The Liezi is considered the third most important text in Daoism after the Dao De Jing and Zhuangzi. Chapter seven is named Yang Zhu and focuses on living in the moment.
Reputation, fame, and status
The sage does not worry about external factors such as reputation, fame, or status.
“He who renounces fame has no sorrow.”
They know that reputation does not reflect reality. One may live generously but only have a good reputation after they die. One may live indulgently, but have a bad reputation after they die.
“All these four sages, while alive, had not one day’s pleasure, and after their death a reputation lasting many years. Yet reputation cannot bring back reality...These two villains while alive took delight in following their own inclination and desires, and after death were called fools and tyrants. Yet reality is nothing that can be given by reputation.”
Fame and status are also artificial and have no lasting benefit.
“The ignorant, while seeking to maintain fame, sacrifice reality...Those who are not too fond of honor do not desire reputation. Those who do not want power desire no rank.”
Wealth
The sage knows that striving for wealth makes one unfulfilled.
“Comfort and elegance, music and beauty. Yet one cannot always gratify the desire for comfort and elegance nor incessantly enjoy beauty and music. Besides, being warned and exhorted by punishments and rewards, urged forward and repelled by fame and laws, men are constantly rendered anxious.”
The physical body is also a possession which one should not become attached.
“For possessing a body or things would be unlawfully appropriating a body belonging to the whole universe, and appropriating things belonging to the universe which no sage would do.”
It doesn’t matter if one values life, they will still die at their natural time. There is no point in worrying about death.
“’There are men who cherish life and care for their bodies with the intention of grasping immortality. Is that possible?’ Yang Zhu replied: ‘According to the laws of nature there is no such thing as immortality.’”
Worrying about a long life, fame, status, or wealth causes unneeded stress.
“There are four things which do not allow people to rest: Long life. Reputation. Rank. Riches.”
The future
The sage does not concern themselves with the future.
“Mark what it brings you, and be drifted away to annihilation. If you pay no regard to life and death, and let them be as they are, how can you be anxious lest our life should end too soon?”
They don’t concern themselves with what happens after death.
“What can I do when I am dead? They may burn my body, or cast it into deep water, or inter it, or leave it un-interred, or throw it wrapped up in a mat into some ditch, or cover it with princely apparel and embroidered garments and rest it in a stone sarcophagus. All that depends on mere chance.”
Emptiness
The sage focuses on the internal by seeking a state of emptiness. This allows one to be a peace with the world.
“But if anybody knows how to regulate internals, the things go on all right, and the mind obtains peace and rest.”
They cultivate humility, generosity, and compassion.
“Pity does not merely consist in an unusual feeling. So we may give the feverish rest, satiety to the hungry, warmth to the cold, and assistance to the miserable.”
Present moment
The sage finds contentment in the present moment.
“So they lose the happiest moments of the present, and cannot really give way to these feelings for one hour. How do they really differ from chained criminals?”
The sage knows that the present moment is precious and fleeting.
“One hundred years is the limit of a long life. Not one in a thousand ever attains to it. Yet if they do, still unconscious infancy and old age take up about half this time. The time he passes unconsciously while asleep at night, and that which is wasted though awake during the day, also amounts to another half of the rest. Again pain and sickness, sorrow and fear, fill up about a hah, so that he really gets only ten years or so for his enjoyment.”
The best way to live is to do what you enjoy in the moment. Listen to good music, walk in beautiful environments, smell pleasant fragrances, speak freely, and make yourself comfortable.
“The Ancients knew that all creatures enter but for a short while into life, and must suddenly depart in death. Therefore they gave way to their impulses and did not check their natural propensities. They denied themselves nothing that could give pleasure to their bodies; consequently, as they were not seeking fame, but were following their own nature, they went smoothly on, never at variance with their inclinations.”
Summary
The sage does not worry about the external. Reputation, status, fame and wealth are all artificial and leaves one unfulfilled. They do not concern themselves with the future because it creates unneeded anxiety. Instead the sage focuses on the internal and seeks a state of emptiness. They are humble, generous, and compassionate and find contentment in savoring the present moment. One should surround themselves with pleasant sounds, environments, smells, and express themselves freely.
Resource
Yan Chu’s Garden of Pleasure. Anton Forke, translator. 1912. Classic public domain translation of Chapter 7 of the Book of Liezi.