Lieh Tzu is the third of the three philosophers given credit for developing the basic suppositions of taoist thought. Not much is known about Lieh-tzu, he lived around the 4th century BC.
Excerpts:
Lieh-tzu left his home in Cheng and journeyed to the kingdom of Wei. While walking down a dusty road, he saw the remains of a skull lying by the wayside. Lieh-tzu saw that it was the skull of a human that was over a hundred years old. He picked up the bone, brushed the dirt off it, and looked at it for a while. Finally, he put the skull down, sighed, and said to his student who was standing nearby, "In this world, only you and I understand life and death." Turning to the skull he said, "Are you unfortunate to be dead and are we fortunate to be alive? Maybe it is you who are fortunate and we who are unfortunate!"
Lieh-tzu then said to his student, "Many people sweat and toil and feel satisfied that they have accomplished many things. However, in the end we are not all that different from this polished piece of bone. In a hundred years, everyone we know will be just a pile of bones. what is there to gain in life, and what is there to lose in death?"
The ancients knew that life cannot go on forever, and death is not the end of everything. Therefore, they are not excited by the event of life nor depressed by the occurrence of death. Birth and death are part of the natural cycle of things. Only those who can see through the illusion of life and death can be renewed with heaven and earth and age with the sun, moon, and stars.
There was a man who had a very precocious son, but when the boy grew up, he seemed to have a strange kind of mental illness. When he heard laughter, he thought it was weeping. When he smelled fragrances, he thought they were pungent. When he saw black, he said it was white. When he ate something bitter, he said it was sweet. When he did something wrong, he thought it was correct. It appeared that he was utterly confused and did everything contrary to what was expected.
His father was worried about his son's problem and asked his friend for help. One man advised the father, "There is a wise gentleman in the land of Lu who probably could help your son. Why not give it a try?"
The father gathered whatever money he had and, taking his son with him, made the long journey to the kingdom of Lu.
On the road he met Lao-tzu and described his son's problem to the Taoist sage.
Lao-tzu said to the father, "How do you know that your son is mentally disturbed and confused? These days there are many people who are confused about right and wrong, true and false. There are even more people who are mentally disturbed by gain and loss. So your son is not the only person who has this problem. Anyhow, just because one person is confused doesn't mean the whole family is confused. If one family is confused, it should not affect the whole village. If an entire village is confused, it should not affect the whole country. If one country is confused, it does no mean the whole world will be turned upside down. If the whole world is confused, then who is there to tell anyone they are confused?
"Suppose everyone is like your son and you are the only one who's different. Who is confused, then: you, or your son and the rest of the world? Who in the world can claim to be absolutely clear about right and wrong, black and white, true and false, and happiness and sorrow? I'm not even sure whether I am confused or not when I tell you these things. And those wise gentlemen of Lu are even more confused. So how can they clear up somebody else's confusion? I think you should save your money and take your son home."
