Moruo Yiming (莫若以明)
Moruo yiming 莫若以明, 'nothing equals using the clear light' — the Qi Wu Lun's method-sentence, spoken twice: once against the Ru-Mo dispute of affirming each other's negations, once as the close of the hinge passage. Not a doctrine to hold but the light by which both infinities are seen without either needing to win.
The term
莫若以明 (mòruò yǐ míng) — “nothing equals using the clear.” The phrase is the Qi Wu Lun’s method-sentence, and the chapter speaks it twice. First, against the Ru-Mo dispute: 道隐于小成，言隐于荣华，故有儒墨之是非，以是其所非而非其所是。欲是其所非而非其所是，则莫若以明 — the Way is hidden by small completions, speech hidden by ornament, hence the Ru-Mo right-and-wrong, each affirming what the other denies and denying what the other affirms; to want to affirm what they deny and deny what they affirm — nothing equals using the clear. Second, as the close of the hinge passage: 是亦一无穷，非亦一无穷也，故曰莫若以明 — the “is” is one endless, the “is-not” another endless; therefore nothing equals using the clear.
Why the term matters
- One sentence, two brackets. The phrase occurs exactly twice, and the site files the architecture: the first occurrence stands before the chapter’s this/that machinery (the 彼是 pairings, the 方生方死 wheels, the 道枢), the second after it — one sentence holding both ends of the argument like two handles. The daoshu page holds the hinge the first handle turns; this page holds the light by which both handles are grasped. 明 here is not a possession (“I have the light”) but a use: 以明, by means of clarity — the word is instrumental, like a lamp carried into both infinities.
- What the sentence refuses. The chapter names its target in the first occurrence’s preface: 道隐于小成，言隐于荣华 — the Way is hidden by small completions (each school’s finished answer), speech hidden by ornament (each school’s decorated claim). The Ru and the Mo are trapped in the same gesture — 以是其所非而非其所是 — affirming what the other denies, denying what the other affirms; and the chapter’s refusal is precise: it does not say “choose the third position,” it says use the clear instead of the choosing. The site’s three-in-the-morning page holds the sentence in action (the keeper holds three-four and four-three as the same nuts and lets the monkeys’ joy and anger do the rest): the clear sees the identity under the two names, and lets both names keep their noise.
- The family, completed. With this page the site’s Qi Wu Lun cluster is whole: qiwu names the leveling, zhen-zai the ruler that is no thing, dao-shu the hinge that remains when the pairings stop, huan-zhong the standing place the hinge reaches, liang-xing the two-walk from that place, and this page the light by which all of it is done. The order is the doctrine: the hinge is found, the center is reached, the two-walk is walked — and none of it is possible in the dark. 故曰莫若以明: the chapter’s own “therefore” puts the light last, as the condition of the whole sequence.
- The drift warning, and the pairing. Modern Chinese keeps 明智 (clear-witted) and 明白 (clear-understood) but has lost 以明 as a method-sentence — and the site flags the deeper drift: 明 in later Buddhist Chinese becomes enlightenment (开悟, 明心), a state one attains; in this chapter it is an instrument one uses, and the sentence says nothing about attaining anything. The site’s mirror passage holds the matching image (respond to everything, store nothing): the clear is the light that passes through the stored-up positions — not a new position to store. The two-walk is what the light illuminates; the light itself is the page’s one claim: it is available, and it is enough.
Sources
- Zhuangzi ch. 2 (Qi Wu Lun, inner chapter), the two occurrences of 莫若以明, verified against the Wikisource full chapter (retrieved 2026-10-07): (1) 道隐于小成，言隐于荣华，故有儒墨之是非，以是其所非而非其所是。欲是其所非而非其所是，则莫若以明; (2) 彼是莫得其偶，谓之道枢。枢始得其环中，以应无穷。是亦一无穷，非亦一无穷也，故曰莫若以明 — both occurrences confirmed in the chapter text, bracketing the this/that machinery