The monkeys were all pleased. With no loss in name or substance, he made use of their joy and anger because he went along with them. So the sage harmonizes people with right and wrong and rests them on Heaven's wheel. This is called walking two roads.

In olden days, people's knowledge got somewhere. Where did it get? There were those who thought there had never been anything. Perfect! Done! There was nothing to add. Next were those who thought there were things but never any boundaries. Next were those who thought there were boundaries but never any right or wrong. The Way is lost in the glorification of right and wrong. The Way is lost in the completion of love. But are there such things as loss and completion? Or are there no such things as loss and completion? Loss and completion-that's Master Bright Works playing his lute. No loss and no completion-that's Master Bright Works not playing his lute. Bright Works playing his lute, Shi Kuang holding his baton, Huizi leaning on his desk: the knowledge of these three masters was almost perfect, and they pa.s.sed their successes on to later years.25 What they liked they tried to set apart from other things. What they liked they tried to illuminate. But they only succeeded in illuminating the other things and so ended in the gloom of "hard and white."26 Their followers ended up tangled in the string of works and were incomplete their whole lives. If this counts as completion, then we are all complete, too. If this doesn't count as completion, then none of us have ever been complete. So the torch of slippery doubt is what the sage steers by. Don't insist, but lodge in the usual: this is what I mean by throwing things open to the light.

Now suppose I say something here. I don't know whether it fits into your category or not. But in terms of the category that includes both things that fit and things that don't, it's no different from anything else. Nonetheless, let me try saying it: There is a beginning. There is a not-yet beginning to be a beginning. There is a not-yet beginning to be a not-yet beginning to be a beginning.

There is something. There is nothing. There is a not-yet beginning to be nothing. There is a not-yet beginning to be a not-yet beginning to be nothing. Suddenly there is nothing. But then I don't know whether nothing is or isn't.

Now I've said something, but I don't know if what I've said meant anything or not.

Nothing in the world is bigger than the tip of an autumn hair27 but Mount Tai is small. No one lives longer than a dead child and Peng Zu died young. Heaven and earth were born alongside me, and the ten thousand things and I are one.

If we're already one, can I say it? But since I've just said we're one, can I not say it? The unity and my saying it make two. The two and their unity make three. Starting from here, even a clever mathematician couldn't get it, much less an ordinary person! If going from nothing to something you get three, what about going from something to something? Don't do it! Just go along with things.

The Way has never been bounded, words have never been constant. Insist on it and there are boundary-paths. Let me describe these paths. There is left. There is right. There are relations. There is righteousness. There are divisions. There are debates. There is compet.i.tion. There is contention. These are called the eight Virtues. The sage acknowledges what is beyond the six dimensions but does not discuss it. He discusses what is within the six dimensions but does not deliberate on it. He deliberates on the springs and autumns of successive generations and the records of former kings but does not debate about them. Divisions have something they do not divide. Debates have something they do not debate. "What?" you ask. The sage clasps it to his bosom while ordinary people debate to show it off. Hence it is said, "Debate leaves something undiscriminated."

The great Way is not announced.

The great debate is not spoken.

Great benevolence is not benevolent.

Great modesty is not reserved.

Great courage is not aggressive.

A way that shines does not lead.

Words in debate do not reach.

Benevolence that is constant is not complete.

Modesty that is pure is not trustworthy.

Courage that is aggressive is not complete.

These five are round but almost square. Therefore knowledge that stops at what it does not know is perfect. Who knows the unspoken distinction, the unled Way? If you could know it, it would be called the store of Heaven. Pour into it and it does not fill up, draw from it and it does not run dry. Not knowing where it comes from, it is called the shaded glow. Once Yao said to Shun, "I want to attack Zong, Guai, and Xu-ao. I sit on my throne and it bothers me. Why is this?"28 Shun said, "These three small states still dwell among the underbrush. Why are you bothered? Once ten suns came out together and the ten thousand things were all illuminated. Shouldn't Virtue be better than ten suns?"29 Gaptooth asked Royal Relativity,30 "Do you know what all things agree upon as right?"

Royal Relativity said, "How could I know that?"

"Do you know that you don't know it?"

"How could I know that?"

"Doesn't anyone know anything?!"

"How could I know that? But even so, suppose I tried saying something. How could I possibly know that when I say I know something, I don't not know it? How could I possibly know that when I say I don't know something, I don't know it?31 Let me try asking you something. If people sleep in the damp, their backs hurt and they wake half paralyzed. But is this true of an eel? If they live in trees they shudder with fear. But is this true of a monkey? Of these three, then, which knows the right place to live? People eat the flesh of cattle, deer eat fodder, maggots like snakes, and hawks enjoy mice. Of these four, which knows the right taste? Monkeys take baboons as partners, deer befriend elk, and eels consort with fish. People say that Maoqiang and Lady Li are beautiful. But if fish saw them they would dive deep, if birds saw them they would fly high, and if deer saw them they would cut and run. Of these four, which knows beauty rightly? From where I see it, the sprouts of benevolence and righteousness and the pathways of right and wrong are all snarled and jumbled.32 How would I know the difference between them?"

Gaptooth said, "If you don't know gain from loss, do perfected people know?"33 Royal Relativity said, "Perfected people are spiritual. Though the lowlands burn, they are not hot. Though the He and the Han rivers freeze, they are not cold. When furious lightning splits the mountains and winds thrash the sea, they are not scared. People like this mount the clouds and mists, straddle the sun and moon, and roam beyond the four seas. Death and life make no difference to them, how much less the sprouts of benefit and harm!"

Master Nervous Magpie asked Master Long Desk, "I heard from my teacher, Kongzi, that the sage does not make it his business to attend to affairs. He does not seek gain or avoid loss. He does not enjoy being sought out and does not follow any Way. Saying nothing he says something, saying something he says nothing, and he wanders outside the floating dust. My teacher thought this was wild talk, but I thought it captured the mysterious Way. What do you think about it?"

Master Long Desk said, "This would make Huang Di's ears ring. How could Kongzi understand it? But you're getting ahead of yourself. You see an egg and listen for the rooster's crow. You see a bow and expect roast owl. I'm going to try saying some crazy things to you, and you listen crazily- how about it? Flank the sun and moon, embrace s.p.a.ce and time, and meet like lips, settling in the slippery murk where servants exalt each other. Ordinary people slave away, while the sage is stupid and simple, partic.i.p.ating in ten thousand ages and unifying them in complete simplicity. The ten thousand things are as they are, and so are jumbled together.

"How do I know that loving life is not a mistake? How do I know that hating death is not like a lost child forgetting its way home? Lady Li was the daughter of the border guard of Ai. When the duke of Jin got her, her tears fell until they soaked her collar. But once she reached the royal palace, slept in the king's bed, and ate the meats of his table, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead don't regret that they ever longed for life?34 "One who dreams of drinking wine may weep in the morning. One who dreams of weeping may go for a hunt the next day. In the dream, you don't know it's a dream. In the middle of a dream, you may interpret a dream within it. Only after waking do you know it was a dream. Still, there may be an even greater awakening after which you know that this, too, was just a greater dream. But the stupid ones think they are awake and confidently claim to know it. Are they rulers? Are they herdsmen? Really?! Kongzi and you are both dreaming. And in saying you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. These words might be called a puzzle. But if after ten thousand generations we encounter a single sage who knows the solution, it would be no different from what we encounter every morning and evening."

Once you and I have started arguing, if you win and I lose, then are you really right and am I really wrong? If I win and you lose, then am I really right and are you really wrong? Is one of us right and the other one wrong? Or are both of us right and both of us wrong? If you and I can't understand one another, then other people will certainly be even more in the dark. Whom shall we get to set us right? Shall we get someone who agrees with you to set us right? But if they already agree with you how can they set us right? Shall we get someone who agrees with me to set us right? But if they already agree with me, how can they set us right? Shall we get someone who disagrees with both of us to set us right? But if they already disagree with both of us, how can they set us right? Shall we get someone who agrees with both of us to set us right? But if they already agree with both of us, how can they set us right? If you and I and they all can't understand each other, should we wait for someone else?

Shifting voices waiting on one another may just as well not wait on one another. Harmonize them by means of Heaven's relativity, orient them with the flowing flood, and so live out your years. Forget the years, forget righteousness, but be stirred by the limitless and lodge within it. What do I mean by "harmonize them by means of Heaven's relativity"? I mean right is not right, so is not so. If right were really right, it would be so different from not-right that there would be no room for argument. If so were really so, then it would be so different from not-so that there would be no room for argument.

Penumbra said to Shadow, "First you walk and then you stop. First you sit and then you rise. Why are you so restless?"

Shadow said, "Do I depend on something to be the way I am? Does what I depend on also depend on something to be the way it is? Does a snake depend on its scales to move or a cicada on its wings to fly? How should I know why I am this way? How should I know why I'm not otherwise?"

One night, Zhuangzi dreamed of being a b.u.t.terfly-a happy b.u.t.terfly, showing off and doing as he pleased, unaware of being Zhuangzi. Suddenly he awoke, drowsily, Zhuangzi again. And he could not tell whether it was Zhuangzi who had dreamt the b.u.t.terfly or the b.u.t.terfly dreaming Zhuangzi. But there must be some difference between them! This is called "the transformation of things."

Chapter Three: The Key to Nourishing Life.

Life is bounded. Knowledge is unbounded. Using the bounded to follow the unbounded is dangerous. And if you take that as knowledge, that's really dangerous! If you do good, avoid fame. If you do bad, avoid punishment. Follow the middle line and you can protect yourself, complete your life, raise your family, and finish your years.

A butcher was cutting up an ox for Lord Wenhui.35 Wherever his hand touched, wherever his shoulder leaned, wherever his foot stepped, wherever his knee pushed-with a zip! with a whoosh!-he handled his chopper with aplomb, and never skipped a beat. He moved in time to the Dance of the Mulberry Forest, and harmonized with the Head of the Line Symphony.36 Lord Wenhui said, "Ah, excellent, that technique can reach such heights!"

The butcher sheathed his chopper and responded, "What your servant values is the Way, which goes beyond technique. When I first began cutting up oxen, I did not see anything but oxen. Three years later, I couldn't see the whole ox. And now, I encounter them with spirit and don't look with my eyes. Sensible knowledge stops and spiritual desires proceed. I rely on the Heavenly patterns, strike in the big gaps, am guided by the large fissures, and follow what is inherently so. I never touch a ligament or tendon, much less do any heavy wrenching! A good butcher changes his chopper every year because he chips it. An average butcher changes it every month because he breaks it. There are s.p.a.ces between those joints, and the edge of the blade has no thickness. If you use what has no thickness to go where there is s.p.a.ce-oh! there's plenty of extra room to play about in. That's why after nineteen years37 the blade of my chopper is still as though fresh from the grindstone.

"Still, when I get to a hard place, I see the difficulty and take breathless care. My gaze settles! My movements slow! I move the chopper slightly, and in a twinkling it's come apart, crumbling to the ground like a clod of earth! I stand holding my chopper and glance all around, dwelling on my accomplishment. Then I clean my chopper and put it away."

Lord Wenhui said, "Excellent! I have heard the words of a butcher and learned how to care for life!"

Gongwen Xuan38 was startled when he saw the Commander of the Right,39 and he asked, "What kind of man is this? What happened to you? Was it Heaven, or was it human?"

The Commander said, "It was Heaven, not human. Heaven makes each thing unique.40 People try to look alike. That's how I know it was Heaven, not human. The marsh pheasant has to go ten steps for a peck, a hundred steps for a drink. But it doesn't want to be pampered in a cage. It does the spirit no good even to be king."

When Laozi died, Qin Shih41 went to mourn him, cried three times, and left. A student asked, "Weren't you our teacher's friend?"

"Yes."

"Then is it okay for you to mourn him this way?"

"Yes. At first I thought these were his people, but now I see they are not. When I went in earlier, there were old ones crying as though for a child, and young ones as though for their mothers. The one who gathered them here did not want them to talk, but they talk. He did not want them to cry, but they cry. They've run from Heaven, denied their essence, forgotten what they received, and hence suffer what used to be called 'the punishment for running from Heaven.'42 Our teacher came because it was time and left when the time had pa.s.sed. If you are content with the time and abide by the pa.s.sing, there's no room for sorrow or joy. This is what they used to call 'the divine release.' You can point to the exhausted fuel. But the flame has pa.s.sed on, and no one knows where it will end."

Chapter Four: The Human Realm.

Yan Hui asked Kongzi for permission to make a trip.43 "Where are you going?" he said.

"To Wei."

"What will you do there?"

"I have heard that the lord of Wei is young and willful. He trifles with his state and does not acknowledge his mistakes. He is so careless with people's lives that the dead fill the state like falling leaves in a swamp.44 The people have nowhere to turn. I have heard my teacher say, 'Leave the well-governed state and go to the chaotic one. There are plenty of sick people at the doctor's door.' I want to use what I have learned to think of a way the state may be saved."

Kongzi said, "Sheesh! You're just going to get yourself hurt. The Way does not like complexity. Complexity quickly becomes too much. Too much leads to agitation, agitation leads to worry, and worry never solved anything. The perfect people of olden times first found it in themselves before looking for it in others. If what you've found in yourself isn't settled yet, what leisure can you spare for this bully's behavior?

"Do you know how Virtue is squandered and where knowledge comes from? Virtue is squandered in fame, and knowledge arises from struggle. People use fame to trample each other and knowledge as a weapon. Both of them are tools of ill-fortune, not the means of finishing your mission.

"Though your Virtue is deep and your faith strong, you have not comprehended the man's qi . You've got a reputation for not being contentious, but you have not comprehended the man's mind. If you insist on parading standards of benevolence and righteousness before this bully, you will just make him look bad in comparison to you. That's antagonism, and one who antagonizes others is sure to be antagonized in return. You don't want to antagonize him!

"Or suppose he likes worthy people and dislikes the depraved, then what use is there in changing him? Better not to speak! Kings and dukes love to dominate people and force their submission. He'll want to dazzle you, intimidate you, tongue-tie you, cue you, and persuade you. Trying to reform this kind of person is like piling fire on fire or water on water. It's called 'adding to the excessive.' Your initial compliance will know no end until he no longer trusts your good word. You will surely die at this bully's hands. ...

"Even so, you must have a plan. Come, tell me about it!"

Yan Hui said, "Suppose I am upright but dispa.s.sionate, energetic but not divisive. Would that work?"

"No! How could that work?" said Kongzi. "You'd use all your energy to sustain the performance, and your face would be unsettled. Other people can't stand that, so they have to resist what you suggest in order to ease their own minds. If gradual Virtue wouldn't work, how much less such a great show of force! He'll dig in his heels and resist change. Though he may seem well disposed on the outside, on the inside he'll never consider it. How could that work?"

Yan Hui said, "Then how about being inwardly straight and outwardly bending, having integrity but conforming to my superiors? By being inwardly straight, I could follow Heaven. As a follower of Heaven, I would know that even the Son of Heaven and I are both children of Heaven. If I speak only for myself, why worry about the approval or disapproval of other people? I could be what people call childlike, which is what I mean by being a follower of Heaven.

"By being outwardly bending, I could follow other people. Lifting the ceremonial tablets, kneeling, bending, bowing-this is the etiquette of a minister. Others do it, why shouldn't I? As long as I do what other people do, who can complain? This is what I mean by following people.

"Having integrity and conforming to superiors, one follows olden times. My words, whether they are in fact instructions or even criticisms, belong to antiquity; they are not my own. This way one can be straightforward without causing injury. This is what I mean by following olden times. Would that work?"

Kongzi said, "No! How could that work? You have too many policies. You are planning without reconnaissance. Even if you succeeded in avoiding blame, it would stop there. How could you hope to change him? You're still making the mind your teacher."

Yan Hui said, "I have nothing else to offer. May I ask what to do?"

Kongzi said, "You must fast! Let me explain. Is it easy to do anything with your mind? If you think it is, bright Heaven will not approve."

Yan Hui said, "My family is poor. Indeed, I have not drunk wine or eaten any meat for months. Can this be considered fasting?"

Kongzi said, "That is the fasting one does before a sacrifice, not the fasting of the mind."

"May I ask about fasting of the mind?"

"Unify your zhi , 'plans.' Do not listen with your ears but listen with your mind. Do not listen with your mind but listen with your qi. Listening stops with the ear. The mind stops with signs. Qi is empty and waits on external things. Only the Way gathers in emptiness. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind."45 Yan Hui said, "Prior to receiving this instruction, I was full of thoughts of Hui. But having applied it, it's as though Hui never existed. Is this what you mean by emptiness?"

The Master said, "Perfect. Let me tell you. You can go wander in his cage without being moved by his fame. If you're getting through, sing. If not, stop. No schools. No prescriptions. Dwell in unity and lodge in what cannot be helped, and you're almost there.

" To stop leaving tracks is easy. Not to walk upon the ground is hard.46 It's easy to fake what people do. Faking what Heaven does is hard. You've heard of using wings to fly, but not of using no wings to fly. You've heard of using knowledge to know, but not of using no knowledge to know. Look up at the hole in the wall that fills the empty room with light. The blessed stop stopping. Not stopping means galloping while you sit. If you let the ears and the eyes communicate with the inside and banish knowledge outside the mind, then even ghosts and spirits will come to dwell. Why not men? This is the transformation of ten thousand things, the secret of the ancient sages, not to mention ordinary people!"

Zigao, the Duke of She,47 was sent to Qi. He said to Kongzi, "The king is putting me on a high-priority mission. Qi treats emissaries very well, but never hurries. You can't budge an ordinary person along, much less a feudal lord! I'm already shaking. You've always told me, 'Few tasks of whatever size are completed happily except by means of the Way. If you don't complete it, you'll be in trouble with other people. If you do complete it, you'll have trouble with your own yin and yang.48 Only someone of Virtue can avoid trouble in success and failure alike.' I'm the kind of person who eats simply and sparingly so my diet doesn't give me indigestion. But I received my orders in the morning and by evening I was drinking ice-water. I'm burning up inside! I haven't even started on the actual job yet and I'm already having trouble with yin and yang; if the mission doesn't succeed, then I'll also be in trouble with other people. I lose both ways! I can't handle the responsibility of taking on this a.s.signment. Do you have anything you can tell me?"

Kongzi said, "In this world, there are two great concerns. One is destiny. One is righteousness. Children's love for their family is destiny:49 you can't undo it in your mind. The service of subjects for their rulers is righteousness: there is nowhere you can go and not have rulers, nowhere you can escape between Heaven and earth. These are great concerns. To serve your family, wherever they go, is the perfection of filial piety. To serve your rulers, whatever they ask, is the height of loyalty. To serve your own mind, so that sorrow and joy aren't constantly revolving in front of you, knowing what you can't do anything about and accepting it as though it were destiny, is the perfection of Virtue. As a subject or a child, there will certainly be things you can't avoid. As long as you stick to the actual job and forget about yourself, what leisure do you have to love life or hate death? You'll be able to do it.

"Let me tell you something else I've heard. In relationships, when people are close together, they generate trust through regular contact. When they are far apart, they have to establish loyalty with words, and words require communication. Communicating the words of two happy or two angry people is the hardest thing in the world. Two happy people inevitably exaggerate the good. Two angry people inevitably exaggerate the bad. But any exaggeration is false, and falsehood destroys trust. That's when communication becomes dangerous. So the Model Sayings50 have it, 'Communicate the real essence; don't communicate exaggerated words.' Then you might come out whole.

"When people pit their strength in games of skill, they start out bright like yang but usually end dark as yin. They get up to more strange tricks the longer they go. People drinking wine at a ceremony start out orderly enough but usually end in chaos. The party gets stranger the longer it lasts. Everything is like this. What starts out clean usually ends up dirty. What starts out simple inevitably turns unsupportable.

"Words are like wind and waves. Actions fulfill or disappoint them. Wind and waves are easily moved, and fulfillment and disappointment easily lead to danger. Rage has no other source but clever words and one-sided language.51 As the hunt draws to a close, the dying animal doesn't choose its sounds but snorts its breath furiously, breeding a similar madness in the minds of its hunters. Pushing hard toward the conclusion makes people vicious without their knowing it. And if they don't know it, who knows how it will end? So the Model Sayings have it, 'Don't change your orders. Don't strive for completion. Anything over the line is too much.' Changing your orders and striving for completion are dangerous business. A fine completion takes a long time, and a bad one cannot be changed. Can you afford not to be careful?