The Myriad Things Are One Horse 什么是万物一马
Paul PengThe Myriad Things Are One Horse
This refers to the unity and equality of all things.
It comes from Zhuangzi · Qi Wu Lun:
“Heaven and earth are but one finger; all things are but one horse.”
The Myriad Things Are One Horse
The term “horse” refers to the horse in the School of Names proposition “A white horse is not a horse.”
Gongsun Long, Discourse on the White Horse:
“The word ‘horse’ names the form;
the word ‘white’ names the color.
What names color is not what names form.
Therefore: a white horse is not a horse.”
Zhuangzi criticized such arguments.
Qi Wu Lun states:
“To use a horse to illustrate that a horse is not a horse
is not as good as using a non‑horse to illustrate that a horse is not a horse.”
Furthermore, all disputation is superfluous.
The myriad things are diverse and distinct,
yet they are nothing but manifestations of the great Dao.
Hence “all things as one horse.”
