Zhuangzi: The Inner Chapters

Deep in a dark ocean lives a giant fish called Kun. It is so big that no one knows how far it stretches. When the seasons change, something magical happens. Kun grows feathers and becomes a huge bird called Peng. Peng's wings are as wide as clouds across the sky. He flies up, up, up for thousands and thousands of miles. Then he crosses the whole world to reach a faraway sea.

A little cicada and a tiny dove laugh at Peng. Why fly so far? they say. We just hop to the nearest tree. But they are so small, they cannot imagine what Peng sees. A wise man named Zhuangzi tells his friend about a giant gourd. His friend says it is too big to be useful. But Zhuangzi smiles. Why not tie it to your waist and float happily on a lake? Sometimes the most wonderful things just need a little imagination.

Ziqi sat very still, looking up at the sky. His friend asked what was wrong. Ziqi said something wonderful had happened. He had forgotten himself completely, just for a moment. He wanted to explain what that felt like.

Have you heard music from flutes, he asked. Have you heard wind blowing through a forest? Every tree hole makes a different sound. Some sounds are soft, some are loud, some are like whispers. But who makes the wind blow? That is the mystery.

Then Ziqi told a funny story about a man feeding chestnuts to monkeys. The monkeys got upset about three nuts in the morning and four at night. So the man changed it to four in the morning and three at night. The monkeys were happy, even though it was the same amount. Sometimes how we say things matters more than what we say.

Then Ziqi shared a beautiful dream. Once a man dreamed he was a butterfly, flying happily through flowers. When he woke up, he wondered something amazing. Was he a man who dreamed of being a butterfly? Or was he a butterfly now dreaming of being a man?