Section: Outer Chapter (外篇) | Chinese Title: 马蹄 (Mǎ Tí)

The second chapter of the Primitivist trilogy develops its argument through the image of horses. In their natural state, horses eat grass, drink water, and express pleasure by intertwining their necks. When angry, they turn their backs and kick. This is the extent of their natural knowledge. Then Bó Lè (伯乐) appears — the legendary horse trainer — and declares he knows how to manage horses. He brands them, clips them, hobbles them, ties them in stalls, and forces them into lines. By the time he is done, two or three out of every ten have died. He starves them, makes them thirsty, races them, trains them with bits and whips. More than half are dead.

This is the chapter's model for what civilisation does to human nature. The potter shapes clay; the carpenter shapes wood. But neither the clay nor the wood asked to be shaped. Similarly, the sage-kings who shaped humanity through rites (禮 Lǐ) and music (樂 Yuè) did not improve upon nature — they deformed it.

In the time of the clan leader Hé Xū (赫胥), people tied knots for reckoning, enjoyed their food, were pleased with their clothing, were happy in their customs, and felt at home in their dwellings. Neighbouring settlements could see each other and hear each other's roosters and dogs, but people grew old and died without visiting each other. This was perfect governance. Then the sages came with their benevolence and righteousness, and the world began to doubt. They came with their rites and music, and the world began to divide.

For the martial artist, the Bó Lè parable carries a specific warning about training methodology. The instructor who imposes rigid external forms on students — demanding positions their bodies cannot naturally hold, drilling techniques that override natural movement instincts — is Bó Lè. The result is not skilled practitioners but injured ones. The internal arts approach training differently: discovering and refining the student's natural movement qualities rather than replacing them.

Scholarly Classification

Primitivist (Graham) / Anarchist (Liu). Second in the anti-civilisation trilogy (chapters 8–10). Extends Chapter 8's arguments about individual nature to a critique of social institutions.

Key Passages in Chinese

马，蹄可以践霜雪，毛可以御风寒。龁草饮水，翘足而陆，此马之真性也。
Mǎ, tí kě yǐ jiàn shuāngxuě, máo kě yǐ yù fēnghán. Hé cǎo yǐn shuǐ, qiào zú ér lù, cǐ mǎ zhī zhēn xìng yě.
— Horses' hooves can tread frost and snow; their hair can ward off wind and cold. They graze and drink, prance and leap — this is the true nature of horses.

及至伯乐，曰：我善治马。烧之，剔之，刻之，雒之。
Jí zhì Bó Lè, yuē: wǒ shàn zhì mǎ. Shāo zhī, tī zhī, kè zhī, luò zhī.
— Then Bó Lè came, saying: "I am good at managing horses." He branded them, clipped them, marked them, hobbled them.

Parables and Key Episodes

• The natural horse — hooves on frost, manes in wind, prancing freely
• Bó Lè the horse trainer — brands, clips, hobbles, and kills two or three in ten
• The potter and the carpenter — shaping clay and wood that never asked to be shaped
• Hé Xū's ancient time — people content, settlements visible to each other but never visiting
• The arrival of sages — benevolence brings doubt, rites bring division

Key Terms

• Bó Lè (伯乐) — The legendary horse trainer; symbol of the civiliser who destroys nature through management
• Zhēn Xìng (真性) — True nature, the original state before training or civilisation
• Lǐ Yuè (礼乐) — Rites and music, the Confucian instruments of social order that the chapter attacks