Reference no: EM133313824

Case Study: In the Jingshi region of Song grow catalpas, cypresses, and mulberries. The tall ones are chopped down for monkey perches. Those that are three or four spans around are chopped down to make pillars for stately homes. Those that are seven or eight spans around are felled to make coffin shells for the wealthy. Thus, they fail to fully live out their natural life spans and die before their time under axes and saws. This is the trouble that comes with being worth something. In the expiation ceremony, cows with white spots, pigs with upturned snouts, and humans with hemorrhoids are considered unfit to be offered as sacrifices to the river god. [Note: This references a practice where animals, and sometimes humans, were drowned in the river as sacrifices to Hebo, the river god] All shamans know this, and thus they regard these creatures as creatures of bad fortune. But this is exactly why the Spirit Man regards them as creatures of very good fortune indeed!

Now Shu the Discombobulated was like this: his chin was tucked into his navel, his shoulders towered over the crown of his head, this ponytail pointed towards the sky, his five internal organs were at the top of him, his thigh bones took the place of his ribs. With his sewing and washing, he could make enough to fill his mouth, and by pounding the divining sticks and exuding an aura of mystic power, he could in fact make enough to feed ten men. When the authorities called for troops, he would just present himself among all the others, flailing his arms in his discombobulated way [without any danger of being drafted for military service]; and when it came time to take on any great labors, his chronic condition exempted him from service. When the authorities handed out rations to the disabled, he got three large measures of grain and ten bundles of firewood. A discombobulated physical form was sufficient to allow him to nourish his body, so that he was able to live out his natural life span. And how much more can be accomplished with discombobulated Virtuosity!

Question: In this passage Zhuangzi speaks of trees, animals, and people that are generally considered inferior. What do these all have in common? What is he trying to convey by doing this?