Huizi's Giant Gourd

H uizi said to Zhuangzi: the King of Wei had given him seeds for a large gourd. He planted them, and they grew — grew to hold five stone. Huizi said to Zhuangzi: 'The King of Wei gave me seeds of a great gourd. I planted them; they grew, and the fruit held five stone.'

The problem was what you could do with it. Fill it with water — the walls couldn't hold their own weight. Split it into a ladle — too flat and shallow to scoop anything. It was impressively large and completely useless. So he smashed it. To use it to hold water and liquid, its hardness could not support itself. Split it to make a dipper, it was too flat and shallow to contain anything. It was not that it wasn't impressively large — I considered it useless, and smashed it.

Zhuangzi said: 'Sir, you are remarkably bad at using large things.' Zhuangzi said: 'Sir, you are indeed clumsy at using large things.'

“The hand-cream was the same. One family scrubbed silk in the cold. One man won a fief.”

Then the story. There was a family in Song with a secret formula — a cream that kept hands from chapping in cold water. For generations they'd used it in their trade: beating and rinsing raw silk in the river, winter included, the kind of work that wrecks your hands. The cream kept them whole. One day a traveler heard about it and offered a hundred gold pieces for the recipe. The family gathered. They'd been at this for generations and earned a few coins at a time. One morning's sale for a hundred gold — they sold. There was a man of Song skilled at making a medicine to prevent cracked hands. His family had for generations been in the business of bleaching raw silk floss. A traveler heard of it and offered to buy the formula for a hundred gold pieces. The family gathered to deliberate: 'We have bleached silk for generations and earned only a few gold pieces. Now in one morning we can sell this technique for a hundred gold — let us do it.' They sold it.

The traveler went south to the King of Wu. Yue had launched an attack. The King of Wu gave the traveler command of his fleet for a winter naval campaign. Wu crushed Yue's forces. The traveler was rewarded with land and a title. The traveler obtained it and went to persuade the King of Wu. When Yue attacked, the King of Wu made him a general. In winter they fought a naval battle with the men of Yue, and greatly defeated them. The king enfeoffed him with territory.

The ability to prevent chapped hands was the same in both cases. One family scrubbed silk in the cold for generations. One man won a fief. Same formula, different imagination. The ability to prevent chapped hands — it was the same. One used it to win a fief; the other could not get beyond bleaching silk. What they put it to differed.

Now, Zhuangzi says, you have a five-stone gourd. Why not think of it as a great float and drift on rivers and lakes — instead of worrying that it's too shallow for a ladle? You still have a tangled heart. Now you have a five-stone gourd. Why not think to make it a great float and drift on rivers and lakes? Why worry that it is too flat and shallow to hold anything? Sir, you still have a heart of tangled grass.

大瓠 The original Chinese · honored as an artifact

惠子謂莊子曰：「魏王貽我大瓠之種，我樹之成而實五石。』

Opening lines, classical Chinese · Zhuangzi 莊子 · Zhuang Zhou