Xinzhai Passage (Zhuangzi ch. 4): Full Translation
The complete fasting-of-the-mind passage 心斋 from Zhuangzi ch. 4, translated with word-by-word notes on the untranslatable terms qi, fu (符), and xinzhai itself.
Chinese text
若一志，無聽之以耳而聽之以心，無聽之以心而聽之以氣。聽止於耳，心止於符。氣也者，虛而待物者也。唯道集虛。虛者，心齋也。
Pinyin
Ruò yī zhì, wú tīng zhī yǐ ěr ér tīng zhī yǐ xīn, wú tīng zhī yǐ xīn ér tīng zhī yǐ qì. Tīng zhǐ yú ěr, xīn zhǐ yú fú. Qì yě zhě, xū ér dài wù zhě yě. Wéi dào jí xū. Xū zhě, xīn zhāi yě.
Literal rendering
“Unify your intention. Do not listen with the ears, but listen with the mind. Do not listen with the mind, but listen with the qi. Listening stops at the ears; the mind stops at matching (符). Qi is what is empty and waits for things. The Dao gathers only in emptiness. Emptiness — that is the fasting of the mind.”
Term-by-term problems
- 聽之以氣 (listen with qi): the single most contested phrase. Ear-level = sound; mind-level = naming; qi-level = a receptivity “below” both. Watson: “listen not with your mind but with your qi”; Ziporyn similar. The instruction is a ladder of dropping, not a physiological claim.
- 符 (fú, “tally/match”): the mind’s function of matching names to things — “the mind stops at tallying” means at the mind level, one only confirms what one already recognizes. Translating 符 as “signs” or “symbols” loses the tally-stick image.
- 心齋 (xīn zhāi): “fasting of the mind” (Watson, Ziporyn) vs. “mind fasting” vs. Legge’s “abstinence of the mind.” The 齋 is the ritual purification fast transferred inward. Recommended: “fasting of the mind”, with “mind-fasting” acceptable shorthand.
- 虛 (xū, “empty”): never “void/nothingness” in the nihilistic sense; “empty (and therefore receptive)” is the operative meaning.
Traditional usage
This passage is the origin of the term xinzhai, cited across later Daoist literature as a canonical instruction; paired with zuowang as one of the two classical practice ideals. The dialogue-frame is fictional (Confucius teaching Yan Hui — a deliberate Zhuangzi reversal of roles), which the tradition itself reads as literary.
Western misunderstandings
- “Listen with the qi” is sometimes rendered as paranormal audition. The ladder-structure (drop ear, drop mind, rest in empty receptivity) argues against it.
- “Fasting of the mind” is sometimes read as sensory deprivation. The text’s point is not removing stimulus but removing the naming-and-matching response to stimulus.
Recommended rendering (this site)
“Unify your intention. Do not listen with the ears but with the mind; do not listen with the mind but with the qi. Listening stops at the ears; the mind stops at matching. Qi is that which is empty and waits on things. Only the Dao gathers in the empty. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.”
Sources
- Zhuangzi ch. 4 (Renjianshi), received text