“Once, Chuang Tzu was fishing the P’u River when the King of Ch’u sent two of his ministers to announce that he wished to entrust to Chuang Tzu the care of his entire domain.
Chuang Tzu held his fishing pole and, without turning his head, said: ‘I have heard that Ch’u possesses a sacred tortoise which has been dead for three thousand years and which the king keeps wrapped up in a box and stored in his ancestral temple. Is this tortoise better off dead and with its bones venerated, or would it be better off alive with its tail dragging in the mud?’
‘It would be better off alive and dragging its tail in the mud,’ the two ministers replied.
‘Then go away!’ said Chuang Tzu, ‘and I will drag my tail in the mud!’”
“Once, Chuang Tzu was fishing the P’u River when the King of Ch’u sent two of his ministers to announce that he wished to entrust to Chuang Tzu the care of his entire domain.
Chuang Tzu held his fishing pole and, without turning his head, said: ‘I have heard that Ch’u possesses a sacred tortoise which has been dead for three thousand years and which the king keeps wrapped up in a box and stored in his ancestral temple. Is this tortoise better off dead and with its bones venerated, or would it be better off alive with its tail dragging in the mud?’
‘It would be better off alive and dragging its tail in the mud,’ the two ministers replied.
‘Then go away!’ said Chuang Tzu, ‘and I will drag my tail in the mud!’”
Translation recommendation for Zhuangzi? (I’ve been reading Burton Watson’s.)
Maybe undignified, but my favorite translations are from Tsai Chih Chung’s series of manhua interpretations of the Chinese classics, specifically Zhuangzi Speaks: the Music of Nature and The Dao of Zhuangzi: the Harmony of Nature
The kind of formal distance one usually sees in academic translations distorts Zhuangzi’s message. The comic book form suits it very well.