Chapter Thirteen: "If One Thinks Without Ceasing, One Is Internally Depleted and Externally Worn Thin. If One Does Not Plan Early, Life Will Quietly Slip Away." -- Excess and Timing

I. "If One Thinks Without Ceasing, One Is Internally Depleted and Externally Worn Thin" -- The Harm of Obsessive Thinking

Earlier the text said "think on it, think on it, and think on it again" -- encouraging deep thought. Here it says "if one thinks without ceasing, one is internally depleted and externally worn thin" -- incessant thinking leads to exhaustion both within and without.

Is this not a contradiction$47

It is not. The key lies in the word "measure." "Think on it again and again" is deep thinking -- each round goes a layer deeper. "Thinking without ceasing" is obsessive thinking -- an inability to let go, circling the same ground again and again.

Deep thinking makes progress -- each round takes one deeper. Obsessive thinking makes no progress -- it revolves in place. The former "gives rise to knowledge"; the latter produces "internal depletion."

"Internal depletion" (nei kun) means inner exhaustion, the draining of vital energy. "Externally worn thin" (wai bo) means that one's outward store of moral substance thins and one's relationships with the external world deteriorate.

Why does excessive thinking lead to "externally worn thin"$48 Because a person who expends all energy on internal rumination has none left for external affairs and relationships. More importantly, excessive thinking makes one's presence heavy, closed, and constricted -- such a presence repels others. As the earlier passage says, "when benevolent qi greets others, it is more intimate than brotherhood" -- but the person consumed by obsessive thinking emits not benevolent qi but a congested, anxious qi, and naturally becomes "externally worn thin."

II. "If One Does Not Plan Early, Life Will Quietly Slip Away" -- The Importance of Timing

Zao (written as zao, "flea," but a loan for zao, "early"). "Plan" (wei tu) means to prepare, to respond. Xun means yielding, retreating. She means to depart.

"If one does not plan early, life will quietly slip away" -- if one does not devise a response in good time, life itself will retreat and depart. In other words, if one fails to correct course, life will ebb away.

This is an extremely grave warning. The earlier passage said "melancholy gives rise to illness; illness and exhaustion lead to death" -- from melancholy to death there is a process. "Not planning early" means failing to intervene during this process, letting things deteriorate until life is gone.

The use of the character xun is noteworthy. The Zhouyi, Hexagram Xun (The Gentle/Wind): "Xun means 'to enter.'" The image of Xun is wind penetrating things -- wind is formless, gradual, imperceptible. The departure of life is the same: it does not vanish suddenly but withdraws gently, gradually, like the wind. If you do not pay attention, by the time you notice, it is already too late.

Here is expressed a profound sense of vigilance: the cultivator must not only pursue the positive goal of advancing to higher states but must also guard against the negative process of gradual deterioration. Very often, failure in cultivation comes not from a single great error but from the gradual accumulation of many small oversights. "Not planning early" means failing to correct small oversights when they first appear.

The Zhouyi, Hexagram Kun (The Receptive), Wenyan Commentary: "In a house that accumulates goodness, there will surely be an abundance of blessings; in a house that accumulates evil, there will surely be an abundance of calamities. When a minister murders his lord or a son murders his father, this does not happen overnight. The causes have been building gradually. It is because discernment was not exercised early enough." The regicide of lord or father does not happen in a day -- the causes accumulate gradually, because the warning signs were not discerned early enough. This logic is exactly parallel to "if one does not plan early, life will quietly slip away."

III. Historical Cases: The Tragedy of Not Planning Early

Case One: The Delusion of Duke Xian of Jin

The Zuozhuan, Duke Xi, Year 4, records that Duke Xian of Jin doted on Lady Li Ji and gradually alienated Crown Prince Shensheng along with Princes Chong'er and Yiwu. Li Ji slandered the crown prince; although ministers detected the danger, they failed to remonstrate in time. Ultimately Shensheng hanged himself, Chong'er and Yiwu fled, and Jin plunged into prolonged civil strife.

This is the classic case of "not planning early": had the ministers of Jin intervened when Li Ji first won favor, the later tragedy could have been entirely avoided. But they missed the optimal moment; by the time things had deteriorated beyond remedy, it was too late.

Case Two: The Counsel of Wu Zixu

The Zuozhuan, Duke Ai, Year 1, records that Wu Zixu repeatedly urged King Fuchai of Wu not to campaign north against Qi and not to trust the state of Yue, but Fuchai would not listen. Wu Zixu said: "Give Yue ten years to build up its people and ten years to train them, and in twenty years Wu will be a swamp!" Events proved Wu Zixu right: King Goujian of Yue destroyed Wu.

Fuchai's failure was also a case of "not planning early" -- he did not eliminate Yue when it was still weak (letting the tiger return to the mountain) nor did he heed his ministers' counsel when it could still have made a difference. By the time Yue had grown strong, all was lost.